Postcard from Main Street

I am riding the Sunday Zephyr trip but this morning made it down to Main Street in Downers Grove to see the train come through.  What a beauty!  The train, the weather and the setting, with the old brick CB&Q depot and the historic Tivoli Theater in the background, combined for a memorable show.

Of course the Train of the Goddesses has a mixed history with this particular location, and I was reminded of another dubious source of infamy enjoyed by the Main Street crossing - the notorious video of a pedestrian getting struck by a Metra express in 1991 - when a woman ran across the tracks not 400' in front of the Zephyr speeding along at 50mph.  Yikes!

The Zephyr is Rolling!

Our man on the scene, Tim Peters, has sent in photos of the Zephyr leaving IRM.  As I write this I've just returned from seeing it pass through Wheaton on my lunch break.  Even a traction fan like me has got to admit that it's nice to see the Zephyr out from under wires once in a while!

Important Parts Donation

We have just received an extremely important donation of CA&E parts from a donor who now lives on the West Coast but lived in Wheaton back when the line was abandoned.  These items were all thoroughly cleaned and carefully packed, so they're in excellent condition.  From bottom to top:

1) We have a Stephenson builder's plate, which he believes was from car 103.  In any case, it's exactly what we need for car 36.  The 36 in particular seems to have suffered from theft while it was in Cleveland, and both of these builder's plates are missing.  So we still need another one.

2) A match striker for the smoker.  One of these was stolen also.

3) A duplex air gauge; these are essential to safe operation, and sometimes they break down.

4) Two whistles, one long and one short.

I can't tell you how much we appreciate this donor's generosity.  We can spend all the time we want on sanding and painting and so on, but if some of these irreplaceable parts are missing, the restoration still isn't complete.  Here are some things we are yet in definite need of:

1) Another "John Stephenson Company" builder's plate, just like the one pictured above.

2) CA&E first aid boxes, with or without contents.

3) Wrecking tools from the boxes in each car.

4) Ventilator adjustment rods - this is a wooden rod about 29" long with a special brass casting on one end for adjusting the louvers.  Each car should have one, but I only have a single example, which I'm guarding with my life.  

If you happen to own any of these or similar items, IRM can make good use of them.  Please email me or send a letter to IRM if you would be willing to donate (or sell) parts we need to make our restorations complete.  Thanks!

Stilll Grinding Away

 The air is crackling with excitement as the not-to-be-missed Zephyr Excursion draws nigh.  Or something like that.  I believe that ticket sales will have to be stopped later tonight (Thursday night) so if you haven't bought tickets yet you had better do so immediately, or the rest of your life you will be kicking yourself, and remorse will bring you in sorrow to an early grave.  Do I make myself clear?

Until then, however, I've got nothing better to do than to keep grinding away on the 36.  It took most of the day, since I can't keep this up for too long, but I managed to grind all remaining paint from the metal plate over the #2 end of the car.  It was then painted with a first coat of primer to keep it from starting to rust.  The tack molding was cleaned off and painted also.  And I did some more paint stripping on the wood, which seems to use a different set of muscles.

As long as we're up here on this scaffold, turn around.  You can barely make out on the end of LSE 150 the outlines of "1906 TROLLEY" which was its name as a flower shop, I guess.  At some point we'll have to sand that down and repaint it.

I also spent some time pouring epoxy into the rotted-out portion of the end window we had looked at earlier.  It will take one or two more pours to fill it up.  I may decide to just make a new window eventually, but trying to epoxy it instead takes little time and effort.

And Bob Kutella's woodworkers' convention will be this weekend, if old woodworking machines interest you more than the Nebraska Zephyr.  Here Bob and some of his friends are hopefully starting to tear down a large table saw, and they say they should have it running by the end of the weekend.  Half of the table slides back and forth, so the work can be clamped to the moving half and run through the blade.  Neat!  I've got to start making third rail beams for the 36 one of these months, so I can only depend on Bob to provide everything I need.  Thanks, Bob!

