Fresh Paint Up Top

Frank writes...

My goal for Sunday was to get a first coat of Tile Red roof paint onto the 18, and it ended up taking pretty much all the time I had between when I arrived and when it was time to head out to (a late) dinner.

Above are the "before" photos, taken after I wrapped the sides of the car in thin plastic to prevent the paint from running down the sides of the car. The specially formulated linseed oil-based canvas paint we use for roofs is very thin, kind of the texture of milk, so runs are inevitable. Jimmy helped a bit with hanging the plastic.

And here are the "after" photos, though the light wasn't great at this point. I used up all two gallons of roof paint I had and ended up just slightly short, so a small section around the ladder (obviously the last section to do - I don't want to "paint myself into a corner" up there!) didn't get done. We weren't sure how much of this would soak in. But that's not a big deal, as it will need one or two more coats anyway. Large swaths of the roof had discolored nearly to black, so that will take more of this thin roof paint to cover. I left a note for our paint guru, Pete, requesting more roof paint. Thanks also to Joel for helping move cars around so that I had space to access the 18 all the way around.

What else was going on? Well, besides the Tile Red paint going onto the 18's roof, it was red, red, red. First off, when I arrived, the 451 was sitting outside in Yard 7. It had been switched out of the way to retrieve the C&NW bay window caboose so that it could be displayed for the UP picnic on Saturday. I believe the Diesel Department will be switching the 451 back into the barn, but it sure looked nice out in the sun. Work is currently underway to create lettering stencils for this car.

And then the London bus showed up. You read that correctly: there's currently a London double-decker bus at IRM. Zach and Greg purchased this thing last year and with Richard's help it was driven from its home south of Chicago up to Union on Sunday. As soon as it arrived, it was mobbed by curious IRM members.

Here it is in front of the diner, though of course it's running "wrong main" for a British bus. It's going to be on display for Vintage Transport Extravaganza next Sunday and also for Bus Day in September.

One of the proud owners of the bus, Zach, in the driver's cab.

And in other news, our old IRM App that was developed back in 2013 has now been replaced by a professionally developed app called IRM eCard. Our original app, which we dubbed IRMA, actually dropped off the Android app store a couple of years ago because it was too outdated, and our volunteer developer was never able to get the Apple version finished. With a number of "roundels" still on our signage, as shown above, I figured that at this point it couldn't hurt to try and do something with them.

With the new website roster, I was able to add the historic articles from the old IRMA - which had always been tied to particular pieces of equipment anyway - to the website roster listings. From there, it was a simple matter to generate QR codes, print them out, and laminate them. The first few were glued over the old plastic IRMA roundels in use in Barn 7 on Sunday evening. Scanning these with your smartphone will take you directly to the same content it did with IRMA, but now it's sending you to the roster on the IRM website. I'll try and continue substituting these QR codes in place of the old IRMA roundels as the summer progresses.

Nothing newsworthy here, I just thought the 1518 and wooden caboose looked nice lit by the warm glow of the 50th Avenue platform lights.

And in another nighttime shot, you can see Tim's recent progress on the 1808, which now has roof boards and trolley bases up on the roof.

Saturday Report

Saturday was the annual UP Family Days celebration.  Union Pacific rewards its employees by giving them and their families a day out at the world's greatest railway museum, and everybody seemed to be having a great time.   They provide lunch, plenty of activities for the children, and regular train operations.

Come to think of it, there's no reason your employer couldn't do something similar, albeit probably on a smaller scale.  You just have to get in touch with Group Sales at the office.   Operators are standing by to take your call!

Meanwhile, progress continues around the property.  Back behind Barn 4, tracks 42 and 43 have been completed.  This is mainline quality track that should be good for 40 mph -- right into the barn.  Compare this to what used to be here!

Underneath the 306, Norm was again hard at work getting the motors wired up correctly.

And Buzz was cleaning up one of the folding cots in the Milwaukee Road caboose...  I mean the business car.  But this sure ain't the Ely.

And of course there were lots of other activities going on around the property.  I was working on some mechanical issues with the 309, and installed the new whistle valve in the 308.  But there wasn't much to take a picture of.  Maybe next time.  

