Showcase Saturday

Showcase Saturday during the day proved to be a huge success.  It was raining in the morning, which might have discouraged feebler spirits than we, but of course preparations went on.  Here the two steam locomotives, which are pretty much impervious to rain, are steaming up in the morning.

I was generally too busy with various tasks to get many pictures during the day.  After it dried out a little, the 36 and 319 were brought out for revenue service.

And here the Zephyr approaches on Station 2.

And here's the crew: Chris and Dan Buck, and myself.  A good time was had by all, and nearly every trip was running near capacity.  The Museum parking lot was nearly full.

And speaking of uniforms, our friend Tim wandered by in his spiffy Pullman outfit.  He was working the Villa Real.

From our standpoint, the highlight of the entire Showcase was the first operation of the Shaker Heights 18 for the public.  Frank has put a lot of work into this car, and to be sure there's more to be done, but it ran all day and was a huge attraction.  It provides a dramatic contrast to our Chicago cars.

And we even took a few evening trips:

Back to the subject of Pullman for a minute, our latest acquisition was cleverly posed out on the interchange track where it could be clearly viewed by people on every mainline trip.

It's another project that probably depends on how many $10 cookies Roger can sell.

I didn't get many pictures after dark, but luckily Buzz did!   He writes:

Just a few photos from Saturday night showcase.

After hooking up lighting for the RPO and Bessemer combine I took a few trips on the Dynamometer.
Warren Newhauser, Dyno. project manager and car host provided lemonade and on board cooked Jiffy-Pop to his passengers.
The view from the Dynamometer end door was dramatic.
The rain that came in around 10:30 also provided some nice shots.

Buzz

Photo by George Morisette

Photo by George Morisette

Photo by George Morisette

Frank adds...

As my father mentioned, Saturday of Showcase Weekend was great! Everything seemed to run quite smoothly, thanks in no small part to daytime dispatcher Zach and evening dispatcher Larry, and the rain stayed away for a crucial 12 hours between roughly 11am and 11pm. (Oddly, the weather seemed remarkably similar to our "70 for 70" trolley parade, when it also rained in the morning and stopped around 11am, not to mention this year's Vintage Transport Extravaganza, which also had a rain-filled forecast but turned out largely dry... but I digress.)

I grabbed a photo of the CA&E wood train as it pulled into Station Track 1 around 11am, shortly after the rain stopped. The 3142 and 4391 were in service on the car line all day.

Roger was, of course, hawking cookies in Barn 3 to raise money for recent passenger car acquisitions (see "Palm Lane" above) and restoration work. These are always impressively done, and he pointed out that this batch included some traction subjects like CSL and Indiana Railroad.

By noon or so, we were satisfied that the rain had gone, so with help from my conductor, Mikey, we got the 18 ready to go out. I wasn't sure whether we'd be able to bring the car out for Showcase Weekend, but we lucked out with the weather. The interior of the car is still mostly "unrestored" - which is to say, rough! But we made a point of explaining to people boarding that the car was a work in progress and that this is not representative of what IRM usually presents to its visitors. Nobody seemed disappointed.

Here we are at Depot Street. When we went into service, we picked up our first passenger at Electric Park just after coming off the tail track. This gentleman, who happened to be visiting from Pittsburgh, was the 18's first-ever revenue passenger in Illinois. He was quite happy the 18 was out, and said his father had ridden these cars in Cleveland.

The car was quite busy throughout the 13 trips we made during the day, and I think one trip was even standing room only - quite a feat for a car with 59 seats. The 18 really is a crowd swallower! As a piece of equipment that most people, visitors and members alike, had never ridden, we saw a lot of familiar faces. Several blog readers introduced themselves (it's always nice to meet our readers!) and I also grabbed this photo of a few newbie volunteers sitting on the lower-level bench seat. Of course that's Betty and Randy Anderson and Norm Krentel.

And here we are at the end of the afternoon at Barn 9 North. I'm glad, and more than a little relieved, to say that there were no mechanical issues with the car.

After dinner, we were the only car on the streetcar line, so we made another five trips before putting the car back in the barn due to threatening rain. Before going out, I grabbed a photo of the 1374. It ran overnight as a one-man car, so the magnetic one-man white stripes made a reappearance for the first time in a couple of years. It really does give the car a nifty look!

Besides the 18, nighttime operations - or, I should say, the first of two or three shifts of nighttime operations - included the 1630 pulling the heavyweight train, the Zephyr, an unusual caboose train (see below), CNS&M 714-749, IT 101, and Indiana Railroad 65, which made its first passenger trips since roof work began five or six years ago. The two single cars ran as two sections, which was interesting. After the 18 was back in the barn, I went for a very pleasant ride on the "Villa Real," which I hadn't ridden since we got it. I also rode with Matthew on the Matchbox and rode with Steven on the RTA bus, which was providing service over to the Bus Stop Shop in the trolley bus barn.

I should also mention that the Nebraska Zephyr offered a very nice dinner to the lucky few who scored tickets before they sold out. Our intrepid freelance restaurant reviewer, who I'll call "Norm," reported that the dinner was outstanding in every respect, from the quality of the food to the excellence of the service.

I didn't stick around for all the overnight, Sunday morning, and Sunday daytime activities. There was a lot going on despite the rain overnight that lasted into Sunday. The 141 came out for trips in the early morning and there was a steam-hauled freight train at dawn. There were also a couple of breakfast trips on the Zephyr on Sunday morning, which was something IRM hasn't done before. Maybe someone will send us photos and/or another food review.

Our investigative freelance photographer, Bill Wulfert, also submitted a series of photos taken Saturday and Saturday evening:

While most volunteers in the Operating Department and equipment departments were on the railroad, the B&G crew was hard at work on Central Avenue setting new steel line poles. These will enable the rest of the trolley bus route to be "double-tracked" so that more trolley buses can be run simultaneously without interfering with each other on the current two-direction section between the east end of Barn 6 and the Electric Park loop.

More photos of setting line poles.

Everyone's favorite center-entrance streetcar pulls into Central Avenue.

I alluded to this earlier, but after dinner there was a rather unusual caboose train that ran several trips. The Shay was on the west end, then three cabooses, then ComEd 4 (shown here) on the east end. We may have run a few "top-and-tailed" trains before, but I don't think we've ever done it with a mix of steam and electric power! It seemed to go quite well. And no, this obviously isn't anything like prototypical, it was just done for fun.

A couple of photos of 50th Avenue, which really looks great lit up at night by 600v.

Of course, the restored signs were all lit up, as was the signal display alongside Barn 4.

And this bus was there, though I'm not sure why or where it came from.