Jeremiah

This is a reproduction car card based on a photograph in a book. It was chosen because it's so simple -- there's no graphics, just block text for which we used dry transfers. I have no idea what exactly the "West End Pavilion" might have been.

We would be just as glad to advertise cigarettes or booze, such as Old Taylor, but don't know how to replicate the art work.

309 Returns to Service

Today was the dedication ceremony marking the return to service of Chicago Aurora & Elgin car 309. It was stored overnight at the west end of track 42, as shown earlier. In the morning, we did some final cleaning, and I moved the 308 over onto the west wye. The dedication started at noon. First, President Ray Pieschuk gave a brief but eloquent speech about the purpose and focus of our museum. The car itself serves as an effective podium.

Next, the Project Manager gave a brief but eloquent speech about the history of the 309 and its restoration. If I may say so myself.

Finally, General Manager Nick Kallas gave a brief but eloquent (yeah, yeah, I'm too tired to think of new adjectives) speech about the importance of volunteerism and our dedication to preserving history for future generations.

Then it was time for action! The 309 emerged from the barn and broke through the banner.

Esther helped by cutting the cake and handing out cookies. Her friend Jay took all these pictures, since I was busy.

Meanwhile, we coupled the two cars together, and Frank boarded the passengers for the first run of the 308 and the newly-restored 309. The three of us (Randall, Frank, and David) constituted the crew. We made five main-line trips today, and ridership was good.

We met some people we'd only known before via internet, such as John Cloos and Andrew Cornillie. And my friend Ray Buhrmaster and his son Bill visited. They're fans of the original Hicks Locomotive and Car Works, and told about the effects of the flood at North Freedom on car 64. Damage was bad, but will be repaired. That's good news!

The 308 and 309 will be operating again this month on July 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th. Don't miss it!

Independence Day

"Let bloody tyrants shake their iron rod,
We fear them not, we put our trust in God!"

IRM has been celebrating the Fourth of July with the nation's best trolley pageant for more than twenty-five years now, and this year was as good as ever.

I ran the 308 and 309, while Frank got "nicked" as the car starter. And David Wilkins helped Bob Kutella with the Sand Springs car. I can't tell you how many other pieces of equipment were operating.

But a good time was had by all.

Later, we moved the 309 into the west end of Barn 4, where it will be on display in preparation for the dedication ceremony tomorrow at noon.

You won't want to miss the dedication tomorrow. Barb Lanphier ordered a cake for us, and my wife made about 1,000 cookies. Offer good only while supplies last!

Better Red Than Dead

... but not by much. That was my opinion after spending all day painting both ends of the 309 red. My experience has always been that red is the hardest color for covering, even when it's only a different shade of red. Since the 309 was last painted about 1992, we realized that the red we had used was not quite the right shade. We later had it matched to a sample from the edge of a door on the 321. It's certainly not the same as the red used in the final paint scheme, as on the 431. But since there's relatively little of it in the blue paint scheme, finding usable samples was not easy. The picture to the left shows the #1 end in progress: new red on the left, the old on the right. This took all day, but we'll probably need a second coat at some point. Now, at least, the 309 matches the 308.

To the right, here's a close-up of the top of the train door frame. Do you see the vertical grooves in the wood? It certainly wasn't made this way. These can only be due to the conductors standing inside the car to pull the trolley rope when raising or lowering the poles. Since CA&E cars never had chains across the doors like the North Shore cars do, this was the safest way to do it.

At the end of the day, a strong thunderstorm blew through, and we lost all power from ComEd. That made cleaning up more challenging. Also, the automatic gate didn't work, of course. Dave had to open the box to disconnect the motor, and I helped him push the gate open so we could go home. All in a day's work for B&G!

Tick, Tick, Tick

The seconds are ticking away on the contest clock as we try to get the 309 ready for its dedication. So today I pulled it outside again for more painting.

I thought it only appropriate that the blue cars should have the biggest blue flag (left) in the Museum.

