Electric Car Report

 Sorry, I accidentally deleted the content for this post.  I'll just have to rewrite it, meanwhile here are the pictures.

Talk to Your Guidance Counsellor

I had to look at this car card closely to see what the student nurse is doing: at first glance it appeared she was praying, but she's actually squinting at a thermometer.  "Mmm, 160, this Electroburger should be just about right...."

Knotty But Nice

Today we picked up the running boards for the roof of the 319.  Pete Galayda happened to be there in the morning and agreed to come along and help, which made a big difference.  These are 16' Douglas Fir 2x6s.  They are a good 6' longer than the truck, as you can see, but all went well.  On the way back we took side roads so there was no hurry.  Thanks, Pete!

I'm used to working with hardwoods, and if there's one noticeable knot in an 8' board, I put it back and look for another.  But with softwoods it's just a matter of degree.  Apart from the knots, the boards look quite good and straight.

 

  After unloading the wood into the shop, and putting the truck back where I found it, it was time to start painting.  It'll be a lot easier to paint the boards in the shop than up on the roof.

During breaks from painting, among other things I finished attaching the rope guard at the east end.

Tim continues to make new seat cushions for the 24.   The challenge is that these are five times as long as anybody else's.

And Frank Kehoe is making a jig for producing new window shade tracks for the car.

 

And Max continues to make good progress on improving the wire over Yard 8.  Gerry was working on the dump motor, but I never got around to getting a picture of it.  So even on a Tuesday, which is fairly quiet, we're getting a lot done.

Dick Lukin and the CTA

Our good friend Dick Lukin recently read my post looking for information on CSL 2843 and sent me a letter with a great story about the car which he gave me permission to post.  -Frank

The E223 being unloaded at North Chicago; photo courtesy Charles S. King

Dick writes:

I noted your request for pix or information on the two 2800s languishing in our barns.  I DO have color pix and perhaps some B&W pix of the 2843.  In 1956 when I got out of the army, I wanted to buy that car for the museum.  The TA quoted me a price of over eight hundred bucks for the car... reason, it had four motors (keep this in mind).  Well I did NOT have eight hundred bucks to spend, but since I was always interested in sweepers, we saw that the E223 was in excellent condition having been kept inside a carbarn all these years.  It was a complete operational car... ready to run!  Cost on this car was only $407.  Why so cheap... the TA listed it as having only two motors.  What the hell did the "Mart" know about cars... not a damn thing.  These sweepers do have four motors... two traction motors and two for the brooms... ha ha, plus the entire frame is of iron or steel, while the 2843 is WOOD.  So easy decision... I cut a check from my savings account at the First National Bank of Chicago for the $407 and sent it to the CTA at the Mart.  For freight to the IERM site in North Chicago, Carl Gustafson paid Helder's trucking invoice.

Later on... the boys from Downers Grove bought the 2800s, the F305 plow and the X4 crane, the Matchbox, etc.  What was a surprise to me was that in the lineup of cars going to the fire pit at 77th Street hops later in 1958 were cars which we thought had been destroyed long before... there was a 5650 car... one of the St. Louis built cars from the Southern Railway, the long bodied car.  I had NEVER ever saw that car in service (during WWII) or later in prowling around various barns.  Why all of us had never spotted the car in the burn line is still a mystery to me.  That car would have been a special attraction.

Dick Lukin

For a photo of a 5650-series "Crete suburban car" click here.

Very Sharp

Another CTA card from the 1754.  It's really too bad this one is in such bad shape.  And I didn't know Burma Shave made blades, so you learn something new every day.

Inexorable Progress

 It was a beautiful day at the Museum and just right for working on all sorts of things.  We'll start with the roof of the 319.

 

Most of the rope guard on the west end of the car was completed.  I don't have a convenient way to access the left side just now, but the rest has all of its screws installed, and it was caulked.  It will eventually be painted black.

Then I attached the guard at the east end.  Here it is suspended with twine over the trolley wire supports.  Most of this end was completed also before I ran out of the right size screws, but I forgot to take a picture.  

Rope guards are one of those details you probably would never think about until you actually have to maintain one of these cars.  Somewhere I have a picture I took of a car that had evidently been operating for a while without rope guards, and as a result the rope had worn through the canvas so that the ends were not attached to anything.  That's obviously not good!  Some lines, such as the IT, had more elaborate guards that would hold the rope out a few inches from the end, but the CA&E and North Shore had simple metal bars like these.  Because of the way the end of a CA&E car arches up, the guards have a compound curve and would not be easy to reproduce.

