Cold Hard Facts

It was cold today, and the wind was blowing hard, but the fact remains that we won't let little things like those stop us.  To start with, let's look at the exciting progress on the Multi-Purpose Building.

Here we see a load of blocks being loaded into the cocoon on the north side of the building, where the facade is being constructed.  The plastic sheeting keeps the wind out and enough heat in to make continued work possible.

You can barely see the reflective vests of the workmen, but they're moving around inside, putting the building together.  It sure beats working out in the open.

Inside, we can see that the front wall, at least the structural part, has been completed.  

And the workmen are busy constructing the various parts of the facade, which will make it look like three different buildings side by side.  This is really going to be impressive.

Meanwhile, back in our cozy car shop, Tim Peters and Frank Kehoe were working on seats for the 1754.  Here Frank is painting the metal springs, as John Sheldon looks on.  John was mostly working inside the 306, which has its own cocoon.

Here Tim is getting ready to cut one long seat frame into two shorter ones.  For ease of installation.

And Buzz is nearly done with the velocipede.  Here it's sitting on sawhorses for final assembly.

A view of the mechanism:

And the new brake shoe, a block of wood.

Buzz can be proud of this accomplishment.  Basically all of the metal parts and about half of the wood parts are original, but all carefully restored.

I spent most of the day working on the trap door again.  After more grinding and cutting, all of the rusted-out parts have been removed, and we plan to take it to a local metalworking shop to have new parts made and installed.  Before:

After:

I also went over the the 453 to check on its condition.  I may want to borrow a couple of seat backs or cushions for the 451.  And I spent some time recharging the batteries.

Finally, I had a chance to visit our latest acquisition, the Pawnee.  And we'll see just what it looks like inside next time.  Don't go away!

Doodlebug Report

Gregg Wolfersheim sends us a report on the UP doodlebug M-35:

 After a busy summer at IRM on various projects, I'm back working on M-35. The second ceiling panel was refinished months ago, but was recently installed in the car.

Here is a view over the right side up against the heater room wall. Note the pressure gauge on the wall for the Peter Smith system.

In the men's room, the first coat of Ivory was applied to the ceiling today. Also, one outside window opening is being prepped for installation of the sash.

 More pics and and story to come!

Perhaps I should mention that if YOU have an active IRM project you want to report on, send us some pictures and captions, as Gregg did, and we'll do our best to fit them in to our busy schedule.

Building for the Future

Another busy Wednesday has come and gone, and here's just a partial report of what was going on.

On the 451, I ground off the rivets and removed the rusted-out piece that wraps around the outside edge, for use as a pattern.  Next step will be to take it to a metal-working shop and have a new piece made, hoping they can produce something that looks the same.

And then I spent a while cleaning off all, or at least most of the loose paint on the walls and ceiling.  And then cleaning it all up and sorting out parts.  It actually looks much better.

For unknown reasons, there are a few sections where the paint is in excellent condition.

Next, let's pay a visit to the 306.  With the canvas over it, it's warm enough to be comfortable for all sorts of work on the interior.

John Sheldon is focusing on rebuilding the floor at the east (#1) end of the car.

Much of the floor has been removed so the framing can be repaired as needed.

And meanwhile, John Faulhaber is helping with cleaning up seat frames.  Several others have also been helping on a part-time basis.

Tim has several new and rebuilt seats for the 1754 under construction.

And Buzz has started assembling the rebuilt velocipede.  This will be fun!

Finally, we have news on progress inside the Multi-Purpose Building.  The interior firewall appears to be complete.  This is the south half of the building, where the Pullman Library will be.

And in the north half, some contractors were working on the ventilation system.

So that's pretty exciting!

Even more Happy Holiday Railway

Frank writes...

I unexpectedly had the opportunity to head out to IRM on Sunday, so that was a treat. I got to see the new Happy Holiday Railway setup, spoke with a couple of the event stalwarts like stationmaster Nigel and pianist Bob, and checked out progress on the property. Included in this was the IHB speeder shown below, which is back in its usual spot behind the depot after a year-long restoration that I believe was done by the B&G Department.

I arrived mid-afternoon and didn't have anything specific in mind to do, but Nick Espevik was planning on taking out the 4391 to supplement the streetcar service being held down by the 3142. I had fortuitously thought to bring along a uniform so I joined him as conductor.

I didn't get any exterior photos of the 4391 before darkness fell, but if you don't know what the car looks like then you need to spend more time at IRM and/or work on your Googling skills. Above, a shot taken during a pause at Central Avenue. What could be more inviting than a warm streetcar on a cold night? Nick explained how the Car Shop guys were recently able to get the car's heat working. Most heat is supplied by the "heat dump," by which the conductor can flip a switch at his station that moves louvers under the car to redirect heat from the resistors into the car instead of out into the atmosphere. Since this doesn't generate much heat when the car isn't moving, there are also auxiliary heating elements to augment the system. Right now the "heat dump" louvers are just set to send heat into the car, but the motors that move the louvers are being worked on and once that's done we will be able to control the heat in the car just like St. Louis Car Company intended.

Greg Kepka rode along on a trip or two and snapped this photo of the car with a load of passengers. People seemed to enjoy the ride, but after dusk it really hits you how dark most of the streetcar line is. There's just not much of anything to see out the windows, at least not with the reflection from the interior lights. Oh well. People certainly enjoyed the warmth and the comfy seats!

