Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Trolley wire has been installed on the connector track. This allows electric operation from barns/yards 6, 7 and 8 directly to South Junction and the carline.  The zig zag moves using the tail track and crossing the Carline at the diamond with the movement against normal traffic flow can all be avoided.

I know it may appear that nothing is getting done in D/C line, that is because often the work being done is invisible to the visitor. Parts need to be reconditioned.  Budgets are better than what they were 30 years ago but these projects are expensive.  I am running out of some parts.  Projects like this one take several budget-years to accumulate materials before anything tangeble can be seen.  The volunteers are spread so thin now days that I am usually working alone.  I hope this "bloging" will encourage some new volunteers to A/C-D/C line.  I am proud of what I get done here.  Come join me.  You don't need an appointment... just show up.

New anchors, down guys and frog pulloffs at Central Ave.  This is the main anchorage for wire in yards 7,8 and connector track.

close up of frog pulloffs.

I began work on this project over two years ago when poles were set and guy anchors installed.  Completion of the connector track overhead directly effects improvements to the mess of loose overhead in yards 6,7 and 8.  It's all a big spiderweb of span wire, most of it not properly served.  The yards 6,7,8 project is another story. Those yards are already much improved by the replacement of rotten poles and installation of several new tight cross spans.  Several of these cross spans support wire on the connector track and all three yards.  New anchors, down guys and several frog pulloffs were installed North of Central Ave allowing the wire in all three yards and connector track to be pulled up tight.  This also straightened the "groink" in the trolley bus line at the crossing.

Typical down guy

Good tight overhead wire starts with solid anchorage.  That, has been a problem.  In the early days of IRM we had to "make do" with whatever materials we could procure.  This often meant not too rusty second hand parts, old but still sound poles and crossarms.  Occasionally, our friends at the local electric utility would "lose hardware" in the field or "clean" the storeroom and we would get some good stuff.  Often we had to make do with smaller or less hefty material than what was preferred  Materials we couldn't get for free we had to buy with the little money we had.  We bought cheaper materials, the smallest that would do the job.  Combined that with a lack of experience and you get guy anchors creeping out of the ground over time, down guys getting loose,  used poles rotting.  Those practices in the past resulted in loose sagging overhead today.  Fortunately, thanks to our visitors and supporters IRM has grown to the point where we can afford to buy the right materials and with our dedicated volunteer we can begin fixing the problem areas.

View showing attachment to anchor using three bolt clamps.

8 inch anchor helix and 5/8 rod assembly.

The first part of the project involved providing a good anchorage.  Over a couple of years  new 30 and 35 foot class 4 wood poles were purchased and installed.  Some were replacing rotted poles along the South side of yard 8.  Wherever poles were replaced that required guying, new anchors and down guys were also installed.  The typical guy installation consists of a 4" square curved washer, 3/4" machine bolt, a guy hook (hog ear) with lag, 5/16" EHS galvanized guy wire, 1 porcelain strain insulator(johnney ball), 5/8"x7' anchor rod with thimbleye nut and a single 8" anchor helix.  Attachment to the anchor is made with 2 three bolt clamps( this allows future adjustment).  Attachment to the hog ear and johnney ball are made with preformed deadends.  Normally, guy and span wire attachments to insulators and hardware,here at IRM, are made by the serving method using softer Siemens Martin grade wire.  This is in keeping with our desire to maintain a historical motife.  Experience has shown that down guys here at IRM are subject to such abuse that the strength of EHS wire is necessary.  EHS wire is too stiff to be served so, preformed deadends or guy clamps are used.    A fullround steel guy guard is attached at the ground end to both protect the guy from damage and make the guy wire more visible to pedestrians.

Looking North from South Junction tight wire around the curve note the flat profile

AGC hangers carry the pulloffs for the Carline S curve over the new wire

At the South end of the track was a slight curve.  Span wire was installed between three poles on the outside of the curve this is the "backbone" for pulloffs which guide the trolley wire around the curve.  Four bracket arms were installed on the new 35 foot poles.  4/0 grooved hard drawn copper trolley wire was pulled in and tied off.

View of curve showing pulloffs served up permannent.

New frog and section insulator at Carline S curve.

A new trolley frog and section insulator were cut in on the carline at the South end of the first "S" curve.  The new trolley wire was deadended on the section insulator.  Now the new trolley wire could be pulled up close to sag and tied off at the North end.  Before the wire could be brought up to full tension,  the pulloffs on the curve had to be installed and pulled up to near final position.  Also, the track 83 trolley frog had to be removed so that a section of the track 84 wire could be unspliced and swung over to the connector track.  Doing this would avoid having to make several splices.

Wire from track 84 was unspliced and moved over the connector track.

With the former track 84 wire over the connector track, the new wire could be sucked up to final sag and spliced together thus energizing the new wire.  Next the pulloffs on the curve were adjusted to their final position and all spans were served up permanent.  The last thing to do was clip the tangent poles allowing the track to be put into service.

New wire spliced to old track 84 wire.

Typical pulloff on curve.

Close up of pulloff attachment to trolley wire.

Close up of how pulloff is attached to back bone.