Entries by Joel Ahrendt

Business was back to usual this weekend; and the weather was pretty good. The biggest thing that was happening was the preparation of all the Chicago Streetcars for the Chicago weekend. As some of you might know, we are approaching the 50th anniversary of the abandonment of Streetcar service in Chicago. That was this month 50 Years ago! We will be recognizing that event next weekend during Chicago Days. You are all invited to come out for this event. An able crew of the Car Dept. Volunteers have cleaned and prepped all of the Chicago cars.

Other work around the shop:
-CSL 144 received it's annual inspection for it's participation in Chicago Weekend and the other few days this car runs during the year.

-Our 4000's had some work done on them with replacing some worn out parts, and repainting other parts to go back into the cars.

-CTA 1268 received some work on the end. This is an ongoing project to replace wood that is more Swiss cheese than wood. It takes some time, but this has been advancing along.

-The glazing on S105's windows is complete. Next is the first coat of paint on all the windows before the second goes on.

-Interior painting on CNS&M 749 continued over the weekend.

-The IT 101 received some work on the second set of entrance doors that have been remade. The first set were finished and installed two years ago and the plywood filler doors were moved to the other side of the car so that the originals on that side could be removed and reworked. The replacement doors need to be fitted and machined a little then the glass, hinges, etc installed, and paint applied before they can too be installed back on the car!

This past weekend was a little slower than the other weekends, though that was due to the weather more than anything. IT 415 had a broken controller top on the #2 end repaired.

While the one subway car that received the new trucks the other weekend was over the pit for some work.

Work continued on the Cleveland PCC, and on the Baldy. It is a long and tedious process sometimes, of course more volunteers would speed some of the work along.

Later in the afternoon the other NYC subway car received it's new trucks. The process went a little smoother, having already had the practice on the previous one.

Sunday brought a whole different picture in the morning at least. NSL 749 went over the pit for some work before we had three waves of heavy rain come racing through. By 12:30, the rain had mostly stopped and the rest of the day was clear. Work also progressed on the CTA S105 engine, and the Michigan car. (see above note.)

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

The weekend again had a flurry of activity. CTA 4391 had its inspection completed and was released for service.

IT 415 had a journal bearing (Brass) replaced. It seems that the Lubricating pads (Sheep) are getting to the end of their useful life and will all have to be replaced as soon as new ones can be obtained!

The Sand Springs 68 made three trips around the car line for equipment testing & Ect. It is one of the cars that are being prepared for the annual Trolley Pageant on July 4th. There are plenty of cars that still have to be looked over before that event.

Truck replacement on one of the two New York Subway cars was done over the weekend as well. For anyone that hasn't seen that done before, it was a very exciting thing to see. (As much as I could see going around it every 15 minutes). They jacked up the car, slipped out the old wheel set, and slipped in the new one.

The wood for the Charles City Western 300 engine is being prepared for the deck around the hoods.

Three windows for the CTA S105 are in their final coat of paint with the rest of the windows following along.

Work on the Michigan 28’s roof continues. Installation of all new tack molding was nearly complete at the end of the day Sunday.

New ballasts were installed in 4 of our high output overhead work lights! Charlie Strong of the Car Dept. skillfully rehung the Fixtures and thanks to his help, for the first time in many months, all of them are is service again!

CTA 22&41 had some interior lighting repairs made and an a height adjustment made to one of the Pilots. They found out that the Pilot was brushing some of the newly spread ballast.

The work on the "Baldy" CTA 4146 continues as well.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

It was a holiday weekend, so there was lots of activity in the Car Dept.. The biggest news is that a rebuilt motor has been put back in the IT 415. A full annual service inspection was also performed on the car by a host of Car Dept. personnel! It was tested and released for regular service.

The CTA 4391 (The Green Hornet) was brought over to the pit on Monday and it's annual inspection was started.

Work was done on the CTA S105 engine's windows, with the first coat of yellow paint going on one of the motorman's window.

There was a moment of silence at 3:00 pm on Monday with one of the members of the West End Jazz Band playing taps at the flagpole. This was a particularly moving event.

