Trolley Bus Department

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.

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.

For the last two weekends, Richard Schauer and I, joined by Wally Unglaub Saturday, have been continuing to clean the interior of the SF 614.  The seats have received two passes with the vinyl cleaner/rejuvenator, the floors have been scrubbed, most of the gum has been scraped from the floor, the walls and heating ducts along the floor have been washed.  We still need to do the fixtures and step wells, but it is looking great inside.  Thanks guys!!!  We need to do just a little more work on the mechanical end – we hope to pull the coach out under its own power later this year.  It does need a set of tires, which we also hope to get by the end of the year.  The Seattle 633 is also scheduled to get tires this year.  Later on Saturday we were going to pull the five coaches out of the Andersen Garage for the model railroaders to set up for Thomas.  Unfortunately there was an issue with the Edmonton 181’s compressor.  Richard somehow squirmed his way underneath and into the bowels of the coach and made temporary repairs.  This pushed back the switch move to Sunday.

 

Sunday saw us working outside the department for most of the day.  It was the 20^th Annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza, so we were geared up for a big crowd.  Richard took up position near the admission booth and fielded questions, problems, and generally helped out wherever and whenever needed (as usual).  I took pictures and videos in the morning and helped Julie Piesciuk with the CTA sign sales table in the afternoon.  We had a very good day, raising almost $1,000.  In the evening, Richard and I did the delayed movement of the coaches outside for Thomas.  The 181 and CTA 9553 went smoothly.  When we went to move the Seattle 4020, we discovered, much to our chagrin, that we left the battery on the last time we pulled it out.  It was stone dead.  Luckily Tom Hunter came by and graciously lent us the Track Department’s battery charger and the coach fired right up.  Thanks so much Tom!!!!  The rest (Seattle 633 and Dayton 925) moved with no issues.  All five coaches are now outside until the final day of Thomas.  Stop by and take a photo if you are in the neighborhood.

When SF Fageol-Twin 614 arrived at IRM last year, every one of its windows was calked shut.  During these hot days, this made it uncomfortable to work inside the coach to say the least.  Yesterday, Richard Schauer and I rectified that situation.  Using a knife and a small screwdriver, we spent the day working on removing the caulk.  We were able to get all but two of the windows open.  Those two stubborn ones have minor damage to their window tracks that should be easy to address in the near future.  This allows us to move forward with the cleaning out of the coach.  In the afternoon we spent a couple hours over at the Diesel Parade – I shot video for the August episode of IRM-TV and Richard took stills for the September issue of Rail & Wire.  I’ve got to hand it to the Diesel guys yet again – GREAT SHOW!!!!  Hats off to Jamie and all the guys who work year-round on the locomotives to get them in the shape that they are in.

This weekend was dedicated to cleaning out the interior of LA Brill 8002.  Richard Schauer, Wally Unglaub and I worked a makeshift fireman’s line, lugging the stuff to the front of the coach, then moving it all out the front door to the staging area beside the coach, finally to the final storage place to await reinstallation onto the coach.  As with the other coaches from OERM, there was dust EVERYWHERE!!!  We not only battled this when removing the parts, but sweeping the coach out afterward was a new adventure in dustiness.