We are very sad to report that Frank Sirinek, longtime museum volunteer and project manager for the streetcars in the Chicago Surface Lines collection, died early this morning at the age of 88.
Frank grew up in Pilsen and worked for Illinois Bell most of his career. He joined IRM in April 1965, shortly after the museum moved to Union and before any equipment started operating. He was a Chicago streetcar fan, as he remembered riding the cars in the 1940s and 1950s, and before long he took over the museum's lone Chicago streetcar, CSL 144.
Frank had an enormous talent for project management. Car 144 needed a lot of work in the late 1960s to be made operational, including replacement of large portions of the sides, extensive roof work, and replacement of all its wheel sets. Frank worked hard on the car and enlisted the help of others in the organization to help complete the project. Car 144 was made operational and continues to see regular use to this day.
When the ERHS collection arrived in 1973, Frank spearheaded efforts to get more Chicago streetcars into operation. Initially, work focused on CTA 4391, the "Green Hornet." This car needed relatively little work, and following exterior restoration it was placed into service in 1974 or 1975. At that point Frank began working on the first of his major "frame-up" restorations, CSL 1374, the "Matchbox." Over the course of some 12 or 13 years, he and a large group of volunteers completely rebuilt car 1374. When acquired, it was in very deteriorated condition from its years as a salt car and was missing its seats. Frank and others tore the car down, replaced the floor and much of the roof and exterior, and completely rebuilt the car's interior. Frank's project management abilities made it possible for him to make use of the talents of many different volunteers, notably including the late Bill McGregor, and to do the fundraising necessary. Fully restored, car 1374 entered service in the late 1980s.
Frank's next project was CTA 3142, which he started working on in the mid-1980s as the "Matchbox" project was nearing completion. This car also required major interior restoration work as well as exterior body work and sourcing traction motors from Egypt. Car 3142 entered regular service in 2001 and has been IRM's primary service car on the streetcar line ever since. Following this project, Frank began work on Chicago & West Towns 141, which was just a car body. Arguably his most impressive restoration to date, and still the only electric car IRM has fully restored from “chicken coop” condition, car 141 first ran in 2013.
Over the past decade or so, Frank has mostly concentrated on restoring Kansas City Public Service 755, a PCC streetcar from that city. Frank's "right hand man" for years has been Mike Stauber, with Steve Iverson also working closely with Frank whenever he is in town. In recent years, as his health declined, Frank was able to make it to IRM less and less, but he was still hard at work on restoration work and overseeing maintenance on the Chicago cars when he could. He also kept up with other hobbies, including a handful of antique Chrysler cars and an O gauge model railroad.
Frank's dedication to the Chicago streetcar collection, his immense capabilities in restoration work and project management, and his unforgettable personality, which could be fiery at times but was always tempered by a friendly nature and strong sense of camaraderie with his fellow volunteers, will be sorely missed by all of us. He left an indelible mark on the Chicago streetcar collection and on IRM as a whole. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
Service arrangements will be posted here when we receive them.
2018 photo by Carina Borst. 1979 photo by Randy Hicks.
10 comments:
Eternal rest grant unto him oh Lord and let Eternal light shine upon him.
C Kronenwetter
Thank you for the kind words and great article. It was our uncle Frank's wish to be cremated. The plan right now is to have a service at the museum sometime in the spring. We will make sure his friends at the museum get the details ahead of time, likely via Steve or Mike.
Bill Sirinek
Frank Hicks, thank you for posting a wonderful article on Frank's impact and history with the museum. I am now retired, but I can remember as a kid it was a family gathering for a holiday, I want to say Easter? My Mom found something in a newspaper about the Museum cut it out and gave it to Frank. It was early in the day and Frank left and said he be back in a hour or two "Going to take a quick ride". Well we never saw him again lol (In a figure of speech). From that point on Frank was all in, and in a short time Frank moved from the Chicago suburbs to Huntley so he could be closer to the Museum. And that is how Frank S. got his start at the Museum.
