Seat Project Update

Frank writes...

We've got news on the seat upholstery project! You may recall that in March, we were able to order custom-made reproduction upholstery for the seats in the CA&E "curve-siders," cars 451, 453, and 460. More recently, we ran a very successful fundraiser that raised enough money to professionally restore the seats in all three cars using the new material. Now, Zach passes along the above photo of the custom seat material en route to Chicago! It's already been manufactured and should arrive in Chicago next week. We'll be working on removing seats to send to the upholstery shop, along with shipping them this fabric, with the goal of starting to install restored seats in the 460 by this fall. Stay tuned!

Sunday Report

Frank writes...

Sunday the 36 was on the pit for its annual inspection. The 3142 went out of service on Saturday with air compressor issues, so that took the day to resolve, meaning the 36 was only on the pit for one day. As such, despite help from Greg, Nick, Richard, and Joel, we didn't quite finish the car's inspection. But we hope to wrap it up soon.

I barely took any photos, but I did snap this one showing the inside of one of the 36's GE 66 motors. Now, this is what a GE 66 is supposed to look like! It's nice and clean, with shiny Glyptal insulating paint, even brush marks on the comm, and clean slots between the segments. The 36's motors were both rebuilt by Westinghouse (ironically enough) in the 1990s, while the car was at Trolleyville. In the late afternoon I went for a trip on the mainline aboard the 415 with Good Nick and Bob from the Signal Department, then in the evening I worked with Joel and Matt to put the 36 back in good old Barn 8. In other news, Doodlebug Bob was working with the Electroliner folks on some sort of machining project, Zach was working on making repairs to the 714, and the other guys spent much of the afternoon running a class for new volunteers on electric car basics.

Thanks to Bill Wulfert for sending the above photo, which was taken at the end of the day on Saturday. About quarter after 5:00, a major squall line passed through, knocking down some tree branches and cutting the ComEd AC electrical feed to the campus. Unfortunately, the service train - CA&E 460 and 431 - was down at Kishwaukee Grove when the power went out, so Joel had to go out on the 44-tonner to rescue the cars.

Speaking of Joel, he sent along this photo from the ITS meet on the 27th showing him running the 277. Neat!

The Illinois Valley Lightweights

Norm Krentel recently sent us some very interesting information on the lightweight cars built for the Illinois Valley line, and with his permission we're reproducing that information here. These 17 cars were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1924 and numbered 60-76 on the Illinois Valley Division of the Illinois Traction System. Of course, car 64 would later end up at IRM as Illinois Terminal 415.

The following comes from Norm:

The Illinois Valley had started sending cars down to the Main Line even before the IV Div had quit. It appears the first few went to serve the Danville branches, operating between Hillery on the Main Line just west of Danville, passing through Danville and south to Georgetown and Catlin.  Initially, they were still single-ended, though a front pole was added.  Cars were modified, probably with the work being done at Decatur shop.  I recall seeing one, just a car body set on the ground next to the Granite City shop, if I recall correctly, it still had its red upper sash glass (I think Bruneau may have saved some of that colored glass).  Eventually several of these cars had the same modifications as were done to the 415.  As built, they were all single-ended, with a Peter Smith Hot Air heater, a toilet at the smoker bulkhead, with the smoker at the rear of the car.  There were double folding doors at the rear baggage compartment and only a single folding door at the only passenger door (on the right front).  On the 415, they extended the sole passenger entrance platform 18 inches, and added the second folding door.  They blanked off what I think had been the former sole baggage door, which had been on the right side of the car, and they added the 2nd passenger entrance on former left rear of the car.  I suspect most of the remainder of the cars went to the Granite City service.  Some were also placed in service between Staunton and Litchfield, and with opening of the station in East Peoria, first one of the 120 series Alton cars ran the shuttle service to the main Peoria station, but it sounds like that car was unpopular, and a former IV Div car was sent up as a replacement.  Also, with the 1953 abandonment of service between Decatur and Bloomington, one of the IV Div cars was placed in a short-lived service shuttling between Decatur and the north end of Forsythe.

