Scrapping the 250

We recently received some photos taken back in February 1995 by Dave Diamond showing the scrapping of North Shore 250 (thanks to Zach Ehlers for making these available). This was a 1917 interurban combine we had acquired from The Wisconsin Electric Railway Historical Society in about 1989, when that group folded. TWERHS had gotten it in the early 1970s from the Indiana Railway Museum in Westport in the same deal that led CA&E 318 on its ill-fated trip north.

Anyway, the 250 had deteriorated in Westport, deteriorated more in East Troy, and was kind of a wreck by the time we got it (photos here). As far as I know, nobody else wanted it, and we didn't need a third North Shore combine, so in 1994-1995 it was stripped of parts and scrapped. You North Shore fans may want to avert your eyes.

Scrapping took place on the streetcar line just northeast of the ruling curve. You'll notice that one end was removed and sold to a fan; that end has recently returned.

The car is lifted off its trucks.

And then it's pivoted away from the tracks.

The trucks were allocated to Michigan Electric 28, which used the same type of Baldwin MCBs.

Looks like someone needs to stand on the back of the old Caterpillar forklift to give it some extra weight!

The car was tipped on its side, possibly to more easily salvage equipment off the roof or underbody. As photos at the bottom of this post show, it was then tipped upright again, burned, and cut up for scrap.

Sunday Scenes

I was out of town for the past two weeks, but now it's time to get back to work.  One of the current projects, as noted before, is to reupholster all of the seats in the three CA&E St. Louis cars.  Here's what the interior of the 451 looks like before starting.  I worked for a while on this.

The Shay was fired up for the first time this season on Saturday.  Here we see some visitors watching as it pulls the caboose train out of Barn 9.

The 36 was over the pit for inspection.  Most of it went well, of course, but our sharp-eyed inspectors noticed that a leaf spring on the trailer truck had several broken leaves, so this car is out of service until that can be replaced.  Finding a leaf spring of the correct type may not be easy.

The next project was to install the new bearings in the 309.  Here we are sitting on the tail track, waiting for our turn over the pit.  This is still the pride of the fleet, I think.

Turning around, we have a sight you probably don't see at many large museums: our Executive Director is mowing the lawn.  Keeps him out of trouble.

Since the construction of the Barn 4 extension, the trolley wire over the pit lead track has been deactivated.  So getting equipment in and out requires the help of a locomotive.  Here the 36 is slowly on its way back to Barn 8.  You can't see him, but Frank is in the cab of the 36, so he can apply the brakes if necessary.  

 to be continued....

Frank writes...

When I arrived, I helped adjust the brakes on the 36 and take a look at the broken leaf spring. The car can move around without any real risk, since only one of the three leaf springs on that side of the truck has any broken pieces, but we still don't want to run the car at high speed in this condition. For better or worse, fixing this will likely require more time than anything; we need to find a shop truck, put the 36 on that, then take apart the 36's truck to replace the spring before reversing everything. At least the affected truck is the trailer truck, so we won't have to pull motors.

Anyway, let's pick up where my father left off. When we got the 309 on the pit, we jacked up the motor to pull the axle cap. I owe a huge THANK YOU to Zach and Will, who helped with this dirty and exhausting job. Zach had done this kind of truck work before, which was good, because that meant one of us knew what he was doing! We got the axle cap off and, luckily, we were able to slide the new bearing into place without having to pull the motor farther away from the axle. The photo above shows the new bearing in place after the axle cap was reinstalled.

Here are the halves of the old bearing. Obviously we'll hang onto this, both in case we have any issues with the new bearing but also long-term just to have as a working spare.

The car motivated itself outside the door so that we could oil all the axle caps. It's nice to see a CA&E car on third rail territory without that pesky overhead wire over it, isn't it?

Zach took this photo of yours truly putting oil into the axle cap with the new bearing. It was just about time for dinner at this point, so we moved the 309 back over to Barn 8. At some point we'll want to do a few test trips, regularly checking the bearing temperature with the laser thermometer, to make sure that this bearing is performing as expected.