Zephyr Excursion

The Nebraska Zephyr Excursion from Chicago to Quincy and back is this weekend, and it's something you won't want to miss.  Tickets are still available for most segments of the trip, so call today!  All the information you could want is available here.

I will be helping on Saturday, and Frank will be helping on Sunday.  I'll take Amtrak from Naperville to Galesburg, joining three other members to do check-ins for people who will be boarding the train at Galesburg.  I then board the Zephyr for the rest of the trip and help with selling souvenirs and other miscellaneous tasks.  You know you will want some one-of-a-kind souvenirs of this historic journey, so be sure to bring plenty of money.  Jamie and Harold and Ray and Julie and many others have been working hard to make this historic excursion a success.  See you there!

Showcase Videos

And here are some quick links to videos taken by Chuck Amstein:

3-car CA&E train -

2-car 'L' train -

C&NW 411 and coach train -

Snowplow wing opening -

Snowplow wing closing -

Russell Plow Demonstration

 

One special feature of Museum Showcase Weekend was a demonstration of our new Russell plow from the Great Western.  Restoration is ongoing, but a lot of progress has been made already.  Only a few more acres of rusty metal need to be needle-chipped and repainted.  And the wings are now operational, and they were being run in and out for visitors and members. 

All photos by Chuck Amstein. 



 






 







 

Showcase Photos - Updated!

Better photographers than myself are already submitting photos from yesterday.

First, from Stephen Scalzo:  (These were shrunk by about 50%, but otherwise unchanged.)

This is taken through the front window of the 65.

Next, from Chuck Amstein:

Op 'Till You Drop! Or, How a Bunch of Deadheads Rode the L

David Writes....

There's really nothing more I can add from what Frank and Randall have already written, other than the fact that I also operated all day on Sunday, and did not get back to St. Louis until 10:30 pm Sunday night, hence the explanation for part of the title of the post.

The best thing I noticed about both days is that we had what appeared to be very good crowds, judging from the cars in the parking lot, and on the train/streetcar. Based on punching tickets on Saturday, we had lots of paying visitors, in addition to the usual gaggle of members that congregate on special weekends. As previously mentioned, we had very good loadings for most of the trips, and the passengers seemed to enjoy themselves. Over the course of the weekend, I had six or seven people introduce themselves as readers of the blog. It was nice to have our total readership accounted for in a single day. I also noticed a lot of families taking advantage of the picnic grounds at IRM, which is good. One family even rode the streetcar on Sunday over to Electric Park to picnic, in the grand streetcar tradition.

Here I am on Saturday, taking a quick break at the end of the day, before we put the cars up for the day. 

The night ride on the wooden L train was fun, and well-attended by the Car Department regulars.  Chris Buck mentioned that with all the people on the train in uniform, it looked like a Deadhead run.  I never realized that many people at IRM liked Jerry Garcia.  You learn something every day!

Here we see Charlie Strong and Frank. taking a ride.

Here we see Joe Stupar and the lovely Gwyn Stupar, enjoying themselves.

On Sunday, I operated CTA streetcar 3142. The Green Hornet was also out, doing line training, and helping take in the crowds that were vesting the property that day. Blog reader, college student, and amateur artist Zach Ehlers was out both days. He rode around and around and around the streetcar line with me on Saturday. Also, on Sunday, I used my CSL run number disc on the 3142. If you see the number 6 in photos, you know it was me.

Even though it was Museum Showcase weekend, there was plenty of other work going on at IRM. Bob Kutella and his crew were showing off the Great Western Plow, and selling tickets so people could watch the wings unfold. The Track Department was out in full force, doing inspection work on Saturday, rebuilding a track cart on Sunday.

The weather was great, along with two days of safe operations.  What more could one ask for?

If anyone has a photo of me operating the streetcar on Sunday, please contact me at david dot wilkins at charter dot net.  Thanks!