The David Johnston Collection

David Johnston, a friend of ours from the Bay Area, has just donated a set of slides he took back in 1967 of IRM in its early days, as well as a few from nearby.  And pictures of the old days are always interesting, so our sincere thanks to David.  Enjoy!

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

At this time, nearly all of the IRM collection was still stored on what is now the main line west of Olson.

Our first steam locomotive.

Here we are just east of Olson, looking towards the old west switch that led to Yard 1.  Whatever happened to that Yard Limit sign?  I think in the distance you can see a row of buses along the farm path that later became Central Avenue.

The 68 was the first car to be stored in the newly-constructed Yard 1.

The IT Birney.  Who is that on the step?

The Shay was our first operating steam locomotive.

This was the original passenger stop at Olson Road.  (We're looking west.)  Nicely landscaped!

I believe here we're looking south-east at the main line with the interchange track on the left.

This, of course, is the Peoria.  Probably it had just arrived.

Our string of North Western baggage cars.

The 966 actually looked pretty good when first acquired!

The 354, and behind it the 144 and 65.

Finally, the Ely.

Meanwhile, at a nearby trolley museum in South Elgin:

I don't know for sure, but I can only imagine this must be one of Wendell's open cars, being protected against small arms fire.

It's always been a rough neighborhood.

Building Tour

Frank writes...

I was out Saturday but didn't get many photos of what I was working on. I was able to switch the 18 with CSL 1374, which was behind it. Many thanks to David and Mikey for their help with this switch move. We're still looking for any manufacturer info on National BB2 air compressors - part lists, maintenance manuals, specifications, anything. If you know of any paperwork on these air compressors, please let us know!

The other news on the 18 is that Dave Diamond and his crew created the above display sign for the car, which is a vast improvement over the small printed-and-laminated piece of paper it now has. Thanks, Dave! My next job is to figure out the best way to mount this. Besides that, I did some masking in the smoker of the 460 and briefly helped my father uncouple the 451 following its successful test as a control trailer. It was a busy day: Nick and Greg were working on air brake components for 'L' cars, Zach was working on Operating Department stuff, Richard was training a new volunteer to drive trolley buses, John was working on the 306, Tim was working on the 1808, Mikey and Jimmy were working on IT 415, and Joel was buzzing around doing Joel things.

And now, to switch gears, let's go on a building tour! Everyone at IRM is thrilled that our new neighbors on the property, the Chicago & North Western Historical Society, just got the occupancy permit for their new building on Main Street. They're going to start moving in next weekend, but Jeff from the C&NWHS was out on Saturday and offered a group of us IRM volunteers a tour through the complete, but empty, building.

I threw together this drawing to help you orient yourself. It is not to scale and the numbers have no significance whatsoever - I just added them to make it easier to write captions for the photos below. The northwest side of the building faces onto Main Street. The building is about 8,000 square feet in total, of which about 5,000 square feet is the big, open archival storage room (#6) taking up most of the back half of the building.

The tour started at the back; this photo is taken from the south corner looking north. Jeff is in the green shirt at left. In the far back right corner, at the east corner of the building, are restrooms. From front (northeast) to back, rooms #1 and #2 are at the front of the building, #3 and #4 are in the center, and #5 and #6 are at the back.

Here, the tour group troops through the doors into room #3. The second doorway goes into room #1 at the west corner of the building.

Here we are looking southwest in room #3. This is going to be part of the organization's offices, I believe. Behind the photographer is room #4, which will be a break room.

This is in room #3 looking at the doorways into room #5, which will be a storeroom.

Between room #3 and room #1 is this nice window, to which will be added some original C&NW ticket window grates.

Here we are at the front of the building in room #2, which will be the organization's museum. This room will be open to the public on some special event days at IRM and/or when they have staffing. The unfinished wall at the back right will hold inscribed tiles that were "sold" as part of a fundraising effort to construct this building. I think that Jeff said there's about 11' from the floor to those air ducts, so there will be room to display some pretty large artifacts.

And this is room #1, which will be an archive work area. This also looks out onto Main Street but probably won't be open for walk-ins. You can see that ticket window on the left beyond the door.

Thanks to Jeff for the tour, and I think I can speak for everyone at IRM when I say "welcome!" to the C&NWHS. It's wonderful to have this organization and the Milwaukee Road Historical Association on the property.