And now for something completely different.

After dinner, I grabbed the vermilion/orange paint we had matched a couple of months ago and headed over to Shaker Heights 63. I was able to roll the entire side of the car below the belt rail, minus the doors, in about an hour. It will obviously need at least one, possibly two, more coats, but that was expected given how poorly orange tends to cover. I'll also need to follow up with a brush to get all the nooks and crannies, but that's also just part of the process. Stay tuned for more updates on the orangeification of the 63.

Seat Project Update

Frank writes...

We've got news on the seat upholstery project! You may recall that in March, we were able to order custom-made reproduction upholstery for the seats in the CA&E "curve-siders," cars 451, 453, and 460. More recently, we ran a very successful fundraiser that raised enough money to professionally restore the seats in all three cars using the new material. Now, Zach passes along the above photo of the custom seat material en route to Chicago! It's already been manufactured and should arrive in Chicago next week. We'll be working on removing seats to send to the upholstery shop, along with shipping them this fabric, with the goal of starting to install restored seats in the 460 by this fall. Stay tuned!

Sunday Report

Frank writes...

Sunday the 36 was on the pit for its annual inspection. The 3142 went out of service on Saturday with air compressor issues, so that took the day to resolve, meaning the 36 was only on the pit for one day. As such, despite help from Greg, Nick, Richard, and Joel, we didn't quite finish the car's inspection. But we hope to wrap it up soon.

I barely took any photos, but I did snap this one showing the inside of one of the 36's GE 66 motors. Now, this is what a GE 66 is supposed to look like! It's nice and clean, with shiny Glyptal insulating paint, even brush marks on the comm, and clean slots between the segments. The 36's motors were both rebuilt by Westinghouse (ironically enough) in the 1990s, while the car was at Trolleyville. In the late afternoon I went for a trip on the mainline aboard the 415 with Good Nick and Bob from the Signal Department, then in the evening I worked with Joel and Matt to put the 36 back in good old Barn 8. In other news, Doodlebug Bob was working with the Electroliner folks on some sort of machining project, Zach was working on making repairs to the 714, and the other guys spent much of the afternoon running a class for new volunteers on electric car basics.

Thanks to Bill Wulfert for sending the above photo, which was taken at the end of the day on Saturday. About quarter after 5:00, a major squall line passed through, knocking down some tree branches and cutting the ComEd AC electrical feed to the campus. Unfortunately, the service train - CA&E 460 and 431 - was down at Kishwaukee Grove when the power went out, so Joel had to go out on the 44-tonner to rescue the cars.

Speaking of Joel, he sent along this photo from the ITS meet on the 27th showing him running the 277. Neat!

The Illinois Valley Lightweights

Norm Krentel recently sent us some very interesting information on the lightweight cars built for the Illinois Valley line, and with his permission we're reproducing that information here. These 17 cars were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1924 and numbered 60-76 on the Illinois Valley Division of the Illinois Traction System. Of course, car 64 would later end up at IRM as Illinois Terminal 415.

The following comes from Norm:

The Illinois Valley had started sending cars down to the Main Line even before the IV Div had quit. It appears the first few went to serve the Danville branches, operating between Hillery on the Main Line just west of Danville, passing through Danville and south to Georgetown and Catlin.  Initially, they were still single-ended, though a front pole was added.  Cars were modified, probably with the work being done at Decatur shop.  I recall seeing one, just a car body set on the ground next to the Granite City shop, if I recall correctly, it still had its red upper sash glass (I think Bruneau may have saved some of that colored glass).  Eventually several of these cars had the same modifications as were done to the 415.  As built, they were all single-ended, with a Peter Smith Hot Air heater, a toilet at the smoker bulkhead, with the smoker at the rear of the car.  There were double folding doors at the rear baggage compartment and only a single folding door at the only passenger door (on the right front).  On the 415, they extended the sole passenger entrance platform 18 inches, and added the second folding door.  They blanked off what I think had been the former sole baggage door, which had been on the right side of the car, and they added the 2nd passenger entrance on former left rear of the car.  I suspect most of the remainder of the cars went to the Granite City service.  Some were also placed in service between Staunton and Litchfield, and with opening of the station in East Peoria, first one of the 120 series Alton cars ran the shuttle service to the main Peoria station, but it sounds like that car was unpopular, and a former IV Div car was sent up as a replacement.  Also, with the 1953 abandonment of service between Decatur and Bloomington, one of the IV Div cars was placed in a short-lived service shuttling between Decatur and the north end of Forsythe.

