Switching on Sunday

Frank writes...

Sunday afternoon was all about switching to get ready for North Shore Line Day, coming up on the 21st. Trust us, you won't want to miss it! On Saturday there had been some switching to get the Electroliner and streetcar 354 positioned at the door on track 71, so the task Sunday was to get the 229 out from behind the IT train and do some testing on the 160.

I started off helping Zach to move the IT "orange train." He pointed out that the east end of Barn 8 on tracks 81 and 82 is really resembling Decatur Shops these days, what with IT 277-518-234 on one track and IT 415 and 1702, both under restoration, one track over.

The 277 gamely towed the 518 and 234 out to the tail track and then later pushed them back. What a neat train!

Behind the IT cars was the 229, shown here, which hadn't emerged into the light of day for a few years. It is scheduled to make several trips on the 21st. While Zach and I were making these moves, Nick, Greg, and Mikey got the L4 out and extracted the 1754 and its "old" truck from track 64. The IT train went back in on track 81, about 50' further west than before, with the 1754 and its truck at the door. This will put all of the NSL cars on just three tracks - 63, 64, and 71 - which will make it easier to clear snow off of track and switches if necessary for the event.

And then the 160 came out for some testing.

The interior, of course, is beautiful, and if you haven't seen it since Pete finished his restoration work last fall, you're in for a treat. Some issues with the car's newly rebuilt motor cropped up, but current thinking is that the car should still be in service on the 21st.