Entries by Ray Piesciuk

We did more work on the Edmonton BBC 181 today.

Richard Schauer reinstalled the suspension levelers and with Warren Lloyd’s help, the spare parts sent along with the coach were unloaded and stored.

We also did a few shake-down runs and the coach performed wonderfully!

You tube video of the coach traveling westbound on Central Avenue is available via this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_QxXyHSH-E

Edmonton BBC 181 for the first time under its own power at IRM - 10/24/2009

Another exciting day in the Trolley Bus Department.  By the time I arrived today, Richard Schauer and Wally Unglaub were already taking the roof equipment out of our Edmonton BBC coach 181.  The roof equipment had to be removed by Edmonton due to height restrictions for shipment and was stored inside the coach.  We continued emptying out the coach and hauled the stuff onto the roof.  We were able to get everything up there except one very heavy item.  Luckily Warren Lloyd stopped by so we “Nicked” him into helping.  Actually he was glad to lend a hand (as usual).

Ready for its first trip west down Central Avenue - 10/24/2009

Once everything was on the roof, we proceeded to attach everything, tie the ropes to the poles, and at exactly 5:00pm, Richard had the honor of operating the coach for the first time at IRM.  We traveled around the loop in front of the Andersen Garage once, then two trips down Central Avenue.  The coach performed flawlessly and is in unbelievable condition!  Although we have don an inspection, there will surely be a break-in period when we will discover and work out any bugs, but if today was any indication, we have a fantastic addition to our fleet.

There are a couple YouTube videos of the first trip around the loop (links below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpmThH96zG0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=357o1TguDE0

Monday afternoon was the magic day.  About 2:30pm the truck rolled up with Edmonton Transit 181 on its bed.  Richard, Jerry and I were there to greet it.  As we got ready to start unloading it, unfortunately I had to leave for a previous engagement, so Richard and Jerry did the honors.  It was unloaded and pushed into the garage without a hitch.  This one won't be a 5 hour special to get it running as the poles and bases had to be removed for transport, so it may be a couple weeks.  Thanks so much to Richard and Jerry for doing the unloading - it KILLED me not being there for it.

We split the department Saturday with Richard Schauer and Wally Unglaub operating trolley coaches, while Jerry Saunders and I ran the New York subway cars.

 

For the majority of the day, Wally operated the Chicago Marmon 9553.  In the afternoon Richard decided to pull out a few additional coaches for the Members.  Making a few trip each was Seattle M-A-N 4020, Chicago Brill-American 84, Seattle Twin 633 and Milwaukee Marmon 441.  Due to the lack of adequate lighting at the wye and lack of adequate ground personnel, we decided for safety sake not to operate in the evening.  Our last scheduled operating day of the season is in two weeks (10/03).  As of right now it looks like it will be Seattle M-A-N 4020 handling operations that day.  With the OERM deal now in full swing, we have decided not to have any scheduled operation in 2010.  Does that mean no TBs at all next year?  Of course not.  Those of you who visit often or watch the webcams know, you never know when you will see a trolley coach coming down Central Avenue.

 

At about 2:00pm Saturday, NYCTA 7926-7927 made their first revenue trip at IRM.  We subsequently made 2 more daytime and 4 nighttime round trips on the mainline, finally wrapping up a little after midnight.  The cars performed flawlessly!  We heard MANY positive and supportive comments from the visitors and members alike.  Saturday was the culmination of a 12 year dream/ordeal to get the cars here and operational.  I’d like to add my personal congratulations to Jerry, whose perseverance and patience (wait a minute, Jerry?  Patience???) single-handedly were responsible for getting the cars here.  We hope to have all the nagging bugs worked out by sometime next season so the Redbirds can see limited revenue service, then the goal is to have them in the regular service fleet in 2011.

 

Hats off AGAIN to the Car Department guys.  I watched them for months working to get cars ready for Saturday.  They had so many cars that no NSL cars came out and the IT101 had to be cancelled!  What a great “problem” to have and what a fantastic turn-around from just a couple years ago.  You guys (and Krystine & Gwen) rock!!!

