Diesel Days 2025

Frank writes...

Sunday was the final day of a very successful Diesel Days event. As with every year, the property was filled with the incessant burbling of diesel engines, regular blasts of horns, and the smell of diesel exhaust wafting through the air. A good time was had by all, of course. But before I get to all that, it's time for some traction action.

I use the word "action" a bit loosely, but I did get some work done on Shaker Heights 63. A final coat of maroon was put on the belt rail stripes down the left side of the car, after which the masking was removed. You'll note that a bit of ivory paint under the motorman's side window came off with the masking tape, but that will be easy to touch up.

After that, I masked around the back end of the car and down the right side aft of the center doors. After dinner this sector got a coat of primer, soon to be followed by maroon paint. Other than the doors, that will complete the belt-rail striping. I also climbed up on the roof to match the grey color we'll need. This car's roof was light grey early in its Shaker career, when it was yellow; then was medium grey during the "vermilion era" to which it's being restored; then was a very dark grey at the end, when it received its LRV white livery.

I also showed the late Don MacCorquodale's nephew Dan, who was being shown around by Nick, through the 309.

In other news, the roof and end wall are on Barn 15. And I didn't get a photo, but a steel gantry frame was out behind Barn 4 being painted prior to installation in the Track 41 East doorway. This gantry will support the door bridge mechanism for the overhead wire that will allow it to bridge the gap across the roll-up door.

So, on to Diesel Days. When I arrived on the property mid-afternoon, there was an A-B-A lash-up of E-units waiting to take its train east from Station Track 1 with all six prime movers running. Nobody else can do this; only the UP has a three-unit set like this, but their E-units have all been rebuilt to single-engine models. The lead unit, 9976, was given a quick coat of paint on its nose within the past few days to spruce up its appearance.

Up at the depot, for most of the weekend anyway, two of our four recent diesel acquisitions were on display for walk-through guided tours. This pair was Metra 614, shown here, and BNSF 9400, which is in the background. The other two recent acquisitions, Amtrak 231 and BNSF 6976, were in operation throughout the weekend.

Sunday's dispatcher was Zach, who adroitly kept things moving during a very busy event with a lot of train movements. He's up in the interlocking tower working at the CTC machine, as the dispatcher typically does on busy days. You'll notice he has a video feed to show him several "high-traffic" locations around the property, including the public webcam feeds as well as a couple of additional camera locations.

For the last train of the weekend, the bi-level train coupled up to the 614, which acted as a cab car for its first revenue trip over IRM's line. This may have also been 614's first trip down our railroad to Kishwaukee Grove, I'm not sure. Kudos to all the Diesel Department volunteers who worked tirelessly to pull off this event - it was quite the sucess.