The Latest From Green Bay

Or, at least, from the Green Bay & Western! Our intrepid investigative reporter Gregg Wolfersheim has submitted another illustrated report of progress on GB&W wood coach 109.

Part of returning the 109 to its condition as a coach requires us to remove the bay windows. These were added in 1947 to make several of the cars, in essence, mixed train cabooses. Here is how I lowered them to the ground using the steam department lift truck and a short chain. The last two bolts were cut, and off it came!

Here is the opening. The middle post was cut out, along with the threaded rod that runs from the side sill beam to the roof to accommodate the bay window. For the time being, we will simply blank off the opening. In the future, when the car is fully restored, the post and rod will have to be replicated.

The steel bay has been saved for now. It's resting on TMER&L flatcar E58.

Here is an inside shot of the car. Jack did a nice job years ago returning the varnished walls to their original splendor.

This is the other end with the only toilet room left in the car. The outline is apparent on the other end so the 2nd one could be replicated someday. Right now, without the actual toilet in place, it's a cozy closet for hardware, paint and tools.

Some THI&E Stop Species

Some THI&E Stop Species

by Art Peterson

All photos from the Krambles-Peterson Archive

With a peak of 403.42 route-miles, much of it coming from four predecessors, plus extensions made by Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern (THI&E) after acquisition, and a total of 600 defined stops on its lines (in full disclosure, not all were individually counted; but Stop 1 was Indianapolis, while Stop 600 was Sugar Creek, and it looked like there were a lot of numbers to fill in between those two extremes), it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there was considerable variety in styles of structures used for the various stops.

Here are four examples. What is unusual about these is that three of the four were on the Indianapolis & Plainfield Electric line, linking its namesake cities. This 14-mile line opened on September 15, 1902. The fourth station species was on the 25-mile, THI&E-built extension to the I&P line, which extended service to Greencastle from 1907.

Some of these photos were taken by THI&E’s Acting Chief Engineer, Don Walker, but not all images are attributed. Surviving records indicate that the road did maintain a card file on its stations and other structures, noting frequency of painting or varnishing work, etc.

What’s interesting about the timing of the bulk of these survey photos (the majority date to May 1926) is that this date coincides with the period when the Electric Railway Journal noted (mid-June 1926) that Sam Insull had been discussing the inclusion of the THI&E into the Indiana Electric Corporation (a predecessor concept for IR) with the road’s principal stockholder, Randall Morgan. Mr. Morgan’s death in late May 1926 delayed these discussions a bit, though the Journal noted the process resumed mid-summer.

It's purely speculation, but the structures survey may have been done as part of the determination of the valuation of the THI&E properties to be included in what would ultimately become IR.

THI&E Ben Davis Station - May 1926

The Ben Davis area of Indianapolis was named after the Superintendent of the paralleling Vandalia Railroad (PRR by the time of this photo). The PRR line is to the photographer’s back. On the THI&E, Ben Davis was 6.5 miles west of Indianapolis and was assigned Station Number 395. A June 1928 THI&E timetable shows that there was suburban traffic between Ben Davis and Indianapolis. The 5:00 pm trip out of the Traction Terminal was due here at 5:25, had six minutes to turn around, and returned to the Traction Terminal by 5:57. [Ed. note: Check out that neat speeder! It almost looks like it was cobbled together using a motorized velocipede similar to IRM's Adams Motor Car.]

THI&E Six Points Stop - May 1926

If you went 3.6 miles west of Ben Davis, you’d come to the Six Points area (the name is still used today). This simple shelter served as THI&E Station No. 402, also known on the road as Stop 11 on the Brazil Division.

The Six Points name refers to a road intersection and the crossing of the Vandalia Railroad at this location. Curvature on Highway 40 and an odd-angle crossing of the railroad were a hazard for years. It was not until after IR’s Terre Haute rail service had been abandoned that the awkward geometry finally got straightened out.

