0 IRMA Update

IRMA (our Android smart phone app) has just been updated.  Several new articles have been added, and there are many more links to YouTube videos and pictures of equipment.  The campus map has been fixed so it's expandable on your phone.  Let us know if you have any problems with the latest version.

And yes, we know all you iPhone users are clamoring for IRMA.  That's the price we all pay for competing technologies.  Which will be the next to be tossed into history's dumpster, along with 8 track tapes and interurban electric lines?  I don't know, but we'll be publishing an iPhone version soon.  Remember, it's free, so you're bound to get your money's worth!

Detail: IRMA Update

0 IRMA On Stage

 We're cranking up the publicity machine for IRMA's debut.  She'll be the talk of the town, I hope.   Here Dave Diamond proudly shows us a sign that will be mounted at the entrance gate, near the ticket booths.  There will be others around the property, also.

 

On Thursday, I spent some time attaching the new roundels to various equipment signs already in place.  Dave suggested we use a special high strength double-sided tape.  It's what the CTA uses for applications like this, so as Dave says, if it's good enough for them it's good enough for us.  It's easy to apply and leaves no mess.

 Here are a couple of examples.

Well, that was fun and not difficult.  Now it's time to get back under the 36.  Rod ordered a crimp tube of the right size, and also provided me with the big crimping tool.  It was almost too big, actually, as here inside the contactor box there was hardly room for the long handles.  But I managed to crimp the cable together.  This one had just been cut in two when the system was being disassembled at Cleveland.

 The next thing to do was to put a length of heat-shrink tubing in place, heat it up, and then tape over it for good measure.  These motor cables are mostly 2/0, by the way, but some are 1/0 for whatever reason.

And after the other connections are made, the contactor looks like this.  I then managed to hoist the last one into position and connect it.  So all of the contactors in box #2 are complete.  This was the hardest part of the job, because there's so little room to work with under the car.  Two more go into box #3, which faces out, and then we'll be done.

In the evening Frank and I attended the memorial service for Jim Nauer in Marengo.  A large number of Museum members were there to share their condolences with the family.  Dan Buck read the service and gave the homily.  We will also be having a memorial on the property later this year, and we'll let you know when the arrangements have been made.

Detail: IRMA On Stage

0 Our Friend IRMA

IRMA has been updated with additional articles about various subjects.  There are a few minor enhancements: we rearranged the tabs on the "Browse" page to indicate what the articles are actually about.  For instance, under "Diesel Locomotives" the tabs list the titles: "Early Diesel Engines", "Streamliners", and so on.  And under Links, the links now have titles indicating what you're linking to, rather than just the URL

There's one known issue: under the "Visit" category we added a campus map, courtesy of Pete Schmidt.  But you can't zoom it up, so it's not very useful.  We have this figured out, though, and it'll be fixed in the next release.

Meanwhile we're hoping to have signs put up soon at the Museum to tell visitors about this new app.  Enjoy!

Detail: Our Friend IRMA

0 User's Guide to IRMA

We have developed a smart phone application - the IRM Tour Guide - which is now available for Android.   This IRM App, "IRMA" for short, can be downloaded for free by anyone, but is intended mostly to enhance the visitor experience. As you tour the Museum, your Android phone can display text with additional information about the artifacts, pictures, and links to videos of the equipment in operation.  IRMA will also give you important safety information and helpful hints on planning your visit.

Our intent is not to have information on every piece of equipment, but to tell stories about railroading in general using selected artifacts as examples.  Dining cars, private cars, labor relations, technological developments, and various aspects of preservation are a few of the types of subjects we want to cover.  More will be added as time permits.

If you have an Android phone you can try out IRMA at any time.  Go to the App Store and search for "IRM Tour Guide"; it's listed under the category Educational.  As you may know, once the app has been installed on your phone, it will be updated automatically whenever we upload a new version.  And once the Android version is finalized, we plan to port the app to iPhones.

