Back to the Beginning

Today, we'll start with a quick view of what's happening on the 24.  The main object right now seems to be extracting usable wheelsets from the trucks we got from MOT.  That's not as easy as one might think, since the journal boxes seem to be frozen to the pedestals.  Here we see Tim trying to pry the box loose, while Erik and Bill offer encouragement.  Rod is running the forklift, out of sight to the right.  After a good deal of frustration, (and my suggestion of dynamite was politely ignored) we decided to roll the truck back into the barn and let Kroil do its work for a few more days.  So I went back to painting.

If you do the math, you'll see that the 36 is half again as worthy a project as the 24.  So let's get to work.  Today was mostly surface prep, not very photogenic, and also changing out the window shade tracks, which is time-consuming.  For the record, if you look closely at the #2 bulkhead, it appears that a circular light fixture (or something) must have been located below the light that is still there.  Exactly how that worked I have no idea.

As you can see from earlier photos, the upper panel on the #2 bulkhead had badly alligatored paint, much worse than the other end.  So I decided to try stripping it carefully.  Fortunately this seems to be a solid wood panel, not veneer.  Heat stripping on veneer causes the layers to delaminate, which is bad.  And to my surprise, the original stencilling survived the process quite well.

I take it this must be gold leaf.

The number 36 I want to preserve, if possible.  Anyway, the gold pattern is quite interesting, and this panel is a good indication of what the car looked like when outshopped by Stephenson in 1902.  Perhaps I will leave this unpainted for a couple of weeks if anybody wants to stop by and see it.  And I can hardly wait for the suggestions that maybe we should strip all the paint and leave the interior in its original form, etc. --- which will be an entertaining throwback to the beginning of my career, about forty years ago with the 309.

309 smoker ceiling, c. 1978

And then after that there was some more painting, but these windows all look alike.

Card Table Update

The next step will be to make a folding leg to support the outside end. 

36 Report

 Work continues on the interior of the 36.  More sanding and surface prep, and the next set of window shade tracks received a first coat of finish paint, as did the posts in the fourth section (out of five) so we're getting close to the end.

And there was lots happening on the 24.   Frank Kehoe is making new trap doors, as seen here. 

 Gerry Dettloff was welding new steel onto the east platform, and Tim was working on the motor bearings.

A couple of weeks ago, while my back was turned, the Car Dept. retrucked the 810, our Lake Shore Electric box trailer, so it now has the correct type of arch-bar trucks.  The body seems to be tilting slightly, but this should be fixed when the side bearings are installed.

And the new ventilators got a coat of finish paint.  This is a big improvement over the old ones.

Gerry has finished welding the angle braces and is planning how to install the steel plate to hold up the wooden floor of the platform.  And Frank is cleaning up the gear pans, which spent many long years in the mud.

Painting the ceiling, both upper and lower, in the fourth section is now complete.

And then I sanded down and primed four more arm rests.

Yesterday I attended the funeral of Cheryl Lint, who died last week after a long struggle with cancer.  As part of the memorial tributes, Ray Piesciuk spoke about her many contributions to the Museum over the past few years, working both in the office and at the Strahorn Library.  She will certainly be missed.

Secret Santas

Yesterday was the Happy Holidays Railway event, again, and everything seemed to go well.



 The three Northwestern bilevels were used to carry the passengers, loading on the car line near the annex. 

The crew consisted of conductor Sam Polonetzky, Larry Stone, and some new (old) guy, I didn't get his name.

Paul Cronin was the Stationmaster, coordinating the activities, and next to him is one of Santa's elves, I guess.

And here is one of the Santas himself.  

The elves help by passing through the train, handing out cookies and hot chocolate, and helping Santa give presents to the children.

And here is another Santa.  His identity is also a secret.

Once the trip starts, the trainmen have little to do since Santa and the elves do all the work, so I had a chance to ride in the cab car for while. 

The last few trips run after dark.  A lot of work has gone into decorating the property; this is just a small sample.

So that was a lot of fun, and the passengers, young and old, all seemed to be having a great time.  Two of the trips were completely full, and all except the last had a good crowd of visitors, so it seems to be a success.  It will be running again next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, so spread the word!

Plus One, Minus One, Change One

Frank writes...

I didn't expect to be able to make a trip out to IRM on Sunday on a rare weekend off from work, but that's how it worked out and I showed up about 2:30pm without any real work plans.  There wasn't anybody working in the car shop but there was much more activity than usual due to the Happy Holiday Railway; more on that later.  I ended up spending most of my day railfanning and came up with some interesting developments for anyone keeping track of the IRM roster.

Plus One: The most positive development, I'd say, was the recent acquisition of our newest piece of equipment, a Seattle trolley bus built in 2002 (yes, you read that right).  It's shown above at the west loop; it's the one on the left while a 1980s articulated trolley bus also from Seattle is in the right background.  This new bus, officially known as King County Metro 4123, was one of the last trolley buses in service anywhere in the U.S. with DC traction motors; all newer trolley buses have AC motors.  It arrived about a week and a half ago and ran itself off of the trailer.  For the HHR event, both Seattle trolley buses were being used to shuttle people from the museum entrance to the diner annex, from which the boarding platform alongside Barn 9 was a quick walk.

