Family Resemblance

Frank writes...

We've been posting images from the Clemons Collection, and last week one photo in particular caught the eye of our official interurban researcher, Art Peterson.

This is Indiana Railroad 1150, which had quite a unique history. Art provided the following details:

The 1150 was built by Jewett in 1913 for the Grand Rapids, Grand Holland & Chicago, originally GRGH&C 20-23. This group became Michigan Railway 112-115, but were returned to the GRGH&C ca. 1924. This car was sold to UTC (less motors) for $860 in 1927 (no apparent record as to which GRGH&C car became which UTC car). By the time of the 11/30/32 IR equipment survey, the car was out of service at Anderson and later was converted into the wreck/tool car 1150. It remained active till the end of IR rail service in January 1941.

Art also sent a couple of truly fascinating interior photos of this car - partial interior shots of the car that Jim Cook took during the January 1st, 1941, fan trip that was run with car 1150.

Of course, what leaps out to me? The stained-glass windows! On the outside, this car has rectangular upper-sash windows with rounded corners, but its inside sash are arched - and they look identical to the stained-glass windows used in CA&E 316-321. And indeed, car 1150 was probably under construction at the Jewett plant in Newark right alongside the CA&E Jewetts, even though they were much more archaic-looking cars. If the CA&E had been a bit more adventurous, their 1913 order may have looked more like car 1150.

Robert Clemons Collection - South Shore Line

This is a collection of photographic prints from the collection of Robert Clemons, all donated by Thomas Clemons to the Illinois Railway Museum. Many thanks to Thomas and the Clemons family for their generous donation. All images are copyright Illinois Railway Museum. Images may not be reproduced or distributed without authorization.

These photos are of Northwest Indiana subjects, mostly the South Shore Line.

South Shore SW1 601 and line car 1100, today preserved at IRM, at an unknown location on May 16, 1963

It's August 31, 1962, and South Shore 601 is pushing EJ&E 2-8-2 765 onto a siding in Gary for display.

Another shot of the switch move, complete with a South Shore interurban car over under the wire.

For a time, CA&E 434 was stored at the South Shore shops in Michigan City while it waited to be shipped to Maine. I don't recall the reason for the delay, but here it is on August 21, 1962.

This photo is dated October 30, 1963, and shows a project to realign track at Combs Street in Michigan City. We're looking east with the start of street running down 11th Street in the distance.

Another photo taken during the Combs Street realignment project. The photo is labeled Robert B. Hendrickson, EE; Robert Kruger, S[upervisor?]

I'm not certain, but I think this is looking west down 11th Street at Michigan Blvd in Michigan City.

A pair of South Shore 900-series steeplecabs is shown c1962, possibly out of service. These were built by Baldwin-Westinghouse in 1929 for the Illinois Central and resold to the South Shore in 1941.

This snowy view of the Michigan City shops is dated to January 1962.

This photo, and the ones after it, are labeled simply "Michigan St," but I suspect they show part of the same Michigan City track project pictured earlier. The above photo looks like it was taken at Vail Street.

My best guess is that these photos were all taken somewhere along Holliday Street, west of the shops.

This photo shows the interior of one of the modernized, air-conditioned South Shore cars. The lettering reads "positively no smoking in this compartment."

For a change of pace, why don't we go back in time to an earlier era in Gary. Gary Railways 3, a 1925 Kuhlman product, was built for service to Hobart but is shown here signed for Valparaiso. Service on this line was abandoned in 1938.

This busy photo shows the north end of the Broadway line at rush hour. At far left is an ex-Chicago Union Traction "Matchbox" identical to IRM's 1374; Gary Railways owned two, bought secondhand from Chicago and renumbered 25-26. Behind it is a 109-series McGuire-Cummings deck-roof car towing an arch-roof trailer, while to the right, another motor-trailer train rounds the loop in front of a 105-series McGuire-Cummings suburban car.

South Bend Sand & Gravel 0-4-0T 100 was built by Vulcan in 1923 and had formerly been owned by Studebaker, South Bend's hometown auto maker. It's shown here in October 1960.

