Illinois Railway Museum Blog

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

For the majority of the day, we 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.