Nick, Joe, Charlie and I went to Cleveland to prepare the 36 & 319 for
Silk Road which will load the cars on Monday. The trucks come mid week and
the cars will not be shipped until next week due to permits and Christmas.This trip was short notice and that's an understatement, Nick called me at
one thirty in the afternoon Friday the 18th and said that the cars will be loaded on
Monday the 21st, then I called Charlie and Joe, within a few hours of finding out we were
on the way to Cleveland. We arrived in Cleveland around two am Saturday morning,
got a few hours sleep at the Red Roof in and unwillingly woke up at seven thirty
am Saturday. Grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to Brookpark to meet with Tim
and Ken which already had the 303 pumped up and ready to do some switching.
Thankfully Tim is a fan of IRM and allowed us to work in the shop which was
heated, well lit and had a full length pit. The plan was made and we quickly got
to work knowing that we only had till two pm to get this done and if not
finished we were going to work outside in the snow. Charlie and Nick went to the
roof and removed bases and poles along with Tim. Joe and I went deep and removed
brake rigging and motor leads along with labeling everything. Once this was done
Nick, Charlie, Tim and Joe removed pilots and steps from one end of each car. We
also took down the globes and secured anything that may break while in transit.
We got done around three pm and cleaned up, put tools away and washed up, then
went to lunch with Tim. After lunch we hit the road and headed west toward
Chicago and when I got home I passed out and woke up Sunday afternoon.
This is one of two trips to Cleveland for preparing the cars to ship
and the next time will involve much more work. Three cars which are all complete
and one even has a pan to remove. This again will be extremely short notice and
I hope to get one or two more guys to come and help. Tim will attempt to move
the 451/460 to Central Rail this week to install the rebuilt DH25 onto the 451.
Once that happens he will bring both cars to the terminal and get the remaining
steel cars. The 451/460 and 409 as a half motor will pull the two dead cars all
the way to Brookpark and round two begins.
Here are some photos taken this weekend. IRM is soliciting donations to cover the costs of transportation of these cars from Cleveland, Ohio to Union, Illinois, please consider a donation today.
Stan Wdowikowski
Comments
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]