With closure of the Danville local service, the Staunton – Litchfield line closure,, the end of the Decatur – Forsythe operation and the 1955 abandonment of passenger service from Springfield to East Peoria the 410 and 415 now surplus, with both cars leaving the IT in 1956 (I’m assuming 410 was also disposed with in 1956).  

Notes on individual car histories after leaving the IV-DIV:

60 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 74, renumbered to 404 in 1930; photographed in Granite City service in late 1930s; in Decatur-Forsythe service in March 1953, sent to Granite City shortly thereafter; retired 5/1956

61 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 75, renumbered to 405 in 1930; used in Granite City service, then used for a time in Peoria-East Peoria shuttle service (photographed there in 1950); photographed in Decatur-Forsythe service in April 1953; retired 2/1956

62 - transferred to ITRR 9/1929, renumbered 410; to NMOT in Kirkwood, MO 7/1959

63 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 414; used in service between Danville and Georgetown until July 19, 1939, then transferred to Granite City service; retired 10/1950, body converted to a locker room in the St. Louis subway

64 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 415; used in service out of Danville (to Georgetown and Hillery) until 1939, likely transferred to Granite City service 1939; to IRM 10/1956

65 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

66 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

67 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 302; this car was photographed in 1934 in service between Danville and Georgetown; scrapped c1939

68 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 411; scrapped 8/1950

69 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 303; used in Danville-Georgetown service until 1936, then used in Staunton-Litchfield service until April 18, 1939; scrapped c1939, body used as air brake shop at Granite City

70 - transferred to ITRR 9/1929, renumbered 409; photographed in Granite City service c1934; scrapped 8/1950

71 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 412; photographed in Granite City service c1934; scrapped 8/1950

72 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

73 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 413; photographed in Granite City in 1953; scrapped 7/1953

74 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 76, renumbered to 406 in 1930; wrecked 12/1945

75 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 77, renumbered to 407 in 1930; scrapped 6/1953

76 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 78, renumbered to 408 in 1930; scrapped 8/1950

Car 405 saw use in Peoria; 404 and 405 were used in Decatur-Forsythe service; 302, 303, 414, and 415 were used out of Danville; and 303 was used in Staunton-Litchfield service. All the other cars (except the ones not used by the ITRR) were likely used in Granite City service their entire ITRR careers, and were joined at one time or another by 404, 405, 414, and 415.

IT 1702 Operational Restoration Photo Album

Frank writes...

The "big reveal" that we've been working to make IT 1702 operational has happened, so now the story of how that transpired can be told! Unfortunately, I'm not the one to tell it, because I wasn't involved in very much of it. However, I did snap a few photos over the past few months that show some of what was done, so this is an introduction to "How to Get a Line Car Running Again."

Mechanically speaking, the "condition of the artifact" at the start of the project was not great. The 1702 has Type M control, and its C6 controllers and contactors (13 electromagnetic contacts mounted in three adjoining boxes in a 5-5-3 arrangement) were complete, but hadn't been touched since the car was retired from service in 1958. The DB-22 reverser (largely the same as the DB-20 reverser under CA&E 36 and 309, but designed for four motors instead of two) had been replaced back in the 1980s with a DB-22 rebuilt by Carl Illwitzer. But the replacement reverser had never been wired in, and the tags labeling the disconnected wires had faded into illegibility. The air system - brakes, air compressor, piping etc - and the motors hadn't been inspected in decades. The below photo shows the contactors in late November, before Gregg fixed up the curved-front covers and before any work had been done to disassemble anything.

