It's All a Complete Fabrication

Frank writes...

One of the great things about the CA&E wood cars is that there isn't that much steel in them. I'm not much of a woodworker but I'm definitely no steelworker. However, we discovered that the 18 needs a couple of missing pieces of steel replaced in its rear coupler carrier, so it was time to fabricate some new parts. Enter Richard Schauer, who unlike me is quite familiar with all things steel-related.

We needed to create something that looks like a very small table and will function as a wear plate for the 18's rear coupler (keep reading and all will be made clear). After Joel procured a new steel plate and I cut it into an "H" shape, Richard and I started with the blacksmithing. Above, Richard heats up the piece of metal with the torch.

Nick Espevik snapped this photo of the next step: while Richard keeps the heat on, I hit the thing with a big hammer. After enough hits, we have a couple of "ears" at a nice 90-degree angle. Time for the other side.

For this step, Richard gave me a primer in torch operation and we traded places. Here I am heating up the steel before he goes after it with the hammer. Once we had all four "ears" bent over, we let it cool for a while. Then, it was time to weld on the doubler plate that actually functions as the wear surface.

I hadn't welded anything in 20+ years, but Richard gave me a crash course in MIG welding and I gave it a shot. He took the above photo, too. Fortunately, neither the strength nor the appearance of this weld is too critical.

Voila! The original wear plate off the front end of the car is on the left, and our new fabrication is on the right. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Richard for all his help in making this!

And now you may be asking yourself, "what is this thing for, anyway?" Or you may just be saying "this is boring." But ignoring that second comment, I'll explain that this wear plate supports the shank of the 18's radial Tomlinson coupler as it sits in the coupler carrier. The above photo shows the front coupler of the car after I had jacked up and reinstalled the original wear plate.

Shown in a closeup view are the coupler shank (red star), the binder casting bolted in place across the bottom of the coupler carrier (green arrow), and the wear plate sitting atop that (blue arrow). The coupler shank doesn't sit directly on the wear plate. There's a C-channel (yellow arrow) that creates a void for the control cables going to the electrical connection buttons alongside the coupler head (the cables are behind the yellow arrow).

Now, here's the rear coupler after I jacked it up and installed the newly made wear plate.

Notice anything different? That C-channel is missing - and until Sunday, so was the wear plate. The rear coupler has just been sitting on the coupler carrier binder with the control cables serving as a cushion. That's not great for the cables, plus the coupler sits a bit too low, so that's why we're working on fixing this. The next step will be to install a new C-channel. Stay tuned.

I also made some more progress on the 63.

The pinstripes across the doors received a first coat of maroon, as shown above; one more coat, plus a little touch-up on the ivory stripe where the masking tape took off some of the paint, will complete the belt rail striping. After dinner, I also climbed up on the roof and spot-primed all the locations where the paint had chipped off and revealed bare metal. Fortunately, the roof paint is mostly in relatively good shape, just faded.

As usual, plenty of other projects were in progress. Mikey and Jimmy were both rebuilding J-governors in the car shop. Zach and others brought the Electroliner out of the barn and dropped a faulty MG set so we can send it to the motor shop for rebuilding, though the train was already back in the barn when I arrived.

Late in the afternoon, after revenue service ended, the line train emerged from Barn 6 and headed out onto the railroad. Shown above, Jimmy and Good Nick are riding the head end of the shove while Zach (unfortunately obscured by a line pole) runs the steeplecab. Richard, Mikey, Jim W., and a visitor from San Francisco whose name I have managed to forget were also along. The crew spent a few hours checking and tightening hardware along the main line west of Johnson Siding.

Finally, I stopped by Nick Kallas's office to find him engaged in the quixotic task of cleaning his desk. He showed me a 1933 broadsheet flyer about the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. It was probably 20 pages long and included plenty of ads, including a couple of intriguing ones.

Here's an ad for the Hotel Baker in St. Charles, which of course is still there, advertising interurban service. The Geneva Branch of the CA&E wouldn't be abandoned for another four years.

And here's a nice ad for the Surface Lines, including a picture of their then-most modern cars, the Peter Witts, or "Sedans" as railfans called them. A year later, the 7001 and then 4001 would arrive, displacing the existing fleet of red cars as the most modern (if not necessarily the most useful) equipment on the system.

