East Union Corporation Tramways

Frank writes...

Sunday was the last day of Day Out With Thomas 2025. By all accounts, the event seemed to run very successfully. Several of our volunteers remarked on how everyone just seemed to be in a good mood. The weather probably helped: after a few minor sprinkles in the morning, the rest of the day was in the 70s, a welcome change from the scorching heat more typical of DOWT.

My job for the day was conductor on the 144, which for a CSL fan is about as good as it gets. My motorman was Wes Lloyd, with Matt Kalnins and Phil Hehn spelling us for a break at lunchtime. Dispatcher Marcus Ruef kept things moving like clockwork all day.

After the end of service, I headed over to Barn 7 to keep putting more paint on Shaker Heights 63. I finished the primer on the belt rail stripes down the left side, as shown. After dinner, I also painted the drip rail under the standee windows with a first coat of maroon. Also, many thanks to Richard for helping with straightening the bent sign on the 18 and figuring out how we're going to go about replacing the fogged Lexan windows on the 63. New Lexan windows are on hand, but now it's a matter of getting the rubber molding to cooperate!

In other news, Barn 15 now has walls.

And over the last few weeks we have (finally) gotten a couple of shipments of rebuilt items from the motor shop. Above is the rebuilt armature for Charles City Western 300's air compressor. Once this goes back into the compressor, the 300 should (knock on wood) be returned to service.

And here's the rebuilt CP-28 air compressor for North Shore 251, our "Silverliner" combine. This pump shorted out nearly two years ago, but it returned from the motor shop this past week. After revenue service ended, Brian, Zach, Kyle from the Steam Shop, and Jimmy got right to work switching the 251 out of Barn 6, retrieving the previously repainted compressor cradle, and bolting the air compressor into the cradle.

After that, the next step was lifting the compressor onto the car. Here, Jimmy is running the forklift while Brian, Zach and Kyle make sure everything is lined up.

Afterward, Brian and Zach hooked up the electrical and air connections and it was time for a test. The pole went up, and voila - the car made air! Here Joel is checking for sparking or anything else alarming, but it seemed to work like a charm.

The plan is to give the 251 its annual inspection this coming weekend and then, hopefully, release it for service.

And finally, another item that came back from the motor shop recently - in this case a couple of weeks ago - was a rebuilt motor for our CTA 2200s. That motor was installed just after arrival and successfully tested. But another problem these cars had was that one of their batteries had failed. We recently received a set of like-new batteries as part of a trade, and after dinner Good Nick worked on installing the new batteries as shown here. When I stopped by before heading home, he was wire-wheeling the thin layer of corrosion off the battery lugs before attaching everything. With luck, the 2200s will be in public operation again soon.