0 Mark Your Calendar

 The CA&E wood cars were scheduled to run yesterday but didn't, due to the rain.  Today worked out much better.  And the air was pulsating with excitement over several upcoming events.

The 308 and 319 were in revenue service most of the day.  Jeff Obarek was the motorman, Sam Polonetzky the conductor, and I was a trainman.  We had a good crowd of visitors.  No crew pictures, however -- it was rather hot and humid, so we weren't quite dressed to the nines.  Jeff refused to put on his overalls, I refused to wear my jacket, and so on.  But otherwise a good time was had by all.  Operation was slightly different from usual because the Track Dept. are working on the mainline, so westbound trains had to come in on Station 2 to unload, then go west to transfer back to Station 1 to load for the next trip.  

Meanwhile David and Al were running the 3142.  You'll have to take my word for it, but here Al is running the car piloted by David.  And Frank got a lot done: he assembled a new grid box for the 309, and then installed and tested it with the help of Dan Fenlaciki, for which we are most grateful.  We were once again too busy for a round of "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" today, unfortunately.

You need to mark your calendar. Now.  Flip over to July -- ready?  First, of course, is the world's biggest Trolley Pageant on Saturday, July 6th.  We plan to have 60 cars running to celebrate IRM's 60th anniversary.  If that doesn't wear you out, the next day will be our commemoration of 50 years since the end of passenger service on the North Shore Line.  You won't want to miss it.  The North Shore was inconsiderate enough to abandon service in January, so we've moved it to July for your convenience.  You're welcome.

And then, on Sunday, July 14th, will be the Steam Department Benefit at the San Filippo Estate in Barrington.  If you haven't been there before, you're in for a real treat!  If you have been, this year promises to be even better than before.  I was talking to Jeff Calendine of the Steam Dept., brother of organist Dave Calendine, and he mentioned some aspects of this year's benefit you'll have to be there to appreciate!

Detail: Mark Your Calendar

0 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!

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

0 Museum Showcase

The Saturday of our Museum Showcase Weekend was a great success.  The weather was perfect, there were lots of visitors and members, and a good time was had by all. 

 Frank, David, and myself were the crew on the three-car wood train.  I had planned on just running two cars, but the boys talked me into it, and on most of our trips all three cars were nearly full, so it was certainly the right thing to do.

 I was too busy to take as many pictures as I'd like, as often happens.  Fortunately, our friend Chuck Amstein was there, and he'll be sending us plenty of better shots of everything.  It's an annual tradition.  The Museum's first car, Indiana RR #65, was operating.  It was temporarily disabled when the shoe became dislodged from the pole, but that was soon fixed by the Car Department's mobile SWAT team.

And the Zephyr was operating in revenue service, after the FRA inspection was completed.  Here it is alongside the 309; the next time we see it, it will be running on the CB&Q mainline to Galesburg!

The 1268, 1797, and 1808 were also operating.  I didn't get a chance to ride the wood L cars, but others did.

 After dark I served as conductor on the 65, until going dead.  Dan Fenlaciki was the motorman.  Night time operations are always an enjoyable experience, especially when I don't have to do all the work of putting everything away afterwards!

And we got to talk to lots of people, including a few old-time members we don't see very often.

Watch for more posts about this subject!


Frank adds...
 
As is often the case with Members Day, there were a lot of unusual things happening.   At left, some of the museum's oldest interurban equipment meets some of its newest at 50th Avenue.  It's always neat to operate into the 'L' station just for a change of pace!









Unfortunately this was the best photo I was able to get of CRT 1797's passenger service debut, though I'm certain others got better shots.  It operated along with trailer 1268 for a couple of trips in the late afternoon and another nighttime trip.  What a beauty!





Indiana Railroad 65 lost a trolley shoe out on the railroad so some Car Department workers had to go out with tools to rescue it; fortunately, like many traditional Midwestern interurbans, the car carries spare poles on its roof so they just needed to swap out the pole!  After it returned, volunteers rolled a baggage cart up to the car's baggage door to unload the tools and parts.  Here (L-R) Greg Kepka, Joe Stupar, Gwyn Stupar and Charlie Strong roll the cart up while Dan Fenlaciki in the car gets ready to hand out the tools.  Just like the good old days!




Late in the afternoon the wood cars got shunted into Station Track 2, which is rare mileage for these cars.  David is seen ready to board just before the cars headed west back out of Station Track 2 to return to the barn via Station Track 1.




Just before dinner the museum's oldest trolley bus - actually the oldest operating trolley bus in the country - made a couple of trips.  Chicago Surface Lines 84 is seen here spotted at Central & Depot alongside the UP turbine.




  
I wasn't able to ride the 1797 during the day but David and I were both among a gaggle of Car Department volunteers who managed to clamor aboard for a nighttime trip.  It's hard to believe the transformation this car has gone through in only two short years, courtesy of Tim Peters and Frank Kehoe.  It was a fun end to a fun day!

