The Bill Sirinek Collection

The late Frank Sirinek was a long-time member of IRM whom most of us will remember vividly.  Besides all of the tremendous restoration work that he did, he took thousands of historically important photos of not only IRM, but other museums and transit operations across the globe.  His nephew, Bill Sirinek, has been hard at work scanning in all of Frank's slides and posting them on Flickr.  He has graciously given us permission to repost a few slides from the Sirinek Collection, but you need to get on Flickr and start browsing.  It's hard to believe.  I'll post just a few we've run across.

For me, the most striking photos (so far) are these pictures of the interior of the 309 dated March 7, 1971 -- just one week before the fire.  It was so close to being done...

You may notice some differences in the interior paint scheme, particularly the ceiling, from what it has now after restoration.  Back in 1971, the original intention was to restore it as it was at the end of service, in the red paint scheme.  The decision to restore it to the blue scheme was evidently taken after the fire, by Bob Bruneau and Bob Rayunec.

And then from a few years earlier in 1967, we have the Museum's CA&E collection on display.  The wood cars are sitting on what is now the west leg of the wye, after track expansion into what is now the central campus had started.

Looking north.  I guess that's Central Ave. in the foreground.

Looking northwest, from about where the pavilion is now!

Bill deserves a  huge thank you from the preservation community for making these available!

Recent Announcements

We realize there has been some online chatter regarding CA&E car 321. We can't say anything at this time other than that we have been in talks about plans for the car, but if and when there's any news we can announce, we'll most assuredly let you know.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the 321's history, click here.

Green Bay Car Update

Green Bay & Western 109 is, remarkably enough, still in the Electric Car Shop for restoration, and our intrepid cub reporter Gregg Wolfersheim has been kind enough to send us the latest account of progress on this wood coach.

The end beam for the 109 was set up in the steam shop for drilling. The big radial drill on the left made easy work of the 20+ holes! The 'Big Joe' lift was used to support the oak beam. This is basically a 10 foot switch tie we have to handle. Heavy!

A closeup showing some of the holes we drilled. The large hole is where the brake wheel shaft will go through. This will be the top side. Where the elongated holes are, will be the back side placed against the steel frame of the car.

Several nail holes were filled in with epoxy around the doorway on the east end of the car. This will soon be painted green.

Primer was applied today to the bottom and back side of the beam. Tomorrow it will get black paint. Then, we will be able to attach it to the car. Following that, a few more holes need to be added for the railing and some grab irons.

Jack was busy needle chipping and then wire wheeling the north step box today.

I followed by applying primer to the step box.

Monday Report

Working in our nice heated car shop goes along on weekdays smoothly without too much trouble from the weather, as long as you can actually drive to the property.  I was working on the next third-rail beam, and cut the notch (with some help from Fritz), drilled all the holes, and gave it a first coat of primer.

But the new beam for the end platform on the Green Bay car is even bigger and heavier.  It looks like it's getting done also.  

The 306 guys are working steadily to complete the wiring and other mechanical systems on the 306.  Here Gerry is underneath the car with Fred helping.

And work continues on the Michigan Electric 28.  I didn't get a picture of the work in progress, because I was busy on my own project, but the front compartment is coming together.  

I'm told a test application of orange paint to the front of the car revealed that the color still isn't quite right, so it will be remixed by our paint master Pete Galayda.

And of course Tim continues his work on the 1268.

Arctic Circles

Frank writes…

The good news was that, for the first weekend in 2025, Happy Holiday Railway wasn’t impacted by snow. The bad news was that the high temperature was about 10 degrees both days this weekend. But the show went on, and the visitors I spoke with were in good spirits. I showed up in uniform ready to work as "streetcar line relief," i.e. giving the day's streetcar motorman an hour-long lunch break, but it turned out the regular motorman had to leave at 5pm. So, I ended up running the 3142 in circles from 3pm until it went back to the barn around 8:30pm. It was chilly, but still, it's hard not to like spending a day on the Surface Lines!

Here's the 3142 at Central Avenue, ready for passengers. There were two cars on the streetcar line, the 3142 and CA&E 431, and we ran a simpler-than-normal operation by virtue of not stopping at Electric Park or Springfield Avenue.