Minus One: Then there was the most long-awaited development, the departure of Boston (ex-Dallas) PCC car 3334 (photo above by Nick Kallas).  This car was loaded on a trailer and left town on Thursday, about six years after it arrived from Trolleyville.  IRM never really owned this car; we were storing it for the McKinney Avenue group in Dallas, which plans on restoring it as a Dallas car, of course.  After a series of delays they were finally able to transport it to the Lone Star State.

Change One: The most unexpected development involved our Indianapolis trolley bus recently acquired from the Museum of Transport in St. Louis.  A little history: this bus was sent to MOT by Indianapolis Railways during the 1950s after the city system completely restored it to as-built condition.  It suffered severely from decades of outdoor storage at MOT, but it was always known that the bus was numbered 527.  So today while helping Greg Kepka load some overhead extrusions into the Hoffman garage for use in electrifying the barn for trolley bus use, I noticed that the 527 had an older Indianapolis Railways logo to the right of the 1950s "restoration" one (see above photo).  More intriguingly, underneath that older logo could be made out the first two digits of an older number: 56.  Eh?  Later in the day Richard Schauer helped us with some investigating and discovered two more occurrences of an older number inside the bus, including one place at the rear where was quite obvious that it had been numbered 568 and only wore the number 527 when it was last painted.  It appears that our bus started its life, and probably spent its entire service life, as 568 and was only painted as 527 when it was restored to send to MOT.  Why?  We have no idea.  Possibly the city system had promised 527 to MOT and then that bus got in a wreck or something, so it was easier for them to paint up 568 as 527 than to contact MOT about changing their bus.  But either way, our bus appears to have been 568 up until just before it left town for preservation.

I also did more railfanning along with Greg.  First there was the Happy Holiday Railway train, seen above, on which my father was working as a trainman.  I'm sure he'll have a full report shortly.

And then there was a quick jaunt to the south end, where we viewed the newly-installed roll-up doors on Barns 13 and 14.  Both barns are fully ballasted and the aisles paved, so the next (and final?) step is to wire them up for lights.

We also stopped by the Steam Shop, where there were people working on the 1630 (seen above decked out with Christmas lights) and on the Shay, which recently passed its FRA hydro test.  Tentative plans are for it to be operating sometime next year, which will be the first time this millennium that IRM has two of its own steam engines in operation simultaneously.

And there was this sight in the car shop, sure to warm the heart of any traction fan: a newly rebuilt armature, in this case for a National AA1 air compressor to go under CSL 144.  Two more AA1 armatures are due to be completed soon, to be used as spares if necessary or eventually to go under CSL 2843 or one of our other Chicago streetcars otherwise.

While I spent most of my time bumming around, I did spend a little bit of time doing some honest work.  I helped Greg hauling trolley bus overhead into the Hoffman garage and then he returned the favor by helping me prepare the inner main reservoir tank on the 36, found recently to have a leak around the end piece, for removal.  We separated all of the unions and slightly loosed the bolts holding the straps in place.  The photo above shows both main res tanks (the one on the left is the leaky one), which at this end are piped together and to the safety valve.  Note that both have drain plugs mounted high on the tank (one even has a drain cock there) which is an unusual location.  Of course both tanks also have drain cocks halfway down the length of the tank on the bottom, which is what we use to drain them.

Care for a Game of Chance?

As we have noted before, the 36 is the only preserved car with brackets for holding up portable tables.  These were used for playing cards, often by regular commuters.  But as far as I know, there are no such tables from the CA&E in existence.

From the Johnson historic photo collection, this is the only picture I've seen of such a table in use.  This is not one of the wood cars, and the table itself doesn't appear to be fastened to the wall; it's just supported on the players' knees.  But it gives a good idea of the general size and shape.  It's a very dark color, which I'll take to be black.  And if you look closely, you can see that it has the CA&E herald painted on it, although faded.

So here's my repro card table, after I got the hooks to latch onto the brackets in the wall correctly.   It needs another coat of paint or two, and then I can letter it.  Nick was visiting yesterday, and he says these would be supplied by the conductor, who would receive tips in return.  I haven't yet figured out where this could be stored on the car, however.

Now if anybody wants to try making some money as a con man by luring gullible passengers into a rigged card game, it's fine with me.  I could even make some more tables if there's a need.  Just remember, though:  we always get our cut.   Or else!

Let It Snow

... as long as the snow doesn't stick to the roads and make driving difficult.  It stuck to all the tree branches, however, and was quite scenic.

The three bilevels were sitting in front of the Depot.  I'm going to be a trainman on Sunday, and am hoping we get a good crowd.  Spread the word!

 Then I walked over to check on the 321's tarp; all is well.

The rolling doors have been installed in Barn 14, as seen here.  I imagine they'll be functional as soon as AC power is available.  Work has started on mounting them in Barn 13.

Other than that, I installed all of the repainted ventilators that Gregg had prepared for me.








 And the next set of window shade tracks were prepped and primed.







More parts of the ceiling were also sanded down and primed.

And another couple sections of the lower wall were painted.  All in all, a very satisfying day. 

 Reminder: don't let Happy Holidays Railway leave you in the cold!