Fireworks! -- Updated - Again!

Friday, the first day of Happy Holidays Railway, seemed to go well.  All trains were sold out, so the Museum was busy, but everyone was having a good time.  Unfortunately, the fireworks had to be cancelled because the Union Fire Department were afraid that the strong winds might blow burning embers onto the parking lot.  They're just being cautious, which is good.  I believe yesterday's event will be rescheduled if possible, and we'll see what happens tonight.  

Saturday Evening Update:  The fireworks certainly went on!  They were fired off from our field across Olson Rd.  The only webcam that points that way is on Barn 2, so you have to use your imagination, but it must have been spectacular!  

Wow!  I just noticed that opening weekend for Happy Holidays Railway will feature a fireworks display at 5:45 PM.  I love fireworks - who doesn't - and I'm sure this will be professionally managed.  In the past, we've occasionally had fireworks at IRM but it was almost always caused by amateurs like me.  

Seriously, though, tickets are selling out fast so buy yours now.  Tomorrow may be too late!!!  I'll be  operating on Friday so I've got a guaranteed seat.  How about you?

Monday Report

As reported earlier, lots of effort is being put into getting ready for Happy Holiday Railway.  New for this year, I think, is that we will have the 3142 and an interurban car (NS or CA&E steel) on the car line.  I signed up to be the North Shore motorman for this Friday, and I could use a good conductor -- not one who puts up too much resistance.

Anyway, the first job for Monday was to heat up the big oven and unsolder the remaining two bearings.  After a few hours, they came apart neatly as seen here.  Of course, then they take a long time to cool down.

But by early afternoon, all three remaining sets of bearings were ready for installation, whenever we can get the 309 over the pit.  

So next, let's see the progress that Tim is making on his re-restoration of the 1268.  He reports, among other things, that the wiring arrangements for the lights in this car are terrible, partly due to original construction, and made worse by later rebuilding.  It's hard to see from the photographs, so you'll just have to take his word for it.  That's good enough for me.

But he's also rebuilding all of the windows back to the semi-convertible form that the car had back in the WWI period and until the middle twenties.  The clutter in the background may make it hard to pick out, but here the upper sash have been partially pushed up into the ceiling pockets, for improved ventilation.

And here, the main sash is in place, and there's a nice gap between the lower and upper sash, while still protecting the passengers from direct drafts.  Much healthier.

And so, once this restoration is complete, he'll be ready to deal with the next pandemic.

Work on the 306 continues to go well.  It's over the pit, and here Phil and Gerry are looking at the wiring that needs to be connected.  Mostly it's the grid boxes, which will be reinstalled soon.

Looking towards one of the trucks.  The car ran under its own power briefly at IRM before restoration started, so we're pretty sure the motors and mechanical systems are still in good condition.  Once the line breaker and other electrical parts are connected, we should be good to go.  

Inside, Phil points out the underlayment for the ceiling, which is all in place.  The ceiling panels are stacked in the shop, and ready for installation.  

And here is the 28, temporarily at the west end of 43.  It will be moving back to the heated part of the shop soon.

Say, this is an interesting car.  Anybody know where I could get a good book about Michigan Electric???

Pre-Holiday Prep

Frank writes...

The property was abuzz on Sunday with preparations for Happy Holiday Railway. This promises to be our biggest HHR yet by a good margin, given that we will have not one but two additional cars in the train. I had to head over to Barn 2 to check out the progress.

The two bi-level cars that arrived in January are being completely rehabilitated in a monumental effort by the Diesel Department. The first of the two to have its exterior paint job completed was 7716, as shown in the above photo taken last night by Lee Evans. This car looked pretty sickly when it arrived, but the diesel guys pulled out all the stops to fix it up and Jamie painted it over the course of the last week or two. A few museums have repainted bi-levels in C&NW yellow and green, but I believe this is the only one anybody has restored to RTA colors. The final yellow paint is due to go onto the second new arrival, which is being restored as C&NW 83, this week. A huge thank you to the Diesel Shop folks for getting these cars ready to go for this year's HHR event!

There were a ton of lights going up all around the property; Joel, for one, spent much of his day hanging lights. There was also this new thing located outside Barn 4, clearly the start of a demonstration rotary car dumper.

