Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here’s a synopsis of what has been taking place in the Trolley Bus Department over the last several weeks.  Yesterday Wally Unglaub spent the entire morning tearing apart groups, overhead special work, and other parts for easier storage (preparing for the arrival of the Edmonton coach).  Bob Bourne came in from Iowa and operated Chicago Marmon 9553 in the afternoon with Wally riding in back for wye-ing.  We are planning on running that coach again for Chicago Day in 2 weeks.  While that was going on, we were visited by (Regular Member #1) Charlie King, which spurred Richard Schauer and Jerry Saunders to drill and mount brand new trolley boards on the CSL 84 and reconnected the trolley poles/bases.  The newly refurbished air compressor came back to life and sounded great!  We are working on getting some wheel studs to reattach the curbside rear wheels in order to get it rolling again.

In previous weeks, Richard Schauer and I have been going through our stored parts, looking for where we can consolidate and rearrange.  We then bring them to Wally who (carefully) tears them apart, making them easier to store.  Howard Geier spent Memorial Day weekend working on the Curbliner (Des Moines), most notably getting the temporary back doors ready for glass installation.  We have also dedicated a couple weekends toward getting the New York subway cars closer than ever to being added to the operating fleet.  Recent steps forward were attaching retrievers for both trolley poles, and doing a thorough and much needed cleaning of the interior.  There is a little more cleaning left to do as well as a few more loose ends to tie up.  Look for them in the Trolley Pageant next month and in service, dare I say, by the end of the season???  (Reminder:  These cars are still carrying a debt.  If you can, please consider a contribution to the "NY Subway Cars" fund.  We would love to get them a decent coat of paint.)

Sorry I haven’t taken pictures for a while.  I’ll try and get some for the next entry.