Bill Wulfert's Bus Day Bash

 Luckily, I have friends who can usually provide pictures of anything I missed -- in this case, Bus Day!

The 972 has structural problems which need to be fixed before it can be used in regular service again, but if you don't go very far very fast, it's OK.

Thus, here we can have the best of old Milwaukee transit on display:

So thanks, Bill!

1970s Photos from Bill Wulfert

Bill Wulfert has supplied some photos he took in the 1970s of the electric collection as it was at that time. IRM has come a long way!  These photos are copyright Bill Wulfert and may not be copied or reproduced.

It's 1973 and the newly acquired 1754, in the left foreground, is receiving a coat of green and orange paint to cover its work service yellow. Bill points out that the car was initially painted with Pullman green paint, which is too dark, but before too long this was corrected. Behind it is the 1797.

And here's a better view of the 1797 on the left and the 1268 in the center. Off to the right is the 253, which at this time was probably still privately owned. I believe the cars are on the "caboose track," roughly on the alignment of the current streetcar line in the area of the Yard 4 East and tail track switches.

At one time IRM owned five North Shore MD cars (well, six if you count the 202). Two of them, the 236 and 237, were scrapped and the parts used to keep the other North Shore cars in service. Here we see the 236 being scrapped in 1973 or 1974. It appears that in addition to stripping the siding off the car, most of the roof has been torn off. We suspect this car was “dismantled” using a clamshell bucket.

Here's another view. I believe this is looking northwest, and the 236 is sitting on what is now the south track of Barn 2. Those reefers off to the left are on the aforementioned caboose track, about where the Yard 3 switch on the streetcar line is today. At the far right is the 966; peeking out between it and the 236 is Santa Fe combine 2302, which was in wretched condition and was infamously traded away for a keg of spikes; and beyond the 236 are the two Baldies we scrapped in 1974, 4215 and 4216. In the foreground are probably the remains of the three 1700-series wood 'L' cars that were cut up in 1973, CTA 1770, 1775, and 1784.

Here we're looking east down the caboose track again. The 'L' car to the right is the 1797, and beyond it is the 253, possibly in about the same location it was in the first photo of this post. Down at the end of the caboose track, on what today is the tail track, are CB&Q caboose 14073 (apparently it was BN green when acquired!) and a North Shore caboose, either 1002 or 1004. To the left, sitting in Yard 2 within the modern-day footprint of Barn 2, can be seen the corner of the 966; the 354; and Sand Springs 68. Visible over the 68 is some of the network of equipment over the substation.

Now we fast-forward about 10 years to the early 1980s. This is Barn 4, of course, with the 65 sitting on track 42. In the foreground is Muni 1183, ex-Kansas City 767, a car which spent years eating road salt in Toronto. Badly rusted out, it was scrapped by IRM in 1987 after we acquired identical KCPS car 755, an ex-Philadelphia car in much better shape that is now the subject of a major restoration effort. But car 1183 did (briefly) run at IRM. In the left background, you can barely make out Cornwall 14 sitting in front of Barn 2 - which was, of course, an electric barn until about 1993 - and behind the van on the right is the oil shed, with a tarped body behind it that's likely Michigan Electric 28. The photo says that on the left is Bill McGregor.

The 24 When It Was the S-111

Bill Wulfert was kind enough to provide a series of photos from his collection that were taken by Illinois Electric Railway Museum member Eddie Mizerocki in the late 1950s. These are photos of CTA work car S-111, previously CRT 1024 and originally Northwestern Elevated Railroad 24, at a time when IERM was considering acquiring the car. It's clear that its condition was far from pristine, but fortunately it was good enough that the museum elected to go through with the acquisition. The rest is history. These photos are copyright Bill Wulfert and may not be copied or reproduced.

Early Chicago Streetcars from the Bill Wulfert Collection

Thanks to Bill Wulfert for providing these fascinating images from the early days of Chicago streetcars. These photos are copyright Bill Wulfert and may not be copied or reproduced.

