Summer-Like Sunday

Frank writes...

The wood train was out on Sunday enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Many thanks to Zach, who ran the train for the day, and Ashtin, who worked as conductor.

I snapped the above photo as the train was returning from its 3:00 trip. The Museum was offering "Take the Throttle" opportunities throughout the day, so three or four of the trips were operated (under Zach's supervision) by visitors who purchased TTT trips.

Joel, Matthew, and Good Nick were switching in the yards, I believe to get Charles City Western 300 into a spot where it can conveniently be retrieved sometime soon. We had a compressor armature rebuilt for the 300, so once that's installed, the locomotive will hopefully be back in service. As for me, I briefly helped Joel install a new spring on one of the 604's trolley bases. Above, all heads turn as the CA&E train makes its way back into the yards at the end of the day. That's Jimmy, Joel, and Will up on the roof.

Always a beautiful sight!

The locomotive for the switch move was ComEd 4, shown above moving the 1702. After the switch move, most of the guys headed out to the main line on the 604 (pulled by the 4). They were out there for a couple of hours doing line work. I helped Joel close up the CA&E train and then did some cleaning and paint touch-up on Shaker Heights 63, but didn't take any photos.

While I was at it, I snapped a photo of the Green Bay & Western car. It's starting to turn Pullman Green, giving us a taste of how sharp this car is going to look when it's done.

We were also sent some photos by our intrepid freelance photographer, Jeron Glander, who snapped these images on Saturday (which was Bus Day) and Sunday.

Above, here's Zach in the cab of the 319 on Sunday. In front of the car are two visitors from the Halton County Radial Railway near Toronto, Adam and Braxton, with Jeron on the right.

Here's a nice interior shot of the new bus garage, which just had its floor poured. It still needs electrical installation work before we can get occupancy, but this building will allow us to get all of our buses and trolley buses into indoor storage.

Here's a Dayton lineup along Railroad Avenue during Bus Day. The Skoda in front was built in 1998, while the Flyer behind it dates to 1977. IRM has three generations of Dayton trolley buses, but our 1947 Pullman isn't running.

And CSL 3407, our 1944 White gasoline bus, was out during Bus Day carrying passengers, possibly for the first time in many years - I'm not sure. Wes Lloyd (pictured) was driving it and has been working on getting the cantankerous thing working better.

Finally, thanks to Zach for forwarding a great drone video taken Sunday that shows the CA&E train in operation, along with the demonstration freight train that was run:

And this fascinating video was shot by Steven on the Saturday of Museum Showcase Weekend and shows the #2 truck on the 319. Pretty interesting! You'll note that this car doesn't have a circle iron for the brake rods like the other cars; there's a beam over the motor, near the truck bolster, that the brake rigging pulls to set the brakes. You can also clearly see the cable going to the truck to connect to the third rail shoes, though of course that's disconnected in the electrical cabinet.

See if you can ID all four of our meets - and figure out the two spots we lost a pole on this trip!

A Sunset Lines Wednesday

Thanks for these photos go to our intrepid cub reporter Fred Zimmerman, who was the weekday motorman on Wednesday this week and expressed an interest in taking the 319 out instead of one of the usual steel interurban cars. It was nice to see the car out on the railroad in a slightly different role.

Fred said the car ran well and was a hit with the visitors, so hopefully we'll see it out more often during the week. If you're reading this and 1) are a weekday motorman, 2) are qualified on the CA&E woods, and 3) are interested in running the 319 on "non-rain" weekdays, email Joel to inquire.

Sunset Shift

Due to the sudden change in plans, as Frank mentioned above, I took the second shift yesterday.  On the whole it worked out well, and  I have plenty of pictures from yesterday's Sunset Shift to prove it.

We sold out the available on-line tickets, and pretty much had a capacity crowd on every trip because of our reduced capacity in conformity with the current pandemic guidelines.  People generally were very cooperative and enjoyed the activities.

The Shay was pulling the coach train for the second shift, and steam is always a big hit with the visitors, of course.

In rapid transit news, as Frank mentioned the 1754 was out and ran a few trips around the carline for members and guests, since we don't have high-level loading facilities there.

This is another stunning restoration.

On the main line the four-car 4000 train was operating.