Green Bay & Western 109 Update

Thanks to Gregg Wolfersheim for sending along a photo of his latest side project: Green Bay & Western 109. This attractive wooden coach, which by the way was built to what was effectively a Hicks Locomotive & Car Works design, had its interior largely restored by our old friend and "Project 308" worker Jack Biesterfield in the 2010s. But it's got some structural problems; doesn't really fit with our regular all-steel operating fleet; and doesn't have any seats, all of which are reasons it's not a great candidate for operational restoration. But Gregg and his compatriots have a plan: utilizing the largely empty, but very attractive, interior of car 109 as classroom space in Barn 3.

Here are some pics of the wood passenger car being refurbished for use as a classroom/meeting room. 

 The south side and east end of the car. Note the broken end beam.

Some of the typical deteriorating wood components.

Half of this side was opened up years ago by some volunteers [ed: not Jack] with plans to restore it.

Closer view. This is a steel underframe car. No truss rods.

This was the beginning of repairs where a 5 inch wood beam had been.

The steel was air hammered and wire wheeled.

Primer was applied.

Several 2x8's were applied and staggered. Carriage bolts hold them against the steel beam. The wood was treated with water seal.

A final layer of white oak was laid over the previous boards. The siding will be attached near the bottom.

Uprights are being spliced in to the window posts. Shorter ones under each window also. The two darker ones in the middle are original. They were still fairly solid.

 There are several more to go. The cupola's will be removed and the opening filled in for now.

 The interior walls and ceiling are in nice condition from earlier work done by Jack. A few new windows will have to be replicated for the ones that are missing.

The Seats Are In

Frank writes...

We hit a milestone with the 460 on Sunday: all the seats being replaced in this round are now installed in the car! Many thanks to Richard, who worked with me to get two more seats put in. The day's results are shown below: the #2 end "corner single" and the rotating "railfan seat" facing the end window of the car.

Now, the job isn't exactly complete, even on the 460 - never mind the 451 and 453, which will come next! I still need to go through and drive a bunch of upholstery tacks into these; the leatherette antimacassars have decorative upholstery tacks along the back of each seat. I also need to clean up any old tacks, bolts, threads, fuzz, and miscellaneous debris from the project.

There are also two seats we haven't done yet. The "corner single" at the #1 end and the seat against the toilet compartment at the #2 end haven't yet been replaced because we don't have the correct reupholstered seats. We're saving a few original seats in reasonably good condition, selected from across the three curve-siders. These will all be relocated to the 453 for continued service, but one of the seats being saved is a corner seat in the 451, and since that seat didn't go out to get reupholstered, we don't have a reupholstered corner seat to go into the 460. And that seat against the toilet compartment is different in the 460 than the other two cars because they don't have toilet compartments! But soon we will replace these two seats as well and the 460 will have a full complement of newly redone seats.

Doesn't it look nice? I'm not sure whether the 460 will run on the 6th for opening day, but it should be running the following weekend for Bunny Trolley Hop..

In other news, the big project for the weekend was inspecting the 4391, with workers including Brian, Jeron, Will, Dan, Ashtin, and Joel (sorry if I missed anyone!). They found a resistor ribbon that had burned up and shorted to the adjacent ribbon, so those needed to be replaced. They were also working on getting the heat in the car working again. Rumors of air brake issues with this car have been greatly exaggerated. Greg and Nick were doing line work, including replacing a "No-Bo" trolley wire insulator on Station Track 2 that was "leaking" current. Joel and others were working on setting up more shelving and other improvements in the new shop extension, while Tim was hard at work on the 268, as usual

Robert Clemons Collection - Indiana Railroad

This is a collection of photographic prints from the collection of Robert Clemons, all donated by Thomas Clemons to the Illinois Railway Museum. Many thanks to Thomas and the Clemons family for their generous donation. All images are copyright Illinois Railway Museum. Images may not be reproduced or distributed without authorization.

These photos are of Indiana Railroad subjects, presented more-or-less in numerical order by car. EDIT: Many thanks to Art Peterson for sending in locations and additional info!

Indiana Railroad (IR) 55, location unknown

IR 55, location unknown but surely on a fan trip, given the photographers.

