Big Barn News

Frank writes…

I spent most of my Sunday afternoon needle-chipping inside the 451, as I am wont to do these days, but that wasn’t the big news. The big news was that on Friday, we got occupancy permission for Barn 15! The barn is complete and ready to fill!

And the guys didn't lose any time. Lee and Keats from the Diesel Department were hard at work switching coaches and diesels into the new barn with ComEd 15, so it was something like one-third full by the time I arrived, as you can see.

An Electric Car Department crew including Brian, Greg, and others was also using the 25-tonner to pull electric cars out from here, there, and everywhere as part of a daunting series of switch moves. Right now, Barn 13 is about half electric cars and half steam-road equipment, but the electric cars that are currently in Barns 11 and 14 will mostly be consolidated into 13 along with some cars that are now going into indoor storage for the first time.

Above is one of our stranger tools, the "Clark bar." In cases where you can't affix a towbar to a streetcar in the normal fashion - like, when you're moving a particularly wretched body that doesn't have a structurally sound end - then you use this thing. At near left, Zach is carrying a big piece of thick sheet metal bent into a "C" shape. That goes around either the axle or the end of the truck frame. The long pole being carried by Greg and Richard is then bolted to that, and serves as the tow bar. Voila. In this case, the guys were going to use this to tow the Rio open car, which moved over a track in Barn 13. Then, the Tri City Railway car was finally moved inside after about 25 years of outdoor storage. Unfortunately, I missed that part of the fun because I needed to get back to work.

And here are the results: two more "bays," or windows' worth, of the 451's main compartment ceiling needle-chipped. Part of this was done by Ashtin, who was needle-chipping in the car before I arrived and he left to help with switching. Richard also helped with some advice on paint matching - we already have the blue wall color matched, but we need to match the original ceiling color. And in related news, I spoke with Buzz about getting vinyl masks made so we can spray the lettering on the outside of the car. Also, after dinner I moved the table full of tools and parts (the one visible at bottom left) out of the car and set it up along the barn wall. I also moved the remaining loose bulkhead seats out of the smoker.

In addition to the opening of Barn 15, there's more Buildings & Grounds news to report. Joel took us on a "hard-hat tour" of the space that was once the wood shop, then the signal shop, and is now being improved for use as an office and conference room. Above, we're looking southeast at the two offices that will be located on the east side of the building looking out at Yard 5.

And looking in the opposite direction, this open space will be used as a conference room. Greg, Brian, and Joel are standing in front of the doorway into the current office. The former denizens of this space, Tiger and Slurpy the cats, sure wouldn't recognize it now! Finally, Joel went with me over to Barn 2 and retrieved the 451's MS switch cover and controller cover. Many thanks to the diesel guys, who during the week took these items to the paint shop and got them matched with good-quality paint. The next thing to do will be to procure a gallon of that stuff to paint the 451's doors, the 460's doors, the 451's letterboard lettering, and any other items on the two cars that need red.

Signal Department Update

We've received an unexpected, but very welcome, update from our Signal Department. Many thanks to our distinguished Signal Department Bureau Chief, Bill Wulfert, who sends along photos of work that Bob Olson, Dave Diamond, and Tom Opolony performed Saturday despite the particularly frigid temperature.

It may not be immediately obvious what's going on, but the Signal Department has evacuated the south end of the office building. This is the oldest IRM-built structure on the property. For a time in the 1970s it was the only heated structure at the museum and served as the restoration shop for both departments, steam and electric car. For a couple of decades it has been the Signal Department's shop, but it is now being repurposed again: this end of the building will be improved and will serve as additional office space. Included in the work will be a raised concrete floor to bring the floor level up to that of the office in the north end of the building.

We're Floored

Many thanks to Richard Schauer, who yesterday passed along news and some photos regarding progress on the South Storage Building that is being built for our bus departments:

I am quite happy to announce that the concrete floor has been completed on our new bus garage!  We received a very favorable bid from a local company and completed this part of the project well under the estimated cost.  Unfortunately, it appears that the electrical work, which is the only substantial work remaining before the occupancy inspection, will come in over our initial estimate; the bids are due later this week.

The attached pictures were taken today, looking in from both end doors.

This garage will give all of our trolley and motor buses an indoor home, with some space available for future expansion of our fleet as important examples come available and for storage of parts in an organized manner.  Thank you for supporting us!

Concrete Progress

Frank writes...

I was busy enough on Sunday, but the real news is all the progress being made by our indefatigable Buildings & Grounds Department.

Above, the contractor continues to make progress on Barn 15. Half the post footings are now in along the south side of the building and the other half are ready to be poured, with the sonotubes in place and the metal post risers at the ready.

A lot of concrete is being poured in East Union these days. Here we are standing in front of the car shop looking at the office, with new sidewalks and curbs along the west side of Depot Street.

Looking the other way, you can see the sidewalk and also the crosswalk that will support the bollards that go here on days we're open.

Across the intersection, there's new concrete both inside and outside this access door at the northwest corner of Barn 6.

And over in Barn 4, some damaged concrete on the inspection pit apron was dug out (as previously reported) and has now been replaced.