Rick Souvign (Pat Victora / Souvign Son)
Frank Sirinek left a mark on historic railway preservation that will be felt at IRM and the movement altogether for years to come.
As a very new volunteer, I may have only got to work with him once while working on Kansas City PCC 755 only a short time ago, but I'm nonetheless glad I got to know him just on that one day. It was pleasant working with him and conversing with him on the past, present, and future of IRM in general.
I wish his family peace in this time of mourning and wish to thank Frank Sirinek for his decades of dedication.
May he Rest in Peace.
Jacob Wiczkowski
I’m just one of the many Duceks in the Berwyn area (lots of cousins)……but all of us were lucky enough to have spent some good times with Frank here and there. We mainly visited him at the museum, as he was always so excited to show us the 141 before it was finally ready for service. And our friend Josh volunteered with Frank in the mid 2000s.
Frank always loved talking about living in Berwyn as a child, and watching/riding the West Towns streetcars. He was definitely an old school “Berwyn Bohemian” haha. Not too many of us left. And he could certainly be fiery, and we loved him for it!
Anyways, I remember him talking about eventually going up to “that streetcar in the sky”….and I certainly hope he’s riding the rails! Missed is an understatement, but his legacy at IRM is absolutely huge. Rest in peace my friend. I’ll eat some kolache for you!
Steve, I managed to freeze and bring him two loaves of houska bread before Veseckys closed. When I went to his house to clean out the fridge earlier this week I saw they were gone, so I’m glad he got to enjoy them.
I moved to Berwyn in 2022, so Sirineks are back again nearly 50 years after my grandmother passed and Frank moved. :)
That Vesecky's story warms my heart, Bill. It’s going back a few years now, but didn’t Frank used to make the trek to Vesecky's at least once a month? I seem to remember him telling me haha, as that’s quite a drive just for baked goods. But when it comes to Bohemian bakeries, beggars can’t be choosers! Especially now. Glad to hear you’re back in the old neighborhood! I wish we didn’t have to sell my grandfathers bungalow back in the 90’s…..it had the typical apartment in the basement and everything haha. But welcome back and nice chatting with you!
Frank was a huge asset to the IRM. He will missed greatly. THANK YOU, Frank, for all that you did for the Museum and it's future.
I do hope that Frank caught that”car in the sky”. I did know Frank for many years and I will tell you that I will personally miss his presents @ IRM. I had always enjoyed working with Frank whether he was working as motorman or whether he was my conductor on 144/ 4391, 1374. Or any trips we worked together. I have worked with so many other good friends@ IRM in the past years and unfortunately, they are are falling left and right.
I live in the UK and first met Frank in March 1986 when my company sent me on a 4 week course at Motorola in Schaumburg Chicago. Luckily I spotted a leaflet for IRM at O'Hare airport and ended up visiting the museum serveral times, Frank took me under his wing and showed me round all the buildings and inside the equipment although the musuem wasn't officially open at that time of year. Jerry Saunders was very helpful as well. For many years afterwards I was an overseas member of IRM.
In May 1991 Frank and his friend Steve Iverson visited the UK and as part of their visit they stayed with me and I was able to show them round the main London stations, the highlight was a cab ride on the Waterloo & City underground line.
In September 1993 I returned to the USA and Frank met me at Chicago Union station as I took the California Zepyhr from San Francisco. I stayed with Frank and we spent a lot of time at IRM and he kindly let me drive the Green Hornet with its odd hand controls. He also showed me some of the Chicago rail hot spots and we visited St Louis and the transport museum there, his comments about a PCC car they were converting to electronic control were quite amusing.
The last time i met Frank was in September 1994 when we arranged to meet at the American Railroad Museum conference in Toronto, we had a great time riding the PCC cars there.
After that I occasionally called Frank and sent a Christmas card featuring a tram or trolleybus every year.
I sometimes checked the IRM Facebook page and the internet for any mentions of Frank and this year after writing his card I thought I would check again and found your blog with the sad news that Frank had passed away in January.
He was a great guy and contributed so much to IRM, RIP Frank
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