The platform heaters to the left and right of the motorman do work, as does the heat throughout the 3142, but the car's heat is a bit anemic. Still, it was a lot warmer inside the car than outside! As you can see, this car is fittingly equipped with a prominent aluminum pole, and it's IRM, so of course feats of strength and the airing of grievances are a given.

I had a few trips that were sparsely patronized, but then there were also trips where we were completely full and turning people away - generally those were departures from Depot Street right after the Santa train had pulled in.

Zach Ehlers took the above photo, of me running the 3142 along the streetcar line east of the ruling curve, and the below photo of the 431, while he was out turning on the Christmas lights. As it got dark, the big attraction became seeing all the nice light displays at the south end of the museum from the streetcar.

Here's the 431 at South Junction. Two weeks ago, service was held down by the 3142 and the 749, which was nice if for no other reason than you had the "red car" and the "green car." Very festive of us!

And here's the view out my window at the end of the night as the last Santa train of the evening pulled into the station around 7:45. The 431 was run all day by Gregg, with his conductor Dan visible there on the right.

So, what else was happening?

Mike S. has been hard at work on the air compressor wagon, AX545. The priming is done, at least as far as I can tell, and now he's applying a fresh coat of CSL work car green. It's looking great! I had hoped to finish the stencils for this thing, but a half-day stint in service put off those plans until next week.

Here's another view of the compressor wagon.

It's hard to tell, but the above view shows the front truck of NJT 4. The guys were able to finally extract the last two intransigent bolts from the front wheel and install the wide-tread wheel, so the car now has four wide-tread wheels on its left side. They want to wye the car, since there's a lot more space on its south side than its north side right now. In the meantime, they put it over the inspection pit and on Sunday started doing some inspecting. The news was not good: the MG set and the first traction motor they meggered are both grounded. Regardless of the condition of the other motors and miscellaneous equipment, though, we plan to put the other four wide-tread wheels on the car so it can be towed around. Watch for news on that in the near future.

This is not the same side of the 1268 I photographed last weekend; a week ago, this side of the car was down to the sub-siding! But Tim has been making progress at his usual breakneck pace, and both sides of the car now have a complete set of brand-new tongue-and-groove siding installed.

And finally, these last two photos were sent in by Brian LaKemper, showing those grid box covers that he and Zach were working on lettering a few weeks ago. They're finished and now installed in the Class B, where they guard against accidental contact with the grid boxes. Brian pointed out that now all the rest of the interior equipment suddenly looks shabby by comparison!

Of course, there were other guys out. Greg, Brian, and Jimmy were working on the aforementioned testing of NJT 4's electrical equipment. Richard was running the "food donation bus" at the museum entrance and Joel and Good Nick spent much of their time helping with various event functions to help HHR run smoothly. Many thanks to all the volunteers who came out in the extreme cold to make it all happen!

Nothing Could Be Planer

 Buzz reports:

Our Yates B-244 planer, a newer wood shop machine from 1960, has worn out lift screws and nuts. With no spares around, Eric H. from the Steam Shop has volunteered to machine new parts from scratch.  (Ed.: That's Eric Hoyem.)

Here he is removing the old screws.

It’s nice to have resources like Eric to keep us going.

(Ed.: And I might add that this planer is absolutely essential to serious woodworking!)

Invest in Main Street

As the fiscal year draws to a close, let us encourage you to invest in the Main Street Visitor Center!  It's certainly the biggest, most ambitious project IRM has ever undertaken, and can be a landmark in the railway preservation field.  Check out the details on the Museum website.  This will become a reality if everyone helps!  Of course, your contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.  

OK, I admit it might not turn out to be quite as impressive as this view of Decatur, but it will have a double-track car line with interurban and city service!  And sometimes even IT cars.  What more could you want?  All aboard!

Summer Sleet Scrapers?

One of the more distinctive things about the CA&E was the massive design of the third-rail beams, which included a large air-powered sleet scraper mechanism.  Of course, in preservation nobody is running cars on third rail, and we would avoid operating in sleet conditions, but the cars just wouldn't look right without this equipment.

20 c. 1934

431 - Today

Pictures of cars in service show that sometimes the cars had no sleet scrapers.  And we have concluded after examination that all of the wooden beams had holes and slots where the scraper cylinders were attached, and that during the summer the scrapers would be removed as needed and repaired in the shop.  