With closure of the Danville local service, the Staunton – Litchfield line closure,, the end of the Decatur – Forsythe operation and the 1955 abandonment of passenger service from Springfield to East Peoria the 410 and 415 now surplus, with both cars leaving the IT in 1956 (I’m assuming 410 was also disposed with in 1956).  

Notes on individual car histories after leaving the IV-DIV:

60 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 74, renumbered to 404 in 1930; photographed in Granite City service in late 1930s; in Decatur-Forsythe service in March 1953, sent to Granite City shortly thereafter; retired 5/1956

61 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 75, renumbered to 405 in 1930; used in Granite City service, then used for a time in Peoria-East Peoria shuttle service (photographed there in 1950); photographed in Decatur-Forsythe service in April 1953; retired 2/1956

62 - transferred to ITRR 9/1929, renumbered 410; to NMOT in Kirkwood, MO 7/1959

63 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 414; used in service between Danville and Georgetown until July 19, 1939, then transferred to Granite City service; retired 10/1950, body converted to a locker room in the St. Louis subway

64 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 415; used in service out of Danville (to Georgetown and Hillery) until 1939, likely transferred to Granite City service 1939; to IRM 10/1956

65 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

66 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

67 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 302; this car was photographed in 1934 in service between Danville and Georgetown; scrapped c1939

68 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 411; scrapped 8/1950

69 - transferred to ITRR 1934, renumbered 303; used in Danville-Georgetown service until 1936, then used in Staunton-Litchfield service until April 18, 1939; scrapped c1939, body used as air brake shop at Granite City

70 - transferred to ITRR 9/1929, renumbered 409; photographed in Granite City service c1934; scrapped 8/1950

71 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 412; photographed in Granite City service c1934; scrapped 8/1950

72 - transferred to ITRR 1934, never used

73 - transferred to ITRR 1930, renumbered 413; photographed in Granite City in 1953; scrapped 7/1953

74 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 76, renumbered to 406 in 1930; wrecked 12/1945

75 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 77, renumbered to 407 in 1930; scrapped 6/1953

76 - transferred to ITRR 8/1928, renumbered 78, renumbered to 408 in 1930; scrapped 8/1950

Car 405 saw use in Peoria; 404 and 405 were used in Decatur-Forsythe service; 302, 303, 414, and 415 were used out of Danville; and 303 was used in Staunton-Litchfield service. All the other cars (except the ones not used by the ITRR) were likely used in Granite City service their entire ITRR careers, and were joined at one time or another by 404, 405, 414, and 415.

IT 1702 Operational Restoration Photo Album

Frank writes...

The "big reveal" that we've been working to make IT 1702 operational has happened, so now the story of how that transpired can be told! Unfortunately, I'm not the one to tell it, because I wasn't involved in very much of it. However, I did snap a few photos over the past few months that show some of what was done, so this is an introduction to "How to Get a Line Car Running Again."

Mechanically speaking, the "condition of the artifact" at the start of the project was not great. The 1702 has Type M control, and its C6 controllers and contactors (13 electromagnetic contacts mounted in three adjoining boxes in a 5-5-3 arrangement) were complete, but hadn't been touched since the car was retired from service in 1958. The DB-22 reverser (largely the same as the DB-20 reverser under CA&E 36 and 309, but designed for four motors instead of two) had been replaced back in the 1980s with a DB-22 rebuilt by Carl Illwitzer. But the replacement reverser had never been wired in, and the tags labeling the disconnected wires had faded into illegibility. The air system - brakes, air compressor, piping etc - and the motors hadn't been inspected in decades. The below photo shows the contactors in late November, before Gregg fixed up the curved-front covers and before any work had been done to disassemble anything.

If memory serves, despite the remarkable restoration of the body that Gregg W accomplished over the past few years, serious thought wasn't given to getting the 1702 running until late November 2023. That's when a few people (I want to say Brian L, Mikey M, and Greg K) meggered the car's GE 73 motors, just as a "what if" experiment. The results were astonishing: the worst of the motors came back at about 6 megaohms and the other motors were in even better shape. If the rest of the car could be mechanically reassembled and fixed up, at least we knew expensive motor work shouldn't be necessary.

During December, I believe the decision was made to "give it a go" and see if we could get the car running in time for the IT Society convention in April. Nobody really knew whether we could get the car running in such a short timeframe, so the effort was kept quiet to avoid setting expectations we couldn't meet.

