Later That Day...

Frank writes...

I was out on Saturday, too, but stayed later than my father did.

After the safety meeting, I spent a little while cleaning inside IT 233, shown here. The plan for the Illinois Traction Society meet next weekend is to have this car open for walk-through tours, which I believe is the first time we've done this - or, at least, the first time in three or four decades. The car is very complete inside and has a pretty unusual layout, which I hope to cover in more detail next weekend - with luck (read as: no rain), the car will be outdoors and the light will be better.

One thing that was needed to switch out the 233 and the 150, which has been spotted just east of the 233 for years, was removing the scaffold. We'd already told Joel that this could be disassembled and taken over to Barn 4 for use however is most beneficial for the greater good. Here, Nathan and Jimmy have already taken down the wooden tool tray and grating and are starting to unbolt the X-braces. I think we've been using this scaffold for a little over 25 years - at least, 1998 or 1999 would have been about when we grabbed that tool tray that Glen Guerra had built - but there's no obvious need for it in Barn 8 in the foreseeable future.

After that came dinner and then the annual membership meeting. It's Chicago, political signs directly outside the polling place are the least of your concerns.

I took this photo at the afternoon safety meeting, but other than the big screen having come down, the evening membership meeting looked about the same. It finished in near-record time, I believe about 51 minutes start to finish. The usual "congratulations and condolences" go to Zach Ehlers, who was reelected to the board; to Conn McCarthy from the Steam Department, who was elected for the first time; and to Marcus Ruef, who was elected a year ago but has now succeeded the term-limited Jason Maxwell as President.

Afterward, I hung around talking with the car shop guys back in Barn 4 for a few minutes. This interesting item was pointed out. It's a door bridge to allow the trolley wire to pass through the new roll-up door at the east end of track 41, and will be the first we've put into use at IRM. The barns at the south end (10, 11, 13, and 14) all have roll-up or aircraft hangar-style doors, but none of those barns have trolley wire going into them. And this will be the only one we use with this project, since the wire won't extend out the east end of tracks 42 and 43. But track 41 is the inspection pit lead, so this thing will see plenty of use!

ADDENDUM: Many thanks to our intrepid freelance photographer Joel Ahrendt, who sent along photos of the switch move taken on Sunday!

Above, track 84 is completely clear end to end.

And here's Lake Shore Electric 150, out in the sunlight for the first time in quite a few years. I'm not certain but I think it may have last been outside around 2015 or 2016. Among other things, the other side of the car has since been painted (though obviously I missed that front corner - oops) and tack molding was added to this side of the car for appearance. Anyone snap a photo of the other side of the 150 while it was outside?

This is a really nice photo of our two out-of-service orange cars, business car 233 and sleeping car 504, coupled together on the ladder track. Of these two, the 233 is in pretty good condition but lacks motors (the IT removed those a few years before retiring and selling the car) while the 504 is rough, but certainly restorable. Both should be available for viewing, both inside and out, during the ITS meet next weekend. Interested in attending? You need to be an ITS member - get more info here.