The Horn Blows at Midnight

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.

Sunday Miscellany

Frank writes...

It was a busy day in the car shop on Sunday, and it seemed like a lot got accomplished.

My first task after arriving was to put green paint on the rest of the air compressor wagon, as shown here. This included touching up some spots like the safety chains, but did not include the wheels. Hope springs eternal that enough donations will come in to fund replacement of the solid rubber tires, and if that happens, the paint job will be messed up anyway. So, out of an abundance of optimism, we're putting off painting the wheels green. Want to help? Send a check to IRM with "RCAR - for AX545 wheels" on the memo line - and thank you!

I also put a coat of green on some components that had been removed from the AX545, including the two halves of the commutator cover and the two parts of the air strainer (plus the pipe to the air strainer, which was hung in the spray booth). Appeal to whoever removed these parts: can you please reinstall them? Not having removed them myself, I'm not exactly sure how everything goes back. Thank you! Once everything is put back together, the air compressor wagon should be ready to move out of the shop.

After that, I went over and spent some time in the 18. After we confirmed last week that the heat contactor worked, the next step was to test the thermostat itself by letting the car warm up and seeing whether the heat shut off. Rather than sit idly in the car for an hour or two, I figured I may as well paint a couple more seat backs. Above is the "before" view...

...and here's "after." With this, I only have two more seat backs in the back half of the car to paint, and then we can proceed to the front half of the car. The bad news was that the car got quite toasty and the heat never shut off until I manually turned it off, so it looks like the thermostat is not working. At some point, we can remove it and either repair or, if necessary, possibly replace it. It looks like the same kind of thermostat that's on the CA&E curve-siders, and in fact probably dates to very nearly the same era, given that the 18 only acquired electric heat in the mid-1940s.

After dinner, Nick, Joel, and I moved the two third rail beams that have just been completed (or nearly so) onto the "third rail beam cart" out in the barn. Astute viewer that you are, you'll notice that one still needs some black paint, which is why it was left facing outward. These four beams will go onto the 460.

In other exciting news, Zach and the Electroliner crew were able to get the electric markers lit. This is a sight that hasn't been seen in some 60 years! When the 'Liners were built, they used the same kerosene markers as the rest of the fleet. But the North Shore found out that something about the airflow over the train tended to extinguish the markers, so the trains acquired electric markers like the ones shown. When sold to the Red Arrow, they used these markers briefly, but then that line installed permanent markers in steel boxes over the end windows. The 'Liner crew has painstakingly recreated the correct electric markers and they're now wired in. We don't tend to report much on Electroliner happenings, but Zach reports that the restoration team has completed 90% of the work restoring the interior of the A1 car, including seats now reinstalled in the smoker section; they're currently painting the ceiling in the cafe car; and repainting work in the A car is now beginning.

Yet more exciting news: the "mechanical crew" of Jimmy, Will, and Ashtin, with some help at various times (I believe) from Greg and Dan, was able to remove the last wheel from New Jersey Transit 4. Some of the bolts were pretty well stuck, but heating them and then letting them cool did just enough to break the rust that the guys were able to get the bolts out. Once the last full-width tread wheel is installed, the car will be rolled over the pit and the other three traction motors will be tested (the only motor tested so far was, unfortunately, grounded).

Thanks to Brian LaKemper for sending the above and below photos of yet more progress that was made on Sunday. The D13 towed the IT Class B out of the barn so that the replacement air tank could be hoisted into the locomotive, as shown below.

In other news, Richard was making more progress on the rail display; Brian was working on rebuilding feed valves, one of which is intended to go into the 319 (thanks, Brian!!); Greg, Jimmy, and Good Nick were out on the railroad for most of the day doing DC line work that included moving all the hardware from a failing pole near the west end over to the replacement pole; and the "mechanical crew" mentioned earlier, with help from Joel, worked on removing bad bushings from brake beams (say that eight times fast) off the 3142. New bushings are on order. And, of course, Joel was doing various things to organize and rearrange the shop.

