Paint Shop Records for 451-460

Our friend Ralph Taylor handed me a stack of photocopies of the paint shop records for the entire 450 series yesterday. The ones that are of interest to us, of course, are the two preserved at IRM. So I'm posting them here. Let me know if you have trouble with the handwriting.

451 in Oct. 1950

460 in Sspt. 1951

As Ralph notes, the records say nothing about the lettering.

451 in Apr. 1953

Update: I noticed this note for the 453 in April of 1953:

First car curtains on 2 end doors lettered
(EXIT-AT-OTHER-END-OF-CAR)

Evidently these curtains could be pulled down in front of the motorman's cab, so passengers wouldn't bother him, but I've never seen examples or pictures of these.

Dave's Depots - Jacksonville, Illinois - Chicago & Alton

Dave's Depots returns! After a brief hiatus, my work-related travels took me to a town near Jacksonville, Illinois. On the way home, I snagged these photos of the old Chicago & Alton depot, now used as an Italian Restaurant. Jacksonville is on the C&A's old Kansas City to Chicago mainline.

The owners of the depot have preserved the old train order signal, though it is now mounted on the opposite side of the station from it's original location. Also, the original station sign, complete with mileage to Kansas City and Chicago is still in place.

Jacksonville also hosts the former CB&Q coal branch into southern Illinois, though there appears to be no depot.

After checking the map, it appears that the C&A had a plethora of lines in the area, which surprised me. I always thought of the railroad as just the two mainlines, from St. Louis to Chicago and from Kansas City of Chicago. I'll be back in the area in the near future, so I'll have to update you if I find more preserved or surviving depots.

Compressed Air!

The big news for today is that I got the compressor running on the 319 and checked out the brake system.

It had operated at Cleveland, but the armature meggered only about 500K, which was worrisome. I started by mounting a space heater to blow hot air into the motor compartment to dry it out, as seen here. After a few hours it was to about 800K, which is better but still less than the desired 1M. I spoke to Bob Heinlein, who decided we should call Rich Block for his advice. Finally, at the end of the day we got up enough courage to start the compressor. It worked well, and we were able to test the brakes. Of course, there are some minor issues. The compressor will need new brushes soon; the governor works but needs to be adjusted; I found there's a missing handle for a brake pipe cutout cock, and the brake rigging will need some lubrication. But it's great to have air on the car. I didn't bring out a spare whistle, but both whistle valves appear to operate fine. Thanks to Bob for helping check out the system.

During the day, I attached two handrails that were already painted, and took the rest back to the Diesel shop for painting there. I lubricated and tested both controllers and the reverser, so the control system is ready. I removed the masking paper from the rest of the windows, so it will look better for visitors. I brought out another recovered seat cushion and installed it. And so on.

In other news, Tim is patching up the west end of the 1024. It had rotted out badly and was about to collapse. This is only a temporary fix, but should last until a complete restoration can begin.

And finally, as of 10AM the 409 was down to bare metal up to the letterboard on both sides, and Cody was industriously needle-chipping one end. He says they are planning to prime it on Sunday and paint it on Monday. So good progress is being made there!

RPO Days

This coming weekend, June 12-13, will be RPO Days at IRM. It's always interesting and fun -- here's a link to pictures of last year's event. The 308 and 309 will be running both days.

As it happens, we need a trainman on Sunday, so here's the chance you've been waiting for! Please sign up if you can. Thanks!

"In order to survive as a Museum"

Bill Wulfert handed me this page from the annual report of 1961. Some things haven't changed much: the need for safe working habits and the need for work on the 1268, among others.

The baggage section of the 277 is about 8' square, so how much of a concessions department could there possibly have been? I believe they had a cooler for pop and some shelves with books and knick-knacks for sale.

The best part is the last paragraph: Mr. Mizerocki makes it sound like the Museum is on the verge of failure. It's easy to laugh now, but in fact it's only because people did assume their responsibilities that IRM was able to find a permanent location and expand into its present extent. He actually makes a good point: our future is never guaranteed.

This Is Brilliant!

(Photo by Bill Wulfert)

"Brilliant Red," to be exact. On Saturday the 319 was switched out of Barn 2 over to Barn 8, as mentioned before. Thanks to all who helped! The 409 is now in its place, ready for surface prep to begin.

(L) Dan Fenlaciki and Stan W.

I did some testing on Saturday. The compressor armature meggers only 500K, which is worrisome. We'll let you know what happens next.

Walt Stafa was here and has started diagnosing the control system on car 36. He's an old friend of ours from Ohio and has the expertise to fix whatever problems are encountered.

On Sunday we rearranged the cars in Barn 8, so the 319 is now behind the blue cars. Norman, Jeff B., Frank H., and I also worked on finishing the motor truck which we'll be shipping to the Connecticut Trolley Museum in a few days in exchange for the correct motor truck for the 36.

(L) Norm is working on tightening bolts. (R) The motor truck over the pit. The motors were rebuilt in Cleveland and thus have nice clean paint.

Frank and I also did some more testing on the 319; the control group works fine, as we expected. We'll be continuing on inspection and lubrication with the goal of having the car operational by July 3rd.