I worked on a variety of things. First, I took some measurements of original CA&E Futura lettering for reference; we're fortunate that Buzz has the tools and the talent to draw up and print vinyl lettering masks we can use to letter the 451 in as-delivered Futura. After that, Jimmy and Doodlebug Dan spent quite a while helping me switch the order of the wood cars. The 308 is now behind the 319 (at the door) and the 309, with those two cars made up as a train. We still need to top off the oil in the 309's axle caps and do a test trip with the thermometer to check those bearings, but we are cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos during the switch move.

After dinner, I did a little more work on the two Shaker Heights cars. On the 63, I completed my painting test as shown above; the left side is brown primer+maroon, while on the right is two coats of maroon sans primer. It's no huge surprise that using primer makes for a better end product, so the next step is to start masking the striping and applying brown primer.

And one issue with the 18 is that the rear coupler hangs too low because it's missing a couple of parts that hold the coupler shank up over the coupler carrier binder. One is this: a wear plate that sits atop the binder. I took this one off the front of the car, brought it into the shop, and made a drawing. We'll need to make a new one from 3/8" plate.

In other news, Green Bay & Western 109 has come into Barn 4 for a couple of weeks to expedite the woodwork being done on the car's structure.

And Joel (pictured) and Brian were working all day with the milling machine, end-milling and then reaming holes for bushings in the 277's new brake beams. I didn't get a photo, but at least one beam already had new bushings installed by the time I arrived. Once this work is complete, the 277 should be back in service.

There's always time to have a bit of fun! A generous donor just gave IRM a handcar; it's not an historic item, but was built within the last couple of decades with a steel frame and modern hardware, but it works just fine. As a piece of MOW equipment it falls under the purview of the Track Department, so before dinner Bob (standing in left background) let some of us take it for a spin on track 121. I've run a lot of things at IRM but, amazingly, this was my first time aboard a handcar! In the photo are Will, Jeron, Jimmy, and Greg.

STOP PRESS: Many thanks to our intrepid cub reporter Jeron Glander for sending a couple of photos taken today (Monday) of the concrete work along Depot Street following removal of the forms:

Memorial Day

Frank writes...

Happy Memorial Day! It was a gorgeous weekend at IRM and there's plenty of news to share.

The plan for Sunday was to run the 319 and the 308, the latter running as a control trailer. My father and I were conductor and trainman with Larry Stone as motorman. Above, the train is shown in Yard 8. Isn't that nice? This consist was very common before the 308 had a motor short out in 2019. Anyway, things didn't go to plan. We got up to the depot and were loading for our first trip when Greg, who was hanging out on the Station Track 2 platform alongside ComEd 4, noticed that the 308's compressor was "barking" when starting up. Inspection suggested there was some arcing at startup, so out of caution, we decided to take the car out of service. We brought the 308 back to track 84, dropped it in the barn, and Larry and my father headed back up to the depot to run the 319 solo.

Here's the 319 coming up to the depot (more about the construction zone later!). Later in the day, Ashtin was able to quickly inspect the 308's pump. The brushes are wearing very unevenly and there's some discoloration on the commutator, so we definitely need to look at the brushes and see whether they need replacement or whether we need to repair the brush holders. But it doesn't look like anything irreparable, and the pump isn't grounded - it was still running when we headed back to the barn. Stay tuned!

Since I was out of a job, I went along for a ride. Above, our conductor listens for westbound orders as we speed through the countryside.

My father also remembered to break out the 48-star flags in honor of Memorial Day.

After that, I went for a "railfanning" trip aboard ComEd 4 with motorman Zach and "pole hop" Nathan. The "Edison engine" was pulling the caboose train for the day. Above you can see Zach, who is always authentically attired no matter his assignment, is backing the train westward at Johnson as the North Shore train speeds past on the main.

There was also ample evidence around the property that the Buildings & Grounds Department has been hard at work. They're doing concrete replacement inside the front (west end) of Barn 6, though I didn't get a picture of that. Perhaps the most visible work was shown earlier, where the east berth platform of Station Track 1 has been taken out for replacement. And above, these little concrete pads on the east side of the office have been there for a number of years as places to put benches. They seem to be going away.

Also, in exciting news, work has resumed on Barn 15! Last we knew, half the barn post footings were in on the north side of the barn. As of this past week, the other half along the north side have now been completed, as shown above.

Here's a shot of the southeast corner of Barn 7, just inside the front of the barn. Something's missing...

...of course! The horse car! Sure enough, North Chicago Street Railroad 8, our oldest piece of equipment, was requisitioned for use in filming for a WTTW (PBS) program. I believe it was pulled out of the barn on Wednesday and filming took place on Friday. To get it out of the barn, we used the rubber-tire dollies that the CTA built for this thing way back in the 1940s or 1950s, and extracted it right out the front door of the barn. After filming, it was deposited in Barn 4, but it will soon go back to its usual home in Barn 7. Above, it's shown behind Barn 4 on the dollies.

