1970s Photos from Bill Wulfert

Bill Wulfert has supplied some photos he took in the 1970s of the electric collection as it was at that time. IRM has come a long way!  These photos are copyright Bill Wulfert and may not be copied or reproduced.

It's 1973 and the newly acquired 1754, in the left foreground, is receiving a coat of green and orange paint to cover its work service yellow. Bill points out that the car was initially painted with Pullman green paint, which is too dark, but before too long this was corrected. Behind it is the 1797.

And here's a better view of the 1797 on the left and the 1268 in the center. Off to the right is the 253, which at this time was probably still privately owned. I believe the cars are on the "caboose track," roughly on the alignment of the current streetcar line in the area of the Yard 4 East and tail track switches.

At one time IRM owned five North Shore MD cars (well, six if you count the 202). Two of them, the 236 and 237, were scrapped and the parts used to keep the other North Shore cars in service. Here we see the 236 being scrapped in 1973 or 1974. It appears that in addition to stripping the siding off the car, most of the roof has been torn off. We suspect this car was “dismantled” using a clamshell bucket.

Here's another view. I believe this is looking northwest, and the 236 is sitting on what is now the south track of Barn 2. Those reefers off to the left are on the aforementioned caboose track, about where the Yard 3 switch on the streetcar line is today. At the far right is the 966; peeking out between it and the 236 is Santa Fe combine 2302, which was in wretched condition and was infamously traded away for a keg of spikes; and beyond the 236 are the two Baldies we scrapped in 1974, 4215 and 4216. In the foreground are probably the remains of the three 1700-series wood 'L' cars that were cut up in 1973, CTA 1770, 1775, and 1784.

Here we're looking east down the caboose track again. The 'L' car to the right is the 1797, and beyond it is the 253, possibly in about the same location it was in the first photo of this post. Down at the end of the caboose track, on what today is the tail track, are CB&Q caboose 14073 (apparently it was BN green when acquired!) and a North Shore caboose, either 1002 or 1004. To the left, sitting in Yard 2 within the modern-day footprint of Barn 2, can be seen the corner of the 966; the 354; and Sand Springs 68. Visible over the 68 is some of the network of equipment over the substation.

Now we fast-forward about 10 years to the early 1980s. This is Barn 4, of course, with the 65 sitting on track 42. In the foreground is Muni 1183, ex-Kansas City 767, a car which spent years eating road salt in Toronto. Badly rusted out, it was scrapped by IRM in 1987 after we acquired identical KCPS car 755, an ex-Philadelphia car in much better shape that is now the subject of a major restoration effort. But car 1183 did (briefly) run at IRM. In the left background, you can barely make out Cornwall 14 sitting in front of Barn 2 - which was, of course, an electric barn until about 1993 - and behind the van on the right is the oil shed, with a tarped body behind it that's likely Michigan Electric 28. The photo says that on the left is Bill McGregor.