I also spent some time wrapping up the roof cables with tape.  The insulation is generally in good condition; what might appear as crumbling insulation is actually chunks of tar from the last roof job.  It took a while to chop most of this tar away, so a layer of rubber tape could be applied.  After a coat of canvas paint, it will look good.

 

While we're up on the platform, here are some pictures of the roof fuse box.  We were contacted by an Italian company that makes arc chutes and similar products for electric railroads.  We have several roof fuse boxes that are badly deteriorated and need replacing.  So I agreed to send them some pictures and dimensions and see what they say.

Luckily we can communicate in English.  Thanks to my vast knowledge of operatic Italian, I am easily able to say things like "I love you" and "Die, traitor!" but those have little use in the business world. 

After I got home I got a message that the wood we ordered for the running boards has arrived in Woodstock, so I will able to pick it up on Tuesday, cut it as needed, and paint it.  Progress!

Speaking of progress, lots of other things were going on at the Museum today, of course.  Here's just a sample.

Max started working on the trolley wires over the leads to Barn 8, which badly needed fixing.  Here he is in the bucket, being helped by Charlie Strong.

By the end of the day track 84 (on the right) was pretty much done; it should be evident how much needs to be done on 82 and 83, but they're making good progress.  We don't need to go through these curves at high speed, of course, but if we can get through the yard without dewiring at every frog and every hanger, it will be a big improvement.  Thanks, guys!

Tim is grinding down some metal parts on a seat frame for the 24.

Eric was working on the Cleveland PCC, as usual.  Here Lorne is installing new sheet metal in the ceiling.

And finally, some more work on the 36.  I cleaned up the car to some extent, and painted the ventilators in the smoker. 

 

Progress on the vestibule is slow, but inexorable.  That's because there's no such word as "exorable" in my dictionary.  How about yours?

Enjoy the Finest!

While looking in the 1754 the other day, Tim showed me a pile of old CRT car cards left there by Ray Neuhaus.  They're mostly in pretty bad shape, but are still interesting, I think.  Tim hopes to get them scanned in and reprinted at some point.  It's been a while since we've had any new car card posts, so here's one from Pigley and Ulcers, another Chicago restaurant chain that's long gone. Mmmm!

Spring Break

This week happens to be Spring Break for me, so this is a report for two days of work.

On Tuesday, it was time to install some more saddles.  Five at the east end of the car were finished before the caulk ran out.

Then I put another coat of canvas paint on the lower roof, south side.  Now that we have nice newly-painted L cars on 82, I don't want to work in the center aisle.  I never liked that rolling platform on the uneven surface anyway.  When the time comes, I will switch the 319 over to 84, where the 309 is, to do the other side.

Tim went into the 1754 to look for parts, so I got a chance to take a couple of pictures of the interior.   Its general condition is much like the 321 -- not good.

And then some more work on the vestibule of the 36, finished with a first coat of blue on the pocket door.


And a nice sunset.

On Wednesday I started by attaching one of the rope guards.  The strings hold it in position while the screws are inserted.

Then all remaining saddles were attached.  The next step will be to attach the running boards, which should arrive next week.

And I installed one of the grab irons.  These are a matter of life and death, so it's important that they be done right.  I stood on it, I hung from it as best I could, and was able to rock the car from side to side a little by yanking on it, all without any perceptible motion.  So that's encouraging.

Then there was more stripping and sanding in the vestibule.  That is annoyingly slow and tiring.  Then I thought of something slightly more fun to do.  While repainting the smoker over the winter, the ventilators had to be closed while the compartment was heated.  But for passenger service we will undoubtedly keep the ventilators open, as we do on the other cars.  So I pried the doors open, sanded the sides of the chutes, and put on white primer.  Next time they'll get a finish coat to match the rest of the ceiling.  This is the only CA&E car with this type of ventilator.

Birth Announcement

 

Off-topic, perhaps, but we have something new on the blog: a new baby!

David and Katy Wilkins are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Alexandria Rose Wilkins, born on Friday in Salt Lake City.  Mother and child are doing well.  The father, however, is acting strangely and needs to be kept under clinical observation.  Dr. Hicks suggests liquid sedation.