Illinois Railway Museum Blog

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.