Interior of car 55, which was - and still is, today at the Seashore Trolley Museum - set up as a parlor car.

This view of car 58 at Bluffton is dated August 20, 1938, and noted as being a CERA trip.

This photo of car 58 looks like it's on a fan trip, too, so it's possible it may be the same trip. Art Peterson: Location is Springport.

IR 60, location unknown

Car 65, which would become the "mother car" of the nascent Illinois Electric Railway Museum some 13 years later, is shown leading cars 57 and 58 over the White River Bridge near Chesterfield, Indiana, on a May 19, 1940, fan trip promoted by the Indianapolis Railfans Club.

IR 68, location unknown

IR 81 in Yorktown, between Anderson and Muncie. The car's skirts are gone so it's probably near the end.

A three-car train of high-speeds in Columbus, Indiana.

High-speed 52 passes car 55, which presumably was on a fan trip, at Port, Indiana.

IR 375-377 were rebuilt from combines to coach-RPO cars in 1935 and were fan favorites. The location of this wintertime shot of IR 375 is unknown.

A truck under IR 375. This car exists today on static display in Scottsburg, but is on Bettendorfs.

This is a famous photo shoot from a fan trip; note the bridge lettered for Union Traction. Art Peterson: This bridge is over Falls Creek in Pendleton.

IR 376 enters street trackage (Art Peterson: this is in Pendleton). This car is preserved today at IRM, albeit in heavily modified condition as South Shore line car 1100.

IR 376 as seen out the window of another car. Art Peterson: I think the view of the 375-class car from another car is Burr Cut Siding and that view would be from the 1150 on the trip they ran with it on 1-1-41.

IR 376 is stopped in Yoder, between Fort Wayne and Bluffton. The Yoder depot is still there, as is the grain elevator in the background.

IR 377 is lit up under the Indianapolis Traction Terminal train shed with a high-speed in the background. This car, too, is preserved at IRM in highly modified condition as South Shore package trailer 504.

IR 442, pictured in New Castle, was built by Jewett in 1913 as Grand Rapids Holland & Chicago 20. It ran for a time on Michigan Railway as their number 112, then was sold to Union Traction in 1927 as car 442 "Eaton." It was rebuilt as a one-man car, with its original rear end turned into its front, around 1935.

IR 445, shown in Indianapolis, has an identical history to 442 except that it was GRH&C 23, MRy 115, and then UTC 445 "Daleville."

IR 458 is pulling a trailer (probably an ex-IPS car in the 301-303 series) on a fan trip in Columbus, Indiana, on August 21, 1938. (Other photos taken on this trip are dated August 1, 1938 - anyone know for sure?) This car was built by St. Louis in 1926 as Indiana Service Corp 379, part of the same order as the 375-377 series cars.

The same consist is shown in this photo (incorrectly labeled as the Ohio River Bridge - thanks to Art Peterson for noting this), August 21, 1938.

Amo, Indiana, is halfway between Indianapolis and Greencastle on the line to Terre Haute. An unknown car, possibly 457 or 458 but it's hard to tell, is stopped at the attractive Amo depot in this undated photo. The car in the foreground may be a portable substation. The depot building still stands today.

IR 1150 was a wrecker converted in 1934 from combine 443, the "Elwood." It had originally been built in 1913 by Jewett as GRH&C 21, later Michigan Railways 113, then back to GRH&C before becoming UTC 443 in 1927. Art Peterson: Location is Anderson.

This isn't an IR car, of course, though it would have encountered IR cars daily. It's an unidentified Indianapolis Railways car, a Peter Witt from the 101-190 series built by Brill in 1932-34. These were just about the most modern streetcars built before the advent of the streamliner and PCC era. This photo was taken after IR was gone, with the streetcar in its later red/white/black livery.

These last two photos are, of course, post-IR. They are dated February 9, 1962, and show the Indianapolis Traction Terminal train shed as it existed at that time, serving as a bus station.

The story goes that the train shed was dismantled and the pieces donated to the Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication, or IMOTAC, located in Forest Park in Noblesville. Some years later, the pieces were all sold for scrap.