Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Welcome to the Electric Car Department Update.

You might realize that I didn't update things last week. Well, that was the weekend of the Safety Meeting, Rules Test, and the Annual Meeting. Those pretty much consumed the weekend, with some work being done on Sunday on the usual Suspects. The biggest news would be that CTA 3142 has been moved off of the pit, and released for service.

CNS&M 160 made it's way over to the pit for the undercarriage inspection. That started last week, and concluded over this past weekend. By Sunday afternoon, the car was for the most part finished, and moved back to Barn 6. The two CNS&M (160 and 714) still have to be sequenced before they can be run together, but that should take place next weekend.

CA&E 431 was the next car over to the pit. There were some rope replacements, and other little bits that were done on this car.

The "L" guys worked on the inspections of the 4000, which will conclude this Thursday and Friday if all goes well. Painting of parts for the 4000's continued as well.

Along with the Yard 5 moves that have been going on, the S-105 has moved temporarily to yard 6, and the ITC caboose moved onto the 40 track.

On a more personal note... running the coach train on Saturday was a day that, as one trainman said, "took the romance out of railroading." It was quite windy with ice or sleet or some sort of stuff hitting as we pushed backwards. On the plus side there were good crowds out considering the weather on Saturday for the "Scrap-a-train" day. The next event is the Electric Car Department shop tours on Saturday.