 

Sorry, no pictures as I was in service.  I know Pete Pedersen among others took some excellent shots to document one of the most exciting days I have ever experienced at IRM.

 

 

 

 

Another exciting weekend in the Trolley Bus Department.  On Friday, Jerry Saunders moved an entire row of motor coaches out of the Hoffman Garage to facilitate the unloading and garaging of the SF Fageol-Twin 614.  I arrived in the afternoon to help move some parts from the back of the garage.  On Saturday, Jerry and I chased our new coach through the bustling streets of downtown Union, IL, taking videos (which are up on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O74cwlB7A4 ).

Upon arrival, we found that unloading it was very simple.  After all these years, the handbrake still worked great, so we tipped the trailer back, and with Jerry at the wheel, we let gravity do all the work.  We then towed it into the Hoffman garage with the department Dodge Ram locomotive.  After lunch we pushed it back out on Central Avenue and went to work on the initial cleaning and inspection.  We found the coach to be in a bit rougher shape than our last OERM coach, the Seattle Twin 633 – which took us 5 hours to get running, so we expected the Fageol to take us more time.  We turned out to be correct as it took 5 and a half hours to get the Fageol to run itself back into the Hoffman Garage under its own power.

To be fair, we had much more help Saturday.  A big thank you to the usual suspects, Richard Schauer and Jerry Saunders as well as Warren Lloyd, Charlie Strong, Al Reinschmidt, and Nick Kallas (yes, you read that correctly).  This crew gave us a big hand in the unloading and initial cleaning of the coach.  As always, our trucker Mel came through with his usual professional job and transported the coach across the country without incident.

Naturally there are some issues with the 614.  Unfortunately the seats did not fare as well as the 633 – most are split, sun baked and/or downright torn up.  Although the windows were covered, this coach lived out in the desert longer than the 633, and I suspect whoever came up with the great idea of covering the windows didn’t think of it until several years after the 614 arrived at OERM.  As we experienced with the 633, there are some wiring issues which have to be tracked down.  And dirty!!!!  It took a month of weekends to get the 633 looking as nice as it does today; I suspect it will take at least twice as long with the 614.

On Sunday, Jerry and I did some paint touch-ups on the NY Cars and worked on the insulation for the power cables on the roof of one of the cars.  We are planning on washing the interior of the cars on Friday for their first day of revenue service on Member’s Day this Saturday.  We are also planning on some nighttime runs after dinner.

 

Friday afternoon/evening was spent doing a little more cleaning in the interior of the Seattle 633.  With the exception of a little of the floor, the inside is immaculate (well, almost).

On Saturday, Howard Geier worked on installing the glass in the newly fabricated rear doors of the Des Moines Brill “Curbliner”.  Richard Schauer and Wally Unglaub provided service using the Chicago Marmon 9553 for many ahppy visitors.  Jerry Saunders and I worked Saturday and Sunday on a “Home Depot” paint job on the NY Subway Cars.  They were starting to look a little shabby, so the investment of $75 and a couple days work got them looking pretty nice.  They are scheduled to make their service debut on Member’s Day.  Hopefully, mechanically the cars will cooperate.

On Monday, Richard and I finished up what we could on the equipment roster including measuring the new switcher on the connector track.  The file will now be sent to the department curators for them to approve and fill in some still missing blank spaces.

In the “when it rains, it pours” category, after some delays in both, it looks like the Edmonton BBC and the SF Fageol from OERM will BOTH be delivered next weekend.  No guarantee, but right now that’s the way things are looking.

 

 

 

This weekend in the Trolley Bus Department was a “For the good of the museum” weekend.  After finishing up cleaning the interior of the Seattle 633 on Friday, Richard Schauer and I spent the day Saturday working on the roster of equipment.  We walked the entire campus, inventorying, and if necessary measuring pieces in the collection.  There are still some numbers missing that we couldn’t get with a tape measure (weights, builders, build dates), so curators, you’ll be hearing from us soon to try and fill in some gaps.  There were only about 10 pieces that we still haven’t located.  We weren’t able to get down to 4-mile, so that number will dwindle once we check what’s down there.