Niles's Finest

Niles's Finest: Lake Shore Electric 150

by Art Peterson

All photos are from the Krambles-Peterson Archive and may not be reproduced without permission

Headline image: Cars 150 and 155 sit on the siding at the LSE Cleveland station in this undated view.  Car 150 is signed for Beach Park, about 20 miles west of Cleveland.  This had been a major attraction for LSE riders in pre-auto days.  As a reflection of its importance to the railway, a two-track storage barn, along with a single-track inspection barn was located here.  The car also has its storm windows fitted, as well as a “rear view mirror” visible on the nearest corner post.  The metal fender was a Detroit requirement, dating from the through-operation of these cars to/from the Motor City.

The Lake Shore Electric (LSE) was the creation of Cleveland’s Everett-Moore financial syndicate, a consolidation of four companies dating to August 29, 1901.  LSE served the populous Cleveland-Toledo area of Ohio, with significant access to the Lake Erie beaches and other recreational havens.  The original alignment hugged the lake shore for 45 miles from Cleveland west to Ceylon Junction and then dipped inland to serve Norwalk, Bellevue, Fremont, and Woodville on its way to Toledo.  On July 21,1907, LSE opened the Sandusky-Fremont direct line, which not only increased the miles of line along the lake front, but also shortened the Cleveland-Toledo mileage by about five miles while shaving 30 minutes off the end-to-end running time.

With an expanding traffic base, as well as more miles of line to run, LSE turned to the Niles Car & Manufacturing Company for a batch of 10 straight coaches numbered between 150 and 159.  The order was placed in December 1905 and the first of these cars arrived on the property on May 28, 1906, with all 10 received by mid-June of that year.  These cars had classic wood car architecture, with arched end windows, curved upper sash windows, and a railroad roof.  The cars were also equipped for multiple-unit (MU) operation, which was not the norm for interurbans of the day.  As it happened, LSE was prohibited from running multiple-car trains within the Cleveland and Toledo city limits at the time.

This unidentified LSE Niles coach will have to stand in for the as-built appearance of IRM’s car 150.  In 1910, LSE had grown to 145.5 first track miles, along with 19.4 miles of second track.  A total of 534 employees worked for LSE, with 278 of these engaged in providing transportation.  The Niles cars were equipped with GE Type M MU control and used C36 master controllers.  Four Westinghouse No. 121 motors, each producing 85 HP, were used on the 150-series cars.  LSE would begin MU service with the Niles cars during 1910, outside the limits of Cleveland and Toledo.  This photo shows the original Van Dorn couplers, which were later superseded by heavier-duty MCB couplers.

Niles had a reputation for turning out fine-looking wood cars, including their “Electric Pullmans” for Oregon Electric and the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis (among others), as well as multiple orders for the Chicago Aurora & Elgin.  Like the CA&E, LSE must have liked what Niles produced, for in 1907 they went back for another 15 cars, this time including five combines and 10 coaches.  With the second order on the property, LSE now had 19 straight coaches (car 152 was an early casualty) and the five combines.

From 1912, having resolved their multiple-car train issues with Cleveland and Toledo, LSE and Detroit United (DUR) were now running multiple-car Cleveland-Detroit trains, using cars from both lines in-train.  DUR had also turned to Niles for cars and, in four orders between 1912 and 1915, amassed a fleet of 24 coaches.  By 1915, LSE was carrying 5.2 million passengers annually.  A 1927 survey of the property found that LSE rostered 187 cars, with an average age of 10 years.  LSE had turned to Jewett for its steel-bodied (but still truss-rod-equipped) cars, buying three each in 1915 and 1917, followed by a nine-car order in 1918.  The steel cars took over the premiere runs on the system, though there were still plenty of assignments for the older cars to handle.  This survey was done around the time that Cities Service purchased control of the LSE from the Everett-Moore Syndicate on March 23, 1927.

Coincidentally, 1927 was the first year that the LSE interurban operations posted a deficit.  Sadly, this situation would not change through the end of interurban operations in 1938.  During both 1932 and 1933, LSE’s deficits reached $500,000.  In 1932, LSE defaulted on its interest payments and was forced into bankruptcy.  Frederick Coen, the long-serving Vice President and General Manager of the railway, was appointed as receiver. 