And here's yours truly hamming it up in the little conductor's booth on the Hornet. There's no cushier job on the Surface Lines!

As usual, our volunteers and staff went all-out on decorating the property for HHR. The diner was strikingly lit up, as were the depot, 50th Avenue, and Schroeder Store. Several of the display barns and larger trees were also strung with lights.

Finally, when I was on my way onto the property I ran across this unusual tableau just north of the Electric Park streetcar line stop. CTA S-329 has gone through some pretty radical career changes over the course of its existence. It was built in 1904 as a Metropolitan-West Side elevated car but in the 1950s it was cut down to just a frame and was thereafter used as S-329, a flat car in CTA work service. IRM got it around 1999, I think, and a couple of years later it was taken off of its trucks and placed on the east side of Electric Park as a footbridge spanning Boot Creek. I believe the idea was to put in a pumpkin patch of the far side of the creek and use the S-329 bridge for access but I don't think that ever happened. It remained there for the next 15-odd years, increasingly overgrown, until sometime in the last couple of months it was removed and cut into manageable pieces to be sent out for scrap.

Happy Holiday News

Here's a report from Saturday.  The Museum was as busy as ever.

In property news, the MPB is now surrounded on the north (open) side with plastic sheeting, and blocks have been staged on the scaffolding, so I'm expecting work to continue soon on building both the interior firewall and the front facade.

On the 451, I got the third trap door installed and adjusted.  

The remaining trap door is badly rusted, so it will need to be rebuilt.  The metal piece that wraps around the outside edge is beyond saving.

So with some work, I bent it up, but it's still held on with about ten rivets that need to be ground off.  Then we can have a new piece fabricated.

And in electrical news, I got the buzzer working and got the buzzer cord attached correctly at both ends.  It appears that there's an open in the wiring to the main blower motor, but that is not a high priority.  We can do without the blower for a while.

And I started looking at the traction motors.  From a purely visual standpoint, they look fine. It's difficult to get under the car, so I will wait until we can put it over the pit for actual testing.

 And of course the Happy Holiday trains were running.  You will notice that the bilevel train has something new: a fourth car!

This is one of our more recent acquisitions, another C&NW gallery car still in Metra paint.

For those of you playing along at home, this is C&NW 25, built by Pullman in 1956 as part of the second order of cars for the North Western.  Most of the interior was stripped out by Metra before it became available, so it cannot be restored to its original configuration.  But there are several possibilities for special use on trains like this.  For now, it's serving as storage for extra supplies, and as a resting place for Santa.

The upper level floors and seats are still there, but the stairwells were removed, so they can only be accessed by stepladder.  A lot of work has already been done to make sure that the HEP power works and is transmitted to the rest of the train.

One of the next tasks will be to modify the entrance so that the car will be wheelchair-accessible.  That has been a problem with the bilevel cars.  We are reluctant, of course, to make major modifications to one of the complete cars for this purpose, but it's important to be able to handle wheelchair users.

And I'm told we have two more cars on the way, from the third North Western bilevel order.  

And Dennis Bockus sends us a picture of this generator on a piggy-back flatcar:

The reason for this is explained in a comment by Bob Olson.  Thanks, Bob!

And as usual Car Dept. projects kept going.  Here Buzz is assembling the frame of the velocipede.

And Pete has done a beautiful job on an interior door for the 160.

And finally, a public service announcement: there are five, count 'em, five more Happy Holiday Railway days coming up, and we could use more help.  Jim West is standing by to take your call!

Wednesday Report

Yesterday was another busy day at IRM, and as usual lately I was too busy to take many pictures.  Mostly what I have to report is about the 451.

I installed the repaired contact piece for the MG control system, as seen here.  It now seems to work properly, and I ran it off and on during the day.  The batteries appeared to remain fully charged, and you could hear the contacts cycling on and off occasionally.  So that's good.

I also got the #2 controller put back together and working properly.  The sleeve that slides up and down by spring pressure is still a little gummed up and moves sluggishly, but I should think with some more Kroil or other lubricant that problem will cure itself.  Otherwise it's mechanically and electrically complete.

I checked out the control system some more, with the help of Norm Krentel.  I hadn't realized that the reverser needs air to operate, so until the compressor is installed we won't be able to go any further.  The heat in the main compartment works, but the smoker compartment appears to be dead.  But that's a low priority item.

The next item is the blower motor, which is a fairly large motor mounted in the front closet.  I was able to reslot the commutator and rotate it easily without taking it apart.

 Nothing happened when I tried to energize it, so that will need some more investigation.  

Among other Car Dept. projects, the guys put a large tarp over the 306 so it can be warmed up during the winter for interior work.  Here we see Gerry, John Sheldon, Chuck, and Lorne helping with this project.

Finally, I noticed that the Multi-Purpose Building now has a large scaffold all around the front side, so that's an exciting sign of progress to come.

I helped with Happy Holiday Railway last Saturday, but didn't take many pictures.

In the evening we lost electrical power on the property (this was a widespread outage from Com Ed) but the train kept running.  We still need trainmen to sign up for several of the upcoming operating days.