 

 

On Sunday, Richard worked at the entrance gate for Vintage and I accompanied a crew from Comcast who was out taping for a special they are doing on the Museum.  Once I find out when it is scheduled to air, I’ll let you know.

 

 

Next week we will be pulling out 4 coaches (633, 4020, 9553, 925) to live outside for a few weeks to accommodate the model railroad setup that annually appears in the Andersen Garage during Thomas.  This will be the last year that the Andersen Garage will be used for this, as the additional coaches that are arriving from Edmonton and OERM will make it impractical.

Last weekend Howard Geier came out and worked all day Saturday buffing the Seattle 633.  It looks fantastic!  We are almost finished doing a cleaning of the interior also, so we finally got rid of 30 years worth of accumulated desert dust.  Jerry Saunders worked on finding replacement wheels for the street side rear since that was the tire that blew a couple weeks ago.  He found 2 for that side, we still need to search a little more for the curb side, which is still missing one.  As soon as we have a complete set of wheels, we are going to need to buy a new set of tires.  That’s another $1,500 – donations to the Trolley Bus Department are GREATLY appreciated!

This weekend Richard Schauer and I went out to OERM to identify parts that will come with the other coaches and what is needed to restore the LA coach.  It was over 100 degrees both days and inside the parts boxcars was pretty toasty to say the least.  The OERM guys helped us out by moving the boxcars into their Carhouse 7, so at least we didn’t bake out in the sun.  Thanks!

 

We believe that we have our Edmonton coach picked out.  It will most likely be coach 181.  Richard is in the process of getting all the shipping paperwork in order – we are anticipating arrival by Labor Day.

 

This week/weekend was almost exclusively dedicated to working on the 633.  During the week, Jerry and Wes Lloyd tackled the low voltage issues.  They were able to solve most of them!  The horn now works, as do the turn signals and blinkers.  We also have interior lights, half the windshield wipers, and the ancient mini driver’s fan also now works.  Over the weekend, Jerry and Richard continued to work on low voltage and wiring stuff (making more progress along the way) while I started on a thorough cleaning of the coach’s interior.  And I mean thorough – I started at the back of the coach and after 2 full days of cleaning have only progressed to the back doors.  On the down side, as the coach was sitting in front of the garage Tuesday, the left rear tire blew.  They are all pretty dried out from living in the desert for 25 years so this wasn’t totally unexpected.  It’s just unfortunate it happened so soon.  So in addition to all the shipping costs that we have coming up, if we want to see the coach out again, we now need to spring for a new set of tires for the 633 (about $1,500).  If anyone would like to help, please consider making a donation to the “Trolley Bus Department”.  Our department is in the midst of exciting times, but expensive times.  Sorry no pictures this week, don't want to bum anyone out with a flat tire picture.

On Thursday, Jerry replaced the faulty trolley bases on the roof of the Seattle 633.  We then took it out for a few trial runs and the poles, bases and boards worked flawlessly.  He also worked on the low voltage issues, clearing several of them up.  The coach also received some additional inspection, greasing and more cleaning inside – it needs more still as it was DIRTY!

Friday saw the exterior of the 633 get a bath.  What a difference!  It will look even better next week as Howard Geier is scheduled to come out and buff the entire coach.  After washing, we had an impromptu “Seattle Day” as both the 633 and 4020 operated.  It was neat to see them both operating together.

On Saturday, Bob Bourne visited from Iowa and operated Chicago Marmon 9553.  Since the railroad was closed for several hours for the trolley pageant, we became the only service.  Many trips during this time we operated virtually full loads.

This should be a link to a short YouTube video of the two Seattle coaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUA1YDwr32Y

Congratulations to the Car Department and all the volunteers who made the 4^th of July Trolley Pageant such a success.  Unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t cooperate, but it couldn’t dampen the spirits of everyone involved.  It was a GREAT show!!!!  WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!!!

