In Memoriam Bill McGregor

Bill McGregor was one of the most memorable people I've ever known, and he died in 1989.  I still miss him, and I know a lot of other people do too.  At one time we could all start telling "Bill stories" for hours - but we can save that for another time.  The funeral was held in Marengo, attended by a large number of people, and afterwards we all went back to the property for a group photo.  Behind us is the Matchbox, probably Bill's crowning achievement out of several.  

I believe this photo was set up by Jim Johnson, who among his many other interests had several antique and specialty cameras of various sorts.  Anyway, here we all are, and the challenge is to name as many people in this picture as we can.  Frank started the process, with some help from me, and if you want to play along you can use the version below for the numbering system.  Corrections and additions are welcome! Thanks to Harold Krewer for submitting several in both categories.

This photo was scanned by Ray Piesciuk and is copyright by the Johnson Collection.

1 - Jon Fenlaciki

2 - Alan Choutka

3 - Ken Jamin

4 - John Humiston

5 - Rex Litchfield Sr.
6 - Steve Hawley

7 - Harold Krewer
8 - Laddie Vitek Sr

9 - George Campbell
10 - Victor Humphreys
11 - Greg Heier
12 - Jerry Kozinski

13 - Jerry Saunders
14 - Jim Kehrein?
15 - Ken Flobeck?

16 - Jim Nauer
17 - Al Simms

18 - Bill Wulfert

19 - Tim Peters

20 - Chris Buck
21 - Rick Fenhouse?

22 - Dan Buck

23 - Roger Hewett

24 - Mike Stauber

25 - Bob Rayunec

26 - Larry Goerges

27 - Bob Kutella
28 - Tom Opolony

29 - Frank Sirinek

30 - Dick Lukin

31 - Nick Kallas

32 - Warren McGregor (brother)

33 - Bernadine McGregor (sister-in-law)

34 - Ed Arnold?

36 - Harold Wind

39 - Joe Jonas

40 - Les Ascher
43 - John Naglich

44 - John van Kuiken
45 - Dave Harrold?
47 - Denise Tendick
49 - Ken Tendick

50 - Randy Hicks
52 - John Dowdall

54 - Norm Krentel

55 - Joe Reuter

56 - Jeff Brady

57 - Jim Johnson
58 - Joyce Heier?
59 - Dave Dote
60 - Bill Thiel
61 - Carol Schossow

62 - Pete Vesic
63 - Kristina Vesic

64 - Olin Anderson

65 - Bob Konsbruck?

67 - Ray Cook
70 - John Hurkes

(58/70)

Abandoning the Community

More preservation history from Bill Stewart.

(Note: in the following, "IRM" stands for Indiana Railway Museum!) 

5]  In June 1965 the Anderson Railroad Club operated another excursion on the same NYC division, this time to the north of its home city to perhaps Goshen or even Elkhart, where turning facilities were available.  This photo shows the train at Warsaw.

In 1964-65 I was a high school senior in north suburban Indianapolis and a dues-paying member of the Indianapolis Railfans Club – and yet I knew nothing about either of those trips until years later (which is still a source of some irritation, because I would have eagerly purchased a ticket for each!). 

The 1968 Penn Central merger spelled the end for the southern half of that NYC division, because all Louisville traffic was rerouted to the former PRR main line through Indianapolis.  Abandonment of the segment through Westport occurred in 1971.  I rode the last train, the clean-up run from Westport to Greensburg, which consisted of the PC Geep dispatched as a light engine from South Anderson Yard, 0-4-0 saddle-tanker 11, two Erie Stillwell coaches, some PRR X29 express cars, the heavyweight all-room Pullman Night Star and perhaps some other freight equipment I’ve forgotten. 

By then there was no love lost between Westport and IRM; in the early Sixties the village had envisioned itself as a future tourism mecca, thanks to the museum, but now it was, in the words of the city fathers, “abandoning the community,” despite the inability of a small, all-volunteer organization to influence national commerce or the affairs of a bankrupt Class I railroad. 