THI&E Boys School Stop - Undated - D.H. Walker Photo

The Indiana Boy’s School was located about 0.4 miles east of Plainfield and opened in 1867, though the “Boy’s School” name only came into use from 1903. The school was replaced by another facility/program in 2005.

This view looks west towards Plainfield (see the “Plainfield Siding Mileage Board” partially obscured by the freight platform) and Don has captured a westbound interurban receding in the distance. Boy’s School was THI&E Stop 411.

THI&E Fillmore Station - May 1926

There’s an interesting sag to the front side of the Fillmore Station building, though there’s no record of what was done to keep the door on that side of the structure functioning. Note the portable substation on the siding behind the station THI&E Station 429).

Around the time of this photo, the first train of the day from Fillmore was the 6:05 am train to Indianapolis. Service ran every 1 to 2 hours thereafter, with the last train being the 12:35 am train to Greencastle.

A closing note: there were more substantial THI&E stations along this section of line (especially where the station coincided with a substation location).

Click here to return to the Krambles-Peterson Collection index page

Opening Day 2025

Frank writes...

Sunday was a beautiful day to open the gates to visitors for the first time this year, sunny and with temperatures in the 50s. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of CA&E 431, which was the day's service train.

Many thanks to Richard for working with me on removing the remaining three seats from CA&E 453 that will go to the upholstery shop for restoration in this next batch. They're shown above on the trusty Taylor-Dunn after I removed the antimacassars. The 453's antimacassars are different than the other two cars' examples; besides being affixed with a bunch of carpet tacks, they also have much more of a leather grain look to them. They're generally in good shape and can be reused. These seats were moved to the 451 and the antimacassars went back to the 453 for storage.

After the 431 was done with revenue service for the day, it and the 460 were outside briefly for switching. This was the first time the 460 has left the barn since the seats were replaced, so I had to see it for myself! Thanks to Zach for the heads-up.

Zach and Joel also brought the 319 over to the inspection pit. Its inspection isn't scheduled until next weekend, but this allows for some of the items to be knocked off the inspection list during the week as time allows.

While Richard and I were over at Barn 13 working on the 453, we decided to swing over by Yard 15 to see the progress on the "U-store-it" storage building, shown here. The interior walls appear to have gone up since my last photograph. But wait a second, what's that line of things off to the left?

Hey, it's the posts for the south wall of the South Storage Building! This structure, not to be confused with the structure shown earlier, will mostly be used for storage by the Bus and Trolley Bus Departments, I believe. With this, we now have three different buildings all under construction simultaneously: these two storage buildings and Barn 15, the latter in about the same early stage as the South Storage Building.

In other news, a crew was out working more on repairing the overhead at the west end, while others were hard at work in the shop on air gauge repair.

Straight Talk About the 321

At the Annual Meeting, coming up soon, there will be a motion to remove Chicago Aurora and Elgin car 321 from the Permanent Collection list.  If you're a voting member, you should know the background to this issue.  And even if you're not, you might be interested.  It's not a simple matter, so we have a short version and a long version.

This post represents our opinion, of course, on why this is a good idea.  But if anyone would like to submit a coherent argument why it's not a good idea, we will be happy to publish it.

SHORT VERSION

The 321 was originally acquired to be scrapped for parts, mostly the trucks and motors.  The car's body has not been well maintained, has several severe structural problems, and is in poor condition, missing several important parts.  There is no feasible plan for restoration, and the 321 has been replaced by car 319 from the same series, which has been fully restored and operates regularly.  Furthermore, the 321 cannot be restored to operation without using the trucks and motors that were intended for another car, Milwaukee Electric 1129.  The 321 takes up valuable barn track space, and if removed from the list it can provide parts for other projects as well as indoor storage for something else.

