The 'Liner Lives

Frank writes...

Sunday was an eventful day, to say the least. It was the first time in probably close to 25 years that I'd seen the Electroliner run.

I spent the afternoon helping Nick work on the train; more on that later. But first, the fun stuff! As the sun started to set, work on the train ended for the day and it was time to take it for a trip around the streetcar loop to check clearances, hoses, etc on the ruling curve. This provided the chance to go for a short ride on the train and to get some pretty decent photos. The bottom shot shows Zach in the cab.

It was a warm day and some bands of rain passed through early in the afternoon, but by dusk the sky was clear and the train was present for a very nice sunset. It's really exciting to see the train back in operation for the first time in more than 20 years. There are plenty of minor issues that will need attention over time, and of course there's a lot of interior work still underway, but the train definitely runs.

Rewinding a bit, when I arrived in the early afternoon, Nick was working on checking some items off of the Electroliner's to-do list. First I assisted a bit in draining and refilling the #1 air compressor, then it was on to installing a cut-out switch on the battery box.

The switch can be seen here on the right side of the box with the long cable hanging out of it. While not original, this allows the batteries to be isolated with a single switch when the train isn't running. The alternatives to that are either 1) draining the batteries with the various battery-powered circuits on the train, or 2) manually opening the battery box and pulling out the fuse every time the train is put away. On the North Shore, the train would very seldom have been "dead" so this wasn't much of an issue. Anyway, this job was accomplished in time for the evening test trip. In the meantime Zach was repairing some minor air leaks. And that was pretty much it; Joel was doing various department chores, including switching cars, while Doodlebug Bob was working on machining more components for the journal wedge fixture. The 309-319 were scheduled for service; Larry brought them out and got one main line trip in but had to put them away because of the approaching rain.

As a final note, when I was last out (over a month ago!) I had a plywood ceiling panel for Shaker Heights 18 on hand, painted with a fresh coat of white paint and ready to cut down to size. It seems to have been misplaced, though this similar-but-unpainted piece of plywood is still present in the corner of the shop. I suspect that it got moved to somewhere that it wasn't out of the way, I'm just not sure where. Has anybody seen my ceiling panel?

Electroliner diner update

Bill Wulfert has sent along a couple of photos showing recent work in the diner section of the Electroliner:

Of course that second photo shows Mister Electroliner himself, Ed Oslowski. The dining car has had its flooring taken up so that the subfloor can be repaired. Once that's done, new replacement flooring will go in. I believe that the diner actually had red carpet during its North Shore Line days, so that ought to be eye-catching.

Forward progress

Frank writes...

Sunday was a constructive day. It took longer to remove the second tail light from Shaker 18 than I had hoped. All of the screws had to be drilled out, as with the first one, but one of them just didn't want to "let go." Richard Schauer helped out with this and finally we were able to get the thing off. A "before" view taken from inside the car:

And here's the "after" view of the light housing sitting on the bench:

This one was definitely more rusted out than the first one, and that one was pretty bad. But the light bulb and fixture appear undamaged. The cast ring on this second light was put into Evapo-Rust before I grabbed a photo of it, but it has a big chunk that broke off of it at some point in the distant past (judging from paint evidence, probably before the car even went to Trolleyville). Oh well.

And painting on the first tail light housing was completed with a coat of silver on the inside. Thanks to Joel for sourcing some silver spray paint.

The exciting news, however, took place two tracks over from the 18 on the Electroliner. On Saturday evening, the "second shift" crew working on the mechanical portions of the train got the three air compressors and three MG sets tested and working again. Voila!

The train pumps up, the brakes seem to work as intended (though the trucks are still disconnected), the MG sets run, and various ancillary features are also working or partly working. These include the heat and blowers in the A and B cars as well as lights in the A, B, and C cars. The lights in the A1 car haven't yet been wired back into place by the crew rehabbing the interior of that car.

Nick demonstrated some of what was tested. The brakes on the train are pretty unusual. They're electro-pneumatic and run at 110 pounds brake pipe pressure (the governors, of which there are two for redundancy, cut out at 135 lbs and cut in at 125 lbs!). The brake valve has a self-lapping straight air portion, then automatic, then emergency. Richard has posted a description in the comments of how exactly this works.

Here are some of the gauges over the motorman's head and to his left, as shown in the previous photo. We're pulling minimal amps and we're not going anywhere, but the main res is at about 128 pounds, the brake pipe is just over 110 pounds, and we've taken a 30 pound reduction. Moving the brake handle to the end of the self-lapping sector gets you about a 50 pound reduction.

