Freight Car Department

MUG  -  A  -  PALOOZA

If any of you have not tumbled to the fact that IRM is working hard to build another Barn, you must be living on another planet.  There is great excitement on campus and this is THE topic of conversation.  No less in my Freight Car Department, than the other equipment departments.

A little background on me.  I never campaigned or sought the position as Collection Curator for these cars.  The previous head of this department  worked for a railroad, and was in a tragic accident that cost him his life.  I was asked to step in.  How hard could it be?  The answer of course it is that is very hard, much more work than ever imagined, and something that has consumed much of my time at IRM and in my life.

Since I took over we have found many dedicated and willing volunteers who are not only hard working but share the vision of preserving history.  In my short history as Curator of these cars, we have completed TWENTY FIVE restorations and done work on countless others to keep them movable, operational, able to be displayed in operating trains.  None of this is my work alone, it is a team effort and we try to focus on attainable results in an organized and timely basis.

It can be difficult and yet rewarding.  The sad part of the story is even as we have our successes, we see some cars remaining outdoors, stored in the weather, continuing to deteriorate, making the work in the future harder and more costly, and in some cases threatening the very future of these cars.  Some are becoming in such desperate condition that they may not be around in another five years.  That is why we have the universal excitement that another Barn is to be built.  We will have another opportunity to protect the equipment in the collection, a facet that is core to the very fabric of IRM.

Here is the deal.  We have received a donated collection of coffee mugs, each unique, and with a railroad theme.  Two are examples from international preservation efforts, the rest from Amtrak and US railroads.  Many commemorate the Operation Lifesaver safety program or other anniversaries and events.  We need to raise more money to protect the cars and are offering one of these mugs as a small thank you for your donation.

Mugs 1 to 7

1.Amtrak Rail Safety - May 1996 - Colorado

2.Amtrak Midwest Passenger Service

3.BNSF Operation Lifesaver

4.The Coffee Pot - Steam Motor Coach.  Pichi Richi Railway, Quorn, South Australia

5.Blennerville Tralee, Ireland

6. Operation Lifesaver Mug with saucer

7. Amtrak Safety - Chicago Terminal - with 'sippy lid' cover

Mugs 8 to 14

8. BNSF Operation Lifesaver carafe with lid

9. Amtrak Great Trains of the West

10. Amtrak Operation Redblock

11. Amtrak

12. Amtrak - Capitol Limited

13. Burlington Route 150th anniversary - 1849-1999

14. BNSF Operation Lifesaver

The rules are simple.  Submit a donation of $100 (OR MORE) to save this equipment in our department.  Donations from this date forward will qualify.  If by mail send to

Illinois Railway Museum

Box 427

Union, IL 60180

Designate your donation to restricted fund RISWFC.  That is - to be applied to saving cars in the Freight Car Department.  Indicate your choices for a mug to be sent back to you; first second, and third choices would be best, in case some are already gone.  You will have our thanks, our appreciation, and a commemorative mug.

You may also donate on line from this website, and please select the indoor storage option for the Freight Car Department.  Also please send an e mail to the office to Jan Nunez at jnunez@irm.org    Indicate you wish to take advantage of this THANK YOU offer, ask Jan to print out your email and leave a copy in my IRM mailbox.  And do not forget to indicate your choice of the thank you premium.

It is unlikely that each needy car will gain enough money fast enough to meet the subscription cost of space in this new Barn.  So some or many may be left out and the money waiting for the next Barn project.  By selecting the above fund, you defer the tough choice to me and my department.  This money will be used to fill up or top off a fund balance for a car needing protection on a priority basis.  It will stretch your donation farther, and assure it will be gainfully employed to protect our equipment in Barn 14.

I hope the mugs will soon be all gone, so act fast.  First come first served, while supplies last.  Of course you may donate without claiming a mug, so this offer will last longer and raise more protection money faster for more cars.  HMMM.  The phrase 'protection money' may be more appropriate than I thought considering our location near Chicago.

THANK YOU

Bob Kutella, Collection Curator

I recently asked for volunteer help to document cars in our collection where the lettering and other important information is succumbing to the weather.  I had two replies from folks that had some interest in helping but no results, and winter is coming on.

This week I had a very pleasant surprise from long time member Kevin Brown.  THANK YOU KEVIN!!!  Kevin took it upon himself to photograph and improve our records for the MILWAUKEE ROAD 970954 covered hopper.

The Whole Picture

Here is the north side of the car (the best side), and you can only see the shadow or hint of where much of the lettering once was.  Kevin trooped out to Yard 14, took several images, and sent me very good prints.  WOW!

Details

In this view of one area, even a good photo will not allow us to reproduce the entire text and data.  Look above the white dot symbol and tell me what is there.  What was put in the area of the consolidated inspection blocks?  Kevin was unable to get a good spot to record the ends of the car with photos.  So the work is not done.

As good as these photos are, there is a process to reproducing any of the lettering on a repainted car.  We need good measurements for placement of the blocks of lettering.  In the case of the above image, I would take a heavy black Sharpee marker and ruler and carefully trace the shadows remaining so they are legible.  Then I would recommend taking a sheet of mylar, again with ruler, and trace over the Sharpee letters with pencil to have a full size hard copy of what remains.  Include the size or height of each letter line, the spacing between lines, and measurements to reference points on the car for placement.

With this info, I can redraw and clean up the tracing, and cut it out.  This should be done for each block or large character on the car.  We can work to some degree with these very good photos but it is inexact due to the angle of the pics not being 100% dead on straight.  Not a criticism of Kevin, but without some help or a ladder to use, it can be difficult.  Anyone out there in webland with PHOTOSHOP and the software skills could help here by 'correcting' for parallax and shoot angle.  And when taking the pics it would help a lot for corrections if two yardsticks, ruler, or homemade story boards were placed at right angles, sort of framing the lettering block.  The real goal is for a record as exact and accurate as possible. 

And Kevin put his money where his mouth is by including a substantial donation to fund R97054.  The other part of the equation is that I have been assured that we have money on hand to place this car inside the next Barn.  But as previously mentioned, it has not yet cleared all acquisition charges and track space, so it is not 'eligible' to go inside in a  technical sense.  Several donations have been received into this car fund since my first request for help to clear the red ink and we are on the way.  Please do not let this car be left out in the cold.

And of course this is not the only piece of equipment where DISAPPEARING DATA continues.  We cannot as a Museum let this happen to other pieces, yet I have limited time and ability.  It is not challenging, hard, physical labor and if you contact me in advance, I will furnish material and instruction on exactly what is needed.