Entries by Ray Piesciuk

The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that it has received a $5,000 Railroad Heritage Grant from the Tom E. Dailey Foundation. This generous contribution from the Foundation has been earmarked for our CTA 2000-series "L" cars, 2153-2154 (Pullman-Standard, 1964). Specifically, the grant will greatly help fund the exterior restoration of CTA 2153-2154, in which they will be backdated to the distinctive Mint Green and Alpine White paint colors which they wore upon their delivery to the CTA in 1964. CTA 2153-2154 are the only unmodified 2000-series "L" cars in preservation, and were considered cutting-edge upon their manufacture due to the inclusion of fluorescent lighting, air conditioning, molded fiberglass carbody components, and "Space Age" design elements.

The Tom E. Dailey Foundation Inc (501)(C)(3) was established through an endowment by Tom Dailey, a senior executive in the payment processing industry for nearly 30 years. The Foundation was created as a way to to support specific causes which are close to his heart and to share the blessings he has received.

On Saturday, September 10, CTA single car #30 peeks out of Barn 2 so everyone can check out Jamie Kolanowski's awesome paint job so far.

The car should be completely painted within 1-3 weeks.  A link to a video of it going back into Barn 2 is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nn-kjCQI2A

The paving for the trolley bus west loop was completed on Friday, July 01!  It was part of the larger Depot Street project which rehabbed pavement that was up to 30 years old.  Dave Diamond and the B&G crew worked tirelessly over the past couple months to get this project done on time, by the 4^th of July weekend.  Although not yet open, we were allowed to carefully drive over the Central & Depot intersection to provide scheduled service on Saturday, July 02.  We are currently working with Max Tyms on procuring affordable line poles.  If all goes well, we will be able to start setting them shortly after Thomas.  Then the final step is to string the overhead.  Our hope is to have everything complete in time for scheduled service next season.

The last few weeks have been spent gathering, organizing, and consolidating overhead parts in preparation for the West Loop project.  Dave Diamond and the B&G crew are just about ready to start the paving phase of the project, and DC Line Superintendant Max Tyms has a line on trolley wire and is working on procuring poles.  Saturday, newly elected museum Director and department Asst. Superintendant Richard Schauer and I did an inspection on the Edmonton BBC 181 as it will be in service for attendees to the IT convention at the museum this Saturday.

Another successful IRM Snowflake Special today!  Thinking back two short years ago, we couldn’t fill a four car train, this year we sold out a SIX car train a week before the trip!  Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and helped support the museum.  It is GREATLY appreciated!!!!

Today’s trip started at the Forest Park station at the west end of the Congress line.  We started westbound – yes westbound (into the yards).  Then back east, transferring over to the Douglass line, going to and through 54th St (again into the yards).  Back eastbound, then over to the Midway line.  After going through those yards it was downtown to drop everyone off for lunch.  After lunch we went out to 63rd and Ashland and of course into the tail track.  Back downtown and out to Kimball.  You guessed it, into those yards too.  Back downtown, but not before our second annual Brown Line/Red Line race from Belmont to Fullerton.  Again this year it was too close to call.  Finally back west down the Congress line, making our last photo stop at the abandoned California station (the last of many nice photo opportunities), we headed back to our origin station at Forest Park to wrap up another fantastic trip.

A huge thanks to David Harrison, without whom none of this would be possible.  Dave did his usual great job narrating the trip including many interesting tidbits about the system and the city.  Also thanks to Bob Heinlein and Richard Schauer who again coordinated the logistics of the trip.  Our CTA crew was top notch as usual.  Thanks to all the car captains who kept order in the cars, trading their cameras for orange vests.  And most importantly, thanks to everyone who showed their support for the museum by accompanying us on the 2011 edition of the Snowflake Special.

A few years ago, the drag link on Chicago Marmon 9553 failed.  At the time we decided to swap the remaining good on from Chicago Marmon 9631 to keep 9553 in service until we could fabricate repairs.  During this past week, Richard Schauer and I decided that it was time to get this done.  We weren’t sure how long this project would take, but it might be a significant amount of time.  So, to prevent the 9553 from blocking service coaches during this period, we began the day by doing a switch move, swapping the Dayton Flyer 925 with the 9553.  To accomplish this we had to move the two coaches in front of them, Seattle Twin 633 and Edmonton BBC 181.

 

 

We then got to work removing the good drag link from the 9553.  After easily removing the front part (under the driver’s seat), the back section (behind the front wheels) gave us real difficulty.  With limited space and leverage under the coach, we decided that turning the front wheels a little would give us a better angle at loosening the connection.  Since the coach was stationary, turning the wheels puts a big strain on the drag link.  Unfortunately it proved a little too much and the good drag link began to fail.  To prevent a total failure we immediately stopped and returned to removing the rear section.  With the help of Warren Lloyd, we finally accomplished the task.

 

We brought it over to the Car Shop to remove all the parts and clean it up.  Luckily Car Dept. Superintendent Rod Turner was there and took a look at it.  He came up with a couple ideas on how it and the second one could be repaired.  No time like the present, so we set out to make the repairs on the “good” one.  Rod and Diesel Dept. Superintendent Jamie Kolanowski gave us a good deal of their time and expertise, and by the evening the job was done!  We’ll need to do some additional work to get the second one fixed, but a job that might have taken a very long time and possible be very costly, is well on its way toward completion.

 

Another great example of departments working together.  Rod and Jamie, we owe you guys big time for this one – THANKS!!!!!

 

On another front, preliminary work on the west loop project continues.  B&G Superintendent Dave Diamond has a quote for paving and DC Line Superintendent Max Tyms has a quote for trolley wire and is working on one for poles.  We spent some time discussing the project with Dave and we decided that we will start staking out the road once the weather and ground condition permits.

 

Don’t forget about the Snowflake Special coming up on March 27^th.  Tickets sales are brisk so don’t be left out!  Click on the link from the IRM home page and buy your tickets online now!!!

Saturday morning started out at the post office, mailing out a bunch of Snowflake tickets.  Don’t forget, less than 3 weeks left to get your tickets soon!  Proceeds go toward acquiring a pair of CTA 2200s once they are retired from service.

 

Upon returning to the property I had a long talk with DC Line Superintendent Max Tyms regarding our ongoing planning to build the long awaited loop on the west end of the trolley bus line.  His attitude is exactly the same as ours, “let’s do it!”  He had some excellent observations and suggestions.  Former DC Line Superintendent Bob Rayunec also visited.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to talk with him, but he had a lengthy conversation with Max about the loop.

 

I then returned to the Andersen Garage where Gary Andersen was already taking more measurements in preparation of his work with the front of the Dayton Flyer 960, which he will be making ready to be an interactive display.  Once he finished, Richard pulled out the Edmonton 181 so we could get to the Chicago Marmon 9553.  The Chicago Marmons have the longest turning radius, so after looking that number up in the book, we decided to do our own test.  After turning the coach 180 degrees, we measured outside bumper to outside bumper.  We figured that we need a loop measuring an absolute minimum of 99 feet.  Fortunately we have a little over 120 feet from Railroad Ave. by the present wye to the evergreen tree line at the parking lot fence.  Plenty of room for our loop.

 

Next step is to see what stock of overhead parts are squirreled away in our many storage containers, which we will continue to do over the next few weekends.  We will also continue to work with Dave Diamond on the exact placement of the loop for pavement, and with Max for placement of poles and overhead needs.

 

With commodity prices at record highs, the copper overhead wire is expected to be one of our biggest expenses.  If you would like to help, please consider a donation to the Trolley Bus Department.  If all goes well, we all can enjoy trolley bus service free of backing moves in the very near future.