Big Hook at Night

 Since we've been seeing dramatic progress on the 6363 lately, blog reader Joe Zdenek sent us a dramatic picture of the 6359 at work:

He writes:

Seeing your picture of the big hook being refurbished prompted me to find this old slide. It's 6359 cleaning up a wreck in 1972 (I THINK). A loaded Wisconsin Power coal train was leaving Proviso Yard and hit the ground before it got to the Elmhurst station. I have other pics of that night but only one of the hook.

I remember it was quite the feat to move the cars. I watched for over an hour as they moved one car to a panel track, only to have the rails roll over and put the car back on the ground.

Ticking Away

"The seconds are ticking away on the contest clock" as my thesis advisor would say when I had a deadline to meet, and that's as true now as ever.  Since I have a four-car train to operate without tying up the railroad or otherwise embarrassing myself, I spent some time today finishing up lubrication and inspection, as much as I could in place.  I'm sure we'll be ready, but there wasn't much to take a picture of.

So I wanted to show you what other people are doing.  The barn extension is proceeding quickly.

And then I thought I'd get some pictures of the 6363 after sandblasting, but it's disappeared!  I don't have time to search the entire property for something, even something as big as a big hook, but that will have to wait.  Whatever you do, don't miss the big parade!

Line Car Roof

Gregg Wolfersheim sends us another update on the IT 1702, which is now in the roof booth getting a complete overhaul.  

The #1 end of the line car is receiving its two layer roof. Basically two layers of lath trimmed to fit behind the tack molding.

Applying primer.

Close up of the two layers.

After the strips are all nailed down.

Today I started cutting out the roof saddles. Here are the first four being test fitted. They will eventually go on top of the canvas roof. Meanwhile, we are waiting for the supplier to mill out the 94 tongue and groove boards that will support the canvas and the saddles.

Buzzer Wiring

I'd gotten some questions about buzzer circuits, and finally dug out my wiring diagram -- from 45 years ago.  This was drawn for car 309, but I believe the circuit is the same for any CA&E car, except that the interrupter may be at the #2 end, and of course for the steel cars the buzzer is connected not to line 7 in the control circuit, but the buzzer jumpers.  The buzzers will have a typical value of about 500 ohms.

Tuesday Travelogue

 Today's Tuesday travelogue takes us on a terrific tour of the territory with typical technical tidbits.

OK, enough of that...

What's the Buzz?

My main project was to fix the buzzer on the 319, since we'll need it for the big parade.  In this first picture, we're looking straight up at a narrow space in the ceiling, where the interrupter and buzzer are mounted as inconveniently as possible.  The resistor built into the interrupter was burned out, so I replaced it with a new one several years ago, the bright yellow object at the top of the picture.  In service, you'll never notice it.  I was afraid it might have burned out, but it's still OK.  

Instead, I found that one of the connections had come loose and was producing an intermittent short.  I was able to fix this and reassemble the interrupter, although since you're looking and working straight up it's a real pain in the neck.  But it went pretty quickly.

Finally, it worked!  As you can hear for yourself:

And I would call this anticipation:

I spent much of the rest of the day sorting and cleaning parts in storage.  But not all...

A Jewell In the Rough

This is the Jewell Road waiting shelter from the CA&E, and while it's in rough shape, it's basically complete and restorable.  So Frank and I have been looking at it with an eye to at least doing a relatively quick cosmetic job.  And the standard red and grey CA&E paint scheme will be very striking.

There are no definite plans for it yet, but I'm sure we'll find something.  We always do.

Dave Diamond put a new roof on it a few years ago, so it's holding up.  I might start on it as time permits.  But first, we need to evict all the wasps!

Also, we're having trouble locating a good picture of this shelter when it was in service.  In particular, I'm not sure the windowless front door it has now is correct.  Can anyone help?

Have Sand, Will Blast

Over by Barn 13, a contractor was hard at work sand-blasting our C&NW big hook.  Jeff Calendine happened along and told me about the project, of which he's in charge.  Once the sandblasting is done in a day or two, painting can start.  And then he wants to do the same job on the idler flat.  It should look great, and we will have a fully functional big hook.  Mostly, I hope, for demonstrations and not for cleaning up actual wrecks!

306 Teamwork

Quite a few people were at work on the 306.  Besides touching up the painting, they're hard at work on getting both brake valves functional.  These are more complicated than the ones on automatic air cars, as it happens.  So they had Gerry, Paul, Phil, Norm, John, and I'm not sure who else.

Next door, Tim is installing the canvas on the 1808.

I like how he has the canvas stretched with straps through the car:

And in the shop, Gregg was making more parts for the roof structure on the line car:

The roof is going onto the barn extension:

Tanks a Lot

While we're here, let's take a look at some model trains for a minute.  Here are the before and after views of my latest project, an AF wide gauge (standard gauge) tank car.

You know, when I first saw one of these, I remember thinking it looked pretty ridiculous.  Real tank cars don't have proportions like this.  Just typical toy trains....

But then today, I happened to notice this car sitting outside Barn 3.  And I must say this has much the same proportions as the toy.  The arrangement of the platforms is different, to be sure, and of course the paint scheme, but those are details, relatively speaking.  IRM is always educational!

Final Prep

Frank writes...

Sunday was time for some final preparation work on the 18 to get it ready for the "big show" next Saturday. A huge thank you goes out to Joel, for building a new end window for the car, and to John, for accomplishing the difficult task of cutting the glass for a not-quite-square window with a slight arch at its top.

