Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Polishing

Randy Hicks, famous for his own IRM news website, was caught at the wire wheel cleaning up a hanger form CA&E 319

Trolley Base

Well, you cannot see it in this image but Dave Fullarton is working to bring some trolley bases back to life.  The eventual use is to see them mounted on the roof of our CTA 2000 series rapid transit cars.

Re Paint

Last year this car, CRT 1268, was debuting its new restoration.  Already, Tim Peters cannot leave it alone.  Here he is repainting or touching up the inevitable scuffs and bruises.

Roof Work

It was uncharacteristically warm yesterday and windy!!  But in the shelter of Barn 4 Tim Peters was again working to complete the roof of CRT 1797.  Two grab irons have been mounted and here, a copper flashing rain gutter is being added.

New Siding

George Clark has been painting new siding for LSE 810 as described in earlier BLOG posts.  Here we see the first coat of orange.

New Feeder

Despite high winds and overcast skies, Max Tyms was up in the air on the line truck.  He installed about 400-500 feet of heavy new feeder eastward from the end of Barn 4.

Get a Jump on Spring

Every spring we experience a rush and crush to inspect and maintain our electric cars.  It was pretty smart of Joel Ahrendt to begin work now on Illinois Terminal 415.

New Rope

Joel, Dan Fenlaciki, and Greg Kepka are installing a new rope on the west end of IT 415.

More Roof Work

Jeff Brady is up on the scaffold doing some very complicated woodwork on the Michigan Electric 28.  Tricky business to be sure, made more so as the new slats come down the side of the end roof.

Going Going Gone

Buzz Morisette sent this recent photo of our wood sided gondola, C&WI 1185.  Several years ago I presented a motion to de-accession this car as it was clearly beyond our resources to save.  This was resoundingly rejected by the membership saying this was too valuable a piece of history.  Apparently not too valuable, since not a single dollar of support came in the form of new donations.

Well, it appears mother nature has resolved the issue.  The car is in such poor condition I do not think any significant piece is intact enough to use as a pattern, assuming someone has the time and money to build a replica.  I say replica, since no one can argue that it can be restored.

If we were smart, we should write it off as a lost cause, a case of benign neglect, before someone gets hurt.  I think that it will be necessary to dismantle what is left where it sits, doubting that it can be coupled to a locomotive and moved without collapsing.

But maybe something good can come of this.  FIRST, there remain other wood bodied cars outdoors, rotting away, and needing donations to place them in the next Barn.  And SECOND, can we make a case that since this car has paid TRACK SPACE, can we transfer that paid up account to one of our newer acquisitions, like our MILW covered hopper, or six dome tank car?