1988 CERA Visit

And now for another installment in our series of historic IRM photos.

On May 30, 1988, CERA was celebrating its 50th anniversary, and visited IRM for a parade of most of our operating electric cars at that time.  (A lot less than 70, by the way....)   Mostly, the cars lined up to the west and then paraded eastward to Johnson Siding, which as you'll see was still under construction.  Passengers were not carried.  Then the crews had plenty of time for socializing and picture taking while waiting for clearance to return.  But a good time was had by all.

All images are copyrighted by Hicks Car Works and may not be reproduced without permission.

Here the 309 is on track 24 in front of Barn 2, prior to the pageant, because that's where it was living at the time.  The barn had almost no lighting, so those were dark, gloomy days inside.

And according to my notes, Olin was a guest motorman.

Here we are on the main at Johnson.

Most of the track for the siding had been laid, but much of it was not yet spiked, let alone leveled and tamped, so it was not in use.  The wood L car is the 1754.

South Shore 34 operated only rarely.  Just a couple hundred feet of the siding at the west end was in use.  And I would say that the main ended a couple hundred feet east of Seemann Rd.

And here we get to see the interior of the 34.

Glenn is driving, of course.

The streetcars provided revenue service.

The Matchbox alongside Barn 9.  

I can only hope you're enjoying this as much as I am!

Monday Shop Report

 Time for another brief look at what's happening in the car shop these days...

Tim just never stops.  Here he is using the Museum's plentiful supply of clamps to assemble more of the new window frames needed by the 1808.

And here's a large pile of side windows.

Pete and Fritz continue making new doors for the 757.  In the rear, you can see one of the old doors being used as a pattern.

John has several side windows for the 306 in the process of being finished.

And here's one of the new end windows.  Because the ends were changed at Shaker, including moving the controllers, we're not sure exactly how the end windows should work in their original configuration.  The question came up as to whether you should actually be able to drop the window in front of the motorman.  

That seems unlikely to me.  And so far I haven't been able to find any pictures of 300's in service with any of the end windows dropped.

Finally, Gerry shows off some of his rebuilt electrical parts for the 306.   This is the Westinghouse lightning arrestor.

The roof fuse box and choke coil:

I was working on the trolley bases for the 460.  The department guys finished repainting all the parts for both bases, and I was able to assemble them on the car.  There are still a few things to finish up.  I somehow failed to get a picture of what I had been doing, but they look like this:

Once the weather starts to warm up, there will be an even greater variety of projects to look at, so stay tuned!

In Memoriam Walt Stafa

We were saddened to hear of the death of Walt Stafa, a long-time friend of many of us here at IRM.  While he always lived near Columbus, Ohio, he drove out many times to IRM to help with various projects.  He was a great friend and always had a sense of humor.  Everybody who knew him liked him.

(L to R)  Norm Krentel, Bill Fronczak, Walt Stafa

Helping Jeff Brady with repairs to ME 28.

He will certainly be missed.

Funeral services will be in Columbus.   Here's a link to the obituary notice.

The First Trolley Pageant

Seeing all the slides from the Ron Doerr collection gave me a new appreciation for pictures of IRM back in the old days.  I believe the first real trolley pageant, using the new streetcar loop, was on August 1, 1982, and Frank and I were there.  All of these slides were taken by my father, Allan Hicks, since I was busy.   We can't compete with Mr. Doerr in terms of quantity, but I hope these are interesting.

The equipment shown is generally pretty obvious, so I have only added captions to identify people where possible.

Copyright by Hicks Car Works, may not be reproduced without permission.

 

I believe the motorman is Herold Wind.

??? and Jeff Brady in the foreground.  (Stay tuned)

Is that Ray Schmid running the 604?

Not sure on this one.

This is the 309, by the way.

Bob Opal in his bell bottoms hopping the pole for me.

That's probably Ed Arnold on the rear step.

The Liberty Liner had only recently arrived.  This is on the lead to Barn 3.

The Zephyr was still stored in Yard 1.