Weekend Photo Gallery

Many thanks to Steven and Bob Olson for sending along photos of things we missed from this past weekend! First, a selection of photos from Steven showing progress in the Car Department:

A number of cars were switched out of Barn 6 so that a contractor could do some repair work during the week this week. Here, West Towns 141 is readied for its trip out. This car had some repairs made to its PC control box over the summer and ran in revenue service over Showcase Weekend for the first time in a couple of years, so watch for it to make more frequent appearances next year.

ComEd 4 needed to be moved out of the way, and the most convenient spot happened to be at the head of the "reefer block" on the connector track. A nice photo opportunity ensued.

The IC MU cars were spotted at 50th Avenue.

Here's the 141 over on track 61.

Saturday evening, Nathan, Mikey, Brian and Steven worked on getting the small Car Department forklift put back together and running again.

Steven reports that the effort was successful, and the little forklift now lives again!

Here, Brian is bringing over the end casting of the forklift using a different small forklift.

The CP-28 compressor was removed from the 251; this pump failed in service this year and will be sent out for rebuilding.

Here's a current view of the Barn 4 extension, looking east from the pit.

Steven spent a while over in Barn 2 wire-wheeling the pilots on IT 415 to get it ready for paint.

This is neither glamorous nor enjoyable work, but the car will look fantastic when it's done!

An overall view of the 415 from ground level.

I'm not sure what this little "pig tank" underneath the car is for. Is this the aux res?

Here's something neat: the badge plate on the 415's truck. I had these trucks listed as StL 69, but maybe StL CM69 is more accurate.

On Sunday, brush holder repairs to the 749 were completed and the car was test operated. It passed the test and is now back in service.

Here's ComEd 15 doing switching in Yard 5 on Sunday.

Greg wields the "hot stick" to throw switches up in the air near the substation.

And a view of Yards 6 and 5 at sunset.

The following photos were sent in by Bob Olson but were taken by Carina Borst of the Pumpkin Train event. Saturday was practically rained out, but Sunday went ahead mostly as planned, though the "pumpkin patch" was relocated from Seeman Road to Electric Park due to all the water. I should point out that the lion's share of the prep and setup work for this event is done each year by the Track Department, so we all owe them a big thank you for putting on a terrific show!

Loading up hay bales at a nearby farm where we purchased them.

Electric Park was attractively set up with hay bales, pumpkins, and a variety of interesting visuals.

Gotta admit, this critter is pretty eye-catching!

The stalwart 3142 provided car line service over to the Pumpkin Patch while the CA&E steel train ran mainline service.