Illinois Railway Museum Blog

First, you will look at the title and say "What is that?"  Well, TMS is shorthand for TWO MILWAUKEE STREETCARS.  Those of you that are IRM members should by now have received the latest Rail & Wire and seen the centerfold in COLOR.  Nice job from the Editors!

For those that read here and are not members, we still need your help.  We have two trolley cars that once ran in Milwaukee and which have had a LOT of work done over the years to cosmetically put them in top shape.  They are the TMER&T 972 and the CNS&M 354.  Both of those cars originally ran on St Louis EIB trucks, although the ones under 354 were incomplete.

Decades ago the decision was made to borrow those same design trucks from our second Milwaukee streetcar, the 966, and use them for the 354.

Photo: Railroad Avenue Enterprises

In this image we see the 966 in service in Milwaukee.

Tom Sharratt Photo

And in this image the 354 sitting at Union with those same trucks underneath it.  This particular shot did not make the cut in the newsletter article.

In the early days both of these cars ran in service on our railroad but as the physical plant grew we standardized track geometry to match the larger portion of our collection with AAR full profile treads and flanges.  This gives us the freedom to run most of our large interurbans, diesel trains, steam trains, passenger cars, and freight cars almost interchangably.

But these trucks from Milwaukee have some subtleties which cause problems running through switches and over specialwork, so the two cars have largely been sidelined.  We are well into a lot of the engineering work and are talking to vendors with a solution in mind.

If successful, it will be less costly and simpler than full wheel replacement - which we have done on a lot of the Chicago Surface Lines equipment.  This is where you all can help.

We need donations (restricted of course) to the fund RTMS and we believe we have a realistic estimate (plus or minus) and the goal is achievable.  So, with your help the next steps should be undertaken this year - as soon as final quotes are in from the vendors, and your money is on hand.  This is the real deal, and your donations will MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

BUT WAIT!!!  Every one of your dollars will go TWICE as far.  Sponsors of the project have committed funds in the form of a matching pledge, to add one dollar to EVERY one of your dollars.  That is better than the late night TV commercials since you pay no shipping and handling and the fund will grow more quickly.

I will try to keep you updated with posts on this, progress made, both good news and those pesky surprises, and have created a new BLOG category titled Two Milwaukee Streetcars. 

For those of you not familiar with our Blogs, go to the Categories on the right hand side.  If there is a plus in the small square box to the left of the root category name, click on that to expand the main category.  The root category for these entries is Electric Car Department.  Scroll down to the specific topic and click on that.  It will act as a filter to only show those posts in THAT category.  So if you miss checking in for a few days, you can streamline your display and not miss anything.