Savannah Roundhouse

The Georgia State Railroad Museum is located in the Savannah roundhouse, or what's left of it.  The museum has a medium-sized collection of railroad equipment, almost all from the immediate area, and is well worth a visit.  The site itself is very historic; much of it dates to before the Civil War.  About half of the roundhouse was demolished when service stopped, but the other half provides an interesting place for the display of the equipment.   The site is not connected to the outside world and has little trackage, but they make good use of what's available.

One of the most interesting pieces is this wooden coach, built by the Central of Georgia in 1878, and later used as an inspection car for the officials.  It has been preserved in excellent condition.

This Melbourne car belongs to the city and is stored here pending some sort of heritage streetcar line being put into operation.

The original shops covered a lot of territory.

Public operation uses this coach built on a flatcar.  Motive power alternates between a saddle-tanker and an industrial Diesel, and we seem to have chosen the wrong month to visit.  But as part of the ride you get to be on the rotating turntable.

This wooden coach was built by the railroad in 1911.  It was used as an office for many years and is in poor shape, but restoration work is proceeding slowly, and it's still a very interesting artifact.

I talked to a few of the guys working there.  Brad remembers meeting me at the last ARM convention held at IRM, so I got to examine the interior of the car.  Here he's pointing out what has been done recently to stabilize the structure.

An original window shade, partially preserved.

The C of G shops had their own special decal, which served as a builder's plate.

There are two partitions within the car, and it's not clear why.   This one has the more intricate woodwork and is probably original to 1911.

The other one may have been added later.  This could have been either to provide a smoking section or had something to do with the Jim Crow seating.

Here we are on the excursion car as the turntable rotates.

The train backs up a few hundred feet to the end of track.

Then we return, and are switched onto a line that leads into the old car shop.

There are remains of foundations all over the place.

The Savannah Children's Museum also occupies part of the site; this is what's left of the carpenter shop.

Inside the car shop are some nicely repainted freight cars.

And two Birney bodies in rather decrepit condition.

You don't want the brick walls falling onto visitors.  That would be awkward.

There is also a large model railroad display, evidently operated by a motion detector.  Instead of setting off an alarm, the train starts up for a minute or two.

The layout even includes a model of the museum itself.  Sitting on the turntable are the Diesel and the excursion car we saw outside.  

The Civil War is never far away in Georgia:

But I'm pretty sure this necktie is a repro.  The rail is much too big for the Civil War era and has signal bonds at both ends....

Anyway, the museum is well organized and has several interesting displays, and does a good job of explaining how the site originally functioned.  It's highly recommended if you're in the area.

Back from Vacation

We have just returned from a trip to Florida, which is why I haven't been posting recently.  Actually, there wasn't a lot of railfanning to be done in Florida itself.  The Gold Coast Museum is closed to the public for a month in order to handle Thomas; I still wish I knew why that's necessary.  Next year maybe we'll try going in January, and that won't be a problem.

But we spent a lot of time visiting various forts, plantations, lighthouses, and swamps, and making new friends.

And in fact, I enjoyed being on the water so much that I decided to buy myself a fishing boat.

 It will probably take more work to fix up than I was led to believe, but things like this have happened to me before.  And I'm still here. 

News of the world

More updates from the museum e-newsletter - click here if you'd like to receive these in your inbox:

Opening day is less than a month away! Our first special event of 2018 is a brand new event: the Bunny Trolley Hop on March 31st. We also have a lot of other exciting events this year including Day Out With Thomas™, Showcase Weekend, Diesel Days, Happy Holiday Railway, Vintage Transport Extravaganza, and more. Bunny Trolley Hop marks opening day on March 31st The 2018 event schedule is now available online Steam Dept benefit at Sanfilippo Estate is June 24th New Event for 2018 - Illinois Day is May 5th Museum entrance building fundraising  IRM website blog tracks restoration projects New museum entrance for 2018

Visit us online for schedules, blog updates, and more

Bunny Trolley Hop on March 31st A new event for this year is the Bunny Trolley Hop on Saturday, March 31st, which will be the museum's first opening day in March in many years. Tickets for this event are very limited and are available now on our website. Reserve your seat today for unforgettable family fun with the Easter Bunny! Click for tickets and information

