Saturday Operation

Saturday provided us with nice weather and an excellent crowd of visitors, all of whom seemed to be having a good time.  Mainline trains included the 1630 pulling the coach train, the wooden L cars 1797 and 1268, and the 36 and 309.  Then the 749 was running the Union shuttle all day, plus the 4391 and 3142 on the streetcar loop.  What more could you want?

I was too busy to take many pictures, but here's what we've got:

I got to run the train for a couple of trips.  Photo by John Csoka.  As often happens, I got to meet some of our regular blog readers.

Frank and Vivian paid a visit and went for a ride.

Next operation will be on July 3rd.  You won't want to miss it.

Frank adds...

A couple of interesting things Vivian and I happened upon during our wandering around:

Over at the bus barn, Richard and Jerry had towed the CTA articulated trolley bus, the "Queen Mary," out of the barn as part of the re-shuffling project. I couldn't tell you whether I've ever seen this thing outside.

And then late in the day, Good Nick and Mikey brought the 18 over to the inspection pit. Stay tuned!

Extravaganza!

Frank writes...

Sunday was the 28th Annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza, and as usual it was a great event with a lot to see. There were something like 500 cars and other vehicles on display, plus we were running a full schedule on the railroad. Dispatcher Dan Buck did an excellent job of keeping everything moving like clockwork; for most of the day there were four trains on the main line (two three-car electric trains, the Zephyr, and the steam train), an 'L' train running shuttle trips out of 50th, and three streetcars on the car line.

It's not often that we run three-car CA&E wood trains in revenue service, and usually when we do it's for the Trolley Pageant or Showcase Weekend. But last year for VTE we just had two-car trains on the railroad and they were turning customers away, so we figured the capacity was needed. And we were right! The train was 36-308-319, with the 309 left behind since we're trying to limit its use until we can get its motor armature bearings replaced (you can help!). When we left the barn it was overcast but the sky mostly cleared by noon.

I was conductor on the wood train while Greg Ceurvorst was the motorman. You may note a slightly unusual destination sign... that's an homage to Geoff Thorne and his crew at Acton Depot who are working on London Underground Q-stock cars. When we first went into service we left on our first trip from 50th Avenue, but after that - once the 2200s went into service as the shuttle train - we ran through Station 1 for the rest of the day. The other electric train on the main line was a three-car train of 4000s, with Bob Opal running and Thomas Slater conductor.

We ran a total of six trips and the first five were very full - certainly more people than we could ever have fit into two cars. The Zephyr was turning people away most trips and I heard that even the steam train had to turn away some customers on one trip. Overall it was a great crowd and I think that the vast majority of visitors went away happy. It was also great to see the railroad running so smoothly; thanks to Dan and all of the operating crews, trains were leaving right on schedule and we had several running meets at Johnson Siding.

One problem we had was crews: we just didn't have enough people sign up. Besides motorman Greg, I was the only crewman on the CA&E train. So in order to have all three cars open I had to draft people as car hosts. Victor Humphreys helped out for our first trip and Mark Hoffman for our second. For the following three trips, Blake Bushue from the Steam Shop (on the right in the above photo) served as car host and watched the passengers in the 36. His help was invaluable - thanks Blake! Jeff Calendine from the Steam Shop, on the left in the above photo, was going to help with a trip too but by the time of our last trip the crowd had died down enough that we only needed one car open.

With four trips on the main line, each train ran hourly which meant we didn't have much time between trips. I barely had time to snap a photo of some of the cars arrayed behind the depot.

What a nice looking train! The B&G crew recently spread some gravel on the old bookstore car site and set out some baggage wagons, so that makes for a nice display. It was a hot day, with temperatures in the 90s in the afternoon, so walking across this pad was kind of like our own little slice of Orange Empire. But I digress. The only hiccup in operations was in the afternoon when the sub dropped, but Richard sped over there and got it reset in less than ten minutes. It was a reminder that this was a much more common occurrence in the old days; even 10 or 15 years ago I feel like the sub would drop out (at least once) on more special event days than it didn't. Nowadays it's a rare thing.