And then we brought out the 309 and 319, as the sun was setting.   Rich Schauer was the motorman and Greg Kepka the conductor.

 I was too busy to get many night-time photos, but there were lots of people who stayed around to the end, most of them photographers.  I'm hoping to get more submissions of after-dark pictures of the operation.

As usual, a good time was had by all.  We'll be running again Sunday night, even if it rains, and on Monday.  So you still have a chance to come on out and join in the festivities.   Happy Labor Day!

First shift, second shift

Frank writes...

I realize I'm just piling on with the written and photographic accounts of a great Labor Day Weekend but I figured I'd put my two cents in anyway, even if I can't claim to rival my father's verbal prowess or Chuck's photographic talent. Anyway, Saturday found me running the 308 and 309 from 10am to 3pm for the first shift, of which I captured a pretty nice photo on Station Track 1 in the morning. On Saturday my father was working as conductor.

It's always nice to see these two cars out; they're the "old reliables" of the CA&E fleet. For a number of years, from 2003 until the Trolleyville cars started to come on line in 2010, this was the only usable two-car train that IRM was capable of fielding. They saw a lot of service during those years and it's gratifying to see them out on the railroad now.

And then Sunday I was conductor (Greg Ceurvorst was motorman, my father trainman) on the newcomers of our CA&E wood fleet, the 36 and 319 acquired in 2009, for the 3pm-9pm second shift. They're shown above on Station Track 2, which is pretty rare mileage for electric cars at IRM. But for Sunday evening operations there were four trains out of which three were railroad trains - the Zephyr, the steam coach train, and the C&NW bi-levels - so platform space was at a premium.

 We also ended up on Station Track 2 just as it was getting dark, so we were all the way at the east end of the track when it came time to put out the marker lanterns. We electric guys forget how long track 2 is - when you're down at the east end you're a lot closer to the diesel shop than you are to the depot! Anyway, I happened to be snapping a photo when the pump on the 319 started up and caught the flash of sparks shown above. With so few electrics operating on this track, and what with all of the diesel and steam engine exhaust being shot into the trolley wire, the wire gets pretty dirty and results in quite the light show when an electric car does finally make it down the track.

It's always fun to run at night, and for the last few years we've had four CA&E marker lanterns, meaning we can put a marker at each corner of the train and just switch them from red to white when changing ends rather than hauling markers the length of the train twice each trip. The gentleman shown above, talking to my father from the ground, was a visitor who came up to chat after our last night trip. He was pretty surprised when told that the flickering lanterns were not cleverly disguised LED's but were, in fact, kerosene-fired lanterns. I like to think it's those little authentic touches that make the difference.

Sunset Lines

Frank writes...

This weekend was the first time, to my knowledge, that IRM has ever been open at night for regular train operations.  (The museum has been open at night in recent years for special events such as Train of Terror and the Zephyr dinner trains.)  Saturday night it was the North Shore cars running the 3pm-9:30pm shift but Sunday night the evening shift fell to the cars from the Sunset Lines.

My father and I got out to the museum a bit after lunchtime and switched the order of the cars.  The plan had originally been to run the 36 and 309, but another grid failure on the former precluded that.  We coupled up the 309 and 319, our two four-motor cars, and went into service about at about 3:00.  The North Shore cars were put back into the barn but the other electric service train, the CTA 2200s, ran a few more trips before they retired about 5:00.

The 1630 with its coach train and the Zephyr were also operating, however the Zephyr went out of service around 4:00 because it was running two dinner train trips (4:30 and 6:45 if memory serves) and around the same time the 1630 tied up for the evening.  Fortunately a decent crowd stuck around into the evening, and we ran a trip every hour - six total - with a pretty good load of passengers each time. Dispatcher Harold Krewer had his hands full at times but handled the unusual combination of train movements with aplomb.

Our first three trip were effectively normal daytime trips, but our 6:40 trip returned to East Union as the sun was setting and we promptly mounted headlights and kerosene markers for our 7:40 trip.  Fortunately the markers worked perfectly this evening.  We had a relatively busy trip at 7:40, probably 45-50 passengers between the two cars as darkness settled.  Our last trip left around 9pm, taking on a few passengers from the last Zephyr dinner train of the night, and even that late we had maybe 25-30 passengers aboard.  Greg Kepka and Richard Schauer helped us put the train away, returning to the barn around 10pm.