Above, it's January 21st and work has started on disassembling the smallest of the three contactor boxes. Nick E is painting Glyptal insulating paint onto disassembled arc chute pieces while Zach cleans dirt off the next batch. When work started, it wasn't even clear what type of contactors the car had. We soon determined that it has DB-41 contactors, which are a very early type - possibly even the next common type to be developed after the DB-15, which was the very first production model of contactor GE produced. These are pretty similar to the DB-131 contactors under the 308 and 409, but they're wider and beefier, presumably because they were designed for four motors rather than two. They were also designed for use without a line switch, similar to the DB-15.

A lot of people pitched in on this project, including Bob O, shown above taking a break from track work to paint more arc chute parts with Glyptal on January 21st. I know that Greg K, Norm K, Brian L, Zach E, Mikey M, and Bob S were all heavily involved in the project, and many others - some pictured in this post, some not - also contributed time as needed. It was truly a team effort.

Above, it's now February 11th and Greg K is under the car (right) working to disconnect the second contactor box. The third box, with three contactors, was formerly right over where his head is, but that had already been removed and was on the bench in the shop. Work hadn't really started yet on the two five-contactor boxes, though. You may see some legs to the left in the gauge - that's Zach E, who was working on cleaning up the valves for the 1702's air compressor. The compressor meggered okay, but the valves were stuck and the thing needed a good cleaning. Other brake work that was needed included rebuilding some slack adjusters.

Also on February 11th, here are the electromagnetic lifting coils for the first three contactors to be rebuilt. From memory, these three were all in good shape and didn't need any significant work besides a fresh coat of Glyptal. We would not be so lucky with all of them.

Above, it's February 18th and more DB-41 arc chutes are on the bench in a state of disassembly as the team gets started on rebuilding the second of the three contactor boxes. More importantly, though I didn't get a photo of it, February 17th was the first day the 1702's air compressor ran. There were some leaks in the system, but nothing that wasn't fixable, and the car was successfully pumped up and the brakes tested.

On February 25th, I snapped this photo of Zach E cleaning up more arc chute parts. A completed arc chute is in the foreground. It's hard to see, but on the bench right behind where he's working is a little plastic "shoebox" atop an orange box. That's a tumbler, of sorts, where arc chute hardware (especially 14-24 brass machine screws, which GE really liked to use but are almost impossible to find nowadays) was put into a vibrating "bath" of coarse abrasive grit for a day or two to clean it of paint and dirt.

Here's one of the rebuilt arc chutes. Compare this with the first photo in this post! You can also compare it with the photo of the DB-131 contactors underneath the 308 here.

Above, it's February 25th and the first of the three contactor boxes is going back together. The coils have been re-mounted along with the armature and rocker arm assemblies. There's an awful lot yet to do, though, and this is just the first - and smallest - of the contactor boxes. Brian L and Mikey M worked extensively on the reassembly of these boxes, including cleaning up and repairing (or replacing from a very limited supply of spares) any rocker arm and interlock parts that needed it.

On March 3rd, you can see more work on reassembling contactors. Toward the upper right is an armature and rocker arm, while at lower center is a replacement shunt. Some of the 1702's contactors had broken shunts, meaning the motor current was going through the rocker arm pins - yikes! Greg K flattened copper pipe over the ends of braided cable to create replacement shunts.

The arc chute assembly line is still hard at work - seven are completed as of March 3rd.

On the same day, Zach E and electronics wiz Bob S are using Bob's vintage turbo encabulator (with optional pentametric fan) to test electromagnetic coils for the contactors. I believe only one or two were bad, needing replacement from stock, but a number of them had bad string banding, which is obvious from a glance in the left foreground.

It's March 10th, and Nick E, Matt K, Norm K, and Greg K are working to decipher the DB-22 reverser, which has been removed from the car and set on the bench. Norm's extensive experience with various types of MU systems, combined with information gleaned from the DB-22 reverser under IT 233, enabled him and Greg to wire this thing up, installing as much wiring as possible on the bench and then the remainder under the car.