We put the train away at around 5pm. For more destination sign silliness, during the last couple of trips the 319 wore a destination sign which is a favorite of our friend from the mountain states, David Wilkins.

At the end of the day I found the 68 on the pit, where the crew was working on rebuilding some brake linkage parts. The car does run but isn't quite ready for revenue service, however Joel and the other car shop guys are working to fix that.

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.

Charter This Car

 Today the Central Electric Railfans' Association paid a visit to IRM, with chartered trips on several unique pieces of equipment, and a good time was had by all.  This "CERA" has now been in existence three times longer than the real CERA, so that's quite an accomplishment. 

 

Anyway, one car they requested was CA&E 36, so that was brought out for a trip.  We parked the car over at 50th Avenue until the fans were ready to load, and after a couple of photo ops went out on the main line for a trip, including a photo runby out at Seeman.  I was too busy to take any pictures after leaving 50th, but I'm hoping we'll get photo submissions and/or links to videos on YouTube from the participants.

  Things went well.  David Streeter was the conductor, and Frank came along as a technical consultant, since some minor grid problems had appeared.  But those can be fixed over the winter.

After the revenue service was over, we had some time to put the car on the pit lead so Frank could continue needle-chipping the side sill, and I helped with wire-wheeling.  Bit by bit, it's getting done.

Anyway, thanks to David Sadowski and all the other members for making this trip possible.  It was a blast!  And IRM's charter department has operators standing by to take your call.

Frank adds...

After the above photo was taken I got in another hour or two of needle chipping and made it down to the #1 end bolster.  Then I ran the 36 back to the barn.  The car might come out of the barn for switch moves in the next few weeks but I'd expect that Sunday closed out another successful year of operations for the wood fleet.

One other interesting sight was the above six-car train of high-performance CTA cars.  The near two cars are the most recently acquired electric cars at the museum, the 2400-series Boeing-built cars.  But take a good look at the furthest two cars, our 2000-series 1964-vintage Pullman 'L' cars.  Right after this photo was taken the 2000s were put into Barn 2 for the winter, from whence - if all goes according to plan - they will emerge in early 2015 in a shiny new coat of 1960s CTA Mint Green and Alpine White.  It will be quite a sight!

The Crew

Frank writes...

I didn't get very many photos but I did manage to have someone take a couple of photos of our crew for Saturday.  Below left, most of the Hicks Car Works blog crew: David Wilkins, Randy Hicks and yours truly, Frank Hicks.  David is in his CTA uniform for service on the streetcar line.  And at right is the crew of the wood train for daytime operations, with Larry Stone on the left.  As a newer volunteer this was Larry's first experience with the annual members dinner and night operations but he stuck around and was a tremendous help for our nighttime trip.  A good time was had by all!

Showcase Saturday from Chuck Amstein

Here, as promised, are the pictures of Saturday operations by our staff photographer Chuck Amstein.  Usual restrictions apply: these images are copyrighted by the owner and may not be reproduced or sold without his express written consent. 

  

In the morning, the really long coach train was pulled by one of our newest locomotives, 1848.

The dynamometer shows the engine pulling 30,000 drawbar lbs, plus the throttle status.

Max makes some quick repairs to the trolley bus/car line overhead at Electric Park.

The steam team pulled the Decapod over onto the wye during supper, so they could watch it while they were eating.  Otherwise it might walk away.

Neon!

We're loading passengers at Depot St.  The rear of the train has two kerosene markers and the tail lamp; the front has markers, a headlight, and the dash light.  Joe helped us get them all ready.

Three-car North Shore train: 251, 714, 749.

The IT train: 277, 518, and 234.

And the CTA 2200's.

Rain, rain, rain.