Actually, as I was putting it in place and taking a picture, I was thinking "This is pretty silly. There won't be anything coming in on track 84 today." But I was wrong! Soon a large hi-railer truck backed in - it's a weed sprayer, and Nick was directing the weed spraying all over the property. I had to pull the 309 back in the barn briefly so he could spray up to the barn. Here he is (right) with the truck on the connector track. Without that blue flag, who knows what disaster might have occurred?

I painted blue on the side sills, also one remaining side door and the metal plate over the end door at the #2 end. The side sill I beam has the word "ILLINOIS" cast in it about every eight feet, presumably for Illinois Steel. This only appears on one side, however; on the other side, the word is on the inside of the beam. On the 308, the word "PHOENIX" similarly appears on one side of the car, but it's upside down! That just goes to show you how careless the employees of other car builders could be, compared to the quality you expect from Hicks Locomotive and Car Works!

I also pulled the car farther out to spray-paint the trolley poles. It isn't easy in a strong wind, but I don't know what else to do. Anyhow, as I was up there, it struck me that most of you don't get a chance to see the world from this perspective. Here's a couple of views of the overhead from on top of the car. To the left, there's a trolley frog directly in front of us, circled in red. The trolley wire extends out in three directions, marked by red lines. The main wire comes in from about 4 o'clock, passes over the frog casting, and goes out at about 11 o'clock. The other wire comes in from 2 o'clock, is clamped off, and the excess points straight up. To the right, we see the pole on the wire. It's off to one side because we're on a curve. This is grooved trolley wire - sort of like the number 8, with grooves on each side. This makes it easier to clamp to. Round trolley wire can also be used, but the clamps have to be a different type.

I also painted grey all remaining parts of the south side clerestory, finished installing car cards in the smoker, and painted the hand rails on the south side of the car with Fleet Grey. Later in the afternoon, Tim came by with a truckload of hardwood for the 1268. I helped him load it into the 1808 for temporary storage, as shown here.

309 Lettering Done... Almost!

Well, once again I forgot to bring my camera out with me today. Oops! I finished the letterboard on the "L" side (non-toilet compartment side) of the 309 today, applying the letters "CAGO" in yellow, aka imitation gold. I also painted the yellow portions of the car numbers at the southwest corner and on the east (#1) end of the car, the small "B" and "D" letters next to the headlight plugs at the #2 end, and the black background of the car number at the west end of the car. Once this number has its yellow center painted on, the car will be completely lettered. Finally, I touched up the doorknobs on the side doors with blue.

While I was painting on one of the car numbers, a couple of visitors came by who were very interested in IRM's stenciling and lettering techniques. It turns out one of them had bought a vintage truck and was trying to figure out how to letter the side doors for the business that originally owned it. He really appreciated learning about how we do our tracing, stenciling and lettering. I was glad to offer what knowledge I had; just another part of our education mission!

One final unrelated subject: the southeast corner of Central Avenue & Railroad Avenue (just across Central from 50th Avenue... enough Avenues for you?) is now home to two newly-placed steel poles. Rumor has it that this will be the new home for the big "NORTH SHORE" neon sign, which was formerly between Barns 3 & 4 and is now being restored. Stay tuned!

309 Dedication Makes the Front Page!

...of the Tribune's Transportation Section, at least. In the "Glove Box" column today on page one of section 12, Transportation, we get this paragraph. There's also one advertising the general trolley pageant on the Fourth. This is almost enough to make me nervous - I hope our "engine" is ready for its debut!

Closer to Completion

The dedication ceremony for the 309 is just a week away, and the car is getting close to completion. Today I cleaned out all of my tools and other supplies that were still inside, vacuumed the floor, and installed all of the seat cushions. This included installing the last arm rest and inserting a few more shims so the seat brackets clear the cushions. Here are a couple of views of the completed interior. (The table fan was later removed.) I then disassembled the frame I'd made to hold all the seats in the 321.

Lenny Halter built up another trolley shoe for me today, so I ground it smooth and installed it on the 308, so the poles we'll be using for the two car train both have nice new shoes. I finished lubricating the armature bearings, the dirtiest and most unpleasant task there is, but it's done. I finished painting grey on the north side clerestory parts. I would have liked to do the south side, but several thunderstorms passed through during the afternoon, so it wasn't possible. I also did some touch-up painting on the #2 end.

