Frank writes...
I spent the first Sunday of 2024's Day Out With Thomas event on the streetcar line. I started the day running the 3142; due to volunteer shortages we began with just two cars out, but additional volunteers arrived around lunchtime and that allowed us to reallocate resources. I moved to the 144, which I ran for the rest of the afternoon, and the 144 crew took out the 4391. It's always nice to see this many Chicago cars out.
Above, here's the 144 on its way back into Barn 7 late in the afternoon.
And here's your requisite crowd shot. Overall, the event seemed like it ran very smoothly on Sunday.
While I was grabbing lunch over by the future site of the gas station, I happened upon our new Visitor Center display board. Pretty nice, eh? You can learn more at www.irm.org/visitorcenter.
After operations wound down, Zach brought out a sign that was just discovered among some miscellaneous items. It's a wooden sign proclaiming "Green Road," which of course is the terminus of the Shaker Boulevard line on Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. Lo and behold, it fits perfectly in that mysterious little sign bracket between the doors of the 18. Eureka! The question now is, what role exactly did this sign fulfill? Zach speculated that when these cars ran as a five-car set, the platforms may have been too short to accommodate the entire train, so riders may have chosen which car to board based on their destination - indicated by these little signs. Or maybe it was something else. Anyone know?
After that, Zach and I loaded up the newly reupholstered seats for the CA&E curve-siders and used the new Taylor-Dunn "golf cart pickup truck" to move them to temporary storage in the 451. Above, Zach has the first load leaving the car shop.
Door-to-door, "last mile" service! Here the Taylor-Dunn takes the second load down the aisle in Barn 8. Thanks also to Greg and Bob for helping load these into the 451. As soon as time permits, I'm hoping to start installing these in the 460.
So, what else was going on? Joel was working on some maintenance items on North Shore 749 during the day. Above, one end of the car has been jacked up a little bit, just enough for the center bearing to clear the truck. The purpose was to put grease "cookies" into the center bearing to keep it lubricated.
Over in Barn 7, I saw that when Steve was out a couple of weeks ago, he got three new center doors installed on Kansas City PCC 755. This is really coming along! Three of the center doors and two of the front doors have now had their Philadelphia plywood doors replaced by correct steel doors that match the profile of the car side.
And out behind Barn 4, a number of pallet rack stringers were laid out on the tracks. At some point these will be painted, and then we'll start assembling pallet racking in the new Barn 4 extension so that we can store large items like motors, air compressors, etc., inside.
It's funny you should call this "Sodor Tramways" because Wilbert Awdry wrote a book about the history of the Island of Sodor. Every single prominent locomotive, human character (many of whom you've probably never heard of), and location on the island has a story behind it. But one of the lesser known things in his book is Awdry made mention of an electric Tramway that was located on the Island. I believe it was located in Vicarstown if I'm not mistaken (and yes, the trams were sentient too, just like the trains on the island).
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I found it funny that you referenced something that actually is cannon to the Island of Sodor, and a really obscure reference at that.
-Matt Maloy