Indiana Railroad 65

Howard Odinius was a motorman on the North Shore Line.  He spent most of his vacation time traveling around the Midwest visiting other interurban lines.  And much of his spare time was spent making detailed models of interurban cars.  His favorite type seems to have been the Indiana Railroad lightweight high-speed cars of 1931, so when one of these became the last operating survivor of the once-great system....

Well, you probably know the rest of the story.  Howard went to work and that car eventually became the nucleus of the Illinois Railway Museum.  It doesn't operate very often, but on Saturday it ran all day, allowing the public to ride its newly-reupholstered seats in comfort and style.  

(All photographs by Chuck Amstein.   May not be reproduced without permission, etc.)

(R) I got bumped from the CA&E, but luckily the Indiana was hiring.

 

This may not look correct, but it is.  Jon looked it up in the Indiana Railroad rulebook.  The rear of a train is marked by green flags by day and red lights by night.  

 

The car also showed off its melodious brass air horns.  They are loud. 

On most trips we had to turn away passengers when the car was full.  Luckily I did not have to turn away these two.

The car stops at a rural grade crossing to board or discharge passengers.

Modern automatic block signals provide absolute safety for high-speed movements on single track lines. 

Jon's next big ambition is to recreate the C&LE's famous race with an airplane.  We could always put some parlor car seats in the baggage section.  Now we just need to find somebody who has an extremely slow biplane.  Let us know! 

And of course there were many other things going on.

Thanks, Chuck!

The Wagner Trolley Bus Loop

Saturday, Aug. 8, saw the dedication of the new trolley bus loop, made possible by Bill Wagner.  Chuck Amstein was there to take pictures, which we'll post separately from the railway operations.

 

Mr. Wagner is presented with a framed souvenir Transfer #1 by Ray Pieschuk.

(L) Rich Schauer driving one of the buses.  (R) Typical passengers enjoying the ride.

 

Each trolley bus passenger was given a souvenir transfer.

Dixie Flyer

The Dixie Flyer was a big success.  IRM's first car, Indiana Railroad 65, operated all day with its newly reupholstered seats, with capacity crowds on each trip.  For much of the time, we were operating on 45-minute headways, which is basically load and go.  Jon Fenlaciki was the motorman and does a great job of explaining everything about the car and its restoration, of course.  Being the conductor was a very enjoyable job.  I didn't take any pictures, partly because I was too busy, but mostly because Chuck Amstein was there and that's why he gets the big bucks.  He'll be sending us a great selection of photos soon, I'm sure, and we'll post them then.

However, I was amused to note that our track guys have moved the inspection car to a place in front of the UP Turbine.  It had been sitting in front of Barn 4 and was in the way.  I can only imagine what Buzz must think of this!

P.S.  Jon wanted me to point out that the new seats are so comfortable, at least one lady slept through half the trip.  What could be better than that?

From the Scrapbook

I came across a pile of old photographs, mostly from before the turn of the century.  Here's a few that might be of interest: 

Frank is repainting the M-1 (TM box motor) c. 1997

Frank and I walk nonchalantly past the Dodge inspection car at North Freedom.   Also 1997.

Back in those primitive times, paved roads were few and far between. 

This is what the interior of the 308 looked like when we acquired it in 1996.

Interior of LSE 150, c. 2000.  L-R: Bruneau, Jim Blower, and (I think) Bruce Lampson.  This car still looks pretty much the same inside, but it's now loaded with tools and parts.

Variety Show

We have lots of variety to display from the last two days.  There's no easy way to organize all this activity, so here goes:

Car 36:  The side sill needed a second coat of blue.  The lighting in the barn isn't very good for this application, so I wound up doing most of it with a brush in one hand and a flashlight in the other.  Much better!

Both the 36 and the 308 still needed their headlight receptacles labeled for "Bright" and "Dim".  Gotta be ready for nighttime operation.

And look, one of the numbers still needs black outlining.

The grid box castings are now black.

I also worked on lubricating and adjusting seats in the 309, but nothing worth taking a picture of.

Car 308: Yesterday I met up with an old friend, Gregg Wolfersheim.  He's an engineer and has a varied schedule, as they generally do, so he's looking for things to do during the week.  He rode the 308 recently and noticed several details that could be improved.  So he started to work on cleaning up the heater covers for repainting.  Instead of rust and dirt, we see that they should be painted the same brown color as the floor.

Here he is wire-wheeling one of them in barn 4.

They were numbered with a punch in a form of base 5, for some reason.  On this one, 5 + 5 + 2 = 12.

After being stripped down to bare metal, the inside surfaces got a quick shot of spray paint, and then the outside a coat of brown primer.

 

In case we want to do interior painting, I went to the 321 and located four cans of green paint for the 308, which has a two-tone green interior.  At least two of them had such badly rusted tops that the lettering could not be read, but the paint is still good.  So at least we will be able to get an exact match if needed.

The 308 really hasn't had any work done on it, other than routine maintenance, since its completion in 2006.  (That's so long ago, it's before this blog started!)   It'll be great to have somebody who can work independently on projects like this.

Barns 13 and 14:

 

Maybe the biggest news is that construction on 13 and 14 seems to be starting in earnest.

They seem to be using a different system than before: these metal brackets, set in concrete, will presumably hold the wooden posts well out of the ground, insuring a long life.

