Illinois Terminal 1702 Update

Thanks to Gregg Wolfersheim, who has sent along the latest news on IT line car 1702:

In a previous report, I mentioned the hole in the roof for the smoke jack. Here the metal spark shield is in place to protect the canvas and wood components.

The deck is in place, along with the pole hook and bell. This is the #1 end.

The #2 end.

Painting the roof deck.

Right after finishing the deck. The dull looking areas is from a sand like grit applied for better footing.

Weekend Photo Gallery

Many thanks to Steven, who has recently started volunteering in the car shop and has been keeping busy helping with a variety of projects, for sending a photo gallery of progress made over the weekend.

A view inside Barn 6 following reconstruction work.

Checking and charging the batteries on the Illinois Central MU cars, which are currently stored at 50th Avenue while the work on Barn 6 is done.

The 25-tonner has recently emerged from the diesel shop following some rebuilding work, though I'm afraid I'm not sure what exactly was done.

Here's a nice shot of the service train, CA&E 431 and 460, passing the "Pumpkin Patch" at Electric Park.

Steven, Matthew, and Good Nick got this rebuilt sign box reinstalled in one end of the 415 on Sunday.

The corners of the 415 are a bit banged up. This is probably one of the spots that was most likely to impact automobiles in the streets of Granite City - or, for that matter, Ottawa!

And the last two images show the reinstalled anticlimber cover on the 415. There was a good deal of wood replacement that was done underneath this before it was reinstalled.

Ultimate Pumpkin Day

Frank writes...

Sunday was the last day of the 2023 Pumpkin Train event, and the weather was perfect fall weather, sunny and with highs in the upper 50s. Great working weather!

The first task was to take all of the seat cushions out of the 18 and bring them over to the car shop. We've had a willing volunteer offer to help with painting these cushions during the week (more on that later), so taking the cushions over to make this possible was a priority. Unfortunately, I failed to get any photos (d'oh!), but the two people who made this happen were Steven J. and Jimmy. Thanks to both for all their hard work!

After that, I headed over to Barn 2 to help with a priority project for the department: getting IT 415 ready to paint. Its time in the diesel shop is drawing to a close, so we need to finish the last of the prep work pronto so that it can turn traction orange. (...nah, just kidding, it will go back into apple green and cream!) Above, Steven drives screws into the newly reattached bumper shroud. This project is being headed up by Good Nick, who was working through the day - and again after dinner - on various tasks to get the car ready for paint. A number of other people have pitched in to help as well.

After dinner, I got to work painting seat backs inside the 18. These are much easier to paint in place, especially the cross seats, which I believe need to have the entire seat frame removed from the car in order to unscrew the seat back. Above is one of the upper deck "nickel seats," though I don't think they were called that in Cleveland.

And here's the first of the cross seats. I masked off the one behind it but ran out of time to actually paint it, so I'll need to do that next time. Getting fresh paint on these makes a huge difference in appearance. Oh, and we again successfully tested the heat inside the car, so that's reassuring.

There's a single longitudinal seat at the front right corner of the car, right behind the motorman's cab bulkhead, and I don't think I'd ever pulled that cushion out because when I did I was surprised to find a battery box underneath it. Four of these little old-fashioned lantern batteries were wired in, with the wires going into the wall and thence to destinations unknown. We'll have to get to work tracing these wires, or just ask our friends at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum how this system works on their car 12.

In other news, concrete has been poured for door sills at the east end of the Barn 4 extension. It's good to see progress with this!

And during the week some significant reconstruction work was done in Barn 6. To enable that, the trolley wire had to be dropped in parts of the barn, so here Joel is seen - in the dark, since this is after dinner and the AC power to the barn is still turned off - re-tensioning the wire on track 63.

A couple of windows for the 18 were on a bench in the wood shop and they look great! Of course, some wag decided to repurpose a leftover sign from ArnFest a few weeks ago... please do not help yourself...

LATE ADDITION: As I mentioned earlier, one of our weekday volunteers, Frank Kehoe, reached out and offered to help with painting seats for the 18. This is tremendously helpful, as it's pretty time-consuming to paint these properly, what with all the "nooks and crannies." On Monday, he got six cross seat cushions and two bench seat backs painted, as shown below in a photo he sent me this afternoon. Thank you, Frank!

Steam Shop Tour

One of our readers recommended this video of Phil Hehn giving us a 25-minute tour of the Steam Shop.  Very informative, and you don't have to worry about tripping over something, falling into the pit, or getting in the way of an active project.  Thanks!

Saturday Snapshot

The fall Pumpkin Train operation was in full blast, but I didn't take the time to get any pictures.  It seemed to be going quite well.

Over in front of Barn 8, we had the San Filippo circus truck parked.  Dave Calendine was there all day playing the calliope, and that made excellent entertainment.  I could hear it clearly while I was working over in Yard 10.

The Rock Island Pacific is currently parked out in front of Barn 9, and it looks great.

I spent most of the day painting the Jewell Road shelter.  A second coat of red on the back side was a visible improvement, I think.

And then a first coat of red on the east side, and the right side of the front.

I'd like to think it's starting to look worth saving:

What's behind the red door?  Most of it you don't want to know, but there are parts for a track machine, a lot of spare wood, some of which appears to be parts from the Jewell platform, and things like that.