North Chicago Street Railroad 402 was one of Chicago's large, double-truck, semi-enclosed grip cars. Unfortunately, I'm not sure who built it or when. The rooftop sign reads "Clark St / Lincoln Park and City Limits" and the sign over the end window reads "Limits."

Passengers jam every flat surface on a Chicago City Railway cable train bound for the Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Chicago City Railway 1896 was a single-trucker built by Pullman in 1895 on order #836 (for comparison, IRM's ex-Chicago Union Traction single-trucker was built at almost the exact same time on Pullman order #840). In 1908 it was renumbered CCRy 2297 and the following year it was sold for scrap.

It's 1906 on Clark Street in the Loop and Chicago City Railways double-truckers 2762 (St. Louis, 1903) and 2609 (St. Louis, 1902) are passing each other. Both of these cars lasted well into the CSL era and were retired in the late 1940s.

Chicago Union Traction (CUT) 4264 was an ex-West Chicago Street Railroad car built by Brownell in 1890 and motorized in 1896. It was scrapped before CSL took over. The rooftop sign reads "Grand Central Station / Harrison St - State St - Kedzie Av."

CUT 4392 was one of a large group of cars built by American in 1892 for West Chicago Street Railroad. This was one of a large batch of single-truckers retired in the late 1910s, but retained by the CSL for a quarter century as an "emergency reserve" and not scrapped until 1933-1934. IRM's 1895 single-trucker was, of course, also part of this reserve fleet.

IRM's "Bowling Alley" car, CSL 1467, looked like this when it was new. Car 4527 was one of 80 large double-truck cars built just after CUT was created, and was one of the first cars built at the then-new West Shops complex. This particular car was never modernized like 1467 was, with longer platforms, newer trucks and motors, and PAYE fare collection. Instead, it was sold in 1916 to Gary Railways, where it became that company's number 603. It was scrapped in 1927.

If this car looks familiar, it should - this is what the "Matchbox" looked like when new. Differences include spoked wheels and different truck side frames; the type shown was too weak and the truck was redesigned with a horizontal reinforcing rib. CUT 4626 was built by St. Louis in 1903, renumbered 4726 in 1910, and later became CSL 1197. It was retired in 1937.

This is really a fascinating builder's photo - CUT 4724 was one of five cars built by Brill in 1903 and originally numbered 4724-4728. They were later renumbered 4625-4629 and then ended up as CSL 1424-1428. Pretty early on, they were rebuilt with longer platforms and given ends identical to the St. Louis-built "Matchboxes," so in later years they looked much more like "Matchboxes" with narrower side windows. This is the only photo I can recall seeing that shows one of these cars with its original "rubber stamp" Brill ends. This car, as CSL 1424, was retired in 1937.

State Line Streetcars From the Bill Wulfert Collection

Many thanks to Bill Wulfert for contributing five quite interesting photos of streetcars that ran between South Chicago and the cities in northwestern Indiana.

This is what our CSL "Interstate," the 2846, looked like when it was new. South Chicago City Railway 338 later became CSL 2852; our car started out as SCCR 332. These cars were single-ended on SCCR, so this is the left or "blind" side of the car. Points of trivia: There's a drop platform at the rear, but not the front - the front had a steep step well of the same type as our older CA&E wood cars. Even though it was designed for single-end operation, there were poles and controllers at both ends. The car was heated by a coal-fired water heater at the front left corner, for which the stovepipe is obvious. It's not real obvious here but the front section of the car is convertible, and those are one-piece/two-light windows that would be removed (along with the section of car side underneath them) during the summer. The livery was vermilion with yellow along the windows, not too dissimilar from the later CSL colors.

Zoomed in, the herald on the side of the car says "Red Lines." The connecting Hammond Whiting & East Chicago, which ran joint through service with SCCR, was the "Green Lines."

This CSL company photo of car 2853 is dated July 30, 1915. Car 2853 is just one number off of the car shown above, but this depicts it after the major rebuilding this entire series underwent in 1910. Other than keeping the railroad roof, most of the odd aspects of the car design were changed to "BOSE standard" including double-ended layout, longer platforms, no convertible section or mid-car bulkhead, and electric heat.