Detail: Museum Showcase

0 More Painting

Frank writes...

My primary focus on Sunday was painting more of the 205 orange.  I removed the side windows from the car and painted the entire side of the car from the belt rail up, the posts and letterboard.  With this done, the entire side of the car is now orange with the exception of the doors.  I also finished painting the retrievers with a first coat of orange and touched up a few spots on the car's ends and doors with primer.  Note that we still don't have the correct OB catchers for the car; we're using OB retrievers, which have the right look but are too large.  Know anywhere we could get a couple of correct-type catchers?

So regular readers of the blog know that there are never any photos of our regularly-operating CA&E wood cars posted on here - with so little coverage you may find yourself in danger of forgetting what they look like!  But the above photo is one I guarantee you haven't seen before.  It's the first time the 308 and 319 have ever been in Barn 9.  They were in operation in the morning but rain threatened and access to Barns 6, 7 and 8 was blocked by the Zephyr, which was undergoing welding work on the tail track.  So we stashed them in with the steam engines until the rain had passed.  I think that the only time any of the CA&E cars was ever in this barn was when the 321 was stored here briefly back when the building was still Barn 8.

There were other things happening too.  Ray Bellock (shown above with microphone) officially dedicated the Bellock Playground, which was designed and built by the Buildings & Grounds Department with funds generously donated by Ray.  And the famous "Santa Fe" sign from downtown Chicago arrived within the past week and was set next to the west wye, where our Warbonnet FP-45 was placed to be displayed alongside the new sign (below).

Detail: More Painting

0 Various Visitors

Today (Sunday) was another good day of operation at IRM. The weather was clear, so the wood cars were able to operate. We had a good sized crowd, although nobody had to be turned away, and all of the visitors seemed to have a good time, apart from the inescapable heat.

From right to left, Jeff Obarek was the motorman, Derek White the conductor, and I was a trainman. I'd say we make a pretty good team.

And we had several visitors from far away. The Track Dept. guys were hosting a man who works for Amtrak at Philadelphia. I should have gotten a picture and written down his name but didn't. And here we see Frank with our friend Charlie Lowe from the New York Museum of Transportation at Rush (near Rochester) and two other members.

So as usual, if you weren't there, you missed a lot. Now if you're less than six years old, or know somebody who is, you can make up for it by coming to see Thomas!

We welcome Al Reinschmidt to our hoity-toity list of bloggers. Al is recently retired from a career with the AAR, and has been helping us a great deal recently. But there's a danger here, and I need your help. If we're not careful, we may start seeing articles about buses on this blog. Be on the lookout!

Detail: Various Visitors

0 Electrifying Pageantry

Today was the annual IRM Trolley Pageant, and everything went very well in spite of the inclement heat. As one of the participants, I was unable to take many pictures, but I'm hoping I'll get some good ones submitted from other people. I don't yet know how many cars were operated for the pageant, but it's got to be over 30.

CA&E wood cars 308, 309, and 319 ran in the pageant, and we also provided revenue service before and after. Thanks to Randy Allegrezza and Ray Bellock who were the trainmen.

We were parked for a few minutes at the Springfield Ave. curve before the review started. The three-car train was popular with visitors.

And our friend Ted Miles from Rio Vista has been asking about the 460, so here are some pictures of it.

Frank and David were running the open car today, so they'll be posting separately. If you have some good pictures of the proceedings, send them to me to be posted. Thanks!

Frank adds...

 David and I were working on the Veracruz open car for the day.  We did a couple of trips before the Pageant then a few afterward as well.  As always, the open car was quite popular - especially on such a hot day!  At left, volunteers swarm over Sand Springs 68 and CRT 1797 at the west end of Barn 4 prior to the pageant getting both cars ready.  Today was the public debut of the 1797; Tim Peters and Frank Kehoe are nearly complete with the car's exterior restoration and are now concentrating on the interior.

At right, David at the controls of the open car at Electric Park while staging for the Pageant.  Behind us, bringing up the rear of the parade, was the 1797.

 And in front of us was the 68, preceded by a gaggle of Chicago streetcars.  At right, CRT 1797 rounds the curve at South Junction.  What a beauty!

The other debutante was the museum's pair of CTA 2000s, 2153-2154, shown at left at 50th Avenue following the Pageant.  These cars were recently made operational by a crew of volunteers led by David Fullarton.  At right, the CA&E woods are seen at the main depot before being put to bed for the day.

David adds....

I really do not have much to add, other than it was HOT at IRM on Saturday.  Many thanks to the hearty volunteers and visitors who braved the heat for the parade and other IRM activites.  During the parade, my wife Katy visited, along with our friends Crystal, Kyle and their daughter Paige.  They live in Plainfield, and came up to see me in the parade and ride along. 

Detail: Electrifying Pageantry