2018 Operating Schedule Electric cars operate Sundays April 8-October 28 and Saturdays May 5-October 27, March 31, Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day  10:30am-5:00pm. Also Weekdays May 21-September 14 10am-4pm. Steam or Diesel trains operate Saturdays & Sundays May 5-September 30, Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. Trolley buses operate Saturdays May 26, June 30, September 1, 15 & 29. SPECIAL EVENTS

March 31 - Bunny Trolley Hop May 5 - Illinois Day May 12 - Scout Day May 13 - Mother's Day May 26, 27 & 28 - Memorial Day Weekend June 9 & 10 - Railway Post Office Days June 16 - Chicago Day June 17 - Father's Day June 30 & July 1 - Trolley Weekend July 14-15 & 21-22 - Day Out With Thomas™ August 5 - Vintage Transport Extravaganza August 11 & 12 - Diesel Weekend Sept. 1, 2 & 3 - Labor Day Weekend Sept. 15 & 16 - Museum Showcase Weekend Sept. 29 - Bus Day Oct. 13 - Milwaukee Transit Day Oct. 20 & 21 - Pumpkin Train Nov. 24 & 25, Dec. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 & 16 - Happy Holiday Railway

More information on 2018 events can be found on the IRM Schedule Page on our website.

Steam Dept Benefit is June 24 Our annual benefit concert to raise funds for the Steam Department will be held at the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington on June 24th. This is a great opportunity to hear the mighty Wurlitzer organ in concert and tour this unique collection of artifacts. Click here for tickets and information.

Illinois Day 2018 One of our new events for this year is Illinois Day, on Saturday May 5th, when all Illinois residents are admitted for 50% off with valid state ID. If you're used to the crowds at some of our mid-summer events, try a visit during the spring when the pace is a little easier and the museum is a little less busy!

Museum Entrance Building Fundraising has kicked off to build the new Museum Entrance Building. This exciting project will provide not only a permanent public entrance, but indoor exhibit areas, a theater, event space, and an entire block of historic building fronts on our Main Street Scene. Sponsorship opportunities are now available. Click here for more information.

Keep updated on restoration work Even when the museum is closed there's a lot happening. If you're not familiar with the blogs on the IRM website, then you're missing out on the news! Our volunteers keep the blog updated with recent progress on restoration projects like UP 428, Chicago Elevated 1754, and the Pennsy four-wheel "bobber" caboose shown at right. Click here for recent blog posts

New main entrance When you visit IRM this April, the main entrance will be in a new location. The public entrance has long been at the northeast corner of the parking lot (location 2 on this map) near Spaulding Tower, and that will still be the main entrance on special event days between May 26 and September 16. However with the Schroeder Mercantile Store now open on Main Street, the museum entrance on weekdays and non-special-event weekends will be at the southeast corner of the parking lot (location 13 on this map) near the 50th Avenue 'L' station. This will also be the new location of the museum gift shop and bookstore, which were formerly located in the baggage cars adjacent to the East Union Depot.

Visit us online for schedules, blog updates, and more

Best laid plans

Frank writes...

Today was spent working on Shaker Heights 18, both directly and indirectly. When I arrived, I went over to Barn 13 and measured the ceiling panel that was removed from the car last week. It turned out to be 63-1/2" x 113-3/8", or a bit over 5' wide and a bit over 9' long. So that will be fun to source a replacement for. I also swept up the rear half of the car with the results shown below.

You'll note that the second-to-last seat on the blind side (on the right side of the photo) is missing the wooden handle over the seat back; I replaced it with one from a spare seat back at the end of the day. The white trip pieces atop the seats are lap strips which cover the edges of the ceiling panels and hold the panels in place; these ones are from the panel which was removed by Trolleyville.