If memory serves, despite the remarkable restoration of the body that Gregg W accomplished over the past few years, serious thought wasn't given to getting the 1702 running until late November 2023. That's when a few people (I want to say Brian L, Mikey M, and Greg K) meggered the car's GE 73 motors, just as a "what if" experiment. The results were astonishing: the worst of the motors came back at about 6 megaohms and the other motors were in even better shape. If the rest of the car could be mechanically reassembled and fixed up, at least we knew expensive motor work shouldn't be necessary.

During December, I believe the decision was made to "give it a go" and see if we could get the car running in time for the IT Society convention in April. Nobody really knew whether we could get the car running in such a short timeframe, so the effort was kept quiet to avoid setting expectations we couldn't meet.

Above, it's January 21st and work has started on disassembling the smallest of the three contactor boxes. Nick E is painting Glyptal insulating paint onto disassembled arc chute pieces while Zach cleans dirt off the next batch. When work started, it wasn't even clear what type of contactors the car had. We soon determined that it has DB-41 contactors, which are a very early type - possibly even the next common type to be developed after the DB-15, which was the very first production model of contactor GE produced. These are pretty similar to the DB-131 contactors under the 308 and 409, but they're wider and beefier, presumably because they were designed for four motors rather than two. They were also designed for use without a line switch, similar to the DB-15.

A lot of people pitched in on this project, including Bob O, shown above taking a break from track work to paint more arc chute parts with Glyptal on January 21st. I know that Greg K, Norm K, Brian L, Zach E, Mikey M, and Bob S were all heavily involved in the project, and many others - some pictured in this post, some not - also contributed time as needed. It was truly a team effort.

Above, it's now February 11th and Greg K is under the car (right) working to disconnect the second contactor box. The third box, with three contactors, was formerly right over where his head is, but that had already been removed and was on the bench in the shop. Work hadn't really started yet on the two five-contactor boxes, though. You may see some legs to the left in the gauge - that's Zach E, who was working on cleaning up the valves for the 1702's air compressor. The compressor meggered okay, but the valves were stuck and the thing needed a good cleaning. Other brake work that was needed included rebuilding some slack adjusters.

Also on February 11th, here are the electromagnetic lifting coils for the first three contactors to be rebuilt. From memory, these three were all in good shape and didn't need any significant work besides a fresh coat of Glyptal. We would not be so lucky with all of them.

Above, it's February 18th and more DB-41 arc chutes are on the bench in a state of disassembly as the team gets started on rebuilding the second of the three contactor boxes. More importantly, though I didn't get a photo of it, February 17th was the first day the 1702's air compressor ran. There were some leaks in the system, but nothing that wasn't fixable, and the car was successfully pumped up and the brakes tested.

On February 25th, I snapped this photo of Zach E cleaning up more arc chute parts. A completed arc chute is in the foreground. It's hard to see, but on the bench right behind where he's working is a little plastic "shoebox" atop an orange box. That's a tumbler, of sorts, where arc chute hardware (especially 14-24 brass machine screws, which GE really liked to use but are almost impossible to find nowadays) was put into a vibrating "bath" of coarse abrasive grit for a day or two to clean it of paint and dirt.

Here's one of the rebuilt arc chutes. Compare this with the first photo in this post! You can also compare it with the photo of the DB-131 contactors underneath the 308 here.

Above, it's February 25th and the first of the three contactor boxes is going back together. The coils have been re-mounted along with the armature and rocker arm assemblies. There's an awful lot yet to do, though, and this is just the first - and smallest - of the contactor boxes. Brian L and Mikey M worked extensively on the reassembly of these boxes, including cleaning up and repairing (or replacing from a very limited supply of spares) any rocker arm and interlock parts that needed it.

On March 3rd, you can see more work on reassembling contactors. Toward the upper right is an armature and rocker arm, while at lower center is a replacement shunt. Some of the 1702's contactors had broken shunts, meaning the motor current was going through the rocker arm pins - yikes! Greg K flattened copper pipe over the ends of braided cable to create replacement shunts.