This weekend was another very productive one for us.  Jerry and I spent Saturday doing more cleaning and organizing.  Dave Diamond was able to get us a good deal on a couple fireproof cabinets for storing paint, etc.  One for the Hoffman Garage and one for the Andersen Garage.  Thanks Dave!  We also got the majority of the motor bus collection outside for a couple days and Jerry pressure washed the floor of the Hoffman Garage.  Thanks again to Dave for lending us the power washer.

 

On Sunday Max Tyms was able to repair the lightning damaged section for trolley bus overhead – a BIG thanks to Max for taking care of this right away!!  We wasted no time after his repairs were completed and brought out our oldest coach (CSL Brill-American 84) for a little exercise and our newest (Seattle MAN 4020) to provide some unscheduled service for our visitors.  At 4:15 we received a call from our White Bros. trucker Mel, who was transporting the first of the coaches that we are getting from the OERM collection – Seattle Twin 633.  We went to the back gate, let him in, and directed him to the Andersen Garage.  There we proceeded to unload the coach.  As always, Mel delivered the goods undamaged – thanks Mel!

 

As with any new arrival, it immediately saw attention.  Having lived out in the California desert for 25 years, you can imagine the spider webs, dust, dirt, dust, grime, and did I mention dust?  Jerry and Richard went to work inspecting, adjusting, cleaning – basically giving the coach a good going over.  By 9:15pm, a short 5 hours after its arrival, we were able to run the coach into the Andersen Garage under its own power!!!  There are still some issues that will keep it out of the operating fleet for a little while, bad trolley bases, some low-voltage issues, and it DEFINITELY needs a thorough cleaning, but we will be doing our best to get our newest acquisition out onto Central Avenue for everyone to enjoy.

 

Coming up Saturday, we plan on operating Chicago Marmon 9553 as supplemental service while the trolley pageant is taking place on the main line.  We are looking forward to a good show from the Car Department and love the “can do” attitude that we see over there lately.  Keep it up guys!!!!

Ah the best laid plans...We were planning on operating Chicago Marmon 9553 for Chicago Day and were right on track until Friday morning.  That's when nature decided to throw a monkey wrench into the works.  Lightning struck the trolley bus overhead right in front of the Diner.  It burned up a hanger and a support wire.  Max Tyms was right there to get the wire temporarily back into place, and of course, put the trolley bus line out of service.  He and Jerry Saunders worked on the permanent fix Friday, getting it partially done.  We still needed another part to finish the job.  Knowing Glen Andersen probably had the foresight to squirrel some away for future use, Jerry, Max, Charlie Strong and I searched all our storage locations, finally coming up with the necessary part around lunch time (thank God for Glen!).  Max then cleaned, re-tapped and painted it, making it look like new.  Later in the afternoon Max positioned the new bucket truck and got all the necessary tools and span wire in place to make the fix.  As he started to raise the boom, the truck burst a hydraulic hose.  That put an end to our hope of getting in a few runs late in the day for all the CTA guys that were there for Chicago Day.  Hopefully Dave Diamond and his crew will be able to fix the truck and Max will be able to make the repair so we can provide service on our next scheduled day, July 4th.  Thanks to everyone who jumped into this project on a moment's notice.  We really appreciate the support.

This week we did more cleaning in the Andersen Garage.  We were able to get all of the big parts still left in the garage palletized for easy mobility.

We also worked some more on the CSL 84.  Jerry Saunders installed all new wheel studs on the curbside rear wheel.  He then reinstalled the tires.  After an inspection of the systems, he pronounced the coach ready for testing (much to the delight of the camera-toting public).  After not operating in about 4 years, the coach suffered from a short bout of sit-itis.  But after 3 trips, it started to perform much better.  We have some minor adjustments and additional cleaning to do, but we are now able to move the coach at will.

 

Coming up:  We plan on operating Chicago Marmon 9553 for Chicago Day next Saturday.  ETS legal is drawing up the transfer documents for our Edmonton coach.  We are looking forward to, and are preparing for its arrival.

