Hicks Car Works

One Down

2012-01-28T19:07:00.008-06:00

Electrical repairs on car 36 are still the main priority right now, so I brought out the first MU socket kit to install. Because this one has a very short run of armored cable, I needed some brief help from Dan Fenlaciki to get the parts to line up, but here it is attached to the car.

And here's what the #2 junction box looks like after all the connections are made. Compare this picture to the previous one. Installation wasn't at all difficult; the mock-up junction box at home made it easy to have all the wires just about the right length.

When Frank arrived, he helped me sequence the system and check all the connections. Here we have a light box which can be connected across various combinations of terminals in the jumper to verify that everything was wired properly and insulated. So that's one down, and three to go!

He then got pulled off to help with a switch move, even in the dead of winter. The 1797 needed to be wyed so Tim can continue, and here it is on its way back to the pit. You can barely see Tim giving signals as the L4 pushes it in.

But I had plenty to do in the meantime, various details to take care of. The roof fuse box is in pretty good shape, and Frank took it to the shop to clean up and repaint. I cut out the remaining pieces of armored cable to take home, so the three remaining kits can be made. We're making good progress.

Can you keep a secret? No, I didn't think so either. Well, there are a couple of projects in the works I can't tell you about yet, but maybe later. So don't go away!

36 Update

2012-01-26T18:41:00.001-06:00

We now have the correct size armored cable and fittings to install the wiring to the control jumper receptacles, so I spent a couple of hours fitting parts and cutting pieces to shape. It's not all done, but there's enough for me to take home and work on. And I did some more paint stripping, and helped Rod clean up the shop a little. Sorry, no pictures, but maybe tomorrow I'll have some of the new material assembled here at home.

Update: Here we have the first box attached to the armored cable, with the wires trimmed and connected to the toy connector box. All connector lugs are soldered, and all connections tested. It's ready to install.

Wheaton to Highwood

2012-01-23T09:39:00.005-06:00

I hadn't been out to the museum in a couple of months due to an increased work schedule and other commitments, but I was able to make it out on Sunday and help out my father a bit on the 36. The first task was to ring out the control circuits from the controllers to the junction boxes under the platforms. This was done successfully; all wiring into the controllers is intact and in good shape. We also answered a question we'd had about the 600v power supply to the controller at the #2 end. Above right, my father inspects the junction box under the #1 end of the car.

After that I sanded down a couple more windows for the 36 and then headed over to North Shore 757, where a crew of people including project manager Gwyn Stupar, husband Joe, Greg Kepka and Joel Ahrendt were hard at work removing the heater covers from the smoker. This car had the original flooring in the smoker replaced with cheesy linoleum while at a different museum and the last of this linoleum was ripped out Sunday in preparation for replacement with rubberized flooring matched to the original material in the car's main compartment (this material is already on hand). At left, Joe and Gwyn work on removing the last seat frame prior to taking out the heater covers. I spent a little while helping and, with everyone pitching in, by the end of the day the smoker was completely empty.

And at right, here's something interesting: a plastic brake shoe! This is an example of rapid prototyping and was created using a machine that effectively functions as a 3D printer. It is a prototype for a brake shoe for CTA 3142. Just don't try to use this one in regular service.

More Electrical Work

2012-01-21T16:27:00.009-06:00

This seemed like a good day to work at home. I rewired the second jumper receptacle, using the same process as before. Then I built a toy junction box and cut the other end of the connections to the right length to attach them to the terminals. I also rechecked the connections electrically, since we don't have the luxury of color-coded wire.

And then I completed development of the amazing new Hicksco DB-15 Contactor Testing Station (patent pending) as seen here. It should be possible to test the operation of the contactor coils on 120V AC. The coil is activated by means of an ordinary push button wall switch, and the bulb will light up when the contactor tips close. Unfortunately, this contactor has a coil which I knew to be bad, so the tester works better than the contactor. But I'll take it out to the Museum and try it there. Most of the other contactors are good, I believe.

