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!