Here are some current screen shots, and a brief user's guide if you're having trouble running the app.  IRMA starts with the "Browse" tab (L).  If you're touring the Museum, you will come across roundels like this one displaying a large number.

Press the "Search" tab at the top: this takes you (L) to the Search page.  If your phone doesn't have a hardware keyboard, you need to touch the input box to get the input keyboard (R) to pop up.  Type in the number (such as 65) and press the icon on the right.

You now get a page of information about the chosen topic, using the particular artifact you're standing next to as an example.  In this case, it's the founding of IRM itself.

If you press the "Photo" tab at the top, you get a nice picture (R) of the artifact, whenever possible of its use in service.

 

If you press the "Links" tab, you get one or more links to Internet files.  Some of them may be YouTube videos, such as this one. On your phone you would now be hearing the horn sounding as the car rushes past.

If you're just trying IRMA out at home, when the "Browse" page comes up, you can press any of the buttons to get a list of available articles.  For instance, if you press "Electric Cars" you get a drop-down list of all the various articles centered on electric cars.

Detail: User's Guide to IRMA

0 IRMA Update

We have been working on developing more content for IRMA, but the last couple of weeks have been busy for all of us.  In another month or so more time should be available.  And a major priority will be to add more pictures and links to the articles that are already there.  We wanted to wait until the project had official approval by the Board before going much further.

I'm told that when an iPhone version is available, it should be compatible with an iPad or smaller iPod.  This will be a little more expensive to develop, because the developer's license costs more.  When that happens, we may actually start begging for money, something we've never done before because this blog itself has never cost me one red cent.

Anyway, this has been an exciting project.  Frank and I have been discussing various ways of delivering more information to visitors for a long time, at least 15 years.  I remember visiting another museum where you could rent audio tape machines that provided narration as you toured the displays.  That was quite impressive, but....  The problem there was a huge upfront capital cost for all these tape machines, then somebody has to man a booth to rent them out, collect the money, clean them, try to fix problems, and so on.   So who's going to do that?  And then the hardware will either break down or become obsolete.  We couldn't see that ever working out very well at IRM.  We also talked about an 800 number you could dial from any cell phone, with extensions for the various recorded messages, but again that could be expensive, and somebody has to record everything.  So those ideas never went anywhere.  But with modern technology, the visitors already have their own hardware, the software costs less to install, and we happened to have a software expert who wanted to do this difficult task for his own professional development.  So Irma's time has finally arrived. 

Please let us know if you experience any problems with locating, downloading, or installing the app, or if any problems pop up during operation.  You can email me or leave a comment here.  Operators will be standing by.  Thanks!

Detail: IRMA Update

0 Smart Phone App Released!

We have developed a new smart phone application - the IRM Tour Guide - which is now available for Android.  It was presented to the Board last Saturday and approved.  The IRM App, "IRMA" for short, can be downloaded for free by anyone, but is intended mostly to enhance the visitor experience.  We will now want to have some signs installed to inform visitors of this new feature.  As you tour the Museum, your Android phone can display text with additional information about the artifacts, pictures, and links to videos of the equipment in operation.  IRMA will also give you important safety information and helpful hints on planning your visit. 

 

The computer code that actually runs the app was developed by my son-in-law, Jay Powell, and Frank and I are developing the content.  Our intent is not to have information on every piece of equipment, but to tell stories about railroading in general using selected pieces as examples.  Dining cars, private cars, labor relations, technological developments, and various aspects of preservation are a few of the types of subjects we want to cover.  More will be added as time permits.  Did we mention that it's free?

If you have an Android phone you can try out IRMA now.  Go to the App Store and search for "IRM Tour Guide"; it's listed under the category Educational.  As you may know, once the app has been installed on your phone, it will be updated automatically whenever we upload a new version.  And once the Android version is finalized, we plan to port the app to iPhones.

Detail: Smart Phone App Released!