Entries by Ray Piesciuk

After three weeks worth of helping with Happy Holiday Railway, including providing much appreciated warm rides back to the parking lot for our visitors in Edmonton 181 (EXCELLENT heat), it was back to work these past two weekends.  Richard spent three full days working on the roof area of the LA 8002 and the two of us spent today and last Sunday removing wheels from Seattle Twin 633 and SF Fageol-Twin 614 in preparation for new tires.  All that’s left is to remove the rears from 614, which we hope to accomplish next weekend, then they go in for service!  I sure will be nice not having to worry about the tires when running with 633 and moving 614 around, getting it ready for entry into the service fleet.

Over the past several weekends we have continued working on the LA Brill 8002.  Helping out has been the ever-present Richard Schauer along with Wally Unglaub, David Fullarton and Greg Cuervorst.  Over the last several weeks the following progress has been made:  The tar that was under the old flooring has been almost completely removed.  The unsalvageable portion of the Masonite ceiling has been removed and the rest has had the paint scrapped off.  The interior lights have been removed and thoroughly cleaned.  The edge of the old wood roofing, which is caked in tar and tar-like material, has been removed from about 1/4 of the bus.  Over 1/2 of the interior window frames have been thoroughly cleaned and their shine restored.  The wood for the new roof has been purchased.  Either next weekend or after Happy Holiday Railway, we will be spending some serious time in the Wood Shop turning 16' 1x6s into tongue-in-groove roofing.  Also today we fired up and ran the Edmonton BBC 181 for a final check before the Christmas event since it will be used as a warming station for our visitors.

Another long running project has been the installation of the EMD sign west of the Hoffman Garage.  Today the B&G crew raised the sign into place!!!  Here are a few photos.

The work on the LA Brill 8002 is continuing.  The interior has been completely cleaned out and the old rubber flooring has been taken up.  There are sections where the glue has a very strong bond with the wood floor.  Those sections need to be hand scraped, which has been started.

Yesterday Richard Schauer and I worked on removing the old roofing material.  20 years ago the original tongue-in-grove roofing was covered with a temporary fix of plywood to keep the inside dry.  Both were in poor condition and were removed.  Careful measurements and patterns were kept so we can replicate the original roof.  All the interior Masonite will need to be removed and most has.  We are keeping sections of this also for patterns.  In the weeks to come we will be continuing to remove what remains of the roofing, Masonite and de-Garrett-izing the coach (removing all the modifications that were made post-service by Garrett Industries, the 1st post-LA owner).

Richard Schauer and Wally Unglaub provided service throughout the day Saturday, bring out several coaches.  They started the day with the Edmonton 181, followed by Chicago Marmon 9553, then Seattle MAN 4020.  Once Charlie King arrived, they pulled “his baby”, the CSL 84, out of the garage.  They parked it at Central and Depot where it immediately drew a crowd.  For about an hour, Charlie greeted the steady stream of visitors and treated them to tours of the coach and stories about the coach in service and ongoing restoration.  I spent the day working the Cash & Cary Chicago Sign table to raise money for the restoration of the many signs around the property.  It was our best day ever!  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and made a purchase/donation.  Many of the signs already restored (North Shore, South Shore, CA&E, IC…) were lit up all day and looked fantastic.  You can help by visiting the “Signs For Sale” button on the home page and purchasing your very own piece of Chicago history.  Overall it was a great day.  Kudos to the volunteers in all the departments who made this year’s event a success.

After Wally Unglaub spent last weekend cleaning out the interior, today we pulled out SF Fageol-Twin 614 for Howard Geier to work his buffing magic on the curb side. 

In the mean time, after a couple weeks of working, Richard Schauer was finally able to get the Seattle M-A-N 4020 going again and put away back in the Andersen Garage.

Not as dramatic as the first picture, but it REALLY looks nice in person.  All the green sections of the coach are buffed out.  Next the cream sections, followed by some wax and maybe a little touching up.

On a side note, thanks to everyone who has watched IRM-TV on YouTube.  In a little over two days, the episodes have gotten a total of almost 700 hits already.  Links can be found at www.irmtv.org.  Other IRM and transit videos are also on my YouTube channel.