A Note On Lettering

Our lettering of the CA&E wood cars is based on mylar tracings of the 309 made by Barb Rayunec in 1974, from the final red paint scheme. From photographs, it appears that there was no change in size or style of lettering as the paint schemes changed, from maroon to blue to red. But it seems that the lettering at Wheaton Shops was largely freehand, since no two numbers or letters are exactly alike.

When Barb finished tracing the number '309' she took it to Bob Bruneau for approval. He walked over to the car and held her tracing up against the number, but it didn't match very well at all. "How did she do this?" There are six numbers on the car, and he finally found the one she had chosen to trace. They were all different, with variations of 1/4" to almost 1". The same is true of the letterboard. The letter A occurs four times, and these A's are all slightly different, although of course they're the same style and you cannot see this from a photograph. Professional painters could produce nearly consistent results with little or no layout required, it appears. But we're not that good - yet.

Painting and more painting

Yesterday I drove out to the museum, meeting up with the senior partner in Hicks Car Works for breakfast at Allen's Corner beforehand. I spent pretty much the entire day lettering the south side letterboard of the 309 (the photo from yesterday's post actually shows me on Thursday). This time the car was getting One-Shot "imitation gold," which is actually more of a pale yellow. For comparison, while 308 and 309 are lettered in this color, the 321 is lettered in metallic gold which more closely resembles gold leaf. I got through the entire south side letterboard except for the letters "CAGO" and also painted on the number at #1-L corner as shown at the top of the post.


Whilst I was doing this my father was doing final lubrication under the 309 and doing a lot of touch-up painting at various places. He put a new coat of blue on the west (#2) end of the car and on all four side doors, plus a second coat of red on the belt rail stripe on the car's north side. He also installed a small wooden block at the #1 end to which the latch is attached that holds the "EXPRESS/LIMITED/LOCAL" folding signs up. Here he is seen painting a side door at the west end of the car.

During the day Barn 8 was seemingly the center of activity at the museum, as the 309 was moving in and out of the barn to line up various spots on the letterboard with the scaffold, the two of us were working on the car, and one track over Tim Peters was doing woodwork on CRT 1268. Below is a photo I would call "beauty and the beasts" - the 309 noses out into Yard 8 in the company of some homely stablemates, CTA work motor S373 and the New York subway cars.

Successful Inspection

Yesterday I did most of the inspection tasks on the 309 while it was over the pit in Barn 4. Lots of work, but the bottom line is that no problems were found and the car should be ready for revenue service this year. Here I am inspecting one of the controllers. The contact surfaces need to be lubricated with a light application of petroleum jelly.

I also helped Bob Kutella and the other Wednesday guys with moving a couple of pieces of wood-working machinery. And I ground down the newly-rebuilt trolley shoe (shown earlier) and installed it; now the next one is ready for Lenny's attention. And I did some more painting.

To the right we see Frank lettering the south side of the 309.


And after supper I wandered over to look at the wetlands. It's so nice and peaceful after a long hard day in the inspection pit!

A Bright Future

Forty years ago IRM published a prospectus outlining its ambitious plans for the future. This 16-page booklet on glossy paper was printed by Donnelley, so my father received an advance copy. Here are the first ten pages, from the Hicks Car Works archives.

Predicting the future is always hard, so it's interesting to look at what was planned back in 1968. Obviously, plans have changed, although the basic purpose of the Museum hasn't.

The art work is still pretty impressive. It's obvious what piece of equipment each of these drawings represents. You will, of course, notice that IRM was still mostly an electric railway museum.

The roster of equipment is interesting: the core of the collection, most of which was brought from North Chicago.

What's more interesting is what this plan does not include: buying more land (as of course we have done) and expanding the collection (likewise!). For instance, the roundhouse is designed with seven stalls because that's how many steam locomotives were on the roster at that time (we now have 25).


The site plan is much more compact and crowded than what has actually been constructed. After a visit that year, I pencilled in the tracks that were in existence at that time - only Yard 1 and the station tracks. Most of those buildings (on the right) would still be nice to have!

There are several more pages of detailed project plans, a brief history of the Museum, etc. which I didn't bother to scan.