On the Road

On Wednesday I had the job of driving the IRM van, which was filled to capacity with seat cushions and backs, in to Bellwood again to drop them off at Kustom Seating.  

Here we are behind the factory in Bellwood.

This time, we're not only finishing off the last of the CA&E seats, but we're also going to have them repair several seats from the North Western bilevels.

Now we just have to wait until a good number of them are repaired.

Meanwhile, of course, a lot has been happening back in the car shop.

This, for instance, is the end frame of the 1268, which now looks much more complete than it did a few days ago.  Tim just never stops.

One relatively new project that we haven't covered before is that Fritz and Bill and some of  the others are doing heavy-duty structural repairs to the Michigan Electric 28, starting at the front.  This car suffered severely during its years as a cottage, so there's a lot to be done.

It's great to see progress being made on this historic car.

Jazzing Things Up

Frank writes...

IRM has been running trains past dark on Labor Day for over a decade now (I had to check - 2015 was the first year) but I daresay we outdid ourselves this year. My father will report on the day's activities from Saturday, but to summarize, daytime activities included five trains on the main line, including the 50th Avenue shuttle; trolley buses in operation; and lunch/dinner service aboard the Zephyr.

I had signed up to run the wood cars for the evening shift and Ted Kuhn was my conductor. In the afternoon, we got everything ready, including checking the pumps on the 309 and 319 and testing the kerosene markers. We also coupled the 309 and 319. We were ready for service by 4pm.

We ended up making three mainline trips, all of which were pretty full, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The real action during the evening was down by the diner annex, where a blues/jazz band, The Stephen Hull Experience, put on a concert at 7pm as part of IRM's "Trains and Tunes" programming. This was the second T&T concert this year and it sounded like it was a great success! And after the concert there was a fireworks show, which was plainly visible from the 309 on our way back from Kishwaukee Grove.

After we got the train (and all the markers and headlights) put away, it was time to get to work. This week we are taking the rest of the seats that were removed from the 460, and will be going back into the 451, to the upholstery shop to be re-covered. Thanks to Dave from B&G for making the museum's new-to-us van available for this. And a HUGE thank you goes out to Good Nick, Richard, and Jeron for loading all these seats into the van. It was a big job!

I took very few photos because I didn't have my phone with me for the most part, but fortunately, we had some photos sent in. The remarkable photo below was taken by Nick Espevik of the 144 at Barn 9 North with the fireworks show in the background, seen over Barn 9.

And Ted, my conductor, took some terrific photos of the CA&E train. First, we have a photo of the train on the ladder track in Yard 8, waiting to go into service.

And here we are on Station Track 1 between trips. After our third trip we terminated on Station Track 2 (see the first two photos) which was a bit of "rare mileage" for these cars.

Overall, a terrific time was had by all, and the museum really put on a great show.

And as promised, here are a couple of views from operating the NWERR 24 during the day.  The car was full on nearly every trip, and everything went well.  Thanks to Zach for being the car host!

Help Wanted!

Tomorrow, Saturday 8/30, we're going to be running the Northwestern Elevated car 24 in shuttle service, and we need a conductor!  Any rules-qualified conductor will be welcome.  Thanks!

Back to Work

I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I haven't had anything to post.  We went to see Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Devil's Tower, and things like that.  Just to see what the competition (loosely) is doing, I took some pictures of the Black Hills Central, aka the 1880 Train, which operates almost in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore.  

The locomotive on the day we were there was a 2-6-6-2T, built in 1928.  It has a nice whistle.

The train consisted of seven or eight cars; some were rebuilt interurbans c. 1910 from the Oregon Electric, a couple were built new from flatcars.  They certainly do a great job of marketing, and seemed to be handling the crowds very effectively.  Of course, the location is the main driver of success for tourist railroads.  This one seems to be a well-run operation.

Down the road a little, some of the excess inventory is stored along the street.  The passenger car is another OE interurban that is no longer in service.  

And we had a great time seeing mountains, rivers, geysers, historic buildings, bears, buffalo, waterfalls, and so on.  But now it's time to get back to more serious things.  Like IRM.

