Red Redo

Frank writes...

I arrived at IRM mid-afternoon Sunday to find that between my father, Joel, Jimmy, and others, the inspection work on the 319 was practically finished. A huge thank you to everyone who helped with that! And that was good, because I had promised Zach that as part of the preparation for the Illinois Traction Society convention at IRM coming up in two weeks, I'd paint our lowly IT caboose. I was also very happy that the weather was gorgeous, about 75-80 degrees and sunny. (I should mention that the ITS convention is not open to the public, but if you'd like to join the organization, click here.)

IT 988, shown above, was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1953 and served the IT - and, later, the N&W - until it came to IRM in 1990. It did run a few years under wire on the IT. It started in red with IT lettering, then spent many years in IT green, then finished its days back in red with N&W lettering. After it came to IRM, we gave it a quick coat of red and painted the IT number panels (though not the "Illinois Terminal" lettering along the top) back on the car. It last ran in 2011, during the last ITS convention, but mostly it's used as the department bunkhouse.

Anyway, the 988 has been looking pretty sad in recent years. Zach sourced some red of the correct shade, so we got to work with a quickie paint job. Admittedly, this is not a long-term solution, but the plan is to do some needed welding work on the 988 within the next few years and then give it a proper paint job. Above, Jimmy gets the bottom edge of the side sheets.

And here Will is rolling the north side of the caboose. The new paint is far from perfect, but the before-and-after effect is certainly remarkable. Many thanks to both Will and Jimmy for all their help!

And here's yours truly with a roller on the end of a broom handle, trying to get paint on the roof of the cupola. Thanks to Nick Espevik for this shot.

Unfortunately, the sun had set by the time I got a photo of the final result (the West Towns streetcar was parked right next to the 988 for the entire day, which blocked photography but provided an appreciated source of shade). About this time I also worked with Joel to switch the 319 back over to Barn 8. Since there's no wire over the pit lead, Joel has been using the 25-tonner to get cars from the live wire inside Barn 4 across our own little "Idaho gap" to the live wire over on the streetcar line.

Are you unhappy with your governor? Are you looking for a new one? Well, come to Ahrendt's Abode of Antiquated Air Appliances and Ancillaries, where Joel will fix you up with a governor that will serve you properly. In this case, the "J" governor on the 319 wasn't cooperating - the differential was at about 5 pounds and couldn't be adjusted - so Joel swapped in a spare so that the car is serviceable. This is the governor that came out of the car; Joel's planning to clean it up so that it can be put back on the 319. Thank you!

And finally, after dinner, Greg, Nick, and I took the repainted windows from the 18 over to that car and reinstalled them. So, the 18 once again has a full set of windows, and we've cleared up some space on the wood shop benches for the weekday crew.