There's plenty left to do, but a lot of progress is being made. Among the tasks on the to-do list are obtaining air hoses to the trucks (the ones that came from the rebuilder a couple of years ago are too short), hooking up the motor leads, and dealing with a couple of leaky magnet valves in the reverser and switch group. But it's looking promising.

Nick pointed out something in the cafe-bar car, or B car, that we hadn't realized previously. You'll note in this view of the bar that there are two little "cans" mounted in the ceiling on either side of the vent register. We'd known about these for years but it wasn't clear why they were there: they're little blue-ish lights pointed at the ceiling. The one on the left is a little dimmer but they're both on.

Here's a better view. Fortunately, one of them has a label on the bottom that's still kind of legible, so Zach got work doing some research.

The label says "Air-Tron - Air fresh as the dawn." It appears that these are UV lights and the idea was that they would clean the air in the cafe car. That's why they're shielded from direct line-of-sight and, presumably, why they're located between the griddle and the dining area. Neat.

In other, non-Shaker Heights, non-Electroliner news, I reinstalled the folding sign latch on the end of the 309 that we had removed for taking measurements. We're getting a new one 3D printed so we will see how that works. Right now the 308 has reproduction latches made from commercially available bits and pieces but we'd prefer to replace them with these nice cast types if possible.

The Mylar we ordered also arrived so I traced the lettering off of the destination sign box from the 415. Nick was working for part of the day on shaping new copper flashing for the 415's destination sign too.

Greg and Zach spent the day working in the Highwood carpentry shop, making big pieces of wood into slightly smaller pieces of wood using the table saw, radial arm saw, planer, and jointer. Early in the day they were guided by our master carpenters, Tim and Buzz, who themselves were also working on their own woodworking projects. I didn't get a picture of any of our carpenters at work but here's a pile of some pieces of ash. These will end up becoming a set of four new corner doors for North Shore 757.

In addition to all of this, Richard was working on reaming holes in the new brake beam for Sand Springs 68 so that bushings can be pressed in while Joel spent a while sorting parts in one of our storage cars. It's not a glamorous job but somebody's got to do it.

What's that, you say? You already got your tax refund and you haven't the foggiest idea of what to do with your incredible influx of wealth? We know how you can make a difference!

Electroliner progress

Many thanks to our intrepid freelance photographer Nick Espevik for sending along some update photos from the Electroliner. The news from the "mechanical crew" (not to be confused with the "interior crew" that is hard at work on reassembling the A car interior and reupholstering the seats in the cafe car) is that the electrical connections throughout the train have now been restored. Among other things this means that the lights work again. The weather this weekend is forecast to be frigid, so that may delay slightly the continuing mechanical and electrical work on the train, but the "second shift" regulars are working hard towards the goal of getting the train running again.

So here you can see the lights lit as well as the reupholstered bench seats for the cafe car, currently stowed in the A1 car (or the A car, I don't know which is which!) for safekeeping.

Two For One

Today, friends, you get two exciting features for the low, low price of one -- which is zero, of course.  So first, as a Hicks Car Works exclusive, let's pay a visit to...

THE ELECTROLINER

We were invited to visit the Electroliner today by Steve Sanderson, who has been working on it for quite a while, along with his son Sam and other members of the team.  Because the Liner is located in Barn 7, they need to be pretty independent of the rest of the Car Department, but the Electroliner workers seem to function as a well-oiled machine.

Before we start, though, we must express our deepest sympathy for John Arroyo, who lost his wife recently to cancer.  There's nothing we can say that can help very much, but I hope we will all extend our thoughts and prayers to John in this time of grief.

Steve started by showing me the dining section.  He and Sam have been working to get it ready, and right now the goal is to have the interior ready for public viewing by June.  Of course, that will depend on how the overall virus situation goes.  Anyway, as we have reported before, much of the upholstery work has been done by John McKelvey and Jane Blackburn, and some of the new seats are seen in this photo, while others are stored. 

The whimsical paintings along the upper walls are original and still in excellent condition.  It would be next to impossible to recreate them.

Steve himself has spent a lot of time cleaning up the kitchen/bar area.  When he started it was filthy from neglect over the years, but now it's almost ready for service.

The next car is still being used for storage, but is in good condition.

This is the smoking compartment in the A1 section.

The forward compartment has made great progress.  The ceiling looks great -- we've seen pictures of it before the new panels were installed in years past.

Finally, here's the motorman's compartment again.

