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Monday, June 29. 2009
The Illinois Railway Museum is presenting a new and improved trolley pageant for 2009. The pageant has moved from the slow and congested street car line to the open and photogenic mainline area. This year the pageant allows the Interurban to pose along side a traditional mid-western landscape. Equipment that cannot negotiate tight curvatures of the street car line, have a chance to participate in this years pageant. Electric Locomotives will be leading realistic freight trains of their time along with rolling stock sensitive to each background. The rare appearance of pantograph equipment such as the Illinois Central Electric MU "wicker baskets" and South Shore Line Interurban representing the south side of Chicago and Northwestern Indiana. Street cars line up as they did in down town Chicago and the Rapid transit fleet performs with quick de-acceleration and fast acceleration. The past pageant offered each piece of equipment to review while standing still, this year a number of pieces are selected to review during a run by. Certain trains that have been selected to run by will set the scene of the electric era that many have never had the chance to experience. This year on the 4th of July at IRM the videos come to life, the pictures come to life and memories along with stories are seen. Please support the Trolley Pageant and join us at the Illinois Railway Museum for a step back in time. Other attractions - Trolley Buses operate, Street Car Service and Mainline Electric and Diesel Trains operate, also enjoy the West End Jazz Band playing live. Additional information can be found on the IRM website at www.irm.org.
The 2009 4th of July Trolley Pageant will be different than anything you have seen at IRM. It will be held on the main line and station tracks in front of the depot, much like Diesel Days. You'll see rarely seen pantagraph equipment running and electric locomotives doing actual work pulling freight trains. Trolley busses and streetcars will continue running during the pageant. Equipment scheduled to operate (subject to mechanical condition):
Sunday, June 28. 2009
This weekend was another very productive one for us. Jerry and I spent Saturday doing more cleaning and organizing. Dave Diamond was able to get us a good deal on a couple fireproof cabinets for storing paint, etc. One for the Hoffman Garage and one for the Andersen Garage. Thanks Dave! We also got the majority of the motor bus collection outside for a couple days and Jerry pressure washed the floor of the Hoffman Garage. Thanks again to Dave for lending us the power washer.
On Sunday Max Tyms was able to repair the lightning damaged section for trolley bus overhead – a BIG thanks to Max for taking care of this right away!! We wasted no time after his repairs were completed and brought out our oldest coach (CSL Brill-American 84) for a little exercise and our newest (Seattle MAN 4020) to provide some unscheduled service for our visitors. At 4:15 we received a call from our White Bros. trucker Mel, who was transporting the first of the coaches that we are getting from the OERM collection – Seattle Twin 633. We went to the back gate, let him in, and directed him to the Andersen Garage. There we proceeded to unload the coach. As always, Mel delivered the goods undamaged – thanks Mel!
As with any new arrival, it immediately saw attention. Having lived out in the California desert for 25 years, you can imagine the spider webs, dust, dirt, dust, grime, and did I mention dust? Jerry and Richard went to work inspecting, adjusting, cleaning – basically giving the coach a good going over. By 9:15pm, a short 5 hours after its arrival, we were able to run the coach into the Andersen Garage under its own power!!! There are still some issues that will keep it out of the operating fleet for a little while, bad trolley bases, some low-voltage issues, and it DEFINITELY needs a thorough cleaning, but we will be doing our best to get our newest acquisition out onto Central Avenue for everyone to enjoy.
Coming up Saturday, we plan on operating Chicago Marmon 9553 as supplemental service while the trolley pageant is taking place on the main line. We are looking forward to a good show from the Car Department and love the “can do” attitude that we see over there lately. Keep it up guys!!!!
Thursday, June 25. 2009
On Saturday Victor Humphreys painted the final color coat on much of the north side of the car, and we began the research and tracing of what remained of the car end lettering. In the shop, new siding which had been milled, received a coat of prime paint. And by Sunday night, the re-siding of the south side had made it nearly to the door. Wow! If anyone is interested in helping, now that summer weather is here, we are ready to climb on top of the roof and start cleaning to ready it for priming and painting. Yesterday it was about 95 F in the shade, and there was NO shade!
Monday, June 22. 2009
The heat this weekend reminded me just how much I like early spring and
late fall... anything over 65 degrees is just too hot. But the high
humidity Saturday didn't stop us from working. The gang this weekend
was Tom H, Steph J, Steve L, myself and special guests JD Marzec, Greg
Frech both from the steam shop and John from the carshop who was
attending for regular membership. As advertised, most of us arrived on
time and prepped for a trip to Four Mile Siding to replace the
switchpoint on the turnout side of the new power switch. We split into
two groups to start out. Steve, Steph and John got the J580 A8
Motorcar, Welding cart and hydraulic cart switched out of Barn 2 while
Tom, JD and Greg got the Model 50 Burro, CNW flat and EJ&E 529
caboose together in Yard 11. I ran around gathering fuel, water and
ice and got the forklift out to load the new switch point onto the
flatcar.
We made it out to Four Mile and were joined by Julie
J and Bob O from the signal dept to replace the point. We made quick
work out of the job and had the new rods on, including the 'new' #2 rod
within an hour. It seems this point is indeed correct and will work
fine. We made the slow trek back to the property a bit after 1PM and
had everything put away around 2PM. I'm glad to report that all of our
machines worked very well and the only thing that required a jump start
was the forklift...sigh
The rest of the day we spent mostly in
Yard 11 cleaning off the C&NW flatcar and continuing to load our
scrap gondola. The old switchpoint was set up near B&G for
Volkmann. JD was able to cut frog bolts with our oxy/ acetelyne torch
making quick work out of that. Everyone did a very good job and I
appreciate all of the help. I think everyone had an enjoyable day but
I've been known to be wrong..