LSE car 150 presented this appearance later in its life.  Most of the older LSE cars maintained a respectable look up to the end of service.  End windows had been squared, the electric markers above the front-end windows had been removed, and Tomlinson MCB knuckle-type couplers were installed on these cars.  The electric coupler was a model DA-82-B for the control circuits and a model DA-35-E for the bus line.  This shot manages to capture the glow of the 23-watt interior lights in the clerestory windows.  We are indebted to the LSE’s “Car Inventory Record” sheets for recording the interior light bulb wattage.

The interior of car 149 from the 1907 order will have to suffice for the appearance of the 150-series of cars.  Coaches from both Niles orders seated 52 and were finished in cherry wood with inlaid white holly borders.  Black leather-covered seats from Hale & Kilburn were provided.  Also evident is the partial Empire ceiling used on the Niles cars, where the carlines are arched, but the alcoves for the clerestory windows are simply squared off.  A car with a full Empire ceiling would have had arched clerestory window alcoves following the curve of those windows.

Car 150 is facing west on State Street near Arch Street in Fremont on August 16, 1936.  Fremont was 84 miles from Cleveland and was west of Sandusky Junction where the original line and the direct line re-joined to run on to Toledo.  Behind the car is the Hotel Fremont.  The earliest parts of this hotel dated to the Croghan House of the 1840s.  Sadly, the Hotel Fremont was destroyed by fire in March 1981.  The town of Fremont dates to the 1849 renaming of Lower Sandusky in honor of the man who secured California for the US. Credit Ralph Perkin for this atmospheric shot.

Throughout the early 30s, as its connecting traction lines succumbed, LSE was steadily declining in terms of both freight and passenger traffic.  As recently as 1929, freight traffic on the LSE had accounted for 48% of the line’s gross revenue.  LSE freight handlers went on strike on May 15, 1937.  Management responded by immediately ending all LSE freight service.  All of LSE’s physical property was sold to Toledo Edison in March of 1938.  The cars were never relettered to reflect the new owner, running with the LSE name on them until the last day on May 15, 1938.

Ralph Perkin also took this shot of one of the 1915 Jewett steel cars working a direct line Express trip connecting with the 150, ready to head to Norwalk on the old line.  This photo was taken on April 17, 1937.  An express could get you to Ceylon Junction in 1 hour, 35 minutes.  LSE’s Limiteds were three minutes faster than the expresses, equating to an average speed of 29.1 mph.  A local on the mainline required 1 hour, 50 minutes for the 45.1-mile trip.  Through trips were still being run on the old line.  From November 15, 1937, service on the original line would be interrupted at Bellevue (west of Norwalk).

After LSE (TE) disposed of the rolling stock during 1938, car 150 became a house in Milan, OH.  It remained there until 1964, when it was moved to Fostoria, OH.  It continued in use as a dwelling until 1977, when it was bought and moved to Station Square in Pittsburgh.  In this guise, it sat on a pair of CTA 4000-series Baldwin trucks acquired from IRM.  At Station Square, LSE 150 was displayed along with an ex-Brooklyn semi-convertible car shell.  For a while, car 150 was used as a flower shop.  In 2000, the former P&LE station was redeveloped, at which time car 150 was sold to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.  They resold the body to IRM and ended up trading the 4000-series trucks to a museum near Rochester.  Car 150 has been on display at IRM since its arrival in Union in late 2000 and was repainted in LSE colors during 2005-06.

We'd like to extend our sincere thanks to Art Peterson for writing this article and sourcing these wonderful images of car 150 in service. For more information on car 150, read our 2012 write-up about the car here. Frank Hicks helped with editing for this article.

Line Car Milestone

 Gregg reports on another important step forward in restoring our Illinois Terminal line car:

You may have seen a photo of this roof earlier from some roving reporter. However, today it was finished.

Another view of the roof. Some sanding is needed next in a few areas. Then a coat of paint to seal the wood. The canvas also arrived today.

I, for one, will be interested to see how Gregg meets the challenge of the platform supports sticking up through the canvas.  Don't touch that dial!

Monday Progress Report

HELP   WANTED

For the Vintage Transport Extravaganza on Sunday, Aug. 6, we'll be running a three-car CA&E train.  We need at least one trainman, so let us know if you can help.  You do not need to be rules qualified. Thanks!