I don't know what the official take on the success of this was, but it sure was a lot of fun and the attendees seemed to really appreciate how unique the experience was.  Riding these trains at night is quite different than during the daytime; I've always thought it was a much more immersive "time machine" kind of experience.  Overall the event seemed to go quite well and we had a lot of very nice comments from our visitors.  Hopefully we can do it again next year!

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the other things happening on the property.  Jeff Brady was hard at work on the Michigan car; as shown above, the new side sill on the left side under the baggage door has been test-fitted and before long should be ready for riveting.  There's also been more progress on the new barns, though unfortunately I neglected to get a photo (d'oh!).  Barn 14 now has siding on the west end and the end of Barn 13 has been framed out.  And the car line was busy as well with CTA 3142, the "Hornet" and the open car all making the rounds.

Set Up Running

Frank writes...

I headed out to IRM on Sunday planning on doing some needle-chipping on the 36, but as it happened that didn't happen for a couple of different reasons.

This was the first: the inspection pit lead, where I had planned to spot the 36 to work on needle-chipping, was ocupado.  The "Highliners" have arrived!  A four-car set of ex-Metra, ex-Illinois Central double-deck MU cars was delivered to the museum on Thursday.  Cars 1534 and 1630 (I feel like I've seen that number somewhere before but I can't put my finger on it), built by St. Louis Car Company, and cars 1637 and 1645, built by Bombardier, are the four cars chosen for acquisition.

A crew consisting of Richard Schauer, Greg Kepka and others has already started working on the cars, beginning with the 1534, at the west end of the string.  Above, Greg, "Doodlebug Dan" Mulvihill and Joel Ahrendt (in the red hat) are contemplating the motorman's position on the 1534.  Richard and Greg started charging the car's batteries, which were dead, and were able to get the motor-alternator set running - at least until I stopped by, at which point the MA set promptly died for reasons unknown.  I'm going on the theory that my arrival was not a causative factor in this, but who knows?

Early evening found Greg scraping some blue spray paint off of the Metra emblems on the cars which had, for some reason, been covered over.  This seemed to be going pretty well until someone reminded him that he has seven more to go after this if he's going to do all four cars!  I believe that the intention is to keep two of the four cars (one from each builder) in the permanent collection and to eventually dispose of the other two, but the decision as to which cars will be saved has not yet been made.  Richard said that last year a comprehensive survey of the condition of the 70 or so of the 84 "Highliners" then in service was made, along with input from Metra shop personnel, and we picked four of the cars in the best shape.  So we've got a good starting point.

And the second reason that I didn't get around to doing needle-chipping was that when I arrived on the property at about 1pm the wood cars, which were scheduled to operate, were still in the barn.  A misunderstanding had led to the North Shore cars being taken out instead.  I enlisted Joel's help and we brought the 319 and 308 out of Barn 8, down the connector track and around the car line to the west wye.  When we brought the cars into Station Track 1 the plan was to simply hand them over to Jeff Obarek, the revenue motorman, but there was actually a big crowd at the museum Sunday so instead we were enlisted to run a revenue trip.  I fear Joel and I made for a sorry sight in our work clothes, but the trip was packed and the passengers seemed happy.

After our return the train was handed over to Jeff and his crew, who made two more trips.  It was a beautiful day and between the steam coach train and the interurbans all of the trains seemed rather full.

By this time it was late afternoon and I still had a switch move to do, so I pulled the 36 out of Barn 8 and set it out on the connector track - taking a few minutes to snap a portrait.  Unfortunately this side of the car has neither been lettered nor had a second coat of blue applied, but it still looks pretty sharp, especially with the newly-painted roof.

When the revenue train was done for the day, Jeff brought it onto the ladder track where we uncoupled the 319 and 308 and put the latter car over on track 83 (again, after a quick portrait).  Then I ran the 36 into 84 on top of the 319 and coupled them up; the two Brookins cars will form our revenue service train for July 3rd, which is "CA&E Day" (the anniversary of suspension of passenger service).  Right now the plan is also to have two separate two-car trains running for the Trolley Pageant on the 4th, the "black roof train" of the 36 and 319 and the "grey roof train" of the 308 and 309.