After the trains stopped running, but prior to clean-up operations and track removal, the village unwisely paved over the Main Street crossing with a heavy (perhaps twelve inches or more) overlayment of asphalt, intended to smooth an irritating dip in the roadway.  When the PC Geep arrived to retrieve the IRM equipment it sliced two clean flangeways through the week-old asphalt.  About twenty minutes later, when the assembled train was departing, the low-hanging firebox of 0-4-0 11 took out most of the remaining asphalt, leaving a deep trench between the rails.  Once again the village paved the crossing, only to have to do it a third time after the rails and ties were removed weeks later.

Doodlebug Windows

Gregg Wolfersheim writes:

Today I got the last window installed and adjusted in M35.  All six windows in the smoker section, along with lower wall rebuilt. Next will be the sill woodwork.

More Pictures from Indiana

Bill Stewart continues with archival material from Indiana:

3]  Here is the 318 in its awkward Westport role as a “steam road” coach trailing its tiny companion, 0-4-0 11.  The 11 came from a sand and gravel company in western Indiana.  (Ed.: The 11 is still on display at French Lick as seen here.)

4] And now the scene of greatest interest to people at IRM: the September 20, 1964 Anderson Railroad Club excursion from Anderson to Westport and return.  The nearest of the North Shore cars in the train is the 172, the other is the ill-fated 154, and the third (left) is said to be a 250-series combine, its later ownership or circumstances of demise unknown.  (Ed.: That must be the 250, which was later acquired by IRM and scrapped for parts at Union in 1995.)  Barely visible behind it is box motor 228, now at East Troy.  The NYC GP-7, still in its original pin-striped paint scheme, would itself qualify today as a worthy railroad museum artifact.  The president of the Anderson Railroad Club, Bill Somebody, was a local Chamber of Commerce official and railfan.  He died suddenly at a young age and the club folded after only three years (1964-67).

Friends Helping Friends

Another busy day at the Museum saw a lot of cooperation on various projects, subject to the usual limits on groups and distancing and so forth.  I'll start with the 451 again.

I installed the grab iron at the #1 end of the car, as seen above on the left.  That required drilling lengthwise through the running board, but once again all went well.  This is one of those things you are essentially betting your life on, so it has to be attached securely.

Then I marked out the holes for installing one of the trolley bases, using a home-made template.

And that is an exact 10" square.

I got some valuable help today from Lucas McKay, seen here working on one of the trolley bases.  The threaded shaft is badly corroded, and he spent some time wire-wheeling it, but it will require a 7/8" tap to get the threads clean again.  The shaft is the part that allows us to adjust the tension on the trolley pole, so it has to be right.

Next, we brought in Contestant #2 from the barn.  This one has the same problem.  The large nut on the end of the shaft was frozen.  But if you need heat, Gerry is the man to ask.   He quickly turned it red-hot for me.

And I think you can see what the threads on the shaft look like, after the nut was carefully removed.

Lucas also helped me with fishing the final roof cable through the roof of the car; it's the one at far right above.  It was certainly a two-man job, and I was starting to worry it might be impossible.  But with some patience, we got it done.

I then connected a fuse box temporarily to make sure we had enough cable to connect everything.  Next time I'll also want to check that the power connections all work properly, there are no shorts to ground, etc. 

Lucas also spent some time helping Gerry with his welding work on the 306.  

It will look good once they're finished.

Gregg stopped in to adjust some new parts for the doodlebug.  I seldom get a picture of him at work.

And then, for some reason, Bill Wulfert and Ray Pieschuk decided to use the car shop to scan in old documents and pictures for posting on the IRM-CTA website.  I guess it's OK as long as they're not too noisy or disruptive.

And on a historical note, I looked at this electrical box that Frank had mentioned last time.  I suspect it's part of an early manual signalling system, though I'm not sure it even has a name.  Boxes like this would be set each end of a siding, and when a motorman arrived at a siding he would throw the SPDT switch at each end.  The bulb is in series with another box at the other end of the single track, which then indicates whether a car is occupying the single track.  This system works as long as every motorman always remembers to throw every switch correctly.  The best you can say for it is that it might reduce the number of head-on collisions.  And it's certainly cheap.  Personally, I'm hoping we stick with our current ABS block signals.