Besides all that, there was also a nifty switch move on Saturday. Our hardworking freelance photographer, Bill Wulfert, was on the scene and sent us some photos. We'll have those posted shortly.

Shaker Sunday

Frank writes...

Both of our Shaker Heights cars got some attention on Sunday. (Yes, yes, I know we have four ex-Shaker Heights cars, but two of them are being restored to previous lives. So there.)

The first job was to install the new steel U-channel that we had fabricated for the rear coupler on the 18. Success! It fits perfectly, so between this and the wear plate we made and installed a few weeks ago, the rear coupler is now "in service."

I don't think we really intend to make much use of it, though in theory we can mechanically couple to the 63 and tow it if we want to. But it's no longer drooping, which is a noticeable improvement, and the coupler shank is no longer trying to crush the control cables.

After some time in the afternoon working in Decatur Shop, which I'll get to in a moment, I masked and primed the stripe along the roof line all around the 63. Next, this will get maroon paint, and that should conclude the striping work on the car. I still need to touch up the grey around the edges of the roof, and paint the middle of the roof grey where I couldn't reach from a ladder, but the end of this paint job is in sight.

Brian was working on the Class B, and in addition to some air work, he is rebuilding a grid box and fixing up some of the interior equipment covers. I was happy to trace the original lettering off the cover shown above, after which Richard was able to hunt down the old set of brass letter stencils that Bruneau used to trot out occasionally. Success - they match almost perfectly. Who knows? It's even possible Bruneau got these from the IT, or from an IT employee who lunch-boxed them home or something.

That aforementioned air brake work involved replacing a small air tank inside the locomotive which had sprung a leak. A new tank was found in storage and taken over to the Steam Shop to be hydro tested. Here, a dour Jimmy plays the part of Slim Pickens while Brian L and a visiting Brian D from the Steam Team ride up front. Many thanks to Brian D for helping with this project!

Finally, GB&W 109 is still in Barn 4, and it's positively turning green with envy for the passenger cars that get to live in the nice, posh surroundings of Barn 3! But don't worry, it will make it back home to the barn next door sooner or later.

It's All a Complete Fabrication

Frank writes...

One of the great things about the CA&E wood cars is that there isn't that much steel in them. I'm not much of a woodworker but I'm definitely no steelworker. However, we discovered that the 18 needs a couple of missing pieces of steel replaced in its rear coupler carrier, so it was time to fabricate some new parts. Enter Richard Schauer, who unlike me is quite familiar with all things steel-related.

We needed to create something that looks like a very small table and will function as a wear plate for the 18's rear coupler (keep reading and all will be made clear). After Joel procured a new steel plate and I cut it into an "H" shape, Richard and I started with the blacksmithing. Above, Richard heats up the piece of metal with the torch.

Nick Espevik snapped this photo of the next step: while Richard keeps the heat on, I hit the thing with a big hammer. After enough hits, we have a couple of "ears" at a nice 90-degree angle. Time for the other side.

For this step, Richard gave me a primer in torch operation and we traded places. Here I am heating up the steel before he goes after it with the hammer. Once we had all four "ears" bent over, we let it cool for a while. Then, it was time to weld on the doubler plate that actually functions as the wear surface.

I hadn't welded anything in 20+ years, but Richard gave me a crash course in MIG welding and I gave it a shot. He took the above photo, too. Fortunately, neither the strength nor the appearance of this weld is too critical.

Voila! The original wear plate off the front end of the car is on the left, and our new fabrication is on the right. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Richard for all his help in making this!

And now you may be asking yourself, "what is this thing for, anyway?" Or you may just be saying "this is boring." But ignoring that second comment, I'll explain that this wear plate supports the shank of the 18's radial Tomlinson coupler as it sits in the coupler carrier. The above photo shows the front coupler of the car after I had jacked up and reinstalled the original wear plate.