Joel was able to get the window back into place, which wasn't as easy as it sounds, after which I reinstalled the various trim pieces inside the cab. This window is stationary and it will be no surprise that the new window fit like a glove. Voila!

After that, I went around the car doing some light cleaning and washing windows. Zach and I reinstalled the whistle, which we dutifully (and successfully) tested after pumping up the air. Finally, after dinner, I put a fresh coat of cream paint on the new window and on the corner post. The photo above was taken without the benefit of natural light, but you get the idea. Plus, you'll see this for yourself in person next Saturday, since you and I both know you'd never miss the 70 for 70 Trolley Pageant!

Of course there were plenty of other things happening, including quite a bit of switching. I noticed that the car shop guys had been switching Yard 5, which included a slight change to the lineup at the west end of the yard. Now, I wonder why that would be.

Shay It Forward

Saturday was our observance in memory of Jim Wrinn, the editor of Trains magazine for many years and a fervent supporter of railway preservation in all its forms.  He was a particular fan of geared engines, and so our Shay was one of the centerpieces of the "Shay It Forward" program.  Instead of working, I brought my wife out for a deluxe luncheon on the Zephyr, and it was excellent, as you'll see.

The Shay was running Take the Throttle trips again, this time starting from the Depot St. crossing south into Yard 14.

The Zephyr was running regular service, but at noon the Ceres was open for a catered luncheon.  It's been a while since our culinary department has posted anything here, so prepare for a treat.

First, we have this delicious antipasto plate.  This would make a lunch in itself.  (Sorry, I skipped the initial rolls and butter.)

And the chicken salad was excellent.  (Lunch was BYOW, by the way...)  I forget what the vegetarian alternative was.

Service was very attentive.  The chocolate cake was to die for, as they say.

And here we even have some musical entertainment.  Actually, a quite good representation of what dinner in the diner would have been like.  What more could you want?

And we received these nice little pins as a memento:

Finally, Jim Wrinn's widow gave a nice speech about his life and work, and thanked us all for supporting the event.

We had a good time talking to several people that I don't often get to see, and meeting new friends, so this was a very satisfying event, and very well done.

Meanwhile, the 1630 was running the coach train, the 749 and 251 were in operation, the 3142 was providing streetcar service, and....

The 431 and 460 were staged in the morning at 50th Avenue, and later ran in Jefferson shuttle service.

You haven't seen the last of this roof.  I gotta keep tooting my own horn.

Back behind Barn 4, a few cars you don't usually see outside are being staged for the big parade.

And then we decided to pay a visit to the model railroad department.  Lots of railroad museums have model trains, in fact for many of them that's about the only thing that operates, but I really don't know of any that are quite as impressive as this.

Finally, although it was extremely hot, the Track Department guys were hard at work back of Barn 8 moving ties and rail and I don't know what.  It's amazing, they just never quit.

Don't Test Us

This 1984 car card in SEPTA 55 is a riot. At first, with the faded lettering, what you notice is the big and diverse crowd of amiable-looking cartoon characters. Ah, that's nice. Then you squint and read the lettering: We take graffiti and vandalism seriously. And it's only then that you notice every person in the crowd has their hands behind their backs because they're handcuffed. Welcome to Philadelphia!

Exciting Thursday

 We have lots of exciting progress to report for Thursday, and it's a lot for one day.

My first project was an issue that popped up last Saturday, but I didn't want to publish it for obvious reasons.  The bracket supporting one of the trap doors on the 319 got out of whack, so it was impossible to close the trap door completely, and therefore to close the people door at all, and therefore to lock up the car.  Luckily this end of Barn 8 is currently not open to the public.  So I started by disassembling the trap door mechanism, replacing some of the wood, getting new screws, etc.  It takes a while to get everything I needed from the shop, make test fits, and so on.  If only I had my own golf cart...

But while we're over at Barn 4, look at this nice new sign -- a dramatic improvement to the campus!

Inside the barn, John, Gerry, and Buzz were hard at work on the 306, mostly doing the lettering today.  As we go along, you'll get to see the fascinating step-by step process.

First, Buzz attaches his professional-quality masks to the sides.

And after the backing is removed, you can see what the lettering will be.

Next door, Tim was hard at work installing canvas on the 1808.

And making rapid progress, as usual.

Anyway, I finally got the bracket installed and mounted firmly.

I also checked the other trap doors to see if the same problem was developing elsewhere, but they all looked OK.  In true CA&E fashion, two of the four traps have a different style bracket holding them up.

But now the trap closes properly, and the car is locked.

I also worked on fixing the whistle valve on the 308.  With the time available, it just isn't feasible to disassemble all the piping and replace the valve, so I patched it up as best I could.  Before, the whistle was making a constant low moan, but at least I put it out of its misery.  There's still a small air leak, but the whistle functions fine, and it should be good for one day of service.

In the shop, John cut the glass for this end window on the 18.  The two sides are not quite parallel, but that's what's needed so it will fit the end of the car.  Frank should be happy.

And out in back, the contractors are making good progress on the barn extension.

Back on the Fox River car, see if you can tell what's underneath....

And once the masking is carefully removed, the lettering appears in all its glory.

This herald would make a good vision test:

And of course, no trip on the Fox River line would be complete without a visit to the asylum.

Regular operation continued with Paul Schneble running the 431:

And I wanted to get a couple of pictures of the recently-completed track in Yard 12.

It's beautiful.  You couldn't possibly regulate ballast more perfectly than this.

And naturally a lot of other exciting things have been happening at IRM, and are planned for the near future.  Stay tuned!