Also on March 10th, we get a demonstration of how to replace string banding on contactor coils. The coil is mounted on a lathe; Nick E (right foreground) turns the coil slowly by quickly cycling the lathe on/off; Zach (center) feeds string onto the coil as it turns; and Greg (right background) unwinds the spool of string. This is the kind of thing you get really good at just as the project gets completed.

It's St. Patrick's Day, and Norm and Greg are finishing up the wiring to the reverser. Here, Greg is under the car while Norm is outside.

And now they've switched places. Being able to work over the new concrete floor is great, but this isn't exactly comfortable.

It's March 24th, and the last of the 13 arc chutes have been taken apart, cleaned, repaired as necessary, Glyptaled, and reassembled. It's not too obvious here, but we ran out of normal "tile red" Glyptal and had to break into a can of this weird Pepto-Bismol pink Glyptal for the three arc chutes on the right. Dan F made the observation that the glaring shade of pink made him want to punch something. These five arc chutes all go into the last of the three contactor boxes to be rebuilt.

Also on the 24th, the second contactor box has been reassembled, as shown, and the first three-contactor box has been hung under the car. The third box, though, is still in pieces, and it's just five weeks until the ITS meet - and only three weeks until the team's self-imposed deadline of April 14th to get the 1702 at least minimally operational.

I wasn't out over Easter weekend, but the above photo was taken on April 7th, by which time the third contactor box had been reassembled and all three boxes were hung on the car. Later on the 7th, 600-volt power was put to the rebuilt control system and the car was successfully sequenced. With the entire control system now operational and the motors meggered, it remained only to hook the two together. During the week of the 7th, Greg K, Norm K, and others worked to do this, and power was applied to the first two motors on the evening of April 10th. They both turned in the same direction, moving the 1702 under its own power - if only tentatively - for the first time since 1958.

The following Saturday, several of the project workers embarked on a marathon session until 2am hooking everything up. More work ensued the following day, April 14th, and that evening, the car was towed out to live wire on the streetcar line, pumped up, and tried out. It ran!

I filmed the above video from a golf cart driven by Nick as we paced the 1702 around the streetcar line. Spring tension in the trolley base needed to be adjusted, and the retriever had to be monkeyed with to get it to work right, but otherwise, the car ran flawlessly.

Of course, I also had to go for a ride. The retriever seemed like it was "binding up" and pulling the pole off the wire at intervals, so all eyes were on the trolley wheel to see what was going on. L-R: Richard S, Lee E (hopping the pole), Bob O, Norm K, and Greg K.

Okay, this isn't really related to the operational restoration, but it's mildly interesting. The platform on the 1702 is raised and lowered using this chain hoist. The nicely varnished posts to its left and right hold up the platform on this side of the car, and the chain hoist acts to lift that steel bar joining the bottoms of the two posts. Cables connect to lift a similar steel bar on the other side of the car, too.

This isn't a photo of everyone who worked on the 1702's operational restoration, by any means, it's just a photo of the people who were along for the inaugural trips - though I think just about everyone here did contribute at one point or another. L-R: Nick K (in the golf cart - okay, he didn't contribute to the effort!); Richard S; Will K; me; Nick E; Zach E; Norm K; Jimmy L; Greg K; Brian L; and Matt K. Photo by Jim W.

Name That Face

Ray Piesciuk recently scanned a photo that depicts quite a few IRM members. We're hoping you can identify more of them! We'd also be interested in knowing what and where event this was, if anyone in the photo remembers. This is thought to have been Howard Odinius’s funeral in April 1973. The copy below has everyone numbered.

So far, we have:

1 - Warren Cobb

2 - Bob Opal

3 - Jon Fenlaciki

4 - Bill Nedden

5 - George Clark?

6 - George Krambles

7 - Dick Lukin

8 - Jeff Brady

9 - Ralston Taylor?

10 - Howard Weege

11 - Bill McGregor

12 - Dan Gornstein

13 - Ray Neuhaus

14 - Don Weege

15 - Bob Kutella

16 - Tom Jervan

18 - John Woytash?

19 - Herb Hanson

20 - John Horachek

21 - Ralph Weege?

22 - Steve Hawley Michaels

24 - Glenn Andersen

25 - Frank Jur

26 - Mark Secco

28 - Pete Schmidt?