LONG VERSION

The second and third cars ever acquired (in 1955) by our Museum were two ex-Milwaukee Electric ("TM") interurban cars that had been sold to the London and Port Stanley in Canada.  There they had been heavily modified.  But they were the last two TM interurbans in existence.  Due to the modifications in Canada, the Milwaukee fans, Tom Jervan in particular, were on the lookout for correct trucks and motors for car 1129, which had been converted to a trailer on the L&PS.

In 1962, cars and parts from the Chicago Aurora and Elgin became available at Wheaton.  IRM chose two cars for preservation, the 309 and 431.  Tom Jervan, Bob Bruneau, and others also arranged to buy the 321 for its trucks and motors, intending to scrap the body at Wheaton.  The 321 was the only one of the Jewett series that nobody had selected for preservation, because the body was already in poor condition.  Tom then arranged to trade the 321 for trucks and motors from one of the steel cars, that had been rebuilt but never used.  But three days before the IRM equipment was scheduled to leave Wheaton, the junk dealer changed his mind and cancelled the deal on the trucks and motors.

With just days to go, there was no choice but to oil up the 321 and couple it onto the two cars slated for preservation.  And so it wound up going to North Chicago.  There it was quickly converted into storage space.  The seats were removed, the walls were chopped out so shelves could be attached, roof parts removed and roof covered in tar paper, and so on.  And just to make sure that nobody would ever be dumb enough to want to restore the 321, a lot of unnecessary damage was done and various parts removed and given away.

In 1964, the 321 was moved to Union along with the rest of the collection, and it continued to suffer from neglect and the weather over the next twelve years.  It had been painted before the move, but that didn't last long, and much of the wooden body started to rot.  The car probably would have been scrapped if room could have been found for all the parts inside.

By 1976, though, somebody dumb enough to want to restore the 321 had come along -- me.  The 309 was an ongoing project, and I thought it would be good to have a two-car train if possible.  And at that time it didn't look like any other CA&E wood cars would ever be available.  I started lobbying to have the 321 preserved, and in 1978 I moved to have it put on the Permanent Collection list.  The Museum was expanding rapidly in those days, and the 321 was one of several items that were added at the same meeting.  All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Restoration work was done on the car over the next several years, as a background activity to restoration of the 309, mainly by myself, and later with Frank's help when he was old enough.  This mostly stopped when we were able to acquire the 308, which was in much better overall condition.

And in 2009, when the Trolleyville collection became available, the 319 was a far better candidate for restoration than the 321.  Bob Olson and I put up the money to include the 319 in the cars IRM was acquiring.  (Best $10,000 we ever spent!)  In order to put the 319 indoors, the 321 was tarped and put outside for the next seven years.  In spite of the tarp, the body continued to deteriorate, and the roof has partly collapsed.  The 321 has also served as a parts source for the 319 and other cars, so its present condition is pretty wretched.  Feel free to see for yourself.  It's on track 114, the car nearest the door.

And if you didn't like either the short version or the long version, we still have the

daytime talk show version!

Progress on IT 277

Steve Smunt and Paul Hough send pictures of recent progress on the Illinois Terminal 277 combine.

First application of wood epoxy section 7-8

Sanded 2nd application of wood epoxy

Replacing refurbished ceiling fixtures

Ceiling is painted cream, primer on wall

Section 7-8, storm window sashes installed

Section 7-8, transom and interior sashes installed, paint completed.

Thursday in Brief

 As usual, I spent most of the day painting the interior of the Jewell Road shelter. It's coming along well.

John, Gerry, and Phil continued to work on the 306.   They pointed out that as built, the car had a orange color paint on the floor, which can be found by careful sanding.  So that's what they want to reproduce.

Here we see Gerry sanding down the floor of the smoker:

And John was painting seat frames.

Tim is installing the nice new ceiling panels in the 1268.

And as usual, other things were going on all across the property.  IRM never sleeps.

Curtain Time

The curtains have been installed in Barn 4 to keep the eastern two-thirds of the building relatively warm for work during cold weather.  This is basically the same as the system used in Barn 2.