So I ended up operating all day instead of needle-chipping.  Oh, the horror!  How will I ever get over my disappointment?

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is the real start of our main operating season, and everything seems to have gone very well, in spite of the (not unusual) imperfect weather.  Saturday was very well attended.  My wife and I showed up for the Zephyr dinner train, and I'll post about that later.  Today (Monday) started out with some heavy rain, but it cleared up quickly and we had a much better crowd than I had feared.  We had a lot of trains operating: CA&E 308 and 319, the Zephyr, the 1630, two CTA 4000's, and the CTA 2200's in shuttle service to Jefferson St.   And the 4391 and 3142 on the car line.  What more could you ask?

The 319 with its new roof was in service for the first time since 2013.  And not even any dewirements!  However, since I was the conductor, I had some time to look around, and came up with a list of minor items to fix, such as missing ticket clips and things like that.  But no major problems.

The 308 is sporting our nice 48-star flags.  Jeff Obarek was the motorman and Joel Ahrendt was the trainman, and we worked together efficiently.   Sorry, no picture of the crew mugging for the camera this time. 

Of course, the steam engine is always a major attraction.  I'm usually too busy to get a picture when there's a bigger crowd around, but it was certainly popular.  And then of course there was the Zephyr too!

 And then my old friend Ray Cook showed up; here he is talking to Nick during a trip on the 319.  He finally retired after 49 years of running trains for the IC, Metra, etc.  mostly on the electric division.  It was great to be able to talk to him.

Showcase Report

Saturday of Showcase Weekend was a big success and a lot of fun for everyone, I think.  The weather was perfect and we had a very good crowd of visitors.  We were running the four-car CA&E train, as advertised, mostly just to show we could do it, but on nearly every trip we had three cars full of passengers, more than I expected.  As usual, there were long-time members visiting from out of town, such as Steve Iversen, Randy and Betty Anderson, and others.  I was too busy to take any pictures, but lots of others were taking pictures, and I'm sure we'll get some good submissions.  Dan Mulvihill was our trainman, along with Frank and myself.

Everything went well until our fourth trip at 1:30.  When we got to the east end of the line and changed ends, the train refused to go west.  Diagnosing the problem was not easy, but we tried various things and determined that at least the two cars on the west end would move by themselves.  The situation was made worse by the difficulties in communicating with the dispatcher from Kishwaukee Grove.  Usually we don't have to call from there, and for a while we could hear him clearly but he couldn't hear us.  Finally we got permission to put all the passengers into the 309 and 36, and return to the depot.  (Frank stayed behind with the 308 and 319.)  Here we were met by Rod and Joe, with tools and a spare control jumper.  When we got back to the east end, it didn't take long to determine that the problem was just a defective control jumper, and with a good one in place, the train operated normally.  This caused some significant disruptions to the service, but our dispatcher, Bob Opal, is able to handle stressful situations in a manner all his own, and in the end all was well.

Then for supper we had Fay's Barbeque, which was excellent as usual, followed by night-time operations.  Harold Krewer was the night trick dispatcher, and kept things moving admirably.  When I get some pictures sent in, maybe there will be more to tell. 

 Frank adds...

As my father mentions, it was a fun day.  I missed the first trip of the four-car train, but that afforded me the opportunity to catch the above picture of the train passing Spaulding Tower coming into the station.  Boy, what a great sight!  I was on the crew for the next couple of trips and got to talk with some visiting friends including Ray and Bill Burmaster from Mid-Continent.  Ray told me an interesting story: in 1962 he had tried to purchase a set of rattan seats from the CA&E to install in their Copper Range passenger car.  They had evidently already scrapped most of the "shorties" but agreed to the sale.  Then, at the last minute, they said they couldn't offer the seats any more because they'd been able to sell the entire car - the 36, sold to Gerald Brookins in Cleveland.  Mid-Continent bought a set of North Shore seats instead and just recently they made their way to IRM too as spares for our cars.

Our conversation was cut short by the aforementioned mechanical problems, but after a relaxing spell spent at Kishwaukee Grove I was rescued (rescue train seen above) and the four-car train ran back without issue.  Dinner was great and I got to go for trips on the Zephyr and CTA 4000s afterwards.  I daresay a good time was had by all!