36 - 1937

309 c. 1934 

The alternate theory is that there were "summer beams" that had third rail shoes, of course, but no provision for sleet scrapers.  And the entire beams would be changed out as necessary.  I have now abandoned this theory -- Frank talked me out of it -- but I'd be glad to hear from anyone who wants to support it.

The serious, practical reason for arguing is this: we'll need to make a number of new wooden beams to equip all of our steel cars, and we don't have enough hardware, particularly the scrapers.  One or two of the steels can be authentically restored without scrapers, since we generally run only during the summer.  The question is whether we still need to drill holes and provide slots in the beams.

You've heard of "rivet counters", of course.  We'll see you and raise!

Mo' Snow

Frank writes...

The big news Sunday was, of course, Happy Holiday Railway, which ran on schedule despite another 5" of snow having fallen overnight. A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers who spent the morning clearing snow! I didn't arrive until late in the afternoon, but managed to snap some photos of progress around the Electric Car Shop.

Above, Michigan 28 is currently the subject of exterior as well as interior work, as the front end of the car appears to be getting repainted orange. Just a year ago this kind of work would have been impossible in the cold weather, but the heated Barn 4 shop area opens up all kind of possibilities.

Two tracks over, the shop guys were able to complete installation of two more wide-tread wheels on NJT 4. These are the two wheels on the left side of the rear truck. Three down, five to go! Progress on extracting the last two intransigent bolts on the #1 axle, left side, was also made, though the bolts aren't out yet.

And smack in between the 4 and the 28, Tim was hard at work on the 1268. One side of the car, as shown, now has all new tongue-and-groove siding, while the other side of the car has all sub-siding repairs done and looks ready for new T&G siding of its own.

Here's the "third rail beam cart," with the two beams my father has completed so far as well as the hardware for the next two, barely visible between the two finished beams. This set of four beams will go onto the 460.

More progress was made during the week by Mike S. on our air compressor wagon, AX545. The wheels and other "underbody" areas were primed.

As for me, I spent some time taking measurements for an upcoming project, and then spent a while longer sand-blasting and priming more parts for a spare grid box. This work is time-consuming, but that's the point of having it done in advance: if we need to rebuild a grid box in short order, which periodically happens, it's nice to have this part of the work already complete.

Green Bay Car Report

Chicago sports fans surely want to send Green Bay packing this weekend, but here in the Electric Car Shop we have our own little green and yellow piece of Wisconsin, Green Bay & Western steam railroad coach 109 - and our intrepid cub reporter Gregg Wolfersheim is on the sidelines with the latest. Gregg, over to you!

Another step in creating an end beam for the Green Bay car is pictured here. Some relief holes were bored into the back and bottom of the oak. These are where rivet heads will have room to reside in.

The south side of the car is finally in green. Only the trim needs to be added over the arched windows.

The north side was painted around the window openings and along the sill. Soon, most of the finished sash will be put back in place.

The east end was sanded some more, and then painting commenced.

The upper part of the end is now covered.

And, now the lower area is done.

Another Busy Wednesday

The car shop was a beehive of activity on Wednesday.  Probably the most active project was the Michigan Electric 28.  Here Pete is repainting the door between the baggage and passenger compartments.

Norm, Fritz, and Phil were installing new ceiling panels in the baggage compartment:

I started on the next third-rail beam for the 460.  Two new pieces of maple were jointed and so forth, and the slot for the sleet scraper was cut in.

And then they were glued and clamped.

Among other projects, some of the Freight Dept. guys were working on wood for the tool car.

L to R: Bill, Victor, and Bob (I believe)

Buzz showed a replacement knob for the stove in the Milwaukee Road caboose he's working on.

Steve Iversen was visiting from Oklahoma again, and here he's fighting with obstreperous PCC brake parts.  I'm not sure who's winning.

Tim (not shown) was hard at work under the 1268, rebuilding the end of the car.

And here Norm takes a break from the 28 to help:

And finally, Jon shows off a new axe he bought for the tool box in the 65, which hasn't had its full complement of wrecking tools for a long time.  It needed to have the handle shortened and trimmed, but will help make the car more complete.