Then came the interesting part: working on the 18 indirectly through the device of a multi-part switch move. The goal was to swap the 18 with Detroit Street Railway 3865, which has been in Barn 7 since it came to IRM back in 1998. A bit of history of car 3865 can be found here; suffice to say that while it makes a very nice display piece, it is nowhere close to operating due to an advanced state of disassembly of both interior and electrical components. As such, it was a good candidate to go into storage in Barn 13 so that car 18 can go into Barn 7 were it is under wire. The first part of the switch move was to extract the 3865, located fifth from the door on track 73. First out were two cars that moved under their own power, CTA 4391 and CSL 1374.

Behind those came Shaker Heights 63, which was originally built for the Twin Cities and is currently down with a blown MG set. At this point the Army 45-tonner entered the picture to move the dead cars.

And then came an exciting moment for me, at least: the final car blocking in the 3865 was Indiana Railroad 205, which hadn't seen the sun since the completion of its paint job about two years ago. With the 45-tonner out of sight, she could almost be pulling into Barn 7 under her own power here.

Not bad for a 50-foot piece of iron oxide with a face only a mother could love.

After that came the 3865. This move was made gingerly because the Detroit car has streetcar wheels with narrow treads, so it's liable to derail on switches or in spots with slightly wide gauge. The decision was made to move it down to Barn 13 but it soon became clear that the brakes were binding up on curves. The culprits were the slack adjusters on that truck; pins had to be removed to free those up and that took some time. But eventually the car was back on the move. Here it is saying farewell to Yard 7.

It was pushed down the connector and onto the Yard 15 lead. It's distinctly possible that this is the furthest the car has rolled at one time since it left service with Detroit Street Railway! It has never traveled far at IRM; as far as we know it was unloaded in 1998 at the throat to Yard 7 and immediately went into the barn. Before we got it, it went straight from DSR to the Henry Ford Museum, which doesn't have any traction operation so it presumably didn't really go anywhere at all while there. Who knows? Anyway, it was posed "with the pole up" on the lead to Yard 15 which someday will be part of the extended streetcar line.

And now we get to that "best laid plans" part. We intended to switch the 18 out and put the 3865 into Barn 13 in its place, but someone had put a padlock on the switch to the track we wanted. This is unusual to see at IRM but certainly communicates that the track is a no-go. So the 3865 was temporarily placed in Barn 13 on another track and the 18 was left where it sits until its track is accessible. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!

Many thanks to all of the Car Department people who worked on this switch move: Joel A, Nick E, Jeron G, Greg K, Richard S, and Thomas S helped running the engine, as ground men, and in working to free up the 3865's brakes. The switch move finished with putting the 205 back into Barn 7 (it is now one spot further west, where it will stay for the foreseeable future) followed by the 63, the 1374, and the 4391. At some point the 18 will be placed between the 63 and the Matchbox.

There were other exciting things happening as well. Thomas was working on the interior of the 4410, whose ceiling now has a coat of primer, and later he ran the 1797 over to the pit and returned it to Barn 6 towing trailer 1268. The 1268 still has one cab out of service pending reinstallation of the control wiring conduit, but the pit will be needed this week for annual inspection of the 3142. Meanwhile Nick was working on adjusting the J-governor for the 4410 as shown below.

Other projects were seeing progress too. Doodlebug Bob was working on machining parts for something (I'm not certain what); Norm and Jeff were working on installing steel framing on the front end of the Michigan car; Joel was working on more shop cleanup and sorting; and Shelby was working on sorting and cataloging the Car Department's collection of technical drawings and documents. Joel also showed me the below map, drawn in 1975, which arrived this week:

The O'Hare line is shown extending only to Jefferson Park while I-355 doesn't exist, only an exit off of I-290 ending at Lake Street. There are also references to both CR and PC trackage heading east out of Chicago. And then there's the below poster, which was rescued from car 18 and may find its way onto a wall somewhere at IRM.

It's easy to forget but Trolleyville USA ceased to exist, for all intents and purposes, in 2006 when the cars were moved from North Olmsted and the track and wire removed. From then until the collection was liquidated in late 2009 it was called the Lake Shore Electric Railway, the founding of which this poster commemorates, and that organization's goal was the creation of a publicly-funded traction museum on the Cleveland lakefront. In 2006 that seemed attainable; three years later, with the economy much worse, it didn't and the collection was sold off. The best laid plans, indeed.