Update:  I knew I'd read about this somewhere:  Hilton & Due's interurban book! 

More Cars That Got Away

Our friend Bill Stewart recently found some interesting archival material to share with us.

He writes:

1) The fuzzy qualities of this photo of our late friend, CA&E 318, seem to suggest that this is a historic image.  To the contrary: it was taken at Westport, Indiana in the 1960s.  The car is spotted on the “main line”of the former Indiana Railway Museum -- the final few yards of the Milwaukee Road’s Indiana extension, which interchanged here with the New York Central’s Louisville-Elkhart secondary main line, visible to the left.  (Ed.: The 318 was heavily damaged in transit in 1971, and purchased by IRM in 1977 to be scrapped for parts.  The parts have been used to restore other cars.)

2) In a photo that has to date to 1969, for reasons to be provided below, the friendly face of the 318 leans over to smile at the happy crowd on the platform of Penn Central business car 180.  But how could that be?

Explanation:  In 1967 or 1968, the late Brigadier General Robert Moorhead, Commander of the Indiana Army National Guard, began a private initiative to save his favorite passenger train, the NYC’s Cincinnati-Indianapolis-Chicago “Deluxe All-Coach Streamliner,” the James Whitcomb Riley.  Moorhead created the Riley Booster Club, Inc. as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, hired part-time staff, paid for newspaper and broadcast promotions, and began buying surplus NYC rolling stock from the nearby Beech Grove Shops to use as excursion cars attached to the regular Riley consist.  Moorhead owned Central Publishing, Inc., a large Indianapolis printing company, and printed promotional materials for the Riley that were distributed through travel agencies and other sites.  To share information and human resources, the Booster Club came to operate as an extension of the Indiana Railway Museum.  Eventually the lightweight car fleet filled two tracks at the former Pullman Company Capitol Avenue Coach Yard, adjacent to Indianapolis Union Station.

In one of the newly-formed Penn Central’s many quirky moves, Pennsylvania Railroad business car 180 (equipped, interestingly, with four-wheel trucks instead of the usual six-wheel variety typically specified for heavyweight cars) was repainted in the PC’s new green-and-white paint scheme, assigned to a New York-based VP, then retired within a year and laid up at Beech Grove.  General Moorhead purchased the car for a nominal sum and stored it temporarily at Westport while arrangements were being finalized for use of the Capitol Avenue Coach Yard.  The car later operated on several long-distance excursions, including a memorable 1970 Indianapolis-St. Louis round trip on the rear of PC trains 31 and 30, the Spirit of St. Louis.

In this Westport scene, however, it is serving only as a viewing platform for a crowd that came to ride a two-mile round trip aboard the 318, pulled by a little 0-4-0 tank engine.  Even the smallest of those kids is now a “mid-century” adult, age 50+.

After the arrival of Amtrak, operational changes made private car operation from Indianapolis increasingly impractical.  General Moorhead sold the 180 to an individual in Kansas.  But that did not turn out well, and the car was later scrapped.  Too bad, because as older photos indicate, it was once a most handsome car.

More Car Department Progress

Today was another exciting work day at Union, so we have some pictures to share.  As usual, there were several other projects going on that we missed.  We'll start with CA&E 451.

I continued working on attaching the roof cables and installing roof hardware of various sorts.  Two of the three cables at the #1 end are now connected, as seen here.  I later caulked and attached the castings that pass through holes in the roof.  I also attached the second trolley hook and worked on other parts of the roof.

At the #2 end, I installed the rope guard and the drip rail over the train door, as well as two drip rails over the side doors on the south side.  The lift is essential for jobs like these.

Later, I worked on one of the trolley bases, which had a broken spring.

After some work, it was reassembled, and should be ready for primer, black, and then installation.

Next: Pete Galayda continues work on the interior of the North Shore 160.  The interior woodwork really looks good.

This side of the smoker is finished.

And he continues replacing windows and wood trim parts on the other side, as seen here:

Finally, we have the Fox River 306.  John Sheldon and Fred Zimmerman were working on the floor.  It's going to look as good as new. 

Here we see Gerry doing more welding on the side of the car.  You'll have to take my word for it. 

