Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Talk about a flurry of activity over the last week. As you have read earlier, the pit was freed up last Sunday when CNS&M 714 was run off the pit on it's own power. So, this past Wednesday, CSL 3142 was brought over for it's annual inspection. This was done over the last few days with everything being checked. There is still a desire to look and try to work out the slight bugs with the breaking system while it's there on the pit.

Saturday was also busy with activities. Work on the PCC car that's in barn 4 continued with the last door panel that had to be worked on. They are looking much better with the rusted parts no longer on them. It does take a bit of effort to work on these steel cars that were exposed to all the road grime during the winter.

Windows for the "Baldy" CTA 4146 windows progressed with them getting a start on paint. A new coat always spruces up things.

The other 4000 series cars might be able to have newly reworked knife switches. That was some of the work going on, sandblasting, epoxying, painting. These wearable items need to be serviced, and having some spares helps with that.

I know it might be noted in the Passenger Dept. Blog, but there was work in the woodshop on the doors for the 7700.

Sunday was a different matter, mostly because of Easter. Much of the day for the small crew was spent looking at, and measuring various CSL cars to see what differences if any there were on the braking systems. CSL 3142 has always had a slower response time, and now that the car is over the pit, it's a good time to see if anything can be worked on to speed this time up some. It would be easier if we had a "Chilton's" book on the car to show us what and more importantly why some of the parts are doing what they do (comment from random working person "George (Westinghouse) must have been on something when he came up with this"). We have a few thoughts on what to try, and Bob will talk to the appropriate people to test these out.

Also, Make sure you read the comments, there are a few other activities that I forgot to mention. This is why I like the comments feature, others can add in things I forget about. I really need to write these things down so I don't forget them. (Like the number of that PCC car I can never remember).

Final note: I will be on vacation the next two weekends, so there won't be an update until I get back.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

Hello there, and welcome to the Weekend Update... Okay, maybe I'm not on Saturday Night Live.

I was out both days of the weekend, and got to see much activity being done.

Work on the windows for the "Baldy" CTA 4146 continue along with cleaning all the parts. It takes a bit to bring old brass windows back to brass color. They are fully taking the windows apart to do this.

Metal work on the doors for the PCC in the shop continues as well. There is always discussions on what point in history to restore cars to and this one has a few interesting angles; though not having heard all the information, I'm hesitant on mentioning everything. I do know that there will be some metal plates in the back doors and not fully glass. If I'm wrong, of course, I do hope someone will correct me. It's amazing how much damage salt actually does to cars.

The Michigan car's roof continues to get the attention it deserves.

The cab heaters for the CAE 431 have had the rotten metal replaced. These should be done soon and ready for installation in the pit..er I mean the car. (It's a running joke that we are going to wire in Jeff's heaters in the pit to allow us some heat down there).

Perhaps the biggest news is that on Saturday, the old wire for the burned out grid on CNS 714 was pulled out and the new wire put in with the help and teachings of the DC Line Department. On Sunday, the grid was re-installed and after a few other minor fixes, the car ran itself out of the barn and down the mainline for a test. (Well, as far as we could go with the ballast dump that had been done previously, see the track blog). There were no major problems with the run, a few things we'll want to check after it's run in revenue for a few weeks, but the inspection is done and the car will be ready for April 6.

This means that the next car will be able to come over and be inspected, and that's good. We can get back on track with things now (no pun intended), and hopefully, no more blown up grids.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joel Ahrendt

P.S. If i miss anything or any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I will gladly add anything that needs to be added.