The interior of the 306 is really coming along.  All the seats are now in place; the armrests will start soon.

 Phil showed me the progress on the nearly complete toilet compartment.  It looks great.

Gerry and others are finishing up the mechanical and electrical connections in the cabs.

And here we see John in the back room, polishing up some more brass parts.

Tim continues work on the 1268.  The steel endframes are being completely rebuilt, as seen here.  

A lot of the steel is being replaced:

And work is being done on the baggage compartment of the Michigan Electric 28:

I was working on sorting parts, making repairs to various things, but nothing I really wanted to take a picture of.  You'll just have to wait.  But in other news, it appeared as I drove by that at least one car has been moved into Barn 15.  So wherever you look, progress is being made!

Sunday Stripes

Frank writes...

It was a quiet weekend in the car shop. With large special events taking up five out of six weekends from early July to mid-August, and another string of special events through most of September, these last two weekends were the "eye of the storm" in a sense.

I was back working on adding more stripes to the 63. The maroon belt-rail stripes around the back and right sides of the car got a second coat and then saw the masking tape removed. The tape took off a bit more ivory paint, but it will be easy to touch up.

Later on, as seen below, I applied a primer coat to the stripes on the doors. Once the doors are done, all the striping below the drip-rail level will be complete.

After that was done, I helped out with a switch move. The 1702 was brought outside and a large wooden reel was mounted into one of the frames on the deck. It looks like a real working line car now! This operation was managed by Joel and Richard, with Greg, Jeron, and myself lending a hand.

As for other news, on my way in I drove over to the east end of Barn 15, where the roll-up doors have already been installed. There's plenty more work to do on the building, including paving the aisles and doing all the electrical installation, but it's moving forward rapidly.

After dinner I made some progress on cutting a new piece of steel for the coupler carrier at the back end of the 18, but I didn't take any photos and it's difficult to describe exactly what this part is and how it works. I hope to have an illustrated update soon.

Recent Arrivals

 I recently acquired this photo, and to me it's a very interesting moment in early IRM history.

It's a little after 4 PM on Saturday, March 31, 1962, and three CA&E cars have just arrived at IRM's original home behind the Chicago Hardware Foundry in North Chicago.  The 431 was in the middle of the train, between the 309 and 321.  In this picture, the 309 has just been uncoupled from the train and is presumably being switched into its storage location somewhere behind us.  The 431 still has its adapter coupler in place.  Its trolley poles and third rail beams are stored inside the car.  Behind the 431 is the 321.  Because it was only three days ago that this car was chosen to make the trip, it alone still has its trolley poles on the roof.  (Ironically enough, the poles will soon be removed and never replaced.)  And all three cars have a lot of history ahead of them!

Bob Barth is the switchman standing on the steps of the 431; photo by Warren Cobb.

A Word From W.T. Van Dorn

And now, a word from our sponsor, the Van Dorn Coupler Company, excerpted from an article printed in the August 12, 1905, issue of Street Railway Journal.

Some Experiences with Draw-Bars for Electric Cars

by W.T. Van Dorn

The real action of the present form of Van Dorn automatic coupler is probably but little understood even by its users. Figs. 1 , 2 and 3 have been prepared showing sections through the 1902 form of coupler. Fig. l shows the position of the link and coupler heads after a coupling has been completed. In Fig. 2 the couplers are shown in the process of coupling. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the same coupler, Figs. 1 and 2 being horizontal sections. The first thing to notice is that in Figs. l and 2 the link has been inserted in the righthand coupler and fixed by the center pin which has been dropped through the link. The point of the link that is inserted into the head is held in position by the abutment block, as shown, and the part of the link that projects out is in position for automatic coupling with the opposite head. When the cars come together the point of the link will strike the pin that is against the side wall. The link is deflected past the pin and comes in contact with springs in the side of the drawhead, which are forced out until the point of the hook passes the pin. It is readily seen from Fig. 2 that with a link having an elongated point sufficient in length so that when the strain sideways is brought to bear, the point of the link on the spring is close to where the springs fulcrum in the side wall of the draw-bar; the link under no conditions can be twisted out in train service, no matter what the strain may be.