For me, I was working on CA&E stuff, of course. Many thanks to Dan, who ran the torch to remove the metal parts from the remains of the third rail beam we first saw here. What remained of the nuts and bolts had mostly turned into blobs of iron oxide, so the best way to remove them is with heat.

And here's Dan with his handiwork: the castings removed from the beam. Later on, I decided that there were a couple additional bolts that we needed to remove, so thanks to Greg for starting the torch back up to do that.

Voila! At far left is the sleet scraper cylinder; the sleet scraper head itself is just to the left of the cart handle; behind the cart handle is the third rail contact shoe, with suspension links attached; and at bottom right is the large casting that is bolted to the beam and carries the contact shoe. We are working on getting quotes to have new copies of these parts cast, so stay tuned for updates.

While we're at it, feast your eyes upon the rejuvenated Barn 4. The new LED lights are all in now, as in the roof insulation, so the shop really looks like a million bucks (and that may not be too far off the truth). We're even starting to bring active restoration projects back in.

Here's a looker: Cleveland PCC 4223 finally has all its striping on the left side of the car, and most of the striping on the right side. This was sprayed on a couple of weeks ago and makes a big difference in how the car looks. This is certainly one of the flashier, and more unusual, liveries applied to a PCC.

Norm was out, and was very pleased to help switch Michigan Electric 28 back to its home in Barn 4. He's eager to resume intensive restoration work on this car, now that it will no longer be in a public barn. In other news, Nick and Greg were working on switching, substation upgrades, and repairs to a CTA 4000 and the 2200s while Jimmy was hard at work rebuilding a J governor,.

Other than working on third rail beam parts, I also removed the last bolt from the 36's pilot. Besides that, I spent a while fighting with new seats in the 460. Fortunately, I prevailed, and the second seat is now fully installed. Just for a change of pace, I put a full-width cushion on this one. All the seats had two-piece cushions when the cars were new, but Wheaton replaced some of them with full-width cushions.

And this is neither timely nor particularly relevant to anything else going on, but our friends down the road at the Fox River Trolley Museum are working on recreating the wrecking tool box in CA&E 316 and asked for photos of the wrecking tool boxes in our cars for reference. I was surprised to find that we evidently have never posted photos of the wrecking tools from the 308 or 309 on the blog. Above is the 309; this box had to be completely rebuilt (or maybe replaced by one from the 310?) because it was directly over the fire. However, the metal parts of the tools are original, including the pry bar marked "HICKS CO."

This is the tool box in the 308, which is the only one in any of our wood cars that is entirely original (when we got the 36 and 319 from Cleveland, the tools were missing). This is also the only one with both an axe and a sledgehammer. There may be a pry bar, too, behind the frame along the bottom, but I can't recall for sure.

Friday Snapshot

As always, this will be just a slice of what was happening on Friday.  For instance, as I happened by Barn 6, Jim Ward invited me in to see how much progress they've made on the lighting in the barn for Happy Holidays.  But I decided not to take any pictures -- they can best decide how they want to publicize it, and you really have to be there to see it for yourself.  Phone snapshots won't do it justice.  I also noticed that Tim Fennell and others were hard at work stringing up lights on some of the outdoor equipment.  There are lots of volunteers who don't get the credit they deserve for all the work they do to make events like this a success for the Museum!

My priority for today was finishing up the newly-machined bearings for the 309.  They needed to have the alignment holes drilled, and all three were done.  Without one our Museum's big drill presses, I don't know what I'd do.  Drilling a hole precisely through a cylinder is not easy.

The main challenge in this process is clamping the work in place.  But it went well.

The next step is to unsolder the two halves of the bearing in the big oven.  Unfortunately, it's not quite big enough.  I had wanted to do all three at once, but that wasn't possible, so I started with just one.  It takes quite a while for the oven to heat up, but eventually the two halves fall apart as seen here.  Now they just need some finishing touches by hand, which I can do at home.  The next two bearings can probably be unsoldered at the same time.

I also put in some time trying to undo the one remaining bolt holding the 36's pilot onto the car, without success.  So I soaked it in Kroil, and will just have to hope for better luck next time.