In any case, would anybody have some leads on an electrical shop that might be willing to rewind a coil or two for us?

Making Connections

2012-01-20T17:10:00.011-06:00

I went out to the Museum yesterday but didn't take any pictures. Mostly I was checking some dimensions, and looked at the control wiring some more. And I collected various parts to take home, so I can work on rewiring the control jumper receptacles in comfort. I may pass on going out again tomorrow, as the snow is still falling even as we speak.

This is what the receptacle casting looks like, with the spring-loaded door propped open. The inner diameter is about 5". This is a standard GE part. The number of pins varies for different control systems.

The pins are mounted in a thick Bakelite frame, as seen here.

The pins are screwed onto solder terminals, which are inserted from the back. The terminals have a hex shape, and fit snugly into the base, so disassembling it is actually pretty easy. Here are the various parts. For unknown reasons, at Cleveland two of these receptacles were rewired and connected together with about 30' of 16 gauge wire, which is too small for regular use. So it needs to be replaced.

So let's drill a few holes in a block of scrap wood, unsolder the old wires, and solder our nice new 12 gauge 2000V wire into them.

After about an hour of work, all the soldering has been done, and here's a test assembly of the completed receptacle.

Next I need the 1" inside diameter armored cable and the appropriate connectors, which should be arriving soon, thanks to Rod Turner. I will also build a replica connector board and attach the lugs at the other end of the wires. And in theory, this will minimize the amount of work that needs to be done under the car. It's quite preferable to do as much as possible in my nice warm workroom while listening to, for instance, Richard Strauss!

Back to Work

2012-01-16T22:45:00.007-06:00

First of all, we'd like to thank everyone who helped out with the World's Greatest Hobby show last weekend. Ray Bellock and Sam Polonetzky worked all day Sunday, and I already mentioned the people who worked on Saturday. Ed Rosengren is in charge of the other train shows we have a presence at, and all the members who help him deserve credit too.

So first, I dropped off the various items we used for the display.

And I continued working on replacing the control jumper receptacles and their wiring on the 36. The receptacles are on hand, along with nearly all the parts, and I should be able to start soldering them up at home soon. Rod acquired some armored cable, but I had given him some misleading information, and we'll need a different size. After some more measurements, we're probably on the right track.

Let's look at the junction boxes under the floor. (These pictures are looking straight up.) Here we have the box at the #1 end. There are ten terminals, for the nine wires in the control jumpers and the power supply for the controller. From the left, the cable from the controller enters the box. On the right, the upper cable goes to the #2 end, and the lower cable goes to the control group. There should also be two cables going to the left to the two receptacles at this end, but all of that was removed at Cleveland. Evidently they thought the wiring was bad.

The #2 end is similar, except that there's no cable to the control group, and therefore the power supply line is a separate red wire, which goes across the top. The cable to the #1 end goes to the left, and the cable to the controller goes to the right. At this end the cables to the receptacles were just hacked off, so I decided I might as well remove the remains now. The bolts were frozen, so it took a while.

After the excess wire is removed it's much neater. You get a better idea of just how it's connected. The various wires are color-coded as specified by GE.

I also spent a couple of hours stripping paint, as usual.

For a break, let's look at the ventilators. All other preserved wooden cars have "Utility" ventilators, so the 36 is an oddball. The ventilators have some louvers, covered by hinged metal plates sort of like chutes, as perhaps you can see here. There must have been some sort of little hook or casting at the top so the doors could be opened easily, but they have all disappeared. They can be pried open with some difficulty.

When closed, they look like this:

At some point I'll have to work on these. For normal operation, they can just be left open.