Here John is taking more measurements for parts of the floor.

And Fred is removing more of the old coating on the floor.

And as I said, there were other projects being pursued.  Tim doesn't want people climbing onto the 1754, so today he was working on the anticlimbers.  And Norm Krentel was working on parts for the Michigan Electric car.  And I'm sure I'm missing something else.  You just gotta be there.

Car 18 runs!

Frank writes...

IRM now has another car in its operating fleet! Shaker Heights 18 was made operational and, after a few tentative voyages up and down the inspection pit lead, went for a couple of test trips around the streetcar line.

This progress was made much quicker than anticipated, but it's thanks to the hard work of the car shop regulars: Joel, Zach, Nick, Jeron, Greg, and Richard (I'm sorry if I left anyone out!). They brought the 18 over to the pit to look at the air compressor. That led to the compressor being dropped and new brushes being put in, but once it was meggered and reinstalled it was started up and surprisingly few leaks were found. All of the car's electrical circuits had already been tested so after the controls were sequenced the motor leads were hooked up and it was time for some testing.

Overall the car seems to run very nicely. There are a handful of small air leaks but nothing that can't be addressed. One bearing started to run a bit warm so we will repack that. We haven't been able to get the tail end marker lights working because the cast lens frames are cemented in place by rust and paint, but that will be taken care of.

The interior lights work, and we figured out what the big rotary switch on the wall does (unfortunately I failed to take a photo of it). There are six bulbs in the series and the rotary switch shorts out each of them in sequence so that you can cut a bad bulb out of the circuit. That not only means it's easy to identify which bulb went bad, but if you lose a bulb leaving Terminal Tower then you're not in the dark all the way out to Shaker Heights (there's only one circuit that provides the entire car's worth of interior illumination). Neat!

Obviously there's more to do on the car. A lot of it is cosmetic: the car badly needs a new paint job, and volunteers from the Northern Ohio Railway Museum have been contacted about the correct color formula. It will need some more windows repaired, and that work is underway; needs some new destination sign glass; a few air system fixes; and longer-term will need the interior gone over and refurbished, with refreshed paint and varnish. We are also missing one short bench seat cushion. But generally everything looks promising. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who got car 18 running!

As usual, other projects are making noticeable progress too. The lean-to was a regular Highwood Shops, with a few different North Shore efforts in evidence. Here is the old train door and the new replacement train door for MD car 213. It must be the train door because the only other doors on the car are big baggage doors!

And these are the new end windows for the 757. By the end of the day the holes for the hardware and mounting strips had been drilled and the windows were ready for installation once some welding work on the support frames is done.

The North Shore Bandit returns - this week Zach was cutting out new linoleum for the floor in the smoker of the 757. The car has this patterned white linoleum under the seats, with a red walkway down the center aisle bordered by narrow black linoleum strips. When IRM acquired car 757 from East Troy the smoker linoleum had been replaced by some 1970s-era stuff, so in 2012 that was pulled out. After a few years of dormancy the compartment is now acquiring a new, correct, floor.

Zach also snapped a photo of me wire-wheeling trolley base parts for the 451. Many thanks to Zach, Joel, and Richard, who helped get parts we need out of storage including roof fuse boxes, a trolley hook, and a new trolley base spring.

Speaking of stuff pulled out of storage, this intriguing item was found in one of our storage cars. It's a little sheet metal house, probably to be mounted on a line pole, and has a blue lens and a big switch handle poking out the bottom. Anyone know what it is?

Doodlebug Update

Over in Barn 2, Gregg Wolfersheim has resumed work on his doodlebug.   He writes:

 With the partial reopening of the shops at IRM, work has now resumed. Three lower window areas got the insulation installed, and the one on the right was painted:

Soon after, the plywood facing was installed and final painting done:

Window #22 was reinstalled:

 If you have been following my reports, you'll notice I refer to windows by number. Looking at the tops, you can see a stamping. In this photo of the left side is the car number. M35 in 1/2" numbers:

 On the right side is the window number, 23. Even though the dimensions are close between parts, they often are not interchangeable. So it's really important to keep them in their proper openings so everything fits better. Soon the last two windows should be back in.