So that is quite encouraging.  Our thanks to the entire Electroliner team.   Next up:

BLANK CANVAS

While we're here in Barn 7, let's wander over to the south aisle.  Oh look, somebody brought along a nice cart that might just work for carrying the 453's canvas back to Barn 4.

Well, from here on I don't have many pictures, limited as I am by only having two arms.  But you can imagine how I was able to load the canvas onto the cart while getting the sawhorses out of the way, then out of the barn and over to the shop.  Along the way, I got some help from bystanders in getting the canvas through a narrow door or two.

The 12' x 60' canvas itself weighs 90 lbs when dry, and it was still slightly wet in places, but since you don't have to lift it all at once it can be done.  Over in Barn 4, I then lifted the canvas onto the scaffolds and spread it out on the car.

Those wrinkles have to go.  You look like you slept under a bridge, as my mother would say.

The answer is to start stretching the canvas.  We have a good supply of clamps and ratchet straps to use for just this purpose, so I started on that.  It takes a while, but the stretching process is now in progress.  Here's what one clamp looks like along the side.

And at a corner:

And here's one end of the car.  Of course, there's more to be done, but this is a start.  And it was exhausting, but I needed the exercise.  It will probably be several weeks before I can begin nailing it all down.

Meanwhile, of course, the other guys on the usual crew were hard at work.   Here John is working on his 306 interior parts:

Tim continues to make progress on the 50th Avenue project.  I should have gotten a picture of the new door, but didn't.   It looks great.

Gerry continued to do body and fender work on the 306, and Bill was working on L car parts.  But I  didn't get any pictures -- sorry!

Finally, don't forget the 308!  We'll keep repeating this message until you come up with the money!

The Electroliner - Together Again!

Today's big news was the reassembly of the Electroliner.  Many people helped with this project, and I'm afraid I may miss someone, but I hope not.  This was not just a Car Dept. project, but we had help from the Diesel, Steam, Track, and especially B&G departments.  Thanks to the confident wisdom of everyone, it all went smoothly.

The two big rented cranes were essential parts of the whole process.

Yesterday (Monday) a lot of switching was done to get everything into position.

Gerry Dettlof, Carl Illwitzer, Dave Diamond, Dan Fenlaciki

Gregg, Dave, Jeff Calendine

This is the idler truck, so you can see more of the suspension.

The B unit is lifted so the shop trucks can be rolled out.

This was under the 319, but the motors have been removed.

Bob Olson ran the big fork lift, to remove the shop trucks from the track.

Ed Oslowski was recently in hospital, but nothing could stop him from showing up to help.

The boys discuss whether this can actually work as a single-truck car.

Another view of one of the A units.  I can't tell them apart.

The idler truck goes under one end of B.

Paul Cronin was the dispatcher and coordinated most of the rail movements.

The Army Diesel, run by Ray Weart with Bob Albertson as ground man, did most of the work.

Jeff and Gregg move the big needle beam into position.  This is necessary because the cars were designed with holes in the frame for lifting hooks...

But at this end the North Shore installed some conduits and piping, so the holes are unusable.  Please stop laughing.

So the C liner is now in the air.

Bob and Bill Halsted help get the beam into position.

On the left, Jeron Glander.  The guys in the yellow hardhats are from Avalon.  And next is Jamie Kolanowski. 

He's working on the magic bowl for the joint between the units.

Jamie and a volunteer crane expert watch as the two units are put together.

Then it was discovered that one of the trucks had to be rotated 180, so that took some time.

But finally, we have two units together.   On three trucks.

Next up is the 801 A unit.

Jeron and an Avalon guy position the body over the truck.

The two center units are brought back in.

Meanwhile, the IT Diesel is brought in to move the other A unit.  Operated by Gregg Wolfersheim.

Nick Kallas and Carl discuss their next move.  I should mention that Nick went to get lunch from Subway for everybody, courtesy of the Electroliner project.  Thanks!

Finally, we have a three-quarter Liner.  Since both A units have to be facing the same way for the truck swap, at this point it was necessary to wye the train.  So us onlookers got to go for a ride.

Typical railfans in the front seat enjoy the fruit of their labors.

Here we are rocketing down the mainline towards Milwaukee.  Well, we can imagine.

The 802 is lifted off its trucks

And the other three cars are pulled into position

Another one of the golden bowls in place on the 802.

And finally, it's all back together!

Of course, a lot of work remains to be done to hook up all of the electrical, brake, control, air conditioning, and other systems before it can run under its own power.  But this will be a major priority for the department over the next several months.  Our thanks to everyone who contributed to this project!