News from California

2012-01-15T10:57:00.009-06:00

From a regular reader of ours in California, Tony Gura, comes a report on the restoration of Indiana Railroad car 202, which is being restored at the Western Railway Museum as Portland Traction 4001, its later identity. This car is identical to our IRR 205, which is being cosmetically restored. Tony writes:

I visited the Western Railway Museum on Saturday and thought you might be interested in some pictures of their Indiana Railroad car 202 which just started being restored as Portland Traction 4001. The car is in good structural shape and the restoration is expected to last 2-2.5 years and the only work performed thus far has been to replace the roof and strip the interior. This car is a sister to Indiana Railroad 205, which is being restored by IRM from its Portland colors back to Indiana. Once complete, they are planning to use this car as their main car in service since it is built of steel, rather than wood, so it would handle the winter weather better and allow the other wood cars some well deserved rest.

PS You have inspired me to volunteer to help restore this car. I may not know how to do any work but they have a need for unskilled labor.

(All photographs courtesy Anthony Gura)

Report from Schaumburg

2012-01-14T20:38:00.002-06:00

The train show at Schaumburg went very well today. Attendance seemed to be good, and we had a lot of enthusiastic visitors. We handed out calendars and brochures and talked up the Museum as fast as we could. Here we see the morning crew: myself, Jon Habegger, and Buzz Morrissette. In the afternoon, Buzz had to leave and was replaced by Nancy Ring. It's not easy to compete with all the toy trains, but a good time was had by all! Expecially by the kids of all ages who got to ring the streetcar gong. They were probably driving the neighbors nuts!

By the way, there were several friends from IRM who were there as members of various model railroad groups: Bob Opal, Bill Thiel, Mike Pechous, Lee Evans, and maybe others.

So here's my scientific analysis of the comments we got by talking to the visitors. A lot of people had little kids, so it's not surprising that the most popular subject was Thomas. A lot of the people we talked to had been to Thomas before, had a great time, and were planning to return. That's a very good sign! Apart from that, the most common question, particularly among the adults, was whether steam would be running. Of course, we don't have a definite answer, but we said they're working as hard as they can, it's not easy, we're hoping it will be ready for testing, etc. But it's important. People in our area will drive down to Monticello, they'll fly to Colorado, they'll go almost anywhere to see operating steam. All I can say is that we support our friends in the Steam Dept. all the way!

Hey, you there! You have nothing better to do this Sunday. Come to the Schaumburg Convention Center and see some fantastic display layouts, buy a starter set for your grandchildren, buy some track or rolling stock for yourself, and stop in and say hello at the IRM booth. You'll be glad you did!

Our Booth

2012-01-13T12:25:00.002-06:00

I took the various items up to Schaumburg this morning and got them set up in our space, as seen here. There's a display board with a nice selection of pictures and the DVD player, which I borrowed from Ed Rosengren, boxes of calendars and brochures, and a demonstration controller, mounted on the base I made for it four years ago. (I'm still working on a mounting for the gong.) There's lots of other stuff being set up, including some fantastic display layouts, so be sure to stop in sometime over the weekend and say hello!

Last Fling

2012-01-12T09:03:00.006-06:00

A winter storm was widely predicted to be on the way, so everybody was outside yesterday, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to finish some last minute tasks. I helped with a switch move, and noticed here that John Faulhaber and Gerry Dettloff were working on the M-37, the TM container car. They wanted to fasten down the end of the new rubber membrane roof more securely.

That gave me an opportunity to take a picture of the container inside the car, as best I could. It gives a good idea of how the container fits into the car, rolling on small wheels along the two sills, which you can just make out. Of course, the doors to the container itself are missing.

And on the pit lead, Frank Kehoe and Tim Peters were steam-cleaning the underbody of the 1797, in preparation for mechanical overhaul. This is a lot more exciting in action, I must say. All the encrusted crud that accumulates on these cars over the years makes quite a mess.

There was more paint removal on the 36; as usual, it's hard to photograph inside the barn. Rod got me a spool of wire of just the right type for replacing the wiring to the missing control receptacles and other parts of the system, and we'll be ordering the armored cable once I determine the exact measurements.

