Illinois Railway Museum Blog

A very long and very hot weekend.  They had predicted rain Sunday afternoon and most of Monday , but none of that happened during our operating hours.  Much ado and activity regarding the Trolley Parade and we also hosted a Large Scale Trolley modeling event as has been our custom in recent years.  Not too much time for me to lug around the camera and snap images, burning electrons along the way, but here is one of the modelers group.

Modelers Group

There was also a lot of other activity in many areas.

John Frett has been working hard to do some maintenance and painting on the Thrall Door car, and trust me, painting on the roof in the recent hot weather is no picnic.

We finally had a chance to begin maintenance and inspections Saturday, for our freight car and caboose fleet.  Time was cut short due to an Electric Car Department meeting so we did not manage to complete even one car in good working order.  Thanks to Victor Humphreys, Gerry Dettloff, and 'visiting fireman' David Johnston from California for the fine work.  By way of example, there was accumulated water in some of the journal boxes requiring they be pumped out and refilled with fresh oil.  A crack in the coupler on the UP caboose, meaning a change in the wind there.  Two bad angle cocks, stuck hand brakes, missing brake shoes, one bad journal box cover, and the list goes on.

For the Sand Springs 68, the final ceiling light fixture has been repaired and installed.

I also managed to continue applying lettering on the URTX 26640.  Forty five characters, which seemed little enough, placed in the context of how much goes on the side of that car.

The wood shop crew took the bait and we now have four newly glazed drop sash windows for the CA&E 409 and they are installed.  Thanks in large measure to Rich Witt and Kirk Warner!

By Monday afternoon I started tackling some of the work needed to remove the defective coupler from UP 3786.  I had a very able assistant in the person of Gwyn Stupar.  Heavy wrenches, stuck bolts, and broken parts.