What else was going on?  Naturally, Tim Peters was working on his current project, Phase Two of the 1268.

By the way, out in back of Barn 4 this is what it looks like now.

 A vast improvement from just two years ago:

And in the shop, John was preparing ceiling panels for the 306.

 

Photo by John Sheldon

This restoration is leaving absolutely nothing untouched.  It's really going to be astounding.

New Bearings

I finally got the remaining three bearings for the 309 machined -- aren't they pretty?

Now I need to drill two alignment holes in each one, using the big drill press.  I have the holes located already.  The original bearings have four holes so that they're interchangeable left to right, but these replacements are carefully machined with different inner diameters, since that's the way the axles were turned down, so they each have a specific destination.  And then they can be unsoldered and installed.

Reloading Yard 4 East

Many thanks to Bill Wulfert, who stayed late on Saturday and sent along some additional updates to add to the paving photos already posted.

With the rock spreading and paving done in Yard 4 East, it's time to move the storage cars back! The cars on track 43 were gingerly removed from the old, deteriorated track just about 25 months ago (as reported here, naturally). Late on Saturday it was time to reload Track 43 East. That meant three all-steel reefers needed to come back.

Bill snapped a couple of photos of track 43 in the barn after it was emptied out.

The reefers were brought over one at a time by the Illinois Terminal Class B, which was needed to push them through Yard 4 West because the curve is so tight that the smaller diesels can't get the reefers around it. Oh, and the reason these cars need to come through Barn 4 from the west is because track 43 isn't connected at its east end.

The first two were URTX 68229, the yellow car on the left, and URTX 75524, the blue car to the right. Both have liveries unique in our reefer collection: the latter is the only one of our reefers in this blue American Beef Packers livery, while the former wears normal reefer orange but has a distinctive Mid-States Packing Company logo with a cow's head poking out of a big "M." 

And here comes the last car, URTX 37312, one of four identical Milwaukee Road-lettered reefers we have (one has been restored, as shown in the first photo here). The Class B is shoving it through Yard 4.

...complete with arcing and sparking.

Into the barn it goes!

And as nighttime falls, the now-coupled consist emerges from the east end of the barn. By this time, the Class B is no longer the motive power; this track doesn't have overhead wire and it's straight, so the Army 45-tonner was brought in for the "last mile" delivery.

Here comes the blue car...

...and the Milwaukee Road car...

...and finally the motive power.

And here's the aftermath; yecch. Regardless, many thanks to all who helped make this switch move happen. Next up will be reloading the storage cars on track 42, but that will be easier because they can just be pushed in from the east end. Moving all these cars back will clear out the Yard 8 connector track, which has been unusable for two years for this reason, and that will help a lot with operational flexibility.

Free Parking

First of all, we have exciting news on the Buildings and Grounds front: paving of our spiffy new parking lot behind Barn 4.  And remember, it's free for working members!  Otherwise your car will be towed and melted down into spikes.

And looking west from the end of the sidewalk between 42 and 43.  Quite an improvement.

And the department has some new projects that are evidently being started.  I believe this is one end of North Shore car 250, which will be part of a display.

Another project that we'd like to start soon is making third rail beams for the CA&E steel cars.  This one is nearly complete, it just needs a little wood putty and epoxy.

On a more serious note, I really want to get started on replacing the leaf springs on the 36, so it can be put back into service.  The trailer truck will have to come out from under the car, so we need to remove the third-rail beams and pilot at a minimum.  The third rail beams were not too hard.  These are ones I made back about 2013.

And the pilot is almost disconnected, except for one bolt I was unable to break loose.

Barn 8 will be closed to the public until spring, so some of these parts will be stored in the aisle.  Don't walk through Barn 8 in the dark!  We've got lights.

And just as I was leaving, the department regulars were starting on switching some of the storage cars back into Yard 4 East, around the tight curves.  Progress never stops.

Walt Stafa Collection: The Harmony Route

IRM was recently the recipient of historic documents, books, and papers from the estate of the late Walt Stafa. Walt was a friend of many of us and an incredible repository of knowledge about a host of interurban- and railroad-related subjects. His expertise - not to mention his dry wit - is missed, but we're grateful to be able to present a selection of his photos that were donated to IRM. All photos are property of the Illinois Railway Museum.