While we're at it, let's look at the inside. Along with the 319 and maybe some others, this car had some interior paint stripping done at Cleveland as a test, I suppose. But it's very difficult to get all the paint out of the grain. And because the interior was last repainted when the car was rebuilt in 1946, we have no choice but to keep the current interior paint scheme. But it's interesting to see how well the original inlay has held up over 110 years.

And then I spent some time collecting boxes of calendars and brochures, and a demonstration controller, to take to the train show this weekend. Frank Sirinek also hunted down a streetcar gong I can use. Clang clang! The next post I write will be coming to you from Schaumburg. Several other volunteers and I will be representing your Museum there, so stop by and say hello!

Help Needed for Next Weekend

2012-01-08T12:00:00.006-06:00

As posted earlier, IRM will have a booth at the World's Greatest Hobby show at the Schaumburg Convention Center next weekend. We need additional volunteers to man the booth and hand out calenders and brochures, and generally talk up the Museum. I need at least one more person for Saturday, and two for Sunday. Please email me at randallhicks at wideopenwest dot com if you can help. You'll get in free, of course, and if we have at least two people you can take turns visiting all the other fascinating displays! This is your patriotic duty calling -- please help!

Take This Car to the Zoo

2012-01-07T19:48:00.012-06:00

Here at IRM, we can't let too many days go by without a huge switch move. Today the west end of Barn 4 was shuffled, so among other things the 141 was brought out into the sun. It looks great! It's getting very close to operation; Frank says we just have to get the brakes working, and he'll be ready to test the motors! It's not legible, I'm afraid, but the car is signed for Brookfield Zoo. Let's go!

I got to help a little by pushing track carts out of the way. That's always fun. And I helped unload some lumber that Tim brought in from the feed mill in Huntley. These are huge planks of white pine, 3x12, about 25' long. It took six or more of us to unload them, I don't even remember who all helped. Tim, Bill, Mike, Victor, Nancy, and myself. Tim will be cutting them down slightly to make running boards for the 1797.

Part of the time I was burning paint off the 36 again. I failed to take any pictures of this activity. But you're not missing much.

I installed the motor circuit fingers on the reverser, cleaned the coils, and rechecked the operation. Just like downtown!

I cleaned up the inside of the reverser cover and painted it with Glyptol; it was then set out in the sun to dry. At some point I need to clean and repaint the outside too.

Me and my shadow.

With the cover installed, the reverser looks like this. This should have been done before the car left Cleveland, but better late than never.

And I also took the kingpin from the #2 end over to our friends in the steam shop to straighten out. It's about 3' long and 2" in diameter.

Here we see Matt Dowd and Ralph running the big press to bend the pin. I wish I had a video of this thing in operation, it's hilarious. The hydraulic pump chugs along, driven by two rods with valve-gear-like motion, and there's a huge counterweight. What a blast! Anyhow, they straightened it out as well as anybody could, but it still doesn't drop down all the way. So I just don't know.

We will be jacking up the car at some point, so this problem will be solved sooner or later. As a matter of general principle, we here at your Museum refuse to admit defeat!

36 Report

2012-01-05T17:10:00.009-06:00

As an update to yesterday's post, I started by investigating a minor problem with the reverser: intermittent operation. I polished up the contact surfaces on the reverser some more, and it seems to operate reliably now. Here's a picture of the assembled controller. I have not yet installed the fingers for the motor circuits, but they don't affect the operation of the controller. It needs some more cleaning on the coils and other surfaces, I know.

The next electrical problem is that we aren't getting 600V power to the controller at the #2 end. I haven't yet traced this out, but it should not be difficult to fix. I'm also plotting the acquisition of various other parts we'll need before installing the contactors. For instance, Rod will be ordering the rubber grommets we need for the support bolts. Since the entire frame of a DB-15 contactor is live, it's necessary to insulate it from the bolts.

Much of the rest of the day was involved in stripping paint from the #1 end of the car, since there's room to work. Here we see the work in progress.

And it was a nice day for a walk, so I checked on the 321 again.