This terrific photo shows South Chicago City Railway 204, a big double-truck open car built in the company shops, crossing the B&O at Baltimore & 83rd Street. These 200-series open cars are described in Bion Arnold's 1908 valuation report of SCCR, but they're listed as unpowered trailers, probably pulled most commonly by "Interstates" like car 332 above. It also describes them as having been built in 1908, though that could be when they were rebuilt as trailers (or was 204 later rebuilt as a motor car?). Anyway, car 204 shows off some interesting traits including corner boarding with a center aisle; fixed back-to-back benches, which were quite common in Chicago in the late 19th century, rather than the flip-over reversible benches more commonly seen elsewhere; Peckham 18CX trucks; and what looks like a D1-EG air compressor, the same type as the two ex-SCCR cars in IRM's collection had when built.

Fast forward a few decades and this is Chicago & Calumet District Transit 74, formerly of the Hammond Whiting & East Chicago. It's pictured in front of the Whiting post office toward the end of its career. The HW&EC and then C&CDT had 16 cars of this design built between 1916 and 1919 (this car was from the final 1919 batch) by American Car Company. Though resembling CSL "Big Pullmans," they had steel bodies and Brill 77E trucks. The highest-numbered 11 cars of this type were rebuilt for one-man service in 1932 (note the lack of steps at this corner) and thereafter the rest of the company's fleet was effectively retired. The last C&CDT car ran in June 1940.

Here's a rare interior photo of C&CDT 74. My guess is that this was taken after it had been retired because the controller is missing! Some points of trivia: note space to mount two fare registers, one for each side of the state line (CSL 2846 at IRM has this same feature); over the motorman's head you can see a variety of switches as well as a mirror for keeping an eye on the passengers; despite being converted to one-man operation, the car retains the original twin doorways to the platform, similar to Chicago two-man cars; and by the motorman's right hand you can see what looks like two hand cranks to operate the doors, similar to how C&WT 141 is set up at IRM.

Visit to the GG1

 Courtesy of Bill Wulfert, we can take a virtual tour of the interior of the GG1 which he is working on!

All images are copyright by the photographer and may not be reproduced without permission.

By popular request, here are some interior photos of Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4927 at IRM. 

1. Forward view of the engineer's cab. Note the number 4939 stenciled on the curved arch. Our engine was renumbered as 4939, as 4927 conflicted with other Amtrak equipment. Controller (black) on the left. Brake stand on the right. 

2. View of various gauges just to the left of the engineer.

3. Straight forward view of the controls. Note the engineer's seat that was destroyed by animals that got into the locomotive.

4. Engineer's forward view

5. Air gauges and speedometer. 

6. Cab Signal Display 

7.Hand painted warning lights. 

8. Three Ammeters 

9. Fireman's view with repaired cab signal display, which were all broken upon delivery.

10. DANGER 500 VOLTS

11. Engineer's seat and side window

12. Controller Type XM 288B. The one in the other cab is missing the controller top. Anyone have a spare lying around?

13. View of the engineer's position from the fireman's seat. DANGER 1400 VOLTS

14. DANGER 500 / 1000 VOLTS

15. Toilet in the number 1 end nose area. The metal plate to the right can be lowered over the toilet. Imagine using that while the train is moving at 100 MPH.

 16. Steam Generator controls 

17. The Steam Generator, looking through the access door. 

18. The Transformer Room, with the transformer and tap changer (control group) removed. Also a dead water cooler. 

19. Blower - One in each end. 

20. Looking over the blower to the twin sealed beam headlights. 

21. The articulated truck connection. Female on the left, male on the right. 

22. Opening to the north end of the engine. The door frame is 17" wide. 

23. The hallway to the north end has 18" of clearance side to side. Some air and electrical equipment on each side. 

24. Hallway along the east side of the engine. Sand box on the left, and the steam generator is in the compartment to the right.

25. A peek at the steam generator. Too close to get a full shot.