29 - Jim Johnson

30 - Jerry Lynn

31 - Ed Mizerocki

32 - Bob Gibson

33 - John Myhre

34 - Bill Wulfert

35 - Dave Shore

36 - Bob Walker

37 - Phil Hehn

38 - Ed Arnold

39 - Bob Konsbruck

40 - Bob Rayunec

(37/40)

Also, if you enjoy this sort of thing and remember back a few years, we still have some mystery faces in this photo from 1989.

More from the ITS Meet

Frank writes...

My daytime assignment for the Illinois Traction Society convention was docent in the 233, which was quite enjoyable. A lot of these photos will more-or-less be duplicates of ones my father has already posted, but oh well - feel free to skip ahead.

The 233 and "Peoria" looked very sharp sitting at 50th Avenue, even as tired as both cars (particularly the sleeper) are.

The two cars were put on the west track because they're a bit wider than Chicago 'L' standard, so wouldn't clear the east track. That said, they're also not as wide as standard railroad equipment (or South Shore/Illinois Central cars, which is what the west track was laid out for), plus their traps can only be lowered with the doors closed. So, Joel made up nice "gangplanks" to access both cars across the gap. Here you can see the 233; structurally it's quite solid, though it could use work on a few corner posts and a few spots in the belt rail, as well as the roof.

My father already posted photos of the interior of the 233, but we'll take a quick tour again anyway. Above is the front compartment, laid out similarly to the baggage compartment in the 277 with the motorman's cab on the left. This car also has extra storage space behind the cab, including a bank of built-in wooden filing cabinets and a closet to hold folding tables like the one visible on the left foreground. Note how the baggage door leaves swing in rather than sliding.

I counted 16 seats in the car, not including the dining room chairs or porter's seat. There's a longitudinal bench seat for four at the front right corner; a quartet of double seats flanking the doorway from the front compartment into the main compartment, the latter shown here; and a four-seat bench at the rear of the main compartment. Here, Aaron from Minnesota is chatting with our own Norm Krentel. The permanent seats all pull out, creating a total of six bunks for overnight sleeping. Brass hooks in the walls suggest where curtains would have been hung for a small amount of privacy.

Backing up to the main compartment, on the other side of the wall Aaron is sitting against in that earlier photo, is the stove and prep table shown here in the compact kitchen. The stove is gas-powered, as is the water heater - that vertical can-looking thing in front of the window contains a coiled tube connected to the overhead hot water tank, and there's a gas burner at the bottom of the can to heat the water in the tube. The heated water then ascends to the tank, replaced by cooler water. At the left edge of that prep table is a pass-through window for passing food out of the kitchen to the steward to be served in the main compartment. The back wall of the kitchen, out of view to the right, holds a sink (with both hot and cold taps) and an icebox. I didn't take photos of them, but behind the kitchen just forward of the rear platform are the lavatory on the right side of the car and the Peter Smith water heater compartment on the left side.

And now, let's head next door to the "Peoria," the only interurban sleeping car preserved in the country.

The car was designed with ten sections, generally similar to Pullman sections in concept but with some important differences. Roughly half the car was more-or-less gutted when it was converted to work car service, but one end of the car with six sections was left largely original. Above, this section is set up in "bunk" configuration. I think the upper bunks folded down from the wall similar to in a Pullman car, but of course one innovation on the IT was the use of small windows for upper-bunk passengers. The lower bunk was created by pulling out the seats, but in this particular section, the seats were removed when the car was put into MOW service.

Fortunately, on the other side of the aisle, we have a section that retains its original seats and shows what the daytime configuration of these cars looked like. There are a lot of neat little touches that are difficult to make out here, including tiny reading lights that fold out from the wall, tiny wall safes for locking up valuables (though nothing much larger than a wallet and watch would fit), and of course porter call buttons. There are also slots under the main windows for removable tables, so you can play cards or do paperwork at your seat.

Here we are looking down the aisle of the car at the two sections already shown. Visible straight ahead, where we blocked off access to the gutted MOW section of the car, is a rare backlit sign for The Owl, the famous IT overnight train between St. Louis and Peoria. The "Peoria" would need an immense amount of work - the woodwork requirements are probably on the order of what was done on the "Talisman" - but someday, with enough money, this car will hopefully ride the rails again.