Shown in a closeup view are the coupler shank (red star), the binder casting bolted in place across the bottom of the coupler carrier (green arrow), and the wear plate sitting atop that (blue arrow). The coupler shank doesn't sit directly on the wear plate. There's a C-channel (yellow arrow) that creates a void for the control cables going to the electrical connection buttons alongside the coupler head (the cables are behind the yellow arrow).

Now, here's the rear coupler after I jacked it up and installed the newly made wear plate.

Notice anything different? That C-channel is missing - and until Sunday, so was the wear plate. The rear coupler has just been sitting on the coupler carrier binder with the control cables serving as a cushion. That's not great for the cables, plus the coupler sits a bit too low, so that's why we're working on fixing this. The next step will be to install a new C-channel. Stay tuned.

I also made some more progress on the 63.

The pinstripes across the doors received a first coat of maroon, as shown above; one more coat, plus a little touch-up on the ivory stripe where the masking tape took off some of the paint, will complete the belt rail striping. After dinner, I also climbed up on the roof and spot-primed all the locations where the paint had chipped off and revealed bare metal. Fortunately, the roof paint is mostly in relatively good shape, just faded.

As usual, plenty of other projects were in progress. Mikey and Jimmy were both rebuilding J-governors in the car shop. Zach and others brought the Electroliner out of the barn and dropped a faulty MG set so we can send it to the motor shop for rebuilding, though the train was already back in the barn when I arrived.

Late in the afternoon, after revenue service ended, the line train emerged from Barn 6 and headed out onto the railroad. Shown above, Jimmy and Good Nick are riding the head end of the shove while Zach (unfortunately obscured by a line pole) runs the steeplecab. Richard, Mikey, Jim W., and a visitor from San Francisco whose name I have managed to forget were also along. The crew spent a few hours checking and tightening hardware along the main line west of Johnson Siding.

Finally, I stopped by Nick Kallas's office to find him engaged in the quixotic task of cleaning his desk. He showed me a 1933 broadsheet flyer about the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. It was probably 20 pages long and included plenty of ads, including a couple of intriguing ones.

Here's an ad for the Hotel Baker in St. Charles, which of course is still there, advertising interurban service. The Geneva Branch of the CA&E wouldn't be abandoned for another four years.

And here's a nice ad for the Surface Lines, including a picture of their then-most modern cars, the Peter Witts, or "Sedans" as railfans called them. A year later, the 7001 and then 4001 would arrive, displacing the existing fleet of red cars as the most modern (if not necessarily the most useful) equipment on the system.

Sunday Update

Frank writes...

The weather was gorgeous on Sunday, sunny and in the 70s. I had hoped to roll vermilion/orange onto Shaker Heights 63, but when I stopped by the paint store to pick up the paint I'd ordered, I was told it's back-ordered and hadn't come in. Rats. So, instead, I decided to paint more seats in the 18.

I only got two more seat backs done; they take about an hour each, not counting opening up the car, masking, and cleanup. Above, the rearmost seat on the left side of the car with the cushion removed and masking applied.

Here's a photo just after starting. The fresh paint certainly makes a big difference.

And here it is, done. That was as exciting as watching paint dry, wasn't it?

Here's a general view of the back half of the car. There's another cross-seat out of sight at bottom left that had already been painted, and the second seat in this section is visible with masking tape; I painted that seat back after taking the photo. About one-third of all the cross seats in the car now have their backs painted (and all but one of the cushions were previously painted by Frank Kehoe). After doing all this, I spent some time cleaning up stuff, including moving the unused spare parts from the Eclipse fender project back into storage.

So, what else was happening? A few of the regulars were out of town and others were helping with Diesel Days. I didn't get any photos because, well, they're diesels. But I did spot this intriguing sight in Barn 4: car 1808 in the background, Tim's current "big project," is next to car 1268 in the foreground. Both cars have their windows out. What the devil could he be up to? You'll just have to tune in next time to find out.

And an unexpected highlight was that after leaving the museum and calling my wife, she reminded me to pull over somewhere without a lot of light pollution to check out the Perseid meteor shower and the northern lights. I was rewarded with a single meteor that streaked overhead and took the above photo of the northern lights from the shoulder of Coral Road.