There are some corrections to last weeks report!
Not all inspections that were mentioned last week were for Regular Revenue Service Cars and that report should not be taken to mean that these other cars are now ready for, or released to, that type of service! The inspection work that was done to some of our work equipment was of a limited nature based on the annual usage of this equipment and the fact that it is mostly yard work that this equipment is used for! In addition there are Regular Revenue Service Cars that still need to complete annual inspections, but work will continue at a fast but safe pace to get this done!

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

It's that time again to do a weekend update from the Electric Car Shop. I was not out two weekends ago, but I do know that there were the tours of the shop. As you will read in the Hicks Blog, CA&E 308 got it's inspection.

Jumping forward to the weekend just past (17 - 18). There was lots of activity over this weekend. Commonwealth Edison 4 was brought over to be serviced and inspected; as well as, CTA 41 and 22 on Saturday. That brings a total of 4 "L" cars released to service, two 4000's and the two singles.

Sunday brought the inspections of the Joy 2; CA&E 431; and IT 101. The Joy engine was serviced in the morning, finishing up by noon. Both the 431 and 101 were over next. They were able to finish the inspection on both of these two rare running cars. The 431 will be in operation Memorial Day weekend, as well as the 308.

Other work around the shop over the weekend included continued work on the metal of the PCC car in Barn 4 and roof work on the tack molding on the Michigan car.

On a last note, we wish speedy recovery to Bob Bruneau.

Welcome to the Electric Car Department Update.

You might realize that I didn't update things last week. Well, that was the weekend of the Safety Meeting, Rules Test, and the Annual Meeting. Those pretty much consumed the weekend, with some work being done on Sunday on the usual Suspects. The biggest news would be that CTA 3142 has been moved off of the pit, and released for service.

CNS&M 160 made it's way over to the pit for the undercarriage inspection. That started last week, and concluded over this past weekend. By Sunday afternoon, the car was for the most part finished, and moved back to Barn 6. The two CNS&M (160 and 714) still have to be sequenced before they can be run together, but that should take place next weekend.

CA&E 431 was the next car over to the pit. There were some rope replacements, and other little bits that were done on this car.

The "L" guys worked on the inspections of the 4000, which will conclude this Thursday and Friday if all goes well. Painting of parts for the 4000's continued as well.

Along with the Yard 5 moves that have been going on, the S-105 has moved temporarily to yard 6, and the ITC caboose moved onto the 40 track.

On a more personal note... running the coach train on Saturday was a day that, as one trainman said, "took the romance out of railroading." It was quite windy with ice or sleet or some sort of stuff hitting as we pushed backwards. On the plus side there were good crowds out considering the weather on Saturday for the "Scrap-a-train" day. The next event is the Electric Car Department shop tours on Saturday.

Hello all, and here's a few things that have happened over the weekend in the Electric Car Department.

CNS&M 749 got some wire replaced in the Battery Charging Circuit Box. Because this car has been modernized, with electric conductor bells, the batteries have to be kept charged, so work has been done to make sure they do charge. The grids were replaced for that circuit last year, but this year, the wires that are missing the insulation have been replaced. There will be some pictures of this showing up in the Member Photo Gallery on Joe Stupar. (But their not there yet).

CTA 3142 has had it's brake beam put back in and set correctly, as well as some more work on the line switch.

The Michigan car has had more work done on the roof and tack molding. This is part of the long process it takes to get a roof ready for the canvas. Of course, once the canvas is on, it's a long process to get it all weighted down, tacked on, and painted.

Work on the doors continues on the PCC car that's in the Barn 4 work area. These cars, being all metal and running on salted streets, seem to have a lot of metal work to be done. It's moving along which is always a good thing.

We have taken the air tanks from the TMER L10 over to the steam shop, and when they run the hydro machine next for their own tanks, they'll run these two for us. Much thanks in advance to the Steam Shop for this.

Rusted air pipes are being replaced on the Baldy 4000 series CTA car that is also in barn 4. These pipes have to be cut, then bent to the correct angles (and let me tell you, if you don't do this often, you always need a practice pipe to work on to get the bends right); then they get threaded on the end.

The Lake Shore Electric 810 box car had some more work done to it. The air system is slowly being returned to it's appropriate spots.

There was also a board meeting, the last one with this configuration, on Saturday.  As always, if there was other work being done, please comment it below. And if you see there are some comments; please read them :)

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt