Selling the Farm

As you may recall, a couple of years ago IRM purchased a farm property adjacent to our right-of-way primarily as an investment, as we can rent the farmland for, you know, farming. It also has the side benefit of preserving the existing agricultural vista for most of the distance between Karstens and Johnson Siding. Anyway, the homestead is just out of sight of our right-of-way over a low hill, can't be rented for farming, and is of no particular value to IRM. So we're selling it.

In preparation for this, Marcus reports: Track and B&G have spent a lot of time remediating what was a horrible dump and turned it into a saleable 5 acre homestead. I spent a whole day there with our big CAT loader filling seven 35 yard dumpsters to full visible capacity. We probably saved the Museum $30K with our volunteer effort. Most work done by Dave D, Bob Olson, Nick K, my wife LaJuan, our social distancing agent (dog) Fraya, and me.

Many thanks to Marcus, Dave, Bob, Nick, LaJuan, and everyone who helped with this unglamorous but important and valuable work! The photos below, sent by Marcus, show the progress made - compare with photos here taken before most of the property cleanup. And if you're looking for a bucolic home near your favorite railway museum, drop us a line!

Onward to July

Frank writes...

Now that North Shore Line Day is in the rear view mirror, the next "heavy lift" for the Car Department is getting all of the equipment needed for the "70 for 70" Trolley Pageant on July 1st ready for operation. This will involve effort on quite a few different cars over the next six months.

My first task was to look at the air compressor on Shaker Heights 18. A couple of months ago, I had put the pole up to pump up the car and after the pump ran for about half a second the fuse blew. We were a bit worried that the pump may have flashed over, so I meggered it, and fortunately it checked out fine. I decided to replace the fuse block, which involved a trip to our storage area to pick up the correct type parts, but after doing that we successfully test-ran the pump. So the 18 should be ready to go. Above, you can see the car's National BB2 pump, which has the motor mounted atop the pump so that you can barely - if at all - access the motor. That little black door at top left provides access to one of the brush holders. The device with the cord hanging down from it is one of Joel's nifty magnetic block heaters, to warm the pump up a bit for testing.

After that, my attention turned to the trolley bases for the 460, which could use some servicing. Joel headed up disassembly of the first of the two trolley bases. He cleaned up the base bearing, which was not working very well, and I sand-blasted some of the component parts, as shown here.

We also used the Fullarton Spring Stretcher (patent pending) to expand two of the base springs a bit so that we could sand-blast and prime them. Here, Joel puts primer on the springs while they're mounted in the Spring Stretcher frame.

Meanwhile, as usual, progress was being made on other projects. The air compressor on Charles City Western steeplecab 300 flashed over last year, so Nick (above left) and Greg (right) took the end casting off the pump and removed the armature. We hoped that one of our spare armatures might be the right type, but no luck, so this armature will need to be sent out for rebuilding. Tim was also out, working on windows for the 1808, but I didn't get a photo of his work.

And at the end of the day, Nick finished up with painstakingly lettering the sign box for IT 415. Here he demonstrates the modern, polite way to tell people you don't want to listen to what they have to say. One of the priorities for the next few months will be getting the 415 into the Barn 2 spray booth, if at all possible, so that it can be painted and returned to service.

Doerr Collection Additions

Your regular dose of East Union nostalgia returns - 30 more pictures from the Doerr Photo Collection have been posted. This week's haul includes passenger cars, diesels, and one or two other oddities shot at IRM mostly during the mid-1980s. Enjoy!

Reset Switches

This is your place to find answers to technical questions about electric cars of all sorts.  So....

The question came up recently on how the reset function works on our interurban cars, whether North Shore or CA&E.  Most of them have a reset/power switch ("canopy switch") located above the controller.  When in the center position, the control system is off; moving the handle to the right turns the controller on.  When moved to the left, it will reset the overload relay if tripped, and there's a spring return so the switch cannot be left in the reset position.  And you can reset only by turning the control system off.

Note that this reset switch should reset the overload relays on all cars in the train.  The way that works depends upon the particular type of control system.  Below is a simplified HL diagram for Westinghouse.  

In the center at top, the reset switch applies power either to the controller, or to line 8.  And line 8 is part of the control jumper, so it connects to all cars in the train.  Lower down and to the left, we see the reset coil for the overload relay, which is connected to line 8.  So that's pretty simple.

For cars with General Electric MU control, such as the CA&E steel cars, it's a little more complicated.  Here is the simplified diagram for C-165.  

In the upper right-hand corner, we see that the reset switch supplies 600V to either the controller or line 3.  And looking to the left, you can see that line 3 has connections to two circuits.  Contactor 4 is energized on all points, so whenever the motors are powered, line 3 will energize contactor 1 and provide some acceleration, its usual function.  But if the traction power is off, line 3 instead takes the lower path, and if the overload relay has tripped, the reset coil will be energized.  Again, this will affect all cars in the train.