And this afforded an extremely rare opportunity to get a nice, clear three-quarters shot of the cable trailer, Chicago City Railway 209. The line between "heavy restoration" and "replica" can be a bit murky, especially 100 years on, but according to what records we have, the cable car is basically original (to some extent), albeit heavily restored in the early 1900s, while cable trailer 209 was a replica built around 1933 using some surviving original components. Electric car 4, behind the cable trailer, is much more original (at least to its end-of-service condition), and seems to be pretty much the same as it was when removed from service c1918 except for paint.

After I was done railfanning, I put a couple of test patches on Shaker Heights 63 to see what the most efficient way of applying the maroon striping will be. I would love to get this paint job completed, or mostly completed, this year. I also spent a bit of time helping Nick, Greg, and Ashtin move spare 'L' car parts out of Barn 4 and into storage.

A welcome sight late Sunday afternoon was the Shay, making test trips around the streetcar line and then out on the main line.

And finally, I stopped out briefly on Monday with my daughter. The weather was just as fantastic as Sunday, and trains in operation included Veracruz 19, the North Shore cars, the Shay with the coach-caboose train, and a diesel-hauled coach train (all shown above) as well as IT 1565-518-234, Chicago Elevated 1754, and the 3142. The "Tangerine Limited" was missing its motor car because the 277 is in the shop for brake work, but that work was in progress over the weekend in the form of brake levers and brake heads being drilled for just-delivered bushings.

EDIT: Thanks to our intrepid freelance photographer Buzz Morrisette, who sent the below photo and caption from Monday:

Chris of the Steam team is "exercising" the water pump used to put fires out. If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Painting and Pouring

Frank writes...

I was at IRM on Saturday this weekend instead of the usual Sunday. There was a lot going on.

I spent a couple of hours in Barn 7 putting another coat of orange on car 63. This makes two, and in places three, coats on pretty much the entire car, except for parts of the doors and some other nooks and crannies I need to hit again with a brush.

That was the least of the painting news, though. Over in Yard 2, Jamie spent the entire day Friday spraying a coat of primer onto one of the bi-level cars we acquired back in January, helped by other Diesel Department volunteers. Saturday, he started with the green - this car will be painted as C&NW 83 and will match our existing three-car set of C&NW bi-levels.

The first photo was taken when I arrived, before green had started going on; when I left mid-afternoon, the car had the entire roof painted green and finish paint was going onto the sides rapidly. The museum really owes the Diesel Department volunteers a big thank you for all their work on this car (and also on the second of the new bi-levels, which is currently in the shop). It will allow us to add a lot more seats to the Happy Holiday Railway event.

And in yet more painting news, Zach was painting newly acquired bus wheels. Here he is after scuffing up the powder-coated wheels, applying masking tape.

In addition to painting, there was also pouring - concrete, that is! Dave and the B&G crew were hard at work pouring concrete around the Barn 4 addition. Here we see them at work outside the door adjacent to the inspection pit; in the background, Jamie is up on the roof of the bi-level applying green paint.

Later in the day, after the concrete pouring had concluded, I grabbed this shot of a paved sidewalk along the south edge of the new shop extension.

The B&G crew is also hoping to pave the new parking lot east of the Barn 4 extension sometime soon, and just before I left, Good Nick and Dan were using a small rubber-tire crane we recently acquired to move spare traction motors out of the way.

While I was passing through the "lean-three," I snapped a photo of some gorgeous refinished trim pieces for the 306.

And finally, Bill Wulfert brought out a fascinating artifact he is working on fixing up. It's a Chicago Rapid Transit coasting clock that at one time was assigned a 2700-series open-platform Metropolitan Elevated car. That spool to the right holds a roll of paper, and at the beginning of each run, a special key with the run number cast into it was inserted into a keyway in the cover. It would make an imprint on the paper and a figure for how much time the train had spent coasting was also imprinted. Hopefully Bill can provide more info, but basically, the coasting clock would advance when the train was moving but 1) the motors weren't running, and 2) the brakes weren't applied (there was a little pipe coming out of the brake cylinder that helped register this!). At the end of the run, the motorman would imprint that key and the coasting measurement again, advance the paper out the side of this box, tear it off, and submit it at the end of his shift. Pretty ingenious! Bill says that CRT 1797 still has most, or maybe all, of its under-floor equipment for making this whole system work.

Let Me Show You the Door

Our fearless freelance photographer, Zach Ehlers, has sent along some photos taken this past weekend out at IRM. You may notice something is missing.

If you said "well, the title of the post is about doors, so it's probably a door"... you're right! The barn doors have been taken off the former east end of Barn 4, so the old portion of the barn is now open to the new portion. The above view is looking east.

And this view was taken standing in the new section of the barn looking west. The new section is pretty unmistakable because it has a metal ceiling.

Here's something pretty striking: Zach found the photo on the left, taken at the end of December 2022 while we were getting ready for North Shore Day. The photo on the right, taken at the end of December 2023, is the exact same location and perspective. What a difference a year makes!

And while we're at it, Zach sent along two nice shots of IT 1702, which has been shoved east a little ways to make it easier to access the car without all the "roof booth" scaffolding in the way.

It certainly is looking sharp!