The design of a link to prevent the uncoupling of cars under all conditions has been a matter of much thought. Previous to 1902, a form of link was used with shorter points, and when they became badly worn they could be accidentally disengaged on the shove, although they served their purpose admirably in the work which draw-bars were called upon to perform at that time. The 1902 pattern was designed to prevent any possibility of trouble with the unusual strains of the multiple-unit system.  All Van Dorn draw-bars are now made of the pattern shown.

The tight coupling with little lost motion, before mentioned as such an important matter, is made possible by the present design of coupler, which is such that the essential dimensions—that is, the location of the holes with reference to the coupler faces and the dimensions of the links, can be made a matter of accurate machine work.

A coupler having once been made accurately, it is next in order to inquire what are the chances that, after the wear of years, it will remain reasonably accurate. The wearing points are evidently the coupler faces, the pin holes and the hooks on the link. In the first place each coupling head had two pin holes, and that insures double the wear. Each link is automatic at each end. Place the bar in either head and the pin through the center aperture and couple automatically to the opposite head (the wear on pins is only on the pull and not on the shove), and the wear is only on the two pin holes that are in operation at this time. Place the bar in the opposite head and it is vice versa; and that assures double the life of both coupling heads and coupling bar. The coupling bar is made out of the best quality of steel forgings, and after years of wear can be readily upset to a standard length. One of the greatest features of the Van Dorn couplings is their great durability and the possibility of making them as good as new with a very slight cost, and of their maintaining a tight lock over a long period of years.

Besides performing an important function in the simple act of coupling cars together, the spring in the coupler head has to perform another part with which it is probably not generally credited. It requires about 1 ton pressure to couple two large draw-bars. This helps to cushion the shock at the instant of coupling. 

The company with which the writer is connected has lately brought out a very heavy type of coupler, and in this heavy type has embodied some new features, including large round pins. This assures great durability as well as strength, and longer life of pins and links. The round pin draw-bar, No. 19, illustrated in Fig. 4, is of this design. It is sufficiently heavy for such use as would be given in any steam railroad service or on an electrically-equipped steam road. 

It takes more than a pair of coupler heads and a coupling device to successfully operate cars and trains. The draft rigging under the car is no less important. In this connection it may be interesting to look at some of the common forms of draft rigging used on elevated and interurban roads. Fig. 4 shows a general form of draft rigging which is quite commonly used. The stem of the draw-bar goes through a stop casting, on either side of which are the buffing springs. The stop casting is riveted to a solid steel plate 8 ins. wide and 1 1/2 ins. thick. This plate runs back to the king bolt of the truck on which it swivels, or to any other swivel that may be provided. A modification of this plan is shown in Fig. 5, where nothing but a short swivel can be used because of the arrangement of car and platform sills. Fig. 6 is another way of securing a long swivel, and can be used where plenty of room is available. 

In conclusion, it can be said that the production of a successful automatic coupler for electric roads is much more difficult than the production of an automatic coupler for steam roads, because of the necessary introduction of the swiveling feature on any electric railway draw-bar and the frequent pushing strains with the multiple-unit system. At the same time good automatic couplers are even more necessary on electric than on steam roads, because of the dangers in coupling on electric railways with makeshift types of non-automatic draw-bars, as the radius bar in such times is liable to shift in position or buckle out, and this makes it more dangerous than it was formerly on steam roads with a hand couple. Many people have been under the impression that the M. C.B. type could be used to work on a radial bar. I have had plenty of experience with this, and have found it is absolutely impossible to make a successful draw-bar on these lines. There is trouble making a tight lock, and further, for interurban service, the cars overhang so far from the trucks that unless the tracks are free from sudden changes of grade and almost perfect, the draw-bars oscillate up and down, and one will go right over the top of the other. The coupling must be such that they are held rigidly together, so that no difference what the unevenness of the track may be, they cannot separate. If the lock is not absolutely tight, the bars will swing sideways and buckle on the push. 

For more information on how your railway can benefit from the use of Van Dorn Automatic Couplers, Van Dorn MCB Couplers or even Van Dorn Target Ends, click here.