Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Careful Fitting

Tim Peters is fitting some replacement wood blocks and pieces to CRT 1797.  This is a powered wood L car from Chicago that is occupying most of Tim's time.

Nosing Around

Eric Lorenz is trimming some new rubber nosing sections that are destined for the new doors on CTS 4223.

Chapter Two

Again, Victor Humphreys pitched in to help me along with the electrical work on the Sand Springs 68.  Faithful readers of these entries will remember last Wednesday that we got the first of the interior lighting circuits operational for the first time in 55 years.  By noon Saturday, the second circuit worked and is shown here from the car exterior, brightly lit.

WOW

In the afternoon, we tackled the third and final circuit.  It needed a little fiddling, but in the end all the lighting now works on 600 volts DC feed, as god has intended it.  Joel Arendt came into the car to check on our work.

Rats Nest

Those that have ridden the 68 since it first ran five years ago, may recall seeing a collection of temporary wires and jumpers running in the car.  Their purpose was to feed ordinary 120 volt AC into some of the lighting circuits, with them isolated from the rest of the car, and thus they could be plugged in when the car was stationary to provide working lights.  All of that is now a thing of the past, the car interior much more orderly.  This image shows SOME of the old and temporary wiring that has been removed.