Trolley Bus Department

Here’s a synopsis of what has been taking place in the Trolley Bus Department over the last several weeks.  Yesterday Bob Bourne came in from Iowa and operated Chicago Marmon 9553 in the afternoon.  We are planning on running that coach again for Chicago Day in 2 weeks.  While that was going on, we were visited by (Regular Member #1) Charlie King, which spurred Richard Schauer and Jerry Saunders to drill and mount brand new trolley boards on the CSL 84 and reconnected the trolley poles/bases.  The newly refurbished air compressor came back to life and sounded great!  We are working on getting some wheel studs to reattach the curbside rear wheels in order to get it rolling again.

In previous weeks, Richard Schauer and I have been going through our stored parts, looking for where we can consolidate and rearrange.  Howard Geier spent Memorial Day weekend working on the Curbliner (Des Moines), most notably getting the temporary back doors ready for glass installation.  We have also dedicated a couple weekends toward getting the New York subway cars closer than ever to being added to the operating fleet.  Recent steps forward were attaching retrievers for both trolley poles, and doing a thorough and much needed cleaning of the interior.  There is a little more cleaning left to do as well as a few more loose ends to tie up.  Look for them in the Trolley Pageant next month and in service, dare I say, by the end of the season???  (Reminder:  These cars are still carrying a debt.  If you can, please consider a contribution to the "NY Subway Cars" fund.  We would love to get them a decent coat of paint.)

Sorry I haven’t taken pictures for a while.  I’ll try and get some for the next entry.

This is an example of an Edmonton BBC trolley coach. This photo was taken in 1999 and is representative of the coach that will soon be providing service here at IRM!

It has now been two weeks since my term as Director and President has expired, so it’s been back to work in the Trolley Bus Department.  Over the last month or so, we have been working on putting away miscellaneous parts that we have accumulated from Dayton, Toronto and other various sources.  We will need to continue to do this at an accelerated pace since the Board just approved our acquisition of an Edmonton Transit System (ETS) BBC trolley coach!  Originally their system was scheduled to close in 2010 so we have had periodic and very informal contact with them about the possibility of sometime in the future acquiring a coach.  Well Edmonton’s city counsel decided to suddenly and drastically move that schedule up and to make a long story short, their system closed last weekend.  ETS contacted us to let us know they would be willing to donate a coach to us for preservation.  We moved quickly on the acquisition form and presented it to the Board last night.  I’d like to thank the Board for having the foresight to approve this acquisition.

Pictured is the newly installed roof equipment on the Redbirds. Although they did not sport poles in regular service, having them will allow us to run these cars in service, giving our visitors the experience of riding the only preserved NY subway cars outside of the NE United States.

In addition to working within the department, volunteer resources of the Trolley Bus Department have been on loan to the New York Subway Cars (the “Redbirds”) project.  Richard Schauer and I (mostly Richard) have been assisting Jerry Saunders in preparing for his 12 year long dream to come true – having the New York subway cars in the operating fleet.  We are very close!  Over the last several weeks, poles have been put on the cars to allow them to operate.  Extensive testing and troubleshooting has been done and yesterday they made 3 trips around the carline and 4 on the main line with ZERO problems!!!  The goal is to get them ready for the 4^th of July trolley pageant, then shortly thereafter get them into service.  Several YouTube videos have been posted by a number of different people.

Part of the Redbirds crew including the supervisor, Alco.

Since the Trolley Bus technical crew will be giving the Redbirds a final tune-up on the pit for the next couple weeks, the rest of us will be continuing in earnest to get the garages clean, organized and ready for the imminent arrival of the BBC coach.  Our first scheduled service day is Saturday, June 6 so we will be spending Memorial Day weekend doing inspections.

I'd like to start by thanking Jamie for setting up this section of the website.  It allows each department to take on the responsibility of keeping website visitors updated on department happenings.  I've appreciated reading about projects in other departments - I hope postings here will keep everyone sufficiently informed about our department.

The year started out on a sad note as on January 04 we said our final goodbye to the founder of the department, the person who acquired the core of our collection, and the person who our garage is named for, Glenn Andersen.  I was honored to be one of the pallbearers along with department regulars Richard Schauer, Jerry Saunders and Charlie King.  This year has not been the same without the knowledge, advice and history that Glenn had provided us over the previous ten years since his retirement.  He is sorely missed.

Glenn with the attendees at his garage dedication day October 01, 2005

Throughout the winter, the main project was working on seats for the 84.  With help from Bob Kutella and the woodshop guys, we were able to reproduce seat bottoms and backs needed.  Richard Schauer was instrumental in getting this project under way and coordinating with the Woodshop to get this done.  In July, Dick Lukin was able to procure a large quantity of seat material very close to the original from a manufacturer in Chicago.  Our next step is to continue with the seats by making the metal frame and springs as well as the stuffing material.  We also have new trolley boards that are ready to be mounted atop the coach.

In March, Richard and I took a trip up to Seattle to load our newest acquisition, Seattle M-A-N articulated trolley coach 4020.  Richard had been working for many months prior to that, ironing out the details of the acquisition as well as transportation.  Once there we were also able to go through other M-A-N coaches in the boneyard and pick up some spare parts.  The guys we worked with up there went out of their way to accommodate us as far as spare parts.  The coach was loaded to the gills with invaluable items.  We got it loaded onto the flatcar on March 03.  It then made a long, strange trip to the museum, finally arriving on April 12.  Richard did a quick inspection and finding that it arrived in fantastic shape, we put up the poles and took it for its initial spin around the loop in front of the Andersen Garage.  It has been in service often throughout the 2008 season, and you can look for it again in 2009.

Seattle M-A-N on Arrival Day

On June 21 the Andersen Garage was transformed into a theatre where Bob Heinlein gave presentations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the demise of the streetcar system in Chicago.  Several hundred visitors enjoyed the informative presentations.  We also provided trolley coach service for the visitors.

Although we did not have a regular schedule for service, we were able to provide rides for our visitors on several days throughout the year.  In 2009 we are back to our regular schedule of the first Saturday in June, July, September and October.  We will also provide unscheduled service on other days as availability and equipment permits.

In November, Richard and I did another road trip.  This time up to Toronto.  The Halton County Museum is where we acquired our TTC Flyer 9339.  They had another Flyer in worse condition that they decided to scrap.  They were nice enough to give us first crack at grabbing any spare parts that we might need for the 9339.  We spent a couple days tearing the coach apart.  The guys at Halton gave us an incredible amount of help and support.  We would not have been able to get as much done as we did without their help.

Thanks again to Jamie for this new communication medium.  I will do my best to update happenings in the department on an ongoing basis.