Sunday Short Subject

Frank writes...

I didn't have as much time at IRM on Sunday as I normally do, and spent part of my time helping sort parts and move things around the shop as part of a general rearrangement, so I didn't get any photos of those activities.

I did trace numbers off the X4 and F305 and, after some resizing magic on the office copying machine, made up most of the stencil we'll need for lettering the CSL air compressor. I will need to recreate the "A" from photographs, but I don't expect it to be a problem.

So, what else was going on? Zach, Greg, Jimmy, and Good Nick were out on the line car for practically the entire day switching cross-arms and other hardware from old poles onto new poles along the main line. Joel was working on rearranging and sorting various things in the shop. My father had been out on Saturday and snapped the above photo showing the second third rail beam looking the part, in primer and with its hardware installed.

Tim was working on the 1268, and removing some of the sub-siding had revealed a small cache of paper that had fallen into the walls of the car early in its career when it had drop-sash windows. (This, of course, is a feature now being restored to the car by Tim.) It seems pretty clear that the car has not been disassembled to this point since it was built! Above you can see a pair of Chicago Railways cash fare receipts, with the one at least dated October 25, 1911.

And here's a batch of miscellaneous items. Tim is holding a Hershey's candy wrapper at top right; clockwise from top left are a picture of the Hershey Chocolate factory in Pennsylvania, a gum wrapper, something from the Palmer House, a balcony ticket, a business card from the Burrell & Heath Yacht Yard, a business card for Enoch A. Pearson (who worked in the Monadnock Building), and in the middle, a Garrick Theatre ticket from Saturday, May 31st, which Tim said dated it to either 1913 or 1923, but probably 1913. It can be easy to forget just how much unknown history is hidden in these old trains!