 

And Max has been busy installing poles for the AC electrical service to the new barns.

Miscellaneous:  Excitement is building all around the property about Thomas, little more than a week away.  Tents are going up, signs are put in place, and so on.   I can't wait!

Speaking of Thomas, who is this masked man?  I have no idea, but he was carefully helped off the trailer and safely put in a secure location, far from prying eyes. 

Carl and another employee are working on our oldest artifact, the Marengo Depot.  It needs constant maintenance.

The Highliners have made their way to the connector track.  The 309 looks on in curiosity.

Car 24: I was surprised to see how many leather standee straps are in place in the 24.  As Tim says, Yerkes made the famous observation that the straphangers paid the dividends, and I guess the theory was that therefore the more straps, the more profit.  Still, Tim is worried that children will try to hang from them, and the brackets holding up the rods are not that strong.  Operating crews will need to be vigilant.

And he's also busy installing the new window sash.

 This Saturday (Aug. 8) will feature operation of the 65 all day, as mentioned before, and dedication of the new Wagner Loop for the trolleybuses.  Come on out!

Dixie Flyer, Departing Track One

What are you doing this Saturday?  If you answered "I'm going out to IRM to ride the only restored Indiana Railroad high-speed car, of course" then you win the prize!  The museum's very first car, Indiana Railroad 65, will be in operation all day on Saturday and YOU are invited to ride along on this unique piece of history.  Not only that, you'll be riding in comfort on the newly-reupholstered seats that were just installed earlier this year.  The 65 doesn't operate very often so don't miss this chance!

Trains, Grids and Automobiles

Frank writes...

As previously mentioned, the 308 and 309 were scheduled to operate on Sunday but didn't for lack of a crew.  Oh, well.  Fortunately, although the CA&E woods weren't out on the line, plenty of other stuff was.  The North Shore cars, CRT woods, the Zephyr and the steam coach train were all running along with a four-car train of stainless steel 'L' cars including the 2200s and, in their revenue operation debut at IRM, the Boeing-built 2400s.

I didn't take too many photos but I did snap this when I first arrived on the property around 2:30.  I haven't the faintest clue what those cars in the foreground are (though I'm sure our loyal readers will come to the rescue in the comments, hint hint!) but I can tell you that Richard Schauer's red Yugo is parked under the North Shore sign.  There were plenty of interesting vehicles scattered about, as usual, including an assortment of trolley buses on display along Railroad Avenue out from under wire courtesy of a stinger.  The weather was gorgeous.

There was a tremendous crowd and there was a lot happening, but the car shop itself was pretty quiet.  The only ones in there were Norm and Jeff, both of whom were doing steel work for the Michigan Electric car.  Here Norm is drilling holes in the old, rotted side sill piece that was removed from underneath the front baggage door so that the holes can be accurately test-fit and marked before the replacement side sill is drilled.

My project for the afternoon was the 36's grid box.  The grid elements from the original box were really shot; I'm not sure why they were so badly corroded but they were pretty emaciated-looking so I replaced them with ones from our store of spare parts.  After some time wire-wheeling the surface rust off of the contact surfaces they ended up as shown.

I also cleaned up the contact surfaces and hardware on the taps, and found a spare brace (basically a steel rod with shoulders and threads at each end to keep the box frame square) in storage to replace the one missing from the 36's original box.  Then it was time for primer, and once we put a couple of coats of black on these end castings we'll have the makings of a very nicely rebuilt grid box.  We're currently waiting on the new mica tubes and washers we've ordered, which we hope will arrive in the next couple of weeks, and once those are on hand it should be a matter of just an hour or two to reassemble the box.  Then it goes back under the car and - fingers crossed - the 36 will be motoring again.

The Extravaganza, in Bullet Points

• The 25th Annual Transport Extravaganza was a big success
• I don't have access to the official figures, but it seemed that we probably had more vintage vehicles and more visitors than ever before
• The weather was pretty near perfect
• I was too busy to take pictures -- sorry!
• I sure hope others will send in their submissions, as there were lots of interesting cars on display
• Due to lack of trainmen willing to sign up, the CA&E cars did not run.  I spent the day on the Vera Cruz open car, mostly as conductor, with David Streeter as motorman.  It's very popular, and was packed on nearly every trip.   What a blast!   Nevertheless, don't let this happen again
• Remember, our success in today's market depends on every employee's dedication to involvement in the needs of our stakeholders...  oops, must have copied this from somewhere else.  Anyway, if you weren't there, plan ahead for next year!

Don't Nash Your Teeth

Chances are good you haven't seen a Nash lately.  Or a Studebaker, or Hudson, or lots of other interesting types of antique cars.  But as usual we've got the solution: the annual Transport Extravaganza, happening tomorrow.   Don't miss it!   The 1630 will be running, as shown above, and the 308 and 309, weather permitting.  (We could still use another crew member.)  The antique cars will be arriving early tomorrow, but the signs have already been put up by our B&G crew.

And our most unique antique auto is already on display.

 I had to switch the CA&E wood cars around to put the 308 and 309 at the door, and then checked the oil and so forth.

And here's a view of the new sign box on the 24, as Frank mentioned last time.  It's lit on AC, as I hope you can see.  Backlighting is always a problem.