Showcase Saturday Photos from Chuck Amstein

I haven't even downloaded my own photos yet, but Chuck is always on the job.  Here are some of the highlights from yesterday, including the famous 100th birthday cake:

Miscellaneous Details

Showcase Weekend: Frank and I will be running the wood cars, probably 36 and 309, on Saturday, and we could still use a third crewman, either conductor or trainman.  The CA&E steel cars will be running on Sunday.   The weather is predicted to be great.  As we mentioned, the Museum will be open to the public until late Saturday evening.

WGN: We published a link to the interview with Nick Kallas, but that appears to be all WGN will be posting on their site, and it may not last much longer.  If anyone taped the various teaser spots and the other interviews, we'd like to know about it.

Hop, Hop, Hop: to the Bus Stop Shop, which will be open both days for Showcase Weekend.

More Photos: Picture galleries continue to be added to the Schmidt Photo Collection. Recent additions include Boston Elevated Rwy. and Chicago Rapid Transit.

Smile for the Camera

Today Frank and I used the Google camera we had been able to borrow to take a series of 360-degree photos of the streets used by visitors, and along the aisles of Barns 6, 7, 8, and 9.  Frank will be uploading these and making them available so that people anywhere in the world can take a virtual tour of the Museum.

It was mounted to one of our golf carts.   I got to drive while Frank did the programming.

In other news, I did some switching to turn the 309 around so I can finish repainting the roof.   Frank Sirinek did the work to acquire some more canvas paint of the right shade.  Thanks!

And then, I cleaned the feed valve from the 309 and reinstalled it.  It was adjusted to the correct pressure using our official calibrated gauge.  After a while, these valves tend to become clogged with water, rust, and various kinds of junk, but it's fairly easy to disassemble and clean one.  

When installed, it looks like this:

And then I cleaned a spare one also, to keep on hand for one of the other cars.

Gerry found a box full of these castings, which we were unable to identify.  If you have the answer, let us know.

And speaking of mysteries, the shop areas are much cleaner and neater than usual.  That's rather unusual, but I think I may have the solution: Arnfest is coming soon to a car shop near you.   That makes some money for the Museum and provides education and entertainment for friends of ours.

But first, our Museum Showcase Weekend, otherwise known as Member's Day, is this weekend.  On Saturday evening, the Museum will open until late at night.  If you're not a member, you need to buy a ticket, but trains will be running until almost midnight, if not beyond.  You won't want to miss it.

The Schmidt Photo Collection

We have just acquired a wonderful collection of traction photos from long-time IRM stalwart Pete Schmidt.   Most of these were taken by his father William Schmidt and have not been published before.   They cover a wide range of electric railways across the country, and it will take me a while to scan them all in.  Once they're scanned, they will be deposited in the IRM library files for preservation.   We can't thank Pete enough for this donation.  Many of these images are of lines seldom seen.

Almost all of these are B&W prints, and none of them are very big.  Some of them are smaller than anything I've seen before, less than 2" square.  As a result, the scans may not be the best, since I'm doing these at 600 dpi with a run-of-the-mill flatbed scanner.  Anything finer takes a long time, but could be done if there's a need for a particular image.

Most of the photos have very detailed information written on the back.  Some of it is exposure information which the photographer wanted for his own use, and I won't bother reproducing it.  But in many cases there's not only the date, but the exact time the picture was taken.  You don't see that every day! 

Railroad Miscellany


TRACTION LINES:

Altoona and Logan Valley

Anaconda Street Railway

Atlantic City and Shore

Baltimore 

Boston Elevated Ry.

Boston Revere Beach and Lynn

Branford Electric Ry.

British Columbia Electric

Capital Transit

Charles City Western

Chicago and West Towns

Chicago Aurora and Elgin

Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee

Chicago Rapid Transit 

Chicago South Shore and South Bend

Chicago Surface Lines

Cincinnati Street Railway

Cleveland Transit

Denver and Intermountain

Des Moines and Central Iowa

Fort Dodge Des Moines and Southern

Hagerstown and Frederick

Illinois Terminal

Interurban Lines (miscellaneous)

Kansas City Public Service

Key System

Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley

Lake Erie and Northern

Lehigh Valley Transit

Mason City and Clear Lake

Milwaukee Transport

Montreal and Southern Counties

Montreal Tramways

Niagara St. Catherines and Toronto

Omaha and Council Bluffs

Pacific Electric

Philadelphia and Western

Philadelphia Suburban Transit

Pittsburgh Railways

Portland Traction

Quebec RL&P

Rochester Transit

Rock Island Southern

St. Louis Public Service

San Francisco

Shaker Heights Rapid Transit

Sioux City Transit

Texas Electric

Third Avenue Railway System

Toronto Transit

Twin Cities Rapid Transit

Waterloo Cedar Falls and Northern

West Penn Railways 

Light the lights

Frank writes...

Sunday was a gorgeous day; the hot, humid weather that seems to have hung over Chicago for months finally broke and the day was practically cloudless with a high right around 70. The steam engine was running, there were Army soldiers on-site to work with our Track Department, and all the water from last weekend had disappeared with no obvious damage. What's not to like?

When I first arrived, I turned my attention to Indiana Railroad 205, which - for a project that's done - never quite seems to be done. Earlier in the summer we discovered an Ohio Brass trolley catcher of the type that's correct for this car, so Richard cleaned it up and painted it orange. It just took me forever to get around to putting it on the car. Above is what the car's been wearing; OB retrievers, which are significantly larger than what it actually had on IR (though close to what it had both earlier, on Interstate, and later, in Portland).