Not all GE MU controls included this reset function, by the way.  The CA&E wood cars do not have overload relays, except for cars 319-321.  And there the reset switch is located inside the cabinet behind the motorman.  Now we have never found a wiring diagram for the 319-321, but I suspect that the reset function was not wired into the control circuits in the same way as the C-165.  And if I have some spare time, it shouldn't take long to verify that.  So if that's the case, even if the 319-321 were all in the same train, the overload relays would have to be reset from each car.

Any questions?

Tuesday Testimonial

Another busy Tuesday at the Museum results in more progress on our long-term projects.  While this may not be as crowd-pleasing as our winter weekend celebrations, it's what we've got today.

Around the shop, we see all the many parts that need to be restored piece by piece.   These are the window shade tracks, as I call them, for the 306.

The numerous window frames for the 1808 are being produced tirelessly by Tim.

He always comes up with ways to store things more efficiently.

John continues to build the windows needed for the 36.   We'll see more of this later.

The North Shore guys took today off, but they haven't been idle.  I believe these are the next two doors for the 757.

And Steve spent some time sand-blasting parts for the Liner.  Pax makes sure nobody gets in the way of progress.  Also, Ed Oslowski stopped by to say hello, and talked with us about how well everything went over the weekend.  Work on the Liner continues.

And I should mention that Gerry and Jim were at work too, but I didn't get any pictures.   Sorry!

As for me, it was too cold in the barn for painting or caulking, but there's plenty more to do.  Here the roof fuse box has been installed.  It's somewhat deteriorated, but should still be functional.  On these cars, the roof fuse only carries current when the car is connected to others via the bus jumpers, and we only use these as a last resort in emergencies.  So it will be painted later, and shouldn't be a problem.

And I nailed in more leather straps to keep the cables in place.  Just call me the Cable Guy.

John has been cutting a lot of glass for the 306 windows, and has become quite skillful.  As a demonstration, here's a piece of spare glass that he cut into an amazing curved shape.  I don't imagine there are many other pharmacists who can do things like this.  I sure can't!

Gregg stopped in to paint some more pieces of siding for the 1702.  (I think...)

Back on top of the 460, the other trolley hook was installed, and the bus cable is now completely connected.

The fuse box and lighting arrestor are installed, and all of the cables are now in place, although there are some connections that still need to be made, after the bases are installed.

Finally, John showed me one of the finished windows installed on the 306.  We're looking under the tarp that covers the car for heating purposes, so the lighting isn't the best, but this is really going to be sharp.

New Year Freight Update

 Buzz Morisette reports on some of the recent work by the Freight Car Department:

The PRR Bobber cabin car is almost completed. In the fall, Victor and Buzz lettered the new exterior paint. The stove has the new custom-built damper installed.

What remains is to replace the bent brake rigging. We have a replacement, but await some help from the Steam Shop to install it.  Victor is working up a Rail and Wire article for this project, so stay tuned.

Buzz and Bill have been working on the MILW X-5001 Business Car. Now that it is inside, we have been finally addressing the extensive wood rot on the interior walls.

Bill is shown here cleaning up after the removal of a soft spot above the table.

One whole wall next to the bunks had to be replaced.

After repairs the wall receives a plywood veneer to match the 1970 rebuild.

Fresh interior paint was put on in the fall after the rebuilt sash windows, sills, and trim.

When it's too cold to work out in the barn, Buzz has been rebuilding the Mid-Century Modern lighting that was original to the 70s Milwaukee Shops rebuild.  All are 12 volt and have been converted to less power-hungry LEDs.

Up on the roof three new (simple freight) saddles, featured in a previous post, are in the process of being bolted through.

P.S. The only North Shore photo I have worth posting was of the five-car train just before departure after dusk.

Milwaukee 441 Update

Thanks to Richard Schauer, who on Saturday night sent along this update of progress on Milwaukee trolley bus 441, being restored off-site by a body shop thanks to generous funding from interested donors:

Work proceeded at a lighter pace this week, but the progress is still there.  The attached picture of the curb side shows that the rear doors saw most of the work this week; the wood in them is in quite good condition.  They said they had largely finished with the street side, but I think that work was shown in last week's pictures.  I did take a picture of one thing, and told the workers there about it.  The "transit spectacular" painted advertisement that for a little while in the '50s occupied all of the lower street side between the wheels was fairly obvious, although you still couldn't see enough of anything to even make a guess at what it was.  In my picture, the remains of it can be seen as the blue layer of paint; in other places, the extra layer was red or yellow.

If you missed North Shore Line Day at IRM today, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the abandonment, you missed an enjoyable day!

North Shore Line at Night, Part IV

 More photographs from Matt Gustafson.

All images are copyright by the photographer and may not be reproduced without permission.