There were four boards that could actually be used to replace the worst of the siding pieces.  The siding consists of 1x8 pine planks that we should be able to acquire easily enough.  I started by chopping out one of the most badly split boards in the front, and cut one of the boards to fit.  Of course, it needs to be repainted, and we'll have to buy some more, but this shelter can certainly be improved with enough work.

I took home another window from the 18 to work on.

And as always, lots of other things were going on.  Tim just never stops.

As for all the other activities at the Museum, they never stop either.  Stay tuned!

Bridge Over the Embarras

Slightly off-topic, but...

On a recent trip to central Illinois to visit in-laws, I finally got a chance to take some pictures of a very historic concrete road bridge south of Charleston, over the Embarras River.

This bridge was built in 1907, a year before the Model T was introduced, and is still in use today.  I believe it was originally the main route heading south from Charleston, but is now only a side road.  

The facts are set in concrete, as they say:

The area is very wooded, so it's difficult to get a good picture from the banks.

The reason I bring this up is because if we ever manage to extend the tracks at South Jct. across Boot Creek, I should think we'll also need a road bridge for vehicles.  And I would hope it might look something like this.

Incidentally, the name of the river is actually pronounced "Embrow".  If you try to say it the way it's spelled, the locals will laugh at you.  You can't make this stuff up.

More Line Car News

 Another report on IT 1702 from Gregg Wolfersheim.   Received on Tuesday, but I was out of town.

A view of the #2 end of the linecar. The roof gong is finally in place, along with 4 more deck boards.

The area around the smoke jack was painted in preparation for the tin cover.

Today the ladder was mounted before the last 8 deck boards go on. Also the wire guard over the car number. It's just a piece of angle iron. When the car was used to install trolley wire, as it came off of the reel it momentarily would run on the roof edge as it was passing up to the work platform. There is another similar guard that will go on the platform when that gets restored.

Trolley Bus 441 Update

Many thanks to Richard Schauer, who sent along this progress report on Milwaukee trolley bus 441, which is off-site undergoing professional exterior restoration and repainting. Remember, if you have a favorite bus or trolley bus in our collection and would like to support having it repainted, drop us a line!

Sorry for the delayed update; this one will cover three weeks.  441 continues to make incremental progress at the body shop.  The first two pictures show it as of September 27th.  The front end sheet was still in need of welding at that point, but some repair work was in progress at the two front corners.  The curb side showed a goodly-sized dent that had been filled, and the street side a smaller one.  

By October 4th, as the second two pictures show, the front end had been welded and was in the process of being made smooth and flat.  Finally, on October 11th, I caught the whole bus in primer.  The top half was ready for ivory paint, which was planned for this upcoming week after sanding the primer and re-masking.  A couple of minor welding repairs were still needed on areas of the skirts, the largest of which is just forward of the battery box door.

Weekend Photo Gallery

Many thanks to Steven and Bob Olson for sending along photos of things we missed from this past weekend! First, a selection of photos from Steven showing progress in the Car Department:

A number of cars were switched out of Barn 6 so that a contractor could do some repair work during the week this week. Here, West Towns 141 is readied for its trip out. This car had some repairs made to its PC control box over the summer and ran in revenue service over Showcase Weekend for the first time in a couple of years, so watch for it to make more frequent appearances next year.

ComEd 4 needed to be moved out of the way, and the most convenient spot happened to be at the head of the "reefer block" on the connector track. A nice photo opportunity ensued.

The IC MU cars were spotted at 50th Avenue.

Here's the 141 over on track 61.

Saturday evening, Nathan, Mikey, Brian and Steven worked on getting the small Car Department forklift put back together and running again.

Steven reports that the effort was successful, and the little forklift now lives again!

Here, Brian is bringing over the end casting of the forklift using a different small forklift.

The CP-28 compressor was removed from the 251; this pump failed in service this year and will be sent out for rebuilding.

Here's a current view of the Barn 4 extension, looking east from the pit.

Steven spent a while over in Barn 2 wire-wheeling the pilots on IT 415 to get it ready for paint.

This is neither glamorous nor enjoyable work, but the car will look fantastic when it's done!

An overall view of the 415 from ground level.

I'm not sure what this little "pig tank" underneath the car is for. Is this the aux res?

Here's something neat: the badge plate on the 415's truck. I had these trucks listed as StL 69, but maybe StL CM69 is more accurate.

On Sunday, brush holder repairs to the 749 were completed and the car was test operated. It passed the test and is now back in service.

Here's ComEd 15 doing switching in Yard 5 on Sunday.

Greg wields the "hot stick" to throw switches up in the air near the substation.

And a view of Yards 6 and 5 at sunset.

The following photos were sent in by Bob Olson but were taken by Carina Borst of the Pumpkin Train event. Saturday was practically rained out, but Sunday went ahead mostly as planned, though the "pumpkin patch" was relocated from Seeman Road to Electric Park due to all the water. I should point out that the lion's share of the prep and setup work for this event is done each year by the Track Department, so we all owe them a big thank you for putting on a terrific show!

Loading up hay bales at a nearby farm where we purchased them.

Electric Park was attractively set up with hay bales, pumpkins, and a variety of interesting visuals.

Gotta admit, this critter is pretty eye-catching!

The stalwart 3142 provided car line service over to the Pumpkin Patch while the CA&E steel train ran mainline service.