Frank adds...
Later in the day I helped out with putting a tarp on Milwaukee Electric M37, the container car, and then assisted Greg K. in removing the storm window retainer plates from the 460 while it was over at Barn 4 (see below). A bunch of department volunteers had been trouble-shooting the 460 and have gotten the MG set working and trolley pole bases repaired, among other recent improvements.

319 Is Switched Out

I'm at the Museum tonight and don't have any way to download my pictures, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow night. Today the newly-repainted 319 saw daylight for the first time as it was switched out of Barn 2 and returned to Barn 8. Everybody seemed to be impressed with the shiny new paint job. The 409 is now in the paint shop, ready for surface prep. The switch job was quite complex; Jim West in particular put in a lot of effort to help it get done.

And I see that Jamie got there first. Rats! I later worked on getting the car ready for service. More details later. And as usual, there were lots of other projects being worked on.

319 Is Painted

Contractor Ray Followell and his helper Cody finished painting the 319 today! It really looks nice! The fresh paint is very shiny, almost like glass, and I was afraid to touch it. I'll just have to get over it, though.

Here they are working this morning on the north side of the car in the fog. They have professional masks to wear but I don't, so I didn't stay there very long.

Meanwhile, I worked on windows in the car shop. I sanded down two more, as seen here. The car department's big pad sander works well. Personal safety equipment is important: dusk mask, safety glasses, and ear muffs.

And I put primer on two windows started last time.

I also checked on leaks over IT cars and plugged up another leak in the barn roof.

After the painting was done, the car looks like this on the south side.

I then spent some time removing the masking tape and paper, and the car looks like this. Don't trust the colors you see here, of course.

We didn't have the right people available today to start the switch move, so it will probably be tomorrow morning. The 409 will replace the 319, and it should be the next car painted. Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber finished tacking down the canvas on the 451, so it's making progress too.

Blue Is Going Out of Style

(Photo by Ray Pieschuk)

I'm usually the last person to notice fashion trends, so it was sort of a shock to realize that there has indeed been a definite change over the years when it comes to preserved CA&E cars. Back in the eighties, seven of the 18 passenger cars were painted in some form of the blue paint scheme (aka "Early American") but this number is now down to three! And one of those is unlikely to run in the near future.

If that isn't a fashion trend, what is?

I can assure you, however, that the 308 and 309 will remain blue, regardless of fashion. And thanks to Ray for the great aerial photo above!

UPDATE: Tom Hunter sent us the below photo of the 317 taken in May 2010 showing its current condition; thanks, Tom!

By Request...

...the Hickses go to the Caribbean! And by "by request" I mean "my dad told me to do it."

After the wedding (left) Bevin and I flew to Miami and boarded the Liberty of the Seas, which is one of the largest passenger ships afloat at 150,000 gross tons (more than three times the size of the Titanic yet apparently more buoyant).

At right we are posed in front of the ship in Labadee, Haiti, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. It's actually a private beach owned by the cruise ship company. The ship offloaded some relief supplies during the stopover.

Following Haiti came a stop in Jamaica where we rode a miniature Chinese bus that was definitely not built for American-sized posteriors to the Martha Brae river, where we went for a ride on a 30' bamboo raft (left).

Then, after a stop at the Grand Cayman Islands for curried goat at MacDonald's and some quality snorkeling, we paid a visit to sunny Mexico (right), where Bevin's mastery of Spanish drew the admiration of visitors and locals alike.

And then it was back to Miami and back to Illinois, where after a brief rest we drove out and saw the final battle of World War II at the museum! Hey, an entire week without trains? Unthinkable!

319 Progress

Contractor Jim Followell has now finished putting the grey paint on both sides of the 319. Here Bob Kutella looks over the north side of the car. Jim has to go to a funeral tomorrow afternoon, which will delay things a little, but he and Cody will make all the preparations for painting the red, and do it starting early on Friday. If all goes well, he believes it will be done by noon. I will be out there again to look it over and check that everything is OK. So far his work has been excellent.

Nick is hoping that we can then switch the 319 out of the barn on Friday afternoon and put the 409 in its place. This will avoid interfering with weekend revenue service. Stay tuned for the latest news as it happens, and don't touch that dial! Of course (and you knew this was coming) we still need your financial help!

Today I worked on more window hardware; I sandblasted the spring latches I had on hand. Rod installed a new nozzle in the machine, so it works very fast. I then installed them on the repainted sash that needed them.

Al Reinschmidt was out today, and he spent all afternoon putting a coat of primer on the rest of the main compartment's floor. Meanwhile, I worked on windows and did some straightening and sorting in preparation for moving the car back to Barn 8. This project is moving along much faster than any other I've ever worked on, so it's quite exciting.

In the woodshop, Bob Kutella and John Faulhaber are running window frames through the Berlin sander while Gerry looks on in amazement.

People have been asking about Frank, his wife, and his honeymoon. Maybe I can persuade him to post some (slightly off-topic) pictures from the Caribbean.

Canvas Pliers

A friend of IRM who lives in Florida just sent us this nice pair of canvas pliers for use on canvas roofs. Notice the wide grip for pulling the canvas evenly. It always helps to have the right tools for the job. Thanks!!!