The arc chute assembly line is still hard at work - seven are completed as of March 3rd.

On the same day, Zach E and electronics wiz Bob S are using Bob's vintage turbo encabulator (with optional pentametric fan) to test electromagnetic coils for the contactors. I believe only one or two were bad, needing replacement from stock, but a number of them had bad string banding, which is obvious from a glance in the left foreground.

It's March 10th, and Nick E, Matt K, Norm K, and Greg K are working to decipher the DB-22 reverser, which has been removed from the car and set on the bench. Norm's extensive experience with various types of MU systems, combined with information gleaned from the DB-22 reverser under IT 233, enabled him and Greg to wire this thing up, installing as much wiring as possible on the bench and then the remainder under the car.

Also on March 10th, we get a demonstration of how to replace string banding on contactor coils. The coil is mounted on a lathe; Nick E (right foreground) turns the coil slowly by quickly cycling the lathe on/off; Zach (center) feeds string onto the coil as it turns; and Greg (right background) unwinds the spool of string. This is the kind of thing you get really good at just as the project gets completed.

It's St. Patrick's Day, and Norm and Greg are finishing up the wiring to the reverser. Here, Greg is under the car while Norm is outside.

And now they've switched places. Being able to work over the new concrete floor is great, but this isn't exactly comfortable.

It's March 24th, and the last of the 13 arc chutes have been taken apart, cleaned, repaired as necessary, Glyptaled, and reassembled. It's not too obvious here, but we ran out of normal "tile red" Glyptal and had to break into a can of this weird Pepto-Bismol pink Glyptal for the three arc chutes on the right. Dan F made the observation that the glaring shade of pink made him want to punch something. These five arc chutes all go into the last of the three contactor boxes to be rebuilt.

Also on the 24th, the second contactor box has been reassembled, as shown, and the first three-contactor box has been hung under the car. The third box, though, is still in pieces, and it's just five weeks until the ITS meet - and only three weeks until the team's self-imposed deadline of April 14th to get the 1702 at least minimally operational.

I wasn't out over Easter weekend, but the above photo was taken on April 7th, by which time the third contactor box had been reassembled and all three boxes were hung on the car. Later on the 7th, 600-volt power was put to the rebuilt control system and the car was successfully sequenced. With the entire control system now operational and the motors meggered, it remained only to hook the two together. During the week of the 7th, Greg K, Norm K, and others worked to do this, and power was applied to the first two motors on the evening of April 10th. They both turned in the same direction, moving the 1702 under its own power - if only tentatively - for the first time since 1958.

The following Saturday, several of the project workers embarked on a marathon session until 2am hooking everything up. More work ensued the following day, April 14th, and that evening, the car was towed out to live wire on the streetcar line, pumped up, and tried out. It ran!

I filmed the above video from a golf cart driven by Nick as we paced the 1702 around the streetcar line. Spring tension in the trolley base needed to be adjusted, and the retriever had to be monkeyed with to get it to work right, but otherwise, the car ran flawlessly.

Of course, I also had to go for a ride. The retriever seemed like it was "binding up" and pulling the pole off the wire at intervals, so all eyes were on the trolley wheel to see what was going on. L-R: Richard S, Lee E (hopping the pole), Bob O, Norm K, and Greg K.

Okay, this isn't really related to the operational restoration, but it's mildly interesting. The platform on the 1702 is raised and lowered using this chain hoist. The nicely varnished posts to its left and right hold up the platform on this side of the car, and the chain hoist acts to lift that steel bar joining the bottoms of the two posts. Cables connect to lift a similar steel bar on the other side of the car, too.

This isn't a photo of everyone who worked on the 1702's operational restoration, by any means, it's just a photo of the people who were along for the inaugural trips - though I think just about everyone here did contribute at one point or another. L-R: Nick K (in the golf cart - okay, he didn't contribute to the effort!); Richard S; Will K; me; Nick E; Zach E; Norm K; Jimmy L; Greg K; Brian L; and Matt K. Photo by Jim W.