Arctic Circles

Frank writes…

The good news was that, for the first weekend in 2025, Happy Holiday Railway wasn’t impacted by snow. The bad news was that the high temperature was about 10 degrees both days this weekend. But the show went on, and the visitors I spoke with were in good spirits. I showed up in uniform ready to work as "streetcar line relief," i.e. giving the day's streetcar motorman an hour-long lunch break, but it turned out the regular motorman had to leave at 5pm. So, I ended up running the 3142 in circles from 3pm until it went back to the barn around 8:30pm. It was chilly, but still, it's hard not to like spending a day on the Surface Lines!

Here's the 3142 at Central Avenue, ready for passengers. There were two cars on the streetcar line, the 3142 and CA&E 431, and we ran a simpler-than-normal operation by virtue of not stopping at Electric Park or Springfield Avenue.

The platform heaters to the left and right of the motorman do work, as does the heat throughout the 3142, but the car's heat is a bit anemic. Still, it was a lot warmer inside the car than outside! As you can see, this car is fittingly equipped with a prominent aluminum pole, and it's IRM, so of course feats of strength and the airing of grievances are a given.

I had a few trips that were sparsely patronized, but then there were also trips where we were completely full and turning people away - generally those were departures from Depot Street right after the Santa train had pulled in.

Zach Ehlers took the above photo, of me running the 3142 along the streetcar line east of the ruling curve, and the below photo of the 431, while he was out turning on the Christmas lights. As it got dark, the big attraction became seeing all the nice light displays at the south end of the museum from the streetcar.

Here's the 431 at South Junction. Two weeks ago, service was held down by the 3142 and the 749, which was nice if for no other reason than you had the "red car" and the "green car." Very festive of us!

And here's the view out my window at the end of the night as the last Santa train of the evening pulled into the station around 7:45. The 431 was run all day by Gregg, with his conductor Dan visible there on the right.

So, what else was happening?

Mike S. has been hard at work on the air compressor wagon, AX545. The priming is done, at least as far as I can tell, and now he's applying a fresh coat of CSL work car green. It's looking great! I had hoped to finish the stencils for this thing, but a half-day stint in service put off those plans until next week.

Here's another view of the compressor wagon.

It's hard to tell, but the above view shows the front truck of NJT 4. The guys were able to finally extract the last two intransigent bolts from the front wheel and install the wide-tread wheel, so the car now has four wide-tread wheels on its left side. They want to wye the car, since there's a lot more space on its south side than its north side right now. In the meantime, they put it over the inspection pit and on Sunday started doing some inspecting. The news was not good: the MG set and the first traction motor they meggered are both grounded. Regardless of the condition of the other motors and miscellaneous equipment, though, we plan to put the other four wide-tread wheels on the car so it can be towed around. Watch for news on that in the near future.

This is not the same side of the 1268 I photographed last weekend; a week ago, this side of the car was down to the sub-siding! But Tim has been making progress at his usual breakneck pace, and both sides of the car now have a complete set of brand-new tongue-and-groove siding installed.

And finally, these last two photos were sent in by Brian LaKemper, showing those grid box covers that he and Zach were working on lettering a few weeks ago. They're finished and now installed in the Class B, where they guard against accidental contact with the grid boxes. Brian pointed out that now all the rest of the interior equipment suddenly looks shabby by comparison!

Of course, there were other guys out. Greg, Brian, and Jimmy were working on the aforementioned testing of NJT 4's electrical equipment. Richard was running the "food donation bus" at the museum entrance and Joel and Good Nick spent much of their time helping with various event functions to help HHR run smoothly. Many thanks to all the volunteers who came out in the extreme cold to make it all happen!

Nothing Could Be Planer

 Buzz reports:

Our Yates B-244 planer, a newer wood shop machine from 1960, has worn out lift screws and nuts. With no spares around, Eric H. from the Steam Shop has volunteered to machine new parts from scratch.  (Ed.: That's Eric Hoyem.)

Here he is removing the old screws.

It’s nice to have resources like Eric to keep us going.

(Ed.: And I might add that this planer is absolutely essential to serious woodworking!)

Invest in Main Street

As the fiscal year draws to a close, let us encourage you to invest in the Main Street Visitor Center!  It's certainly the biggest, most ambitious project IRM has ever undertaken, and can be a landmark in the railway preservation field.  Check out the details on the Museum website.  This will become a reality if everyone helps!  Of course, your contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.  

