Weekday Report

Yesterday was another active day at the Museum, with nice weather.  And I was able to get pictures of several interesting projects, so keep reading.  First of all, we now have a date, about two weeks from now, when they will be loading up the 453 in Scranton.  Transporting it here will take a few days, but when it arrives, we'll be on hand for the unloading.  Thanks again to everyone who helped fund this acquisition!

I started by cleaning out the 309 and 319.  I plan to repaint the floor of the 319 this fall.  It has a number of paint drips from the last time the walls were painted.

And the window wiper mechanism at the #2 end has come apart.  I'm not sure whether it can be fixed, so I went over to the 321 to get a spare.  It was taken home to be repainted, and I should be able to install it next time.  I also spent some time trying to reattach a seat frame in the 309 that had come loose.  I believe it should be good for one more day of revenue service.  The only permanent fix will be to remove the frame and rebuild the wall at that point.  That has been done before for other seats.

Rich Witt has been working on windows for the GB&W 109.

We haven't paid a visit to barns 10 and 11 recently.  Here Victor and Bill are working in the shop they have set up in a boxcar next to the Pennsy bobber.  A lot of progress has been made on this difficult project.

On this side, much of the framing is completely new.

New walls and cabinets inside the car.

An official PRR caboose stove.

Next door, in Barn 11 Jack Biesterfeld has been making great progress on the interior of the 109.  He recently completed a total repaint of the ceiling, which is a huge job.   It looks great!

Paul has been helping with disassembling the rotted-out parts of the side wall.

And one track over, Buzz has been lettering the insulated boxcar.

What's on track 131, in case anyone's interested:

The Yard 5 Group are busily repainting the D-13.

Ron and Henry were providing revenue service with the 749.

 In the Multi-Purpose Building, the floor should be just about cured by now.  I believe the next step will be to build a full masonry fire wall through the middle of the building, east to west.  We're looking southwest here.  The wall will be along the line of the steel posts.  Behind it will be the Pullman Library, and the public sections, including the model railroads, in front.

 And over in the Steam Shop they're almost ready to start pouring the main walls of the inspection pit.

I believe these must be the ties that were pulled out of the shop, where the pit will be.  They must have been there since about 1970.

And progress is being made on the Cleveland PCC.  The first wheel was installed with some difficulty, but the next ones should be easier.

Showcase Weekend is just ten days away, so don't miss it!

Labor Day Photos from Buzz Morisette

Buzz also shares some photos from Saturday with us.

Reproduction is prohibited without permission from the photographer!

Rich S. and company had to scramble out with the NS line car to fix a cable on the trolley loop

Had a nice evening crowd as evidenced with a full 3142.

Nice shot of 1630 chuffing out of the steam.

Labor Day Photos from Chuck Amstein

Chuck Amstein once again provides us with some excellent photos from Labor Day Weekend.

Reproduction is prohibited without permission from the photographer!

Update:  Here is his video from Sunday:

 Labor Day at the Illinois Railway Museum - Day and Night

IRM After Dark

Frank writes...

This was the fourth  year of nighttime train operations on Labor Day Weekend and it seems as though it was the most successful year yet in terms of public attendance. As with the last year or two, the wood cars were scheduled during the day on Saturday and Monday and for the "night shift" (3pm-9:30pm) on Sunday. Saturday the train was annulled because we didn't have enough crew, but Sunday we had a full three-man crew ready to go into service at 3:00.

Unfortunately I didn't have much of a chance to take photos, but our official photographer Chuck Amstein was out so I didn't worry about that much. We failed to get a crew photo (oops) but my father was motorman, I was conductor, and Gary Woertz was trainman/car host. The original plan was to just run two cars but the three-car set of 309-36-319 was still made up from the Vintage Transport Extravaganza so we just ran all three. As it turned out, that was a good thing.

While it sounded like crowds early in the day were modest, the museum got busier as it got into the evening. We ran trips at 3:30 and 4:30 but for the 5:30 trip the 309 and 319 filled up and we had to open the 36 to accommodate the crowds - always a good problem! Henry Vincent helped out as an additional car host. After the 6:30 trip it was time for a dinner break, and I took the above photos while the train was positioned out of the way on the west wye.

The dinner break lasted a bit longer than intended but we were back in the station a bit after 8pm. Thanks to Richard Schauer for help with sourcing additional kerosene for the markers and for working as conductor on our nighttime trip! Our four CA&E markers worked flawlessly, once they were properly fueled, and our trip at 8:45 saw all three cars practically full of passengers. Other trains on the railroad included the CA&E steel cars (put away in the afternoon), the 1630 with the coach train, and the Zephyr. The car line saw the 144 run all day bolstered by the 19 during the day and the 4391 after dark, while various nighttime photo ops were set up at 50th Avenue (featuring 2000s and 4000s) and other spots around the property (featuring various diesels). I particularly enjoyed a nighttime running meet at Johnson Siding with the 1630. There's nowhere else quite like IRM!