Now, let's turn our attention to operations. Of course, one highlight was the first-ever public operation of the 1702, shown here passing the south wye switch. The operational restoration of this car was kept close to the vest by the museum, partly because we wanted to make it a surprise for the convention attendees but also because we weren't sure we'd get it running in time! Watch this blog for a retrospective look at all the work that went into getting the 1702 running for the first time since 1958.

The line car wasn't on the printed timetable because it was a surprise, but a number of other trains were. Zach, who made up reproduction NSL timetables for the January 2023 North Shore Day event, did something similar for this one. I didn't grab a copy of the official souvenir public timetable, but I did snap a photo of his handy reference card that summarized all the train times.

The 1702 wasn't the only car debuting for the convention. Car 415, shown here, has been out of service since 2020 for a complete exterior restoration. A whole team of people have worked on this, but the effort was spearheaded by Nick Espevik, who ran the car on Saturday. Jamie from the Diesel Department did the spray-painting. I'd say the car has never looked better!

Also in apple green was center-entrance car 101, shown here just after dinner on Station Track 2. During the dinner break, the 233 and "Peoria" were switched back into the barn because they don't have interior lights and we were worried about incoming rain. My assignment after dinner was conductor of the 101, which is always a great gig.

Another debut was IT "Class B" 1565, which has been out of service for several years (anyone recall how many?) with contactor problems. Following a remarkably involved two-year project to analyze, diagnose, and rebuild the locomotive's entire complement of contactors, this was the 1565's first day back in public service. It saw a couple of teething troubles, including a balky feed valve and a bolt in one contactor that vibrated loose, but those were quickly fixed and it served through the day and into the evening in freight and Take-the-Throttle service.

This photo, taken about 7pm, shows the 101 on Station 1 with the "Tangerine Flyer" on Station 2.

As the last bits of sunlight faded, the 1702 was posed in front of Barn 4 with lighting set up by Dave Zeman. Here, Zach is up on the roof inspecting the wire ("say, this wire is no good"), Gregg is in the motorman's cab, and Billy Halstead is on the deck. All three have close connections with this car: Zach was instrumental in the project to make it operational; Gregg spent several years rebuilding the entire car, without which nobody would have even considered trying to make it run; and Billy's father worked for the IT as a lineman on one of the railroad's line cars, possibly on the 1702 itself.

At the end of the evening, the "Tangerine Flyer" made a final round trip. The thought occurred to me that, considering all the IT equipment we had in operation, Bob Bruneau would have been loathe to let half of the stuff out of the barn in the first place... but if he'd been here to see all this, I have no doubt he would have loved it.

LATE ADDITION: Thanks to Zach for sending a copy of the souvenir public timetable!

Just Can't Get Enough of IT

 On Saturday, the Illinois Terminal Historical Society held its annual convention at IRM, and a good time was had by all.  And perhaps the most exciting news:

The big highlight of the day was the first public operation of 1702, the line car:

for the first time since 1958!

Passenger operations included the three-car mainline train, powered by combine 277:

And the center-entrance car 101:

The complete list of operating equipment consisted of:

• 277, 518, and 234 (IT standard heavy interurban cars)
• 101 (center-entrance car)
• 1565 (Class B locomotive)
• 415 (suburban car, the flagship of IRM)
• 1702 (line car)
• 1605 and 988 (Diesel era locomotive and caboose) plus freight cars

The business car 233 and sleeper Peoria were also on display.

The daytime crew on the 277 train consisted of Bob Neil, myself, Gregg Wolfersheim, and Mark Hoffman:

Photo by Matt Gustafson

Gregg was later replaced by Joel.  And they were holding take-the-throttle runs on the Class B and the 1605 for much of the day.

Interior of the 234:

We also provided local service to Seemann Rd. for photographers.

The 233 and Peoria were staged over at 50th Avenue for the visitors to walk through.

The 233 still has all of its electrical equipment except traction motors, I think.

The front section has this equipment in place:

Sorry, I should have gotten a better picture of it.

The main compartment:

The kitchen:

And here are a few views of the Peoria.  Not enough room for good pictures.