OK, I admit it might not turn out to be quite as impressive as this view of Decatur, but it will have a double-track car line with interurban and city service!  And sometimes even IT cars.  What more could you want?  All aboard!

Summer Sleet Scrapers?

One of the more distinctive things about the CA&E was the massive design of the third-rail beams, which included a large air-powered sleet scraper mechanism.  Of course, in preservation nobody is running cars on third rail, and we would avoid operating in sleet conditions, but the cars just wouldn't look right without this equipment.

20 c. 1934

431 - Today

Pictures of cars in service show that sometimes the cars had no sleet scrapers.  And we have concluded after examination that all of the wooden beams had holes and slots where the scraper cylinders were attached, and that during the summer the scrapers would be removed as needed and repaired in the shop.  

36 - 1937

309 c. 1934 

The alternate theory is that there were "summer beams" that had third rail shoes, of course, but no provision for sleet scrapers.  And the entire beams would be changed out as necessary.  I have now abandoned this theory -- Frank talked me out of it -- but I'd be glad to hear from anyone who wants to support it.

The serious, practical reason for arguing is this: we'll need to make a number of new wooden beams to equip all of our steel cars, and we don't have enough hardware, particularly the scrapers.  One or two of the steels can be authentically restored without scrapers, since we generally run only during the summer.  The question is whether we still need to drill holes and provide slots in the beams.

You've heard of "rivet counters", of course.  We'll see you and raise!

Mo' Snow

Frank writes...

The big news Sunday was, of course, Happy Holiday Railway, which ran on schedule despite another 5" of snow having fallen overnight. A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers who spent the morning clearing snow! I didn't arrive until late in the afternoon, but managed to snap some photos of progress around the Electric Car Shop.

Above, Michigan 28 is currently the subject of exterior as well as interior work, as the front end of the car appears to be getting repainted orange. Just a year ago this kind of work would have been impossible in the cold weather, but the heated Barn 4 shop area opens up all kind of possibilities.

Two tracks over, the shop guys were able to complete installation of two more wide-tread wheels on NJT 4. These are the two wheels on the left side of the rear truck. Three down, five to go! Progress on extracting the last two intransigent bolts on the #1 axle, left side, was also made, though the bolts aren't out yet.

And smack in between the 4 and the 28, Tim was hard at work on the 1268. One side of the car, as shown, now has all new tongue-and-groove siding, while the other side of the car has all sub-siding repairs done and looks ready for new T&G siding of its own.

Here's the "third rail beam cart," with the two beams my father has completed so far as well as the hardware for the next two, barely visible between the two finished beams. This set of four beams will go onto the 460.

More progress was made during the week by Mike S. on our air compressor wagon, AX545. The wheels and other "underbody" areas were primed.

As for me, I spent some time taking measurements for an upcoming project, and then spent a while longer sand-blasting and priming more parts for a spare grid box. This work is time-consuming, but that's the point of having it done in advance: if we need to rebuild a grid box in short order, which periodically happens, it's nice to have this part of the work already complete.

Green Bay Car Report

Chicago sports fans surely want to send Green Bay packing this weekend, but here in the Electric Car Shop we have our own little green and yellow piece of Wisconsin, Green Bay & Western steam railroad coach 109 - and our intrepid cub reporter Gregg Wolfersheim is on the sidelines with the latest. Gregg, over to you!

Another step in creating an end beam for the Green Bay car is pictured here. Some relief holes were bored into the back and bottom of the oak. These are where rivet heads will have room to reside in.

The south side of the car is finally in green. Only the trim needs to be added over the arched windows.

The north side was painted around the window openings and along the sill. Soon, most of the finished sash will be put back in place.

The east end was sanded some more, and then painting commenced.

The upper part of the end is now covered.

And, now the lower area is done.

Another Busy Wednesday

The car shop was a beehive of activity on Wednesday.  Probably the most active project was the Michigan Electric 28.  Here Pete is repainting the door between the baggage and passenger compartments.

Norm, Fritz, and Phil were installing new ceiling panels in the baggage compartment:

I started on the next third-rail beam for the 460.  Two new pieces of maple were jointed and so forth, and the slot for the sleet scraper was cut in.

And then they were glued and clamped.

Among other projects, some of the Freight Dept. guys were working on wood for the tool car.

L to R: Bill, Victor, and Bob (I believe)

Buzz showed a replacement knob for the stove in the Milwaukee Road caboose he's working on.