Jim Followell stopped by. He's getting ready to finish painting the 451, and he asked me about the controller cover for the 319. It's still over in Barn 2, and he'll shoot it at the same time as the car. I went over there with him to make sure we had the right part.

The vestibule is stunning. The fresh paint in this flash picture is nearly blinding.

By the way, back on the 36, there's an earlier version of green paint under the retriever bracket. I don't know how long this paint was there; I would have said all pictures of the car at Olmsted Falls had the darker green.

High School Grads

2012-01-05T16:57:00.004-06:00

Most of the CA&E cars had pretty much the same set of car cards when they left service, but today I noticed one in the 451 I hadn't seen before. It's hard to make out, but the label at the bottom gives an address for the Army recruiting station in Wheaton. So if you just graduated from Wheaton High, you could learn to be a surveyor, a radio announcer, a TV repairman, or a photographer. Now when I was in the Army, I learned a little about how to supervise a tank platoon, but that has had very little value in civilian life, I must say. Obviously I wasn't reading the right car cards.

Electrical Work

2012-01-04T18:16:00.004-06:00

Good progress was made today on car 36. I reassembled the reverser, tested it electrically, and verified that it will indeed reverse. John Faulhaber helped briefly with this. So that's an important step forward. I also checked that all the lights work, and got the buzzer working. Then I removed the bogus wiring that grounded the light circuits through the air pipes. The lights work fine when the original system is used, where the ground connection is made through the frame of the controller. And I did some preparatory work for installing contactors. So that's all pretty encouraging.

There will be more news and current pictures when I get home tomorrow night.

Forward In Reverser

2011-12-31T16:42:00.012-06:00

With a few hours' work, we were able to complete most of the work required on the reverser for car 36. Rod Turner supplied some special putty for building up the broken part of the insulator board, and fixed and reassembled it. It looks good and should be strong enough to stand up to the forces imposed by the fingers as the frame rocks back and forth.

I sand-blasted all of the surface rust and crud off the rocker frame itself, as seen here. It was probably always bare metal, but we decided it couldn't hurt to paint it with Glyptal, an insulating varnish. I also scraped all of the old Glyptal off the transite boards and repainted them, as seen here.

And I polished up all of the brass fingers. With a couple of trips out to the car, I managed to free up a frozen rocker arm, so all the moving parts now move freely. Here the kit is laid out on the table.

Finally, the rocker assembly was put back together, and looks like this. Notice that the spray version of Glyptal has a different color than the brush version. But it's ready to go back on the car.

I hadn't been out to Barn 2 for quite a while. Repainting of the 451 is nearly complete, except for one end, and it looks great!

These pictures are the best I could do with the ambient lighting. Note that this is the original 1945 paint scheme, so the grey color is different from the other red cars, more like the grey on the blue cars. It will be an interesting contrast. And Jon Fenlaciki is still working relentlessly on the windows.

And here is Jim West, needle-chipping the CGW combine, als0 in Barn 2. What a huge job!

So in conclusion, we wish everybody a safe, prosperous, and happy New Year! Stay well, and don't do anything I would do!

Time Is Running Out

2011-12-28T18:36:00.008-06:00

Time is running out to do everything you needed to do this year, such as make contributions that can be deducted on this year's taxes. And think of some New Year's resolutions that might actually be achievable.

My resolution for next year is to get the 36 running, in between putting the other three cars in service. I finished disassembling the moving parts of the reverser, more or less, and took them to the shop. Here they are, laid out on the bench:

The square frame is the rocker arm, with its two bearings. In front is one of the insulated contact boards, which was removed at Cleveland because it had a piece broken off at one corner. And then there's a pile of the contact fingers.

With Tim's help, I mixed some epoxy and glued the piece back together; the break was at the upper left corner. It was left to set up on the table.

The metal parts all need to be cleaned, and the contact boards need to be repainted with Glyptal. Then it can probably be re-assembled.

After that, I started sanding down the side of the car. I did all of the lower siding, and started on the letterboard and upper siding.

