Tuesday Report

Tuesday was another busy day at IRM.  The Museum Showcase Weekend, previously known as Members' Day, requires lots of preparation.  Here we see just a part of the bus collection lined up.

Meanwhile, back in Barn 4, work continues on several current projects.

Here Tim is fitting new wood to the east platform of the 1268.

And great progress is being made on the interior of the 306.

John is attaching the newly polished brackets to the seats.

Work continues on installing the control equipment.

And in the shop, the arm rests are being repainted prior to installation.

I hadn't run into them for a while, but Steve Smunt and Paul Hough have continued to work on the interior of the 277, and they are doing excellent work.

Here Steve is stripping one of the window shade boxes for refinishing.

The north side of the main compartment is getting close to completion, and it looks great.

Finally, I had a few things to fix up on the 309.  For instance, a couple of burned-out bulbs had to be replaced.

  The 309 and 319 will be in service this Saturday, along with just about everything else that we can fit onto the railroad at one time.  If you can, stop in and say hello!

Hops Aboard Photo Gallery

Many thanks to Nick E and Steven J, who sent along photos taken during the Hops Aboard event on Saturday night.

Steven took this photo of the 504 getting its coach train ready before the event started. BN 9976 was not in operation during the evening.

Here's one of the nice Hops Aboard tasting glasses being put to its intended use, courtesy of Nick.

Nick got this shot of the band set up on the 50th Avenue platform. This was a pretty neat venue, especially with the platform lighting, but Zach had to make sure to spot the 1374 at the Central Avenue platform so that we weren't completely blocking the band!

There were some really nice displays set up in the depot, temporarily replacing the usual displays, about the Milwaukee "beer line." Nick took this photo and the next couple as well.

Yours truly

This was the first time I'd done a "car talk" for people with beer in their hands. Don't worry, I kept it brief and only spent a few minutes going over the pros and cons of K-28 vs. K-35 controllers. This wasn't really a railfan crowd, after all.

While the event was going on along Depot Street, Joel and the car shop guys were doing a switch move. Here's the 972, which yes, was moving itself under power. These last several photos were taken by Steven.

And here we have the 972 with one of our favorites, the 18! Between the intermittent air compressor issues and the problem with the car wanting to climb the frog at South Junction, this switch move was its first operation in 2025. We have plans to address both those issues, but between all the shop extension work and other, higher-priority projects, this has not been at the head of the line.

Here's the 251 heading into the barn.

The 251, 749, and 714 were made up as a three-car train.

Here's the Class B moving the C&NW bay window caboose. What could this possibly all be about? You'll just have to come out to IRM this weekend for Museum Showcase Weekend and find out!

Hops Aboard

Frank writes...

I arrived at IRM Saturday afternoon to help out with the first-ever Hops Aboard, a beer festival run at IRM. The museum was open normally during the day - about the only unusual thing was that the Shay was running "Take the Throttle" trips as part of our annual Steam Engineer Experience offering - and closed at 5pm. An hour later, at 6pm, we reopened for Hops Aboard. Attendees paid a special-price admission and received a number of drink coupons that could be redeemed at six or eight brewery stands. These were set up behind the depot and at the corner of Central Avenue and Depot Street. Lower-price "designated driver" tickets without any drink coupons were offered and all attendees had to be 21+.

Zach and I signed up to operate the "Matchbox," and although the forecast earlier in the week had the high temperature for Saturday at 90 degrees, it actually ended up being about 80. The car had been in service all day, so the daytime crew left it chocked on the car line for us and going into service was quick. Phil from the Steam Shop took the above photo while we waited for the gates to open at 6:00. You can't really tell, but there was a band set up on the 50th Avenue platform that played during the event and they were setting up.

Besides the band, there was a bags/cornhole game set up as well as "Lawn Jenga," which of course we had to try out. No, Zach, not that one!