Sunday was only slightly lower
key. Tom, Steph and I made up the Track Dept while Steve L spent the
day helping the Electric car shop in Barn 4. The goal was to cut brush
near Karsten's crossing with the Amtrak brushcutter before operations
got underway. Tom and Steph arrived on time and got the machine out
and on the rail early. After the Electric car shop finished testing of
the overhead on the main it was our turn to get on the line. I showed
up just as they were finishing up the first section of cutting and just
as the machine developed an air leak... An old air line under the
machine came loose from its fitting which put us out of service on the
main until we could come up with a fix. An hour or so later, after
numerous trips to the property and failed attempts at a repair we ended
up changing the entire hose. We got ourselves back in service and
cleared the mainline for revenue service shortly after. There is still
a little bit of cutting left to do near Karsten's but the worst area
has been taken care of. It was a warm weekend and proved how important
it is to carry water with us on the line. We have a cooler in Barn 2,
lets remember to keep it full.
In the next few weeks we will
need to take care of some housekeeping chores. The fire inspector will
be coming soon and we have a list of things to clean up ASAP. All of
the plastic hanging from the ceiling in Tk24 will need to come down and
the aisles need to be clear.
Until next time...
Adam Robillard
Roadmaster
lzeje657@msn.com
Sunday, June 21. 2009
Ah the best laid plans...We were planning on operating Chicago Marmon 9553 for Chicago Day and were right on track until Friday morning. That's when nature decided to throw a monkey wrench into the works. Lightning struck the trolley bus overhead right in front of the Diner. It burned up a hanger and a support wire. Max Tyms was right there to get the wire temporarily back into place, and of course, put the trolley bus line out of service. He and Jerry Saunders worked on the permanent fix Friday, getting it partially done. We still needed another part to finish the job. Knowing Glen Andersen probably had the foresight to squirrel some away for future use, Jerry, Max, Charlie Strong and I searched all our storage locations, finally coming up with the necessary part around lunch time (thank God for Glen!). Max then cleaned, re-tapped and painted it, making it look like new. Later in the afternoon Max positioned the new bucket truck and got all the necessary tools and span wire in place to make the fix. As he started to raise the boom, the truck burst a hydraulic hose. That put an end to our hope of getting in a few runs late in the day for all the CTA guys that were there for Chicago Day. Hopefully Dave Diamond and his crew will be able to fix the truck and Max will be able to make the repair so we can provide service on our next scheduled day, July 4th. Thanks to everyone who jumped into this project on a moment's notice. We really appreciate the support.
Thursday, June 18. 2009
Work continues apace on the south side. Here you can see more of the deteriorated siding removed and more NEW stock in the process of installation. Today's crew included Kirk Warner on the scaffold and Victor Humphreys on the ground. They really accomplished a LOT.
Wednesday, June 17. 2009
Volunteers of the Illinois Railway Museum's Internal Combustion Department have been working for a number of years to acquire an EMD SD40-2 Diesel-Electric locomotive. Just recently the Union Pacific Railroad has generously donated the UP 3028, originally Chicago and North Western 6847. 3028 is still in C&NW green and yellow paint and was patched to UP 3028 in February 2003. 3028 was retired in December 2008. There were almost 4,000 SD40-2 locomotives built. The 3028 was built in March 1974, EMD builders number 74609-32, and was part of a 50 unit order. The C&NW owned a total of 135 SD40-2 locomotives. The SD40-2 is 68ft-10in long and weighs 368,000lbs, and rides on EMD HT-C trucks. IRM is soliciting donations to pay for track space for the 3028. At 68'-10", the cost will be $5,162. Track space is a one time charge that every piece of equipment incurs, it is designed to pay for the track that the unit is stored upon. Donations can be made via the IRM online store at this link.
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Comments
Sun, 05-19-2013 22:13
Hello again. I had an idea that was (somewhat rudely, mid-sentence) dismissed in talking to a museum volunteer a few years back, but here it goes [...]
Thu, 05-16-2013 21:52
Looking good Bob! I hope to come out soon once I'm done with school.
Wed, 05-15-2013 21:28
I was not around at the time. General discussion suggests that it was "pretty marginal" in a number of areas. Nigel
Mon, 05-13-2013 11:08
"THUMBS UP!"
Fri, 05-10-2013 02:15
No, it will not be necessary to hold any of the work waiting for the plow to be turned, end for end. Weather will be the major factor, but there will [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 19:54
The CGW X-38 plow is really coming to life. Bob Kutella and Vic and crew need to be very proud of your collective efforts. I am very appreciative of [...]
Thu, 05-09-2013 15:20
The snowplow looks great! Are you going to apply the door and upper windows befor it is turned to continue work?
Thu, 05-09-2013 09:09
Max, Is there any progress to report yet, in regards to the installation of the poles and overhead wires? Have a good day, sir.
Wed, 05-08-2013 18:40
Thanks for the update! I still don't understand why Commonwealth #5 was removed from service. Do you know why?
Tue, 05-07-2013 09:28
Mr. Kolanowski.....I was just wondering if the Spaulding webcam will be up and running soon for us stay-at-homes. Thanks!2FP
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:04
Max, Has work begun yet on the construction phase of erecting the poles and putting up the wire? Wish I could be there to watch it happen.
Mon, 05-06-2013 23:02
Keep up the good work, Bob. Wish I could be there to help!!!!!!!