And here it is with the correct OB catcher installed. This is the west end of the car; the east end of the car still has the incorrect OB retriever, but if we can get our hands on the correct-type catcher at some point then that will be put on the car. Fingers crossed.

After that I happened upon Good Nick, who was over at 50th Avenue working on getting the platform lights working. This is a long-running project; the station platform was completely rebuilt maybe ten years ago, but before that we believe that wiring issues meant the platform lights hadn't been used for a while. It's possible that it's been as long as 20 years since the platform lights were lit. But earlier this year a plan was finally approved for rewiring them to run off of the 600 volt DC line, as they would have originally, and over the summer the car shop guys have been steadily fixing up the components needed. Nick started working on the project and before long a whole group of us had joined in. Here, Nick is on the left and Greg on the right, securing some of the last "crooks" into place.

Once a few final brackets were installed to hold the crooks in place, we needed to run a few ground wires through them using a fish tape; all of the other wiring had already been run. This took longer than expected but once it was done we were ready to start installing the shades and fixtures, which go inside the shades. Above, Jeron (left) and Rich are shown along with a shade that has had the fixture installed. Each fixture has two light sockets which are on different circuits. These use street railway bulbs, since they run on 600 volts. Not shown is Bob Sundelin, who also helped on the project, and Max, who stopped by briefly to make sure we could correctly answer the question "how long is a piece of wire?"

Almost all of the crooks face away from the station house, but the four closest to the station alternate. Richard explained to me why that is: there are supposed to be wind breaks, basically just wooden slat walls, in between two of these pairs of posts, and the crooks face away from the wind breaks. I suppose those wind breaks will be the next thing to be installed on the platform once the lights are done.

Here's one of the lights, complete with its shade and fixture, wired in, and with light bulbs installed.

By the time everyone finished, around 7pm, it was starting to get dark but all of the lights had been wired in - including not only the platform lights but also some lights inside the station house and one fixture over the entry steps. The only things left to do are to connect some ground wires underneath the platform and then wire in the switch board, where the 600 volt feed will come in and where the big light switches will be located. The hope is that the lights may be working on Saturday for Member's Day, when we typically have night operations for museum members. If so it should be a pretty impressive display.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Right now the 36 and 309 are scheduled to operate on Saturday, but this may not happen! Why not, you ask? Because we don't have a conductor! Please contact Jim West to sign up if you are free on Saturday and would be interested in helping out.

15 Seconds of Fame

The visit by the WGN morning news crew seems to have gone off very well.  These people are professionals and know what they're doing.

Here's the interview with Nick Kallas.

We wanted to put our best foot forward, of course.  Not seen here were some of the Museum's showpieces, such as the Zephyr, the 1630, the Santa Fe 92, L cars 24 and 1268, and the two steel CA&E cars 431 and 460.  And for some brief operation, two wood cars, the 36 and 309.

Also the 3142, operated by Fred Zimmerman, Frank Sirinek, and Ana Belaval.

And there was an interview with Nick Kallas, and so on.

Some of the production crew:

And this is how people traveled on what is now the Prairie Path.  That was our educational message for today (among others).

If any of you were able to see some of these segments on WGN, please let us know about it!

I should also mention that many other people helped make this project a success:  Frank Hicks, who did most of the organizing, Nick, Harold, Jim West, Jim Windmeier, Jamie, Richard, Dave Diamond, Thomas, and I'm sure I'm forgetting several others.  What a blast!

Update:

Our long-time friend Les Ascher reports:

I thought it went very well, and presented lots of equipment and the Museum most favorably. Our Museum members all were very presentable and well-spoken. I hope we will get some people coming out as a result of this feature.

And then, some pictures by Carina Borst via Facebook:

IRM on WGN TV

This morning, Friday, Sep. 7, IRM will be featured on the WGN morning show "Around Town".  So tune into Channel 9 if you're in the Chicago area, or WGN on cable if you've got it, and see your favorite Museum on live television.  And don't touch that dial!

The tentative schedule is:

45-second spots at 7:55, 8:20, and 8:40.
2½ minute main feature at 8:55.
45-second spots at 9:20 and 9:40.
2½ minute main feature at 9:55.

Of course, this may be overridden if something unexpected happens, but let's hope not.

Back to Normal

Things are pretty much back to normal at IRM, after a day or more without rain.   The water has gone down significantly, the car line is back in service, there was no permanent damage to the track or signal system, and so on.  So don't give heed to any reports of doom and disaster you might have come across elsewhere.  Remember, you can't believe everything you see on the internet --- except, of course, what you read here on Hicks Car Works!!!

Linda Evans is loading passengers on the 415.  

The Wednesday regulars are having their normal lunch, complete with tablecloth and candle.  And of course they were all pursuing their usual projects during the rest of the day.

Compare this picture with the same view two days ago.

And water has pretty much disappeared from most areas, although the ground is still generally soft.

Norm Krentel continues to piece together the Michigan car.

As for me, I switched the order of the cars again, since we would like to use the 36 and 309 for some publicity purposes in a few days, if it isn't raining.  

After that, I rechecked the compressors and main journals, and so forth.  It was hot and humid today, I must admit.  I also worked on some stuck windows, and then rechecked the stuck feed valve on the 309.  Luckily, I had a spare that was working OK, so the feed valve was changed out and will be cleaned next time.  And there were other minor tasks to take care of.