Several of our volunteers purchased tickets and partook in the beer and festivities. Attendees received these nice beer glasses with the event logo on them. There was uncertainty over whether to permit beer aboard the cars; after some discussion we allowed people to bring beer onto the car but instructed them firmly that they should hold onto their glasses and not try to set them down on the floor or seat. We didn't have any spills.

Overall, the event seemed like a tremendous success. We had over 300 people buy tickets, and remarkably, something like half of them had never been to IRM. That's exactly what we want - to expand our appeal into new groups and demographics. Almost invariably, the attendees I spoke with were blown away by the size of the museum and by the fact that the event workers were volunteers. The only real hiccups were beyond our control, due to the fact that a couple of breweries and food trucks no-showed. Attendees seemed quite understanding and a number of people were vocal that they hope we run this event again next year. Furthermore, with the band, the food truck and beer stands, and the diverse and lively crowd, it was just a very fun and vibrant atmosphere. A huge thank you and kudos go out to our Event Manager, Tricia, who was responsible for conceiving of, planning, and coordinating this event.

The event wound down at about 9pm. We weren't the only car on the streetcar line; the 4391 was also in service, while the 504 and the Shay - each with their own coach train - operated on the main line during the event. Even with two cars in service, we were mostly full on most trips. Above, Zach talks with Matt, who was running the "Hornet."

Here's Zach in the doorway of the 1374 at the end of the night when ridership was down to Jimmy.

And now, let's rewind to earlier in the afternoon. Since Hops Aboard didn't start until 6pm, and our streetcar was already in position to go into service quickly, I had time to get some work done before signing in to operate.

The job for the day was lettering on the 63. I'd previously painted the car numbers on the front and left sides. This left both rear corners - for whatever reason, Shaker liked putting numbers on the back corners instead of just a single number on the back - and the right side of the car.

Two down...

...and there we go. I still need to replace the "Eastbound Entrance" and "Westbound Entrance" lettering next to the doors, but the more noticeable thing to do will be adding RTA stickers to both sides. Ideally, I'd like these to be actual vinyl stickers, but we can paint the logos on if we need to.

There was also some news on the 36 front: this truck was retrieved from along Bruneau Drive and set on live (albeit difficult-to-access) rail behind the car shop. It is intended to serve as the 36's shop truck while we pull the car's actual trailer truck and replace the leaf springs. This truck is very historic in its own right, as it came from the Intramural Railway, the first-ever electrified elevated railway. The IMR ran through the 1893 Columbian Exposition grounds in Chicago. We have two of these trucks, built in 1893 by Gilbert, that came to us from the Electric Railway Historical Society.

And finally, in political news, we'd like to extend our congratulations and condolences to IRM's new (starting October 1st) president, Nick Espevik! Our current president, Marcus Ruef, is stepping down to take a position of great importance that I'll hold off on announcing for the moment. Marcus will remain on the Board of Directors, though.

I've been sent some additional photos from Hops Aboard by a couple of our more capable photographers, so stay tuned for a "photo album" with more images of the event coming soon!

Car Shop Report

On Wednesday I went out to the Museum to fix a few problems on the wood cars, but the trolley power was off while they work on line poles.  That makes it more difficult to get things done, such as replacing bad bulbs or testing the buzzer system.  But I'll get to it.  Meanwhile...

Here are a few interesting progress photos for current car shop projects in Barn 4.

Tim continues work on the 1268.  Here he is working on the steel underframe.

The car will be restored to its form during the Spanish Flu epidemic, with drop lower sash and upper sash raised into the ceiling to provide better ventilation.  That seems to be the best solution they could come up with at the time.  Here we see one of the upper sash in raised position:

And here the main window sash is partly lowered into the side of the car.  The window sill is hinged and lifts up to adjust the position of the window.

And here is the door motor:

Meanwhile, Fritz and a new member, Rich, are working on repairing the (front) baggage compartment of the Michigan Electric 28.

A lot of the structure of the car suffered during its many years as a cottage, but it's slowly being rebuilt to like-new condition.

 And there were several other projects in progress, but as usual I wasn't able to catch them all.

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.