And now, back to the news:

As Frank mentioned yesterday, the contractors are building the storage tracks east of the Barn 4 extension, and that work is proceeding rapidly.  Looking west towards the barn:

And then looking east:

On the left, track 42 meets a switch onto 41 and thence to the car line.  On the right, track 43 will be a stub, but I'm not sure how far it will go.

Meanwhile, back in the old barn, people are hard at work on various Car Dept. projects.  Here Fred (L) and Norm (R) are hard at work on wiring the motor circuits for the 306.  It's not easy, but somebody's got to do it.

These are the seat pedestals for the 306.  Pete (not shown) was getting them ready to be primed and painted.  The beautiful brass emblems need to be carefully taped up.

And John continues his painstaking work on windows for the 306.

Meanwhile, Gregg continues to make good progress on the roof of the line car.

And Tim was hard at work on the 1808, until his bicycling buddies showed up and dragged him away.  Chacun à son goût.

Buzz is making new windowsills for the Milwaukee Road business car, which you might easily think was a caboose.  But you would be wrong.

I put the three-car train together for Transport Extravaganza -- 309-36-319 -- and spent the rest of my time on a couple of different projects on the wood cars, such as the door closers.  Sorry, not much to see here, folks....

But I promised you some news about moving trees.  As you probably know, the space between Barns 7 and 8 has always been a large grassy area, but all of a sudden:

These trees didn't sprout overnight!  Where did they come from?

Well, that's because there's been a lot of work going on at the south end of property.  We haven't shown many pictures of this because it's so far away.  But the berm is being cut back for new construction of an additional storage unit.  There are plenty of trees along the south edge of the property, so the ones on top of the berm could be moved to better locations.  And there are several more around the property.

Here we're standing on top of the berm, looking northeast.  The area for the next warehouse is in front of us, and beyond that, if my calculations are correct, is the site of Yard 16.

And it looks like the lead to the yard is already inching along.

If you turn your back at IRM for as little as a week, there's no telling what you'll miss! 

Til Next Year

Frank writes...

Day Out With Thomas concluded for this year on Sunday; it was a very successful event, and besides running smoothly (at least as far as I know), it also saw larger crowds than the past three or four years. Kudos and thanks to all who were involved in planning, managing, and executing the event! I wasn't able to get out to IRM until mid-afternoon, so unfortunately I didn't play much of a role this second weekend. The most I was able to do was help get the 1374 into service right after I arrived. It had been "on deck" as a spare, and good thing too because the 4391 had one of its batteries fail. The PCC was taken out of service with low battery voltage but the "Matchbox" quickly took its place. Joel has a spare battery on hand, so the 4391 should be back in action soon.

The big news is that track construction has begun in Yard 4 East. In this view, taken from inside the unfinished building extension looking east, you can see new tracks 42 and 43 largely in place, though not completely bolted up. They will also need ballasting, of course, but this is exciting progress! The 144 can be seen in the distance in DOWT service.

I didn't get any pictures of what I was doing, which was mostly more work on repainting the 18, including more Bondo and sanding work. Most of the regulars were helping with Thomas, but in the evening once the event wound down, more work in the shop got done. Above, Nathan (left) is working on the rebuild of our small forklift. Dan (right) was lending a hand when I stopped by. Bob and Mikey were also working on contactors for the Class B.

And many thanks to Zach, who was able to find a spare whistle valve, lap it so that it's no longer leaky, and give it a nice coat of Washington blue. This is now ready to go back on the 308. Thank you!

Filler Up?

Yes, folks, it's time once again to play... "Stump the Experts"!

I hate to admit it, but I'm stumped by this "filler" for the GE 66 motor caps (which we generally call axle caps).  There's evidently two pieces of sheet metal with a weird shape, but I've never seen anything like this:

The first person to come up with a plausible explanation will win instant fame and undying esteem!

Blueprints and Drawings

Over the past few days I've been going through the Brookins collection of blueprints.  There's a fascinating variety of material there.  Much of it we have no practical use for, of course: there's little chance we're going to want to make new wheels, axles, equalizer bars, or even bolts.  Lots of specifications for bolts.

Actually, a motor shop might find this useful:

And then there are many third-rail clearance diagrams.  The wiring diagrams, of course, are certainly useful and I've set them aside.