The 451 Runs

Well, sort of.  It can now be used as a control trailer, which is a big step forward.  Eventually the mechanical problems will get fixed, and having it at least partly operational helps it move up in the queue, I hope.  Here we see it outside Barn 6 with the 409 and 431 providing the horsepower.

There's nothing now to keep us from coupling the 460 onto this train.  As I mentioned before, we would at least like to have it lettered by July.  And there are a few parts I still need to install on the roof.

And Dan Fenlaciki wants you to notice the nicely polished window frames.  Jon spent about two years polishing them all up, many years ago.  This is the way the St. Louis cars looked when delivered.

Meanwhile, of course, there were a lot of other things going on.  Here we see Tim working on window frames:

And Bill was cleaning up a headlight casing for one of the wood L cars:

I spent some time after closing up the steel car train on the 460 door.   Yecch.

But there's lots more exciting news of progress to come.   Don't go away!

The Allan Hicks Collection

Due to the overwhelming enthusiastic response to old pictures of IRM such as the Doerr Collection, I dug out a set of photos taken by my father in 1975.  Enjoy!

I was running the 144 that day.  We're eastbound passing the switch onto Station 1.  Note the lack of ballast.  But out on the main, one of the brand-new signals is in service.

The 972 on track 43 just in front of the barn.  (And at this point, there was only one carbarn.)

The Class B is pulling the newly-arrived 4410, which may not be operational yet, up the east leg of the wye.  Behind them, a C&NW baggage car, later one of the bookstore cars.

Slightly farther east.

At the est end of station 2, the 1024 and 1808.  At that time, the 1024 was a control trailer.

And in the foreground, I suspect those stakes mark where the Lester barn (Barn 3) was about to be built.

Behind the Morton barn, the 4391 is on track 42 east, with the 68 and an MD car on 41.  Not sure which MD, though.

Another view of the 4391, which would be made operational for the first time soon.

This is the west track of Yard 1, now only a memory.  From front to back, Cornwall 14, then the 233, 518, and 234 recently arrived from Champaign, and the 160.  Yard 1 actually had some trolley wire.

The south end of Yard 1.  The IC MU cars, the 1129, 229, and the Zephyr.  Behind that are a box car and waycar (1003?) on the south wye.

These locomotives are sitting on what is now track 91 inside the barn.  In front of them are ties and ballast laid out to start constructing the streetcar line.  The steam shop is behind them.

Let's see: from right to left, the "Gypsy Wagon" on flat car 1772, the Com Ed 5, the Shay, the 101, a tank car, the 428, and beyond that we're not sure.

Finally, from about the same location (now the Barn 9 North stop) we're looking northeast, toward what is now the car line and Barn 2.  There's nothing in between.  Central Ave. is just a dirt path with trolley bus wire above it.  From left to right, I think I can make out: the IT Birney, a wooden boxcar, the late lamented Pennsy doodlebug, a North Shore car (253?), then the Com Ed 4 and several L cars: 4412, 4146, 1754, and 1797.  

And thanks to those who helped out with some of these identifications!

Tuesday Activities

On Tuesday I spent much of the day working on getting the brakes on the 451 operational.  Now of course this is subject to several caveats.  The car's compressor has been removed for rebuilding, as have both of the main reservoirs, among other things, but we would still like to be able to use it as a trailer in the middle of a four-car train.  And after some work this is now possible.  The standing travel is 4" at 20 lbs, and 4 3/4" after quick service, so that's well with limits.  There are several cosmetic things that need to be done, and most importantly we would like to get it lettered in the near Futura.  So I'll have to buzz a friend of mine about that.

(Photo from the switch move)

Anyway, several other people were working in the car shop, as usual.  Here Frank Kehoe is polishing up and checking all the little brass hinges needed for the clerestory windows on the 1808.

Phil the new guy continues to work on the floor of the 306.  Here he is trimming the new tongue and groove pieces on the big radial saw.

And here is what the finished portion looks like:

Norm and Gerry continued work on the electrical system of the 306.

The old line breaker was removed, with considerable difficulty.

And I continued stripping the door from the 460.  This paint has been fighting me every inch of the way.  But I'm not giving up.

And in other news, Bob and Marcus were working on tamping and leveling the track in Yard 5, but I didn't have my camera with me.  Sorry!  Track maintenance is one of those never-ending tasks that doesn't always get the credit it deserves.