Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Make your plans now, exactly six months until Christmas!

On the Pit

Many of you know that my 'life project' at IRM has been restoration of the Sand Springs 68.  This past Wednesday and Saturday the car was able to operate to place it on our inspection pit for annual maintenance and lubrication.  The plan is to include this car in our upcoming July 4 Trolley Parade, pending good weather.

The members of the Electric Car Department are laboring long and hard to present an event that has not been equaled, lots of appearances and operation by rare equipment!  You do not want to miss it.

Brass

In the shop we are continuing to finish and polish brass hardware which will be installed inside the SS 68, now that the many of the other restoration tasks near completion.  A pattern was created by our forces and new castings made to replace missing seat handles.  Lots of filing, sanding, and then the polishing wheel to yield a mirror like shiny finish.

On the Street

We are all eagerly noting progress on the large project to add underground utilities and infrastructure to Depot Street.  Max Tyms is down in one of the new precast concrete vaults.

Setting the Collars

The vaults are set in place and the backfilling done.  Today the task was to set the cast iron collars and manhole covers.

The process was to set and level bricks to establish what would be the finished level of the completed manhole.  With those set, a cast iron frame was set and the cover placed into it.  In this case vintage covers from the Chicago City Railways are being used.  CCRys was the operating transit company on the south side of Chicago, before they were all merged to form the public CTA in the 1940's.  So at a minimum this cover could not have been cast more recently than almost 70 years ago.  Sharp eyed visitors will also see other examples of this element in Chicago transit history at other locations on the property.

Roofwork

Tim Peters continues on the massive restoration of Chicago Rapid Transit 1797.  Here is the roof at the east end of the car.  Wood has been repaired and consolidated, sanded and smoothed for the eventual installation of a new canvas roof.