Illinois Railway Museum Blog

For the last two weekends, Richard Schauer and I have been continuing to clean the interior of the SF 614.  The seats have received two passes with the vinyl cleaner/rejuvenator, the floors have been scrubbed, most of the gum has been scraped from the floor, the walls and heating ducts along the floor have been washed.  We still need to do the fixtures and step wells, but it is looking great inside.  We need to do just a little more work on the mechanical end – we hope to pull the coach out under its own power later this year.  It does need a set of tires, which we also hope to get by the end of the year.  The Seattle 633 is also scheduled to get tires this year.  Later on Saturday we were going to pull the five coaches out of the Andersen Garage for the model railroaders to set up for Thomas.  Unfortunately there was an issue with the Edmonton 181’s compressor.  Richard somehow squirmed his way underneath and into the bowels of the coach and made temporary repairs.  This pushed back the switch move to Sunday.

Richard literally INSIDE the Edmonton 181.  He can barely be seen right in the middle of the picture

Sunday saw us working outside the department for most of the day.  It was the 20^th Annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza, so we were geared up for a big crowd.  Richard took up position near the admission booth and fielded questions, problems, and generally helped out wherever and whenever needed (as usual).  I took pictures and videos in the morning and helped Julie Piesciuk with the CTA sign sales table in the afternoon.  We had a very good day, raising almost $1,000.  In the evening, Richard and I did the delayed movement of the coaches outside for Thomas.  The 181 and CTA 9553 went smoothly.  When we went to move the Seattle 4020, we discovered, much to our chagrin, that we left the battery on the last time we pulled it out.  It was stone dead.  Luckily Tom Hunter came by and graciously lent us the Track Department’s battery charger and the coach fired right up.  Thanks so much Tom!!!!  The rest (Seattle 633 and Dayton 925) moved with no issues.  All five coaches are now outside until the final day of Thomas.  Stop by and take a photo if you are in the neighborhood.