 

As we wrapped up for the day (or so we thought), we were intrigued by an unusual headlight shining out the back of barn 6.  We investigated and ran into a group of Car Department guys working on getting the IC cars going.  Jerry jumped in to help and I did what I do best – watched!  After about an hour or so, sure enough out came the 2 IC cars into yard 6.  It was GREAT seeing those cars out in the daylight.  Yet another example of the kind of new and exciting stuff we are now coming to expect from the Car Department.  Can’t wait until the trolley pageant on the 4th!  Keep up the good work guys!!!!

 

Here’s a synopsis of what has been taking place in the Trolley Bus Department over the last several weeks.  Yesterday Wally Unglaub spent the entire morning tearing apart groups, overhead special work, and other parts for easier storage (preparing for the arrival of the Edmonton coach).  Bob Bourne came in from Iowa and operated Chicago Marmon 9553 in the afternoon with Wally riding in back for wye-ing.  We are planning on running that coach again for Chicago Day in 2 weeks.  While that was going on, we were visited by (Regular Member #1) Charlie King, which spurred Richard Schauer and Jerry Saunders to drill and mount brand new trolley boards on the CSL 84 and reconnected the trolley poles/bases.  The newly refurbished air compressor came back to life and sounded great!  We are working on getting some wheel studs to reattach the curbside rear wheels in order to get it rolling again.

 

In previous weeks, Richard Schauer and I have been going through our stored parts, looking for where we can consolidate and rearrange.  We then bring them to Wally who (carefully) tears them apart, making them easier to store.  Howard Geier spent Memorial Day weekend working on the Curbliner (Des Moines), most notably getting the temporary back doors ready for glass installation.  We have also dedicated a couple weekends toward getting the New York subway cars closer than ever to being added to the operating fleet.  Recent steps forward were attaching retrievers for both trolley poles, and doing a thorough and much needed cleaning of the interior.  There is a little more cleaning left to do as well as a few more loose ends to tie up.  Look for them in the Trolley Pageant next month and in service, dare I say, by the end of the season???  (Reminder:  These cars are still carrying a debt.  If you can, please consider a contribution to the "NY Subway Cars" fund.  We would love to get them a decent coat of paint.)

 

Sorry I haven’t taken pictures for a while.  I’ll try and get some for the next entry.

It has now been two weeks since my term as Director and President has expired, so it’s been back to work in the Trolley Bus Department.  Over the last month or so, we have been working on putting away miscellaneous parts that we have accumulated from Dayton, Toronto and other various sources.  We will need to continue to do this at an accelerated pace since the Board just approved our acquisition of an Edmonton Transit System (ETS) BBC trolley coach!  Originally their system was scheduled to close in 2010 so we have had periodic and very informal contact with them about the possibility of sometime in the future acquiring a coach.  Well Edmonton’s city counsel decided to suddenly and drastically move that schedule up and to make a long story short, their system closed last weekend.  ETS contacted us to let us know they would be willing to donate a coach to us for preservation.  We moved quickly on the acquisition form and presented it to the Board last night.  I’d like to thank the Board for having the foresight to approve this acquisition.

In addition to working within the department, volunteer resources of the Trolley Bus Department have been on loan to the New York Subway Cars (the “Redbirds”) project.  Richard Schauer and I (mostly Richard) have been assisting Jerry Saunders in preparing for his 12 year long dream to come true – having the New York subway cars in the operating fleet.  We are very close!  Over the last several weeks, poles have been put on the cars to allow them to operate.  Extensive testing and troubleshooting has been done and yesterday they made 3 trips around the carline and 4 on the main line with ZERO problems!!!  The goal is to get them ready for the 4^th of July trolley pageant, then shortly thereafter get them into service.  Several YouTube videos have been posted by a number of different people.

Since the Trolley Bus technical crew will be giving the Redbirds a final tune-up on the pit for the next couple weeks, the rest of us will be continuing in earnest to get the garages clean, organized and ready for the imminent arrival of the BBC coach.  Our first scheduled service day is Saturday, June 6 so we will be spending Memorial Day weekend doing inspections.