The Harmony Route: The Pittsburgh, Mars & Butler Railway

North of Pittsburgh was an impressive 118-mile interurban network that extended from that city to the cities of Butler, Evans City, Beaver Falls, and New Castle. The network was known as the "Harmony Route" and originally it was two interurban lines: the Pittsburgh Harmony Butler & Newcastle (PHB&N), known as the Harmony Route, and the Pittsburgh & Butler (P&B), known as the Butler Short Line. The Harmony Route was constructed to run on 1200V DC while the Short Line was originally built to run on high-voltage AC but was later converted to 1200V DC. Both lines ran into downtown Pittsburgh over Pittsburgh Railways tracks after flipping an electrical changeover switch. The Short Line only used pantographs on their own tracks, switching to trolley poles when under Pittsburgh Railways or Butler Passenger Railways trolley wire.

The two lines were united under common ownership, though retaining separate corporate identities, in 1917. The unified system was christened the Pittsburgh Mars & Butler (PM&B). The system went into receivership in April 1931 and the last car ran in August of that year. One car from the system survives: ex-PHB&N 115, a wooden interurban combine built in 1909 by St. Louis, is preserved as a body at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.

I should note that I am emphatically not an expert on this system. Additional information and corrections are greatly appreciated. Thanks to Larry Lovejoy for corrections and additions to the above account. Thanks to Bruce Wells and to Bill Fronczak, who is writing a book on the Harmony Route, for sending photo information.

Headline image: PHB&N car 109 is on the impressive bridge near Ellwood City.

Along the Line

The Harmony Route

This photo was labeled New Castle but it's actually Ellwood City.

Bill Fronczek: Ellwood City, and the underpass still exists. The car is one of seven homemade "gun boat cars" numbered 119 to 125.

Bruce Wells: This is the underpass of the B&O at Ellwood City just down the street from the station and the car in the photo below. The arch roof cars were known as "Gunboats" and were built by Dambaugh, a local lumber yard in Evans City. These cars were built for the Beaver Falls extension in 1914.

The Ellwood City station, located on the line to Beaver Falls, which branched off the Evans City-New Castle line at nearby Ellwood Junction. PHB&N 110 is visible; it's hard to tell but for some reason its pole is swung around so the car can back up.

Bruce Wells: The pole is turned around likely because it needed to be backed to the junction with the New Castle branch before the extension to Beaver Falls was built.

Evans City was where the line to New Castle and Beaver Falls split off the main line from Pittsburgh to Butler. Three 101-112 series cars from the 1908 order are arrayed around the Evans City wye.

Bill Fronczek: A three-way meet in Evans City. The car on the right is headed to New Castle via Ellwood City. The one on the left will go to Butler. The center one is headed to Pittsburgh.

Bruce Wells: I believe it shows opening day on the line at Evans City station. The roll of span wire on the pole at the station indicates to me that the wire work was still ongoing.

The Harmony Junction carbarn.

Bruce Wells: This was about halfway between Zelienople and Evans City.

The year is 1916 and a PHB&N combine is on the street in Butler.

A box motor is spotted at the Butler freight station.

PHB&N car 104 at Pine Hill, near Zelienople.

Bill Fronczek: This is Marburger's trestle located just south of Evans City. The car is southbound.

Bruce Wells: Marburger's Farm is still a local dairy in the area north of Pittsburgh.

PHB&N cars 110 and 111 at a passing siding.

Bill Fronczek: The siding is between Zelienople and Ellwood City. Fresh cuts and ballast.

This is described on the back of the photo simply as the "big bridge."

Bill Fronczek: The bridge with curve still under construction is the Renfer Viaduct over Nelson Run in Ross Township just north of the Pittsburgh city line looking north. The viaduct was 1,080 feet long and 140 feet high.

PHB&N car 111 is on the bridge.

Bill Fronczek: The same bridge looking south.

And here's the bridge being taken down in 1936.

The Butler Short Line

P&B car 111 is on the street in Butler.

This shot of P&B combine 108 is marked as being three or four miles south of Butler on the Butler Short Line. The car is lettered "Mars Route" on the side to differentiate it from the Harmony Route.