Steve Iversen was visiting from Oklahoma again, and here he's fighting with obstreperous PCC brake parts.  I'm not sure who's winning.

Tim (not shown) was hard at work under the 1268, rebuilding the end of the car.

And here Norm takes a break from the 28 to help:

And finally, Jon shows off a new axe he bought for the tool box in the 65, which hasn't had its full complement of wrecking tools for a long time.  It needed to have the handle shortened and trimmed, but will help make the car more complete.

The New-Fallen Snow

Frank writes...

I was out at IRM again on Sunday, this time without the rest of the family, but something seemed a little different... oh, that's right, it's the 10" of snow on the ground that fell over the course of the day Saturday. This caused the cancellation of the day's Happy Holiday Railway operations, but our volunteers were out by 8am Sunday shoveling and snow-blowing, and all Sunday trains ran as planned. The guys even cleared out the Barn 7 doors so the 3142 and 749 could go into streetcar service.

I arrived just in time to run the 3142 for a few laps while the regular motorman, Jeff, took a well-deserved mid-afternoon lunch break.

After that, it was back to the car shop. A huge thank you goes out to Richard, who got the pattern for our first reproduction third rail beam casting ready. I worked for a little while on cleaning it up so it's ready to go to the foundry.

This is the piece that bolts to the underside of the third rail beam. Holes will be drilled out so that the shoe can hang from this using links. We are getting seven of these cast because that's how many we will need in order to make the rest of our fleet complete.

Our old friend Steve was visiting from Oklahoma, and he spent the better part of the day putting a coat of primer on our CSL air compressor wagon, AX545. Above is how it looked when I arrived...

...and here's how it looked when I left. Pretty spiffy! After priming is complete, the next step, of course, is a coat of CSL work car green.

Jimmy and Greg made more progress on NJT 4. The Allen bit we ordered came in, so they were able to remove both wheels from the left side of the rear truck. Here, Jimmy is removing one of those Allen bolts. Both of these wheels need a bit of work before the new, wide-tread wheels can go on - one has a bracket that will get installed before the new wheel makes access difficult, while the other wheel had a stud that loosened and came out, so that will need to be reinstalled. We also came up with a plan for removing the frozen bolts from the #1 left wheel. It's coming along!

Pretty much the whole car shop crew spent the morning clearing snow, but they were up to various tasks in the afternoon. Richard manned the "food bus," parked inside the entrance to accept donations of food for the Marengo food pantry. Greg and Good Nick worked on assembling a good set of batteries for the CTA 2200s while Joel worked on various shop and equipment improvements and cleanups.

Thinking of getting into the "Giving Tuesday" action? Consider the IRM Visitor Center! The transformational impact of this structure is impossible to overstate, and with everyone pitching in, it will happen sooner rather than later. Thank you!

A Trip on the Happy Holiday Railway

Frank writes...

I snagged tickets a while back to take my wife and daughter to HHR on opening day, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely, you won't be surprised to know.

Above is the impressive HHR train, consisting of a six-car bi-level set in real push-pull operation with C&NW 411 on the west end. The operation is a bit different than typical summertime service. The train departs westbound, goes to Jefferson Street, and then returns east via Station Track 2. If there are any passengers who just missed their train (and there usually are), the train makes a quick stop to board them before proceeding east to Kishwaukee Grove and then returning to the depot. To avoid having to clear switches, the train holds the main at Johnson and Schmidt Sidings. We had a great time aboard the train, and kudos go to Santa and the elves, all of whom were in great spirits.

Before our trip, we toured the Model Railroad Exhibit and the new "Jingle Junction" heated tent where Mrs. Claus was welcoming kids and Bob Opal was playing festive tunes on the piano. Of course we also went through Barn 6, which Jim Ward has decorated with an incredible 800-foot illuminated pathway said to contain over 100,000 lights. The above photo doesn't do it justice, but it does include the 319, which is wintering in Barn 6 for a change.

As soon as our Santa train trip ended, before we were even off the platform, the fireworks show began. Here's the view of the 749, one of the two "streetcars" in service, stopped at Depot Street with a burst visible in the background.

We viewed most of the fireworks show from the lawn behind the depot. As with last year, it was a really impressive display! The fireworks show is only this first weekend. Unfortunately, HHR has been cancelled for tomorrow (Saturday) due to the dire weather forecasts, but additional trips have been added on December 19th and on Saturdays in December to compensate. Make sure to tell your friends to get their tickets now!