Other Diners

While staying in Boston, we drove down to Rhode Island, and ate at the "Modern Diner" in Pawtucket.  This is a classic Sterling Streamliner.   They seem to do a good business and are open all day.   And the menu has a wide variety of foods.

I'd never heard of  linguiça before, (that's lin-GWEE-sah) but it's a spicy sausage of Portuguese origin somewhat like chorizo.  It seems to be popular for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in southern Massachusetts and RI.  So I had linguiça for breakfast.  I like to order unusual foods that are unique to the area or the restaurant.

The Sterling Streamliner is cute, but bears only a slight resemblance to anything that ever actually ran on rails.  Like most manufactured diners, it's too wide, and/or too short, or otherwise obviously not a real carbody.

Ralph's Diner in Worcester, on the other hand, is probably the most convincing replica I've ever seen.  I was thinking it must be a Boston and Worcester car until I got out the book and found it had the wrong number of windows.  You'll also notice that the clerestory windows don't line up with the main windows, and that's another giveaway.  

 

It's actually a Worcester Lunch Car, and is currently part of a local bar and only open in the evenings.  I didn't bother to go back and try to get pictures of the interior. 

While you're here, Hunter Lohse, a member of WRM, has posted a slide show of his recent photos on YouTube at this link.  It includes Orange Empire, the CTA, East Troy, etc. but the segment featuring the IRM Trolley Pageant starts at about 4:22 and goes to nearly the end.   Enjoy!

Lloyd's Diner

 This is a classic Worcester Lunch Car now located in Framingham, Mass. within walking distance of my daughter's new home.  So we ate there a couple of times during our recent visit to the Boston area.  (It was actually Worcester car #749, easy to remember!)

The food is good, and many of the fixtures in the diner itself appear to be original. 

The strange thing is that it's only open from 6AM to noon on Saturday and Sunday.  That's it.  This is a very unusual business strategy for a diner, I think.

Paint and Lettering

 

 Here's a quick report on the last two days.  Most of Tuesday was spent putting a second coat of blue on the side of the 36 that hasn't been lettered yet.  It looks much better, although it's hard to get a good picture in the barn.

I was able to install one of the new third-rail beams.  On the other side, there's too little room to maneuver the cart, and I don't want to move the car unnecessarily, so the other one will have to wait until the car is turned around.  At some point I want to start installing air hoses, purely for show, of course.

In the evening, I took a walk around the property.  The four Highliners are now sitting in Yard 14.

Work is continuing in the Steam Shop on the Shay, which is getting new tubes... 

... and the world's largest 0-4-0, UP 428.   But I was told they're thinking of adding some more drivers to reduce the axle loading.

Set in concrete: this has been an interesting project of the past few weeks.  Four steel line poles were installed by Glenn Andersen back about 1972 at the intersection of Railroad and Central for the new trolley bus service.   But Main Street is wider, and so one of the poles was in the way.  First, a temporary wooden pole was installed right where the gas station will be, so the span could be removed from the steel pole, and it was moved several feet and set in concrete again in its new location, the pole farthest to the right. 

I started lettering the 36 today, and finished everything except the word "Elgin".  After that's done next time, I'll start outlining it all in black.  Wait till you see it outside.

And I removed the defective grid box and took it to the shop.

Ed Oslowski brought his grandson out to show him the work being done on the 277.   Windows are being restored one by one.







On Tuesday, I met Mark Wolodarsky, a Branford (and IRM) member from New York who was visiting.  Frank knows him, as does Nick, it appears, so here we are enjoying some IRM pizza.  We're all such a friendly bunch!

The Narrowest of Narrow Gauges

A couple of weeks ago we were able to visit the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington in Maine while steam was running and had a great time.

The museum is recreating a few miles of the original WW&F railway, a 2' gauge line (1895-1933) on the original right-of-way and using some of the original equipment.  This railroad was projected as the Wiscasset & Quebec, although the idea of riding for 250 miles on these little trains seems rather unlikely.  In practice, the line only got about 40 miles from its terminal at Wiscasset, and never reached either Waterville or Farmington.

The real jewel of the collection is Coach #3, and lettered for  "Wiscasset & Quebec".  Built by Jackson & Sharp in 1894 for the road's first order of passenger equipment.

 

Hale & Kilburn made seats like this suited to narrow-gauge equipment.  Light is provided by an oil lamp at each end.

The inspection car is sometimes used for revenue service.

In downtown Wiscasset, about five miles away, this replica boxcar is on display.

 The displays inside do a good job of explaining what the railroad was about.

Wiscasset has a harbor on Sheepscot Bay, and the railroad's main function was to promote shipments through the town.

To save on land acquisition, the line entered town on a trestle over the water, and surprisingly many of the pilings are still in place.   This is actually the right-of-way of the WW&F coming into Wiscasset.

Pageant Part II

Frank writes...

My father covered the basics of the 2015 Trolley Pageant below, but I'll add what I can.  I arrived at about 8:15am and helped move the 308-309 out to the west end of the railroad at Schmidt Siding, after which we brought the 36-319 into the station.  I was at loose ends prior to my scheduled run with the 308-309 (the "grey roof train," not to be confused with the "black roof train") but managed to get some photos around the depot.

Above, an eastbound North Western freight charges past a couple of steel cars just arrived from Forest Park and a pair of woods preparing to head inbound.  Or something.

That's one happy motorman at the throttle of the 36!

I decided to go for a ride on a trolley bus and had two from which to choose, both from Seattle.  I rode on the 633, a 1940 Twin Coach which I had not even seen operate before at IRM.  A rather modern articulated trolley bus was also running (on the right in the above photo) and it was neat to see the recently "double-tracked" trolley bus line being put to good use.

My trip on the 308-309 went flawlessly; for my money there's no better-looking interurban train anywhere!

Upon our return we buried the two cars on track 84 behind the 36 and 319.  Job #1 in the coming weeks will be building a replacement grid box for the 36.  But in the meantime, I went on two trips on the caboose train, which was something I had never done before.  Above, Zach Ehlers, one of our younger volunteers, works as "trolley hop" on the D13 as the 1630 starts to pull out of the station.

And then after that I headed over to 50th Avenue, where I had been recruited to be the conductor on a late afternoon trip aboard the 4412 and 4290 with Bob Opal as motorman.  We boarded at 50th, pulled into the station, boarded more passengers and headed out.  There were a few volunteers from other museums aboard and they seemed to enjoy the trip.

And that was about it for the day.  The weather was great, the crowds were strong, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  What more could you ask?