Sleigh Ride

Frank writes...

Sunday was the penultimate day of Happy Holiday Railway 2025, and although this year's event was impacted by both snow and extremely cold temperatures, in the end the whole things was very successful and our visitors seemed to really enjoy themselves. As for us volunteers, the 30-ish temperatures on Sunday meant one thing: it's time for our recent tradition of bringing out the one-truck open sleigh!

Our Veracruz open car, appropriately festooned with battery-powered lights, came out for a few trips at about 4pm. Many thanks to Good Nick and Mikey for working with me to get the car out of the barn (including moving North Shore 749) and operating it. Here, the car sits at Depot Street just after sunset with the president running and Lee and Jimmy conducting a check ride.

We ran it for about seven laps and put it away about 6pm or so. The regular heated cars, the 431 and 3142, stayed in service until after 8pm.

After that, I spent some time with the copying machine and drafting accoutrements to complete the stencils for the air compressor wagon. I didn't get a photo, but it is now completely painted in dark green, including the underside. Joel said it's ready to letter, which means I'm up! You'll note that it will receive a CTA, rather than a CSL, emblem. As a CSL fan, it pains my soul to do it, but the air compressor's current configuration matches its late-in-life condition with a crosswise air tank on the end and electric markers. As shown by our nice 1953 photo at Forest Park, that puts it squarely in the CTA era. So, we must be accurate.

Most of the focus over the weekend for the volunteers was on HHR, between making sure the trains were running, turning the lights on and off, and so on. But several of the guys were working on New Jersey 4. The car did get wyed, making access to the door side easier, and I believe there was a crew working on it both Saturday and Sunday. One wheel on the right side has been replaced - so that's five down and three to go - with the second in progress, awaiting replacement of those studs at the end of the torque arm.

I also did a little bit more work on that spare grid box, though nothing very photogenic, and I measured the clips we'll need to make to hold up the ribbon fuses on our new grid boxes. Note to self: the clips are 14-gauge steel strips, 1-1/2" wide and roughly 5-1/2" long apiece.