This blueprint is unusual: instructions on how to use special hooks to install Empire roller lubricators in a journal box without getting your hands dirty.

Blueprints come in all sizes, and we have some truly huge ones:

This is a full-scale plan for the vestibule bulkhead in a Cincinnati car like the 431.  It measures about 4.5' by 9.5' and has naturally been folded up into a bundle.  There are several more like it, some of which may be even bigger.  We have no practical use for this, of course, but it's certainly impressive.  Scale it down by a factor of, oh, 64 or whatever, and you might have something useful.  :)

As I say, we're not going to be making new wheels.  But among other things we have specifications for "war standard wheels" that I hadn't heard of.  Evidently, during the war CRT, CA&E, and North Shore were supposed to use common standards.  There were multiple standards -- take your pick:

Prior to that time, it appears the CA&E had their own standards.  Here's the typical 37" wheel from the thirties, which is probably what most of our wood cars are equipped with.

And then there are a few oddities, such as the 1949 blueprints for a bath house at the St. Charles Country Club.  I have no idea why that's there.  I was hoping for original plans for the Jewell Road shelter, but no such luck.

Anyway, this material will go into storage for future reference.  We already have an unparalleled collection of documents in our various library departments, and the Brookins collection makes it even better.  And that brings me to my next great advertising slogan:

"IRM -- the Smithsonian of Railroading!"

Rates of Pay

Think you're underpaid?  One of the CA&E documents we got with the Brookins collection is a list of pay rates for the Mechanical Department from June 1957 - right at the end of service.

Of course the value of money has changed greatly since that time, but what surprises me is how little difference there is between the highest and lowest wage rates.  Car cleaners and the oil house man make only $1.72, but everybody else is in the range of $1.85 to $2.16, from unskilled new hires to toolmakers and air brake experts.  Helpers get a two-cent raise per year.  That doesn't seem like much incentive.

And what does a "benchman" do?  In the car shop we somehow manage to get along without one.

The Brookins Collection

"Let me tell you a story...."

Back in 1962, when the CA&E was being scrapped and the preserved cars were being prepared for shipment by various museums, Gerry Brookins purchased a large collection of blueprints and other documents from the Wheaton shops and took them back to North Olmsted as part of his collection.  They stayed with Trolleyville until the collection was broken up in 2010, as we documented at the time.  Along with the cars, there was a vast array of parts of all sorts, including photos and documents.  Unavoidably, some of this material was rather randomly distributed, and the Northern Ohio Railway Museum wound up with four large boxes of blueprints from Wheaton.

And since they have no CA&E cars to fix, and no particular connection to the line, they have now donated all this material to us.  This is a fantastic treasure trove of historical information.  There are blueprints of every type of part the railroad ever used: bolts, axles, wheels, motor shafts, window frames, bearings, third rail shoes, pneumatic sleet scrapers, tools, equalizers, springs, frame parts, heater blocks... you get the idea.

There are also a good number of electrical diagrams, which are always useful.  It's not easy to get some of the larger diagrams digitized to show all the details clearly, but I've been adding them to my MU circuit collection.  And there are even some diagrams from the North Shore.

And just as a special treat for you, the reader, we can show a few pictures of the blueprints, chosen from the hundreds available.  You will notice, of course, that the larger prints have gotten folded and refolded over the years, so they don't lie flat.  But on the whole they're still in very good condition.

There's relatively little dealing with the wood cars, as it happens.  Not too surprising, I suppose.  But the steel cars are well documented, particularly the Cincinnati cars.  The most impressive drawing is this magnificent plan, which measures 29" x 60".

And then there's a cross-section:

For the wood cars, at least there's this nice plan of the steel underframe for the 1902 cars, showing details of the underbody equipment in later years:

So if anybody else out there happens to have one of the 1902 cars, this might be useful.

Finally, everything you need to make yourself a brass "trombone" whistle!

We cannot thank the Northern Ohio Railway Museum enough for this material.  It will be a valuable part of IRM's already vast library holdings.  They have also provided us with useful information about the cars in our collection that operated on Shaker Heights -- the 306, the Cleveland PCC, and the 18.  This is inter-museum cooperation at its finest.