Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here is an update submitted by Roger Smessaert.  It seems that the extent of the damage was far wider than we first noted, and there was additional storm related damage.

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Max T the IRM Electrical Czar called me tonight at 10pm from his motel in Dwight IL to give me a status report.

First, Max got the report that Tim Peters had checked voltage in barn 8 and found a nominal 600 VDC reading inside the barn (with the switch being blown open). Max felt that was alarming so he looked into it as soon as he could. The short story is.... yes the inside was alive at 600VDC. Max disconnected some tap wires and found the Track 82 NoBo section insulator had been punctured by lightning and was the source problem. To isolate the feed to the section insulator he removed the tip and tied the trolley wire back in the clear. If Track 82 is used you will have to hop the trolley wire past the insulator until it is fixed.

Max talked to Gerry Dettloff and they felt that a stinger could be used to liven any track needed to pull equipment in/out with caution of course.

Next the many transformer cutouts (fuses) were dealt with. Barn 6 & 7 are all closed and re-energized with service restored.

Barn 8 has several issues that require further repairs. Starting with the transformer bank, the lightning arrestor is shorted and needs to be replaced. The 3 phase transformer is burned out and requires being replaced. The transformer primary bushing was shattered (and scattered) by the lightning. The neutral conductor of the 3 phase service from the transformer to the lighting panel (via the service entrance cable) is annealed and requires replacement before service can be restored. The ground wire from the lighting panel to a driven ground will have to be replaced. It is also annealed and the diecast conduit connector to the panel board is burned.

See Jamie K's excellent selection of photos of the equipment damage at this link: http://www.irm.org/gallery/barn8damage-06232010 .

All in all a lot got done today. In addition to the above work on the barn outages. Max also restored the mainline signal system. A primary fuse on the mainline east of the sub was blown by the storm Saturday night. 65 amp fuse - possibly tree contact east of Karstens is the usual suspect.

And ALSO, the carline was reopened after the whacked steel pole on the S curve was straightened and anchored and the span wire re-attached.

Max reports he really enjoyed the day of troubleshooting the IRM multiple problems from the storm damage. He sure had a busy day and was very productive.  He worked until 6pm then drove to his motel in Dwight, IL to prepare for a new week on his recent "real job" at Ransom, IL.

Roger Smessaert -reporter

409 Signbox

John Faulhaber and Rich Witt make some fine adjustment cuts on the new 409 signbox sash, otherwise completed in the preceeding few weeks.

Caboose parts

Buzz Morissette is tinkering with some small trim and window sill parts for the MILW 01984 caboose project.

Battens

Summer employee Mark Osiecki is in the new shop addition space to stay out of the rain.  He is painting the new station battens produced in our woodshop.  Carl Ilwitzer was also engaged in a similar task at the other end of the room.

Unexpected Help

We got some unexpected volunteer help Wednesday morning.  Steve Binning of St. Louis, Eric Starr, and Marilyn Starr are stripping paint in the late afternoon on an interior panel removed from the Shaker Heights 63 PCC car.

I did not get pictures but thought this might merit as a news item.

Best guess, trying to reconstruct events, a squall line of thunderstorms came through the museum site about 10-11 last night.  It appears that the trolley wire near Barn 8 got a hit and the current traveled inside the building to our newly installed safety switch and disconnect.  It totally destroyed that, a pile of molten metal in the bottom of the charred case.

Then it blew a hole in the back of the case and blew a hole through the metal barn siding.  From there the metal siding conducted the strike to the corner trim (all fasteners at the joints burned), then to the door trim (some burning at the lower hinge) and into ground.

When it blew through the building wall some of the wood timber and framing caught fire but self extinguished.  Also puzzling is that both of the five bulb clusters indicating barn power is energized had exploded bulbs, or bulbs blown completely out of the sockets, and the fuses for those were burned.  Either the current got there from ionized air inside the cabinet or a second branch of the lightning jumped the outdoor section insulators to get inside.  Those are only designed to insulate against 600 volts, far below the potential of lightning, but we may never know.

So for now, no 600 volt service is possible to Barn 8 and cars inside are in effect stranded.  They might be able to be pulled out with a locomotive, or moved with a heavy stinger, but there is no other place to store them, and this cumbersome process would have to be reversed at night.

Damage maybe in excess of $2K-3K and a significant lead time if we are to order and replace the cabinet, cables, fuses, etc.

Bob Kutella

Today it was the 'Buzz Morisette Show' as he worked to remove the masks and taping on the new MILW heralds.

North side Starting

North Side Done

The above two images show the start of the removal process and the result.  There is still a lot of touch up to be done, but doesn't that look NICE?

South Side Removal

On to the south side for the start of tape removal.

The End

And we end the photo documentary as Buzz removes the last bit of mask from the second herald completed this day.