One of the current major projects is the 306, of course.  Here John is working on painting up the rebuilt seat frames.

And in the barn, Gerry and Phil are getting the door motors to work.  Here's the main compartment, with lots of new interior paneling.

They demonstrated the door motor for me, but with the clamps to the drive shaft loosened so the door leaves don't actually move while adjustments are being made.  But it's bound to work.  I can't wait!!!

And Tim was installing two more of the newly varnished ceiling panels in the 1268, with some help from Steve Iversen, Gerry, and me.

This is going to look great.

Finally, I need to level with you.  It's always been obvious (if you're there in person) that the Jewell Road shelter was sort of tilted, and the temporary blocks it was sitting on were torquing the structure.  That's the sort of challenge I like, so I calculated the required lifts required at each corner, and made blocks at home to insert underneath.  Then with a small jack and sufficient leverage, I was able to raise it up to a more level position.  Using an ordinary carpenter's level, this is probably the best you can do.  For its permanent location at the corner of Jewell Road and Diamond Lane, we'll have the use of more accurate leveling tools to provide a secure and level foundation.

And then I had some time to do more interior painting.

That's all for today, folks!

Safety First

I can only hope Harold doesn't hear about this.  He'll give me a six-month suspension for sure.

Sunday Report

Frank writes...

Sunday afternoon I worked with Richard to complete the remaining work in the 460 and "release the car to the Operating Department," at least as far as I'm concerned. This mostly consisted of driving a bunch of decorative upholstery tacks into the backs of the antimacassars, per original practice, and cleaning up the stuff left over from the project, such as extra machine screws. A huge thank you goes out to Richard for all his help getting the 460 seat project completed!

After that, Ashtin and I went over to the 453 in Barn 13. I want to include a few seats removed from the 453 in the next batch to be redone, so to start, we removed three of the regular "spinner" seats, as shown here. Unfortunately, unlike the other two cars, all these antimacassars are held in not just by upholstery tacks but also by a row of regular steel carpet tacks, hidden after installation by the metal bar across the top of the seat. After dinner I returned to the 453 and was able to carefully remove all these tacks so that we can send the seat backs out for upholstery work while retaining the antimacassars for reinstallation when we get to the 453's seats.

Going back in time a few hours, when I first arrived on the property, Tim (shown here) dragooned me and Matt into helping him hoist the first of the newly varnished ceiling panels for Northwestern Elevated 268 into place. Above is the "before" picture...

...and here's the "after" picture, with Matt and Tim in the frame. The wood sticks with cloth over them just helped hold the panel up while it was guided into position and the wire for the light fixture was snaked through the hole. This car is really going to be beautiful!

About 50' to the east, I snapped this photo of progress on the wiring trough on track 41. The B&G guys have hung these "unistrut" sections underneath the garage door that will support the wire trough up to the point where the "flipper" will go in.

There was a lot of activity. Nick, Greg, Bob, and Jimmy were out on the railroad performing repairs to the overhead wire following some damage from a bad wind storm a couple of weeks ago. A few guys including Brian, Jeron, and Will were working on inspections and various car repairs, including more air gauge work. And Joel was working on sorting parts and organizing.

He found his brass plaque. A bit of online research suggests that these plaques appeared on Boston Type 3 semiconvertible cars.

Joel also found this neat piece of business reply mail. I wouldn't try mailing your dues to Chicago 3 these days.

And now, as a free sample of our famed series of Hicks Car Works Correspondence Courses, we present to you:

How to Make the Most of Your IRM Roster

We have good news: after 15 years, IRM has issued a new printed roster! You'll receive it with your next issue of Rail & Wire, which is currently in the mail. Obviously, this applies to you, an upstanding IRM member and contributor to society, right? Right!

