Entries by Ray Piesciuk

The weekend's work:  We continued cleaning the interior of the SF 614 while Howard Geier continued buffing the outside.  It's really starting to look nicer - the work is paying off!  I was filming for the June episode of IRM-TV, Richard Scahuer worked on the nagging problems plaguing the singles, and Jerry Saunders was involved with the massive switch move.  Next weekend we plan on completing the maintenance of the overhead switches and getting the line back into service.  We may also try and tackle reattaching the poles to the 614.  Today I took the department truck (the Dodge Locomotive) into Tim's right in Union for some work.  The service was outstanding - he earns the TB Dept. "highly recommended" seal of approval.  Thanks Tim!!!

The Snowflake Special was today and it was great!  The equipment used was a 6 car train made up entirely of 2200s, the oldest in the fleet.  We traversed parts of every line, traveled in every subway and visited some rarely seen yard trackage.  We started at Rosemont northbound for our first photo stop at O’Hare, then headed back south.  We pulled into Foster middle track (former Jefferson Park yard) for photo run-bys at Jefferson Park and Addison.  Then into the loop and out to 63rd St. lower yard.  A rare opportunity for a passenger train.  At that point we headed back to the loop for our lunch stop.  After lunch we went on the Orange line for a photo opportunity at 35th/Archer.  Afterward we headed down into the State St. subway and up to Howard, then to Skokie Shops.  The CTA was kind enough to park a pair of 5000s for us to see as we entered the yard.  After some switching, we headed down the Skokie test track.  The CTA guys thought that this was the first passenger train to ever go down the test track.  Don’t know if that is true (there have been a LOT of fantrips dating way back), but it sure was a highlight for us.  We headed back to Howard for a restroom break and to do a few loops around Howard yard, then up to Linden to loop that yard also.  Then it was back down toward the loop, then over parts of the green, pink, and finally blue line for the trip back to Rosemont.  Of course the afternoon was littered with photo stops including a thrilling one where our train paced a revenue train southbound into Belmont.  Thanks to our CTA crew it came off without a hitch and the collection of photographers at the south end of the Belmont platform was incredible.  What a great way to spend a day as I’m sure the approx. 280 passengers will attest to.  David Harrison did a great job getting the ball rolling and working with Bob Heinlein and the CTA came up with a great routing plan.

The trip was a fundraiser to get the 2000s inside the next barn.  The good news is we are about half way there!  The challenge is that they still need donations.  Please consider donating to the “2000s Fund” as they are the only Chicago Rapid Transit equipment in the museum’s collection that is still stored outside.  Great job David, Bob, Richard Schauer coordinating ticket sales, today’s IRM volunteer car captains, our fantastic CTA crew who made sure the day went smoothly, and most of all those of you who supported this trip with such enthusiasm that we had to put an additional 2 cars on the train to accommodate everyone who wanted to ride.  The museum and the 2000s THANK YOU!!!!!

After spending the morning filling the last of the Snowflake Special ticket orders, Richard and I decided that we would make some inaugural runs for 2010.  We took the Edmonton 181, the Seattle 4020 and CTA 9553 out for a couple trips each.  Mike and Tom Morrow were in from Michigan and Ohio respectively for the Snowflake trip tomorrow, so they rode along.  Tom runs trolleybuses.net and has been very complimentary in his treatment of IRM in the world of trolleybuses and Mike has been a great supporter of us for many years.  It was great to see them again and to have them along on the first trips of the year.  Next weekend Richard and I plan to finish up measurements of the last few pieces for the roster, then video our overhaul of a retriever.  This will give us a permanent record of the procedure for our archives,  and we will be able to share this info with Sandtoft (England – home of another Edmonton BBC) and perhaps other museums.  Sorry no pictures, I just shot video today.