Bill Fronczek: Car 108 is at Pickle Gate stop just south of Butler near the ARMCO steel plant.

This is the P&B Mars carbarn with three passenger cars and a freight motor visible.

P&B coach 111 is southbound between Mars and Valencia with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the background. Note the car is using its pantograph rather than its poles and that it seems to have heavier-than-typical C80P trucks.

P&B box motor 51 next to a nice little stone waiting shelter.

Bruce Wells: I believe this is the waiting shelter at Butler Country Club.

Location unknown; "siding 15" is written on the back but it's unclear whether that actually indicates the location.

Car 111 at a siding, location unknown

A scene along the Butler Short Line

Bill Fronczek: Southbound car on Mt. Royal Blvd. just north of Etna

P&B is on the Butler Short Line along Mount Royal Blvd, north of Pittsburgh between Etna and Allison Park.

P&B box motor 51 next to a horse-drawn wagon; the photograph says this is Duquesne Way.

Bill Fronczek: Early freight house at Sixth Street and Duquesne Way in Pittsburgh.

It's 1919 and P&B car 101 is stopped in downtown Pittsburgh.

Bill Fronczek: At Sixth Street and Penn Ave. with Rosenbaum's Department Store in background .

The Cars

The Harmony Route

PHB&N cars 101-112 were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1908. Cars 101 and 107 are shown here running MU. Note that they're back-to-back and the second car has its pole reversed.

Bill Fronczek: Some publicity photos show simulated two car trains on both lines. Neither line was equipped for MU operation.

Bruce Wells: This is just west of the car house at Eidenau.

Yes, the photographic print is cropped like this! PHB&N 103 shows off the elaborate lettering these cars wore as built. "Newcastle" is clearly a single word, unlike how the city spells it today ("New Castle"), but then again this was also the era of "Pittsburg."

Car 105 is shown in original condition.

A crowd is gathered alongside car 110, and it's hard to tell but it looks like someone has opened the contactor box cover. That's probably not a good sign.

The "Harmony," shown here at Harmony Junction in Ellwood City, was the PHB&N's attractive parlor car.

Bill Fronczek: The Harmony Party Car was a complete rebuild from an earlier wreck.

And here's the interior of the "Harmony" with its nice monogrammed antimacassars.

The car number is unknown, but we're looking into the back platform of a PHB&N car. Note that a movie projector [not a camera - thanks to Larry Lovejoy for the correction] is hung from the platform ceiling.

Bill Fronczek: Silent motion pictures were shown on charter trips starting in April, 1912.

This photo of car 115 was taken the day after abandonment in 1931. Car 115 became a diner named Clark's Diner and later (likely after the end of prohibition) became the "Dew Drop Inn," [thanks to Bruce Wells for the corrections] and today its body is preserved at PTM.

Larry Lovejoy: My understanding is that the photo of 115 was supposedly taken at the Harmony Jct. Barn several months after abandonment, possibly the day 115 started its transition to becoming a diner. The gent leaning on the front of the car is the late Howard C. Spithaler, an early railfan.

The Butler Short Line

P&B coach 100 leads a second car, both with their pantographs up.

P&B combine 106 is shown at Mars Carbarn [corrected by Bill Fronczek], sporting a wicked-looking snowplow. The lettering on the side of the car reads "The Short Line."

Attractively painted P&B 110 is shown at the Mars carbarn. Note that it's lettered for the Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway, which operated the Butler Short Line. 

This view shows the interior of P&B 110.

A glamor shot of P&B coach 111, of course with its pantograph up.

The lettering isn't clear but this is presumed to be P&B 51.

Butler Railways

Butler Railways 15 was built by Brill in 1903 for the Butler Passenger Railway. This photo is undated but it's pretty obvious the car is out of service.

Butler Railways 28 was built by American in 1919 and was one of seven Birneys to run in the city. It presumably ran until 1941, when the Butler system was abandoned.

Butler Railways 126 was one of only a handful of double-truck cars on the system. The information I found suggests it was built by Kuhlman in 1900 for Cleveland, later numbered 497 on Cleveland Railway, and sold to Butler in 1916.