Step 1: Your issue of Rail & Wire has arrived in the mail! A modest celebration of this occasion is appropriate, after which you notice that the new printed roster is stapled into the center of the magazine. It's kind of a 20-page-long centerfold.

Step 2: Open the combined magazine/roster to the centerfold, as shown here. You'll see four staples holding it together. Using a letter opener, pocket knife, scimitar, or other flat blade-like object, gently open up the topmost of the four staples.

Step 3: Now, do the same with the bottommost staple. See, you're getting the hang of it already! You'll be an expert at this just as soon as you're done with the project.

Step 4: Find the spot where the magazine ends and the roster begins. Grasping each separately with a thumb and forefinger, carefully pull the roster away to separate it.

Step 5: Now, setting the roster aside, take the magazine and bend the two open staples back to the original closed condition. Careful attention at this stage will limit punctures and minimize blood loss.

And there you have it! You can now read your issue of Rail & Wire while keeping your roster separate to use as a reference going forward. Many thanks to Richard for demonstrating these techniques (oh, and also for creating and maintaining the entire roster in the first place).

But, you ask, can't I just leave the roster in the middle of my magazine? Of course you can! Nobody will judge you. Well, few will judge you.

If you enjoyed this, make sure to register for our professional development correspondence courses on rattan seats, MU control circuits, and more, plus personal enrichment courses on subjects such as talking like Shakespeare.

Tour of the Visitor Center

So far we've shown what the street-side facade of the Visitor Center will look like.  But even more important is what will be inside the building.  Want to take a tour?  We know you do!  So here's an explanation of the various features that have been cleverly designed into the structure.  This is looking at the building with the roof removed, in the south-east direction.  The building directly across the street, in the upper right-hand corner of the picture, is the Schroeder Store.

1 - Main public entrance from parking lot, at the northwest corner of the building near a circle drive for drop-off; the canopy roof provides shelter for school groups to queue or for people to wait out of the rain.
2 - Ticket window, intended to use original ticket counter wickets from Union Station
3 - This wide "hallway" along the side of the building will funnel arriving visitors toward Main Street and will provide space for exhibits along the walls
4 - Restroom entrances are here; the big grey block pictured has restrooms on the lower level and storage space on the upper level, with second-floor bay windows to present an "interlocking tower" look
5 - Past the restroom entrances, arriving visitors are directed left and down this hallway to the main hall, with more space here for exhibits and orientation signage along the walls
6 - In the main hall, there is space for a small theater area where an orientation video can be shown, as well as ample space for historic exhibits
7 - This is where the main entrance/exit from the Visitor Center out onto Main Street is located; from the outside, it will simulate a theater entrance complete with overhead marquee
8 - The center of the main hall will feature a track where a couple of pieces of rolling stock can be displayed; the horsecar is pictured (in yellow) as an example
9 - Along the east side of the main hall are air walls that allow up to three classrooms or flexible event rooms to be blocked off, with various configurations possible
10 - This is the southernmost of the three classrooms, shown with chairs set up lecture-style; these rooms can also be left open to the rest of the Main Hall by retracting the air walls completely
11 - Along the east side of the building is the office wing; at the southeast corner, indicated here, is a small reception room for volunteers that will include the operations sign-in station
12 - This office space will replace the current museum office
13 - The center of the three flexible classroom spaces is shown here with round tables set up and the air wall to the Main Hall retracted
14 - The northernmost of the three classroom spaces is pictured with rectangular tables
15 - In the center of the north wall of the building, facing the parking lot, is a track door to permit equipment to be moved in and out of the Main Hall display track (item 8); this would be intended only for extremely rare use, as the equipment on display would be placed there semi-permanently
16 - Exit through the gift shop! Visitors leaving the museum would walk back into the Visitor Center through the theater door off Main Street (item 7) and be directed through the gift shop to the entrance. The gift shop has doors at both its east and west ends to allow this. The staff working the ticket counter (item 2) could also work the gift shop on light days simply by turning 180 degrees.