The Heat is On

Frank writes...

Sunday was warm, in the 90s, but despite the heat and a later-than-usual arrival, I was able to get in a good deal of painting. Setting up a box fan in the 18 was certainly a life saver.

My first priority was to paint more of the seats in the 18. They were painted a kind of straw color in service, but over many years the paint has partially worn away and is very dingy. As seen above, a fresh coat of paint makes a huge difference! I did the two seats shown here with green masking tape. It takes time to work the paint into all the crevices in the rattan, so each seat back takes about an hour.

The colors here are washed out because I'd already turned off the lights and pulled the pole, but four of the five cross seats in the rear left corner of the car are now completely repainted. And all but one of the cushions in the entire car were painted last fall by Frank Kehoe; you can see one in the left foreground with a stubborn bolt (yes, these cushions are bolted in) that I haven't yet been able to remove for fresh paint. Anyway, the point here is that we plan to use the 18 in service this year, so we want to spruce up the interior for the public. The car is planned for operation this coming Sunday, the 23rd - don't miss it!

After dinner, I moved next door and put more orange paint on the 63. The job this time was taking a brush and going around all the edges on the front doors, as shown in the leftmost leaf here. I didn't get a photo at the end of the work, but you can imagine what it looks like! Over to the left of the door, it's obvious that we'll need at least one, maybe two more coats of orange; but that said, I'm not worried about obscuring that "westbound entrance" lettering because the car keeps that lettering in the orange livery, so I'm just going to go back over that with black lettering enamel.

In other news, the 714 got inspected, a brake cylinder packing cup was replaced on the 3142 late Saturday evening, and progress was made on improvements to the substation. Also, as seen above, the first freight car has made its way back to Yard 4 East.

Back in Action

Frank writes...

Sunday was warm and sunny, so my first job for the day was testing the 18's air compressor. The car's compressor has had the habit of flashing over, but only when it's cold out - as long as it's above 50 degrees, give or take, it seems to do okay. The last time we tried it, back in December, the compressor had been left cold for a while and sure enough, it flashed over. We meggered it and inspected it, and there was no obvious damage, but there's only one way to know for sure.

Fortunately, we're in luck! With a new fuse, the pump started and ran like a charm. We took the car around the streetcar line just to check everything out - including the new Eclipse fender and new whistle - and there didn't seem to be any issues. Many thanks to Nick and Jimmy for their help with operations and switching. With luck, we will be able to bring the 18 out on Sunday of Trolley Weekend in a few weeks. Mark your calendar!

After dinner, I put some more orange paint on car 63. This time it was brush painting around the edges on the center doors. This is pretty slow work, so I only had enough time to do the center doors, but I'll get to the front doors next, and then after that I'll do the larger flat areas with a trim roller. It's coming along.

In other news, what's going on in Barn 6? No, we aren't running a Christmas in June event - this is a test setup for some additional Christmas light displays being considered for Happy Holiday Railway in December. Stay tuned...

The shop regulars were working on a few different things, including running fiber optic cable in the substation. Over in the bus department, they switched out one of the "tracks" in the Hoffman Garage. Here we see the ConnCo bus we acquired nine years ago from MoT on the left, with the Chicago RTA bus on the right. The ConnCo bus has had its left side repainted and you can see some fresh silver paint on the roof. Both of these buses were towed out; the RTA bus runs but is in the midst of some work.

This thing did run itself out under power - our CSL White 798 was the first bus IRM acquired for historic preservation, I believe, as opposed to the raft of Milwaukee buses we acquired back in the 1960s just because they were there (and also as spare engines for the old generator shed).

This bus is in excellent cosmetic shape on the outside and is reasonably nice on the inside, but needs some mechanical work.

And then there was rarely seen Milwaukee 269, a rare St. Louis Car Company-built trolley bus. I'm tempted to say that there are only four SLCC trolley buses preserved, and of them this is the oldest and also the only one of this body style [EDIT: that’s not quite right -  check out the comments].