Frank writes...
To echo what my father wrote, Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend was a terrific day on the railroad, and a good time was had by all.
But the festivities didn't end when the CA&E train went back to the barn! The aptly named "second shift" crew was just getting started. First off was a cookout. Many thanks to Joel, the founder of the feast, and Richard, who did the grilling; below is a shot of some of the gang gathered around the grill in the car shop parking lot.
While this was happening, a car that hasn't been seen out and about much recently was doing test trips on the streetcar line. Sand Springs 68, which has been out of revenue service due to air leaks and a few minor miscellaneous issues, was being worked on by Brian and some of the other guys during the day. The below photo was taken by Zach of one of the test trips.
It's good to see the 68 out again! It will need more work before it's ready for prime time, but the guys are on it, and we fully intend to have it back in revenue operation once volunteer time and resources permit. I snapped the below photo after dinner of another "only at IRM" scene, with our 1918 lightweight interurban car in the foreground and our SD70MAC in the background.
Several of the guys spent the evening working on the CTA 2600s, but for a bunch of us, the priority was Shaker Heights 18. You may recall that the last time the car was in service, in September 2024, a problem cropped up: the car was climbing the frog at the South Junction switch. This issue kept the car out of service all through 2025. Fortunately, though, our friends in the Track Department had a few ideas for possible fixes.
The first idea, trying to tighten the guardrail on the inside rail, was taken care of by Mark and the track guys last week. Thank you!! So, Zach took the lead on bringing the 18 out of the barn after dinner for a test trip, as shown above.
Good news, the car is no longer climbing the frog. However, the wheels are just far enough to the outside of the curve that the flanges are striking the point of the frog and being "kicked" over slightly. That's not ideal. So, the next suggestion of the track guys was to put grease cookies in the car's center bearings to help the trucks swing more freely. This was done alongside Barn 2, so we could place the jacks at tie level (the jacks themselves are too tall to lift the car from railhead height). A huge thank you goes out to Zach, Brian, Steven, Scott, Ashtin, Will, Joel, and everyone who helped with this!
Here's Zach using one of the motor inspection hatches to insert grease cookies into the center bearings...
...and yours truly, in a photo taken by Zach. This job went on past the fall of night, and when complete we took the car out for another test trip or two. We may need to make some further adjustments, but we are hopeful that the 18 will be back carrying passengers - on occasion, at least - at IRM before too long.
Mikey helped put the car back in the barn with me; I snapped the above photo of the 18 on the tail track before it went to bed. Thanks again to everyone who helped, especially Zach, who kept things moving forward late into the evening! It was really nice to see the 18 back out on the car line for the first time in a while.
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