Memorial Day

Frank writes...

Happy Memorial Day! It was a gorgeous weekend at IRM and there's plenty of news to share.

The plan for Sunday was to run the 319 and the 308, the latter running as a control trailer. My father and I were conductor and trainman with Larry Stone as motorman. Above, the train is shown in Yard 8. Isn't that nice? This consist was very common before the 308 had a motor short out in 2019. Anyway, things didn't go to plan. We got up to the depot and were loading for our first trip when Greg, who was hanging out on the Station Track 2 platform alongside ComEd 4, noticed that the 308's compressor was "barking" when starting up. Inspection suggested there was some arcing at startup, so out of caution, we decided to take the car out of service. We brought the 308 back to track 84, dropped it in the barn, and Larry and my father headed back up to the depot to run the 319 solo.

Here's the 319 coming up to the depot (more about the construction zone later!). Later in the day, Ashtin was able to quickly inspect the 308's pump. The brushes are wearing very unevenly and there's some discoloration on the commutator, so we definitely need to look at the brushes and see whether they need replacement or whether we need to repair the brush holders. But it doesn't look like anything irreparable, and the pump isn't grounded - it was still running when we headed back to the barn. Stay tuned!

Since I was out of a job, I went along for a ride. Above, our conductor listens for westbound orders as we speed through the countryside.

My father also remembered to break out the 48-star flags in honor of Memorial Day.

After that, I went for a "railfanning" trip aboard ComEd 4 with motorman Zach and "pole hop" Nathan. The "Edison engine" was pulling the caboose train for the day. Above you can see Zach, who is always authentically attired no matter his assignment, is backing the train westward at Johnson as the North Shore train speeds past on the main.

There was also ample evidence around the property that the Buildings & Grounds Department has been hard at work. They're doing concrete replacement inside the front (west end) of Barn 6, though I didn't get a picture of that. Perhaps the most visible work was shown earlier, where the east berth platform of Station Track 1 has been taken out for replacement. And above, these little concrete pads on the east side of the office have been there for a number of years as places to put benches. They seem to be going away.

Also, in exciting news, work has resumed on Barn 15! Last we knew, half the barn post footings were in on the north side of the barn. As of this past week, the other half along the north side have now been completed, as shown above.

Here's a shot of the southeast corner of Barn 7, just inside the front of the barn. Something's missing...

...of course! The horse car! Sure enough, North Chicago Street Railroad 8, our oldest piece of equipment, was requisitioned for use in filming for a WTTW (PBS) program. I believe it was pulled out of the barn on Wednesday and filming took place on Friday. To get it out of the barn, we used the rubber-tire dollies that the CTA built for this thing way back in the 1940s or 1950s, and extracted it right out the front door of the barn. After filming, it was deposited in Barn 4, but it will soon go back to its usual home in Barn 7. Above, it's shown behind Barn 4 on the dollies.

And this afforded an extremely rare opportunity to get a nice, clear three-quarters shot of the cable trailer, Chicago City Railway 209. The line between "heavy restoration" and "replica" can be a bit murky, especially 100 years on, but according to what records we have, the cable car is basically original (to some extent), albeit heavily restored in the early 1900s, while cable trailer 209 was a replica built around 1933 using some surviving original components. Electric car 4, behind the cable trailer, is much more original (at least to its end-of-service condition), and seems to be pretty much the same as it was when removed from service c1918 except for paint.

After I was done railfanning, I put a couple of test patches on Shaker Heights 63 to see what the most efficient way of applying the maroon striping will be. I would love to get this paint job completed, or mostly completed, this year. I also spent a bit of time helping Nick, Greg, and Ashtin move spare 'L' car parts out of Barn 4 and into storage.

A welcome sight late Sunday afternoon was the Shay, making test trips around the streetcar line and then out on the main line.

And finally, I stopped out briefly on Monday with my daughter. The weather was just as fantastic as Sunday, and trains in operation included Veracruz 19, the North Shore cars, the Shay with the coach-caboose train, and a diesel-hauled coach train (all shown above) as well as IT 1565-518-234, Chicago Elevated 1754, and the 3142. The "Tangerine Limited" was missing its motor car because the 277 is in the shop for brake work, but that work was in progress over the weekend in the form of brake levers and brake heads being drilled for just-delivered bushings.

EDIT: Thanks to our intrepid freelance photographer Buzz Morrisette, who sent the below photo and caption from Monday:

Chris of the Steam team is "exercising" the water pump used to put fires out. If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.