(R) For this job, you need to protect ears, eyes, and nose. And keep your mouth shut. The Museum has a nice big sander for me to use. It's heavy, but this sure beats the way the CA&E did it. Bob Bruneau told about how he would visit Wheaton, and during the summer they would hire high school kids to sand down the cars by hand. There would be several guys standing on a scaffold just pushing sanding blocks up and down all day. Ugggh!

World's Greatest Hobby

2011-12-26T12:36:00.006-06:00

OK, folks, now that Christmas is over and you've taken most of your presents back to the store to trade them in for what you really wanted, it's time to start thinking about the next exciting IRM event: the World's Greatest Hobby Show is coming to Schaumburg, and our Museum will be one of the exhibitors there. The dates are January 14 and 15, and we need people to man the booth on both days. Ed Rosengren is in charge, and you can contact him to sign up. I'm planning to be there. The show is sold out to exhibitors, so we were lucky to get a complimentary booth. It's a good thing I happen to know someone who works for WGH. And by mere chance, we'll be at booth 309. I just hope I can remember that number....

We did this four years ago, the last time WGH was in the Chicago area, and had a lot of fun, as you can see here. That was so long ago, it's before this blog started. Mark your calenders now, you won't want to miss this exciting show!

Holiday Greetings

2011-12-23T08:26:00.011-06:00

This report will cover two days this week, Wednesday and Thursday, since I'm on break for a couple of weeks. First, let's look at some of the other things that were going on.

On Wednesday, the Kershaw ballast regulator was loaded onto a flatbed by a rented crane, as seen here. Nick Kallas supervises the rigging to lift the machine; at right it's suspended a couple of feet over the trailer before being let down.

Sorry, don't know where it was going or why.

As I was making a list of things to do, I realized that the steps and pilot for the #1 end of car 36, as well as its trolley bases, were still sitting outside on a pallet. That's not good. So I got some of the Wednesday guys to help move these parts to a container, where we have spare traction motors and seat frames. Here Gerry Dettloff lifts it with the skidder; John Faulhaber and Pete Galayda (not shown) helped with unloading it into the container. Thanks, guys!

Gerry also showed me the work they're doing on the interurban freight trailer 810. New truss rods have been fabricated and are being installed. Here's a view of part of one, now mounted and tightened, with a queen post.

On the other side the rods need to be bent so the turnbuckle can be installed. I thought this was quite impressive.

Over the course of two days I was able to finish stripping the letterboard and upper siding on the south side of the 36. The next step will be to sand it all down; I also need to do all of the window openings. For this step, wooden blanks are required. It's a lot of work, but I'm hoping to get it ready for painting one side in the spring.

I also started disassembling the reverser. The rocker arm is frozen, but I should be able to remove it so it can be cleaned and lubricated in the shop. We have at least one spare DB-20 on hand, and I had thought about replacing the whole mechanism, but it now appears I'd have to disassemble the original item first, so I'll just fix it. Everything appears to test out electrically. The reverser is the first part of the control system to be energized, in effect, so it needs to be working before the rest of the system can be tested.

On behalf of Rod Turner and the entire crew of the Car Dept., we wish everybody a joyous holiday season, and a safe and productive New Year! Remember we have a heated shop open year-round, so we can always find something for you to do!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

2011-12-21T09:36:00.003-06:00

From all of us at the Hicks Car Works, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

L Cars for Sale! L Cars for Sale!

2011-12-20T11:27:00.004-06:00

In what has to be a first for this blog and for IRM, our resident artist Zach Ehlers created this image of the infamous "Nick's Used L Car Lot" taken from the equally infamous 1970s silent film that makes the rounds at IRM on occasion. Zach has his own blog, which can be found here.

Ask Xerxes

2011-12-17T16:50:00.005-06:00

It’s not widely known, but besides this blog, I also have a syndicated advice column that runs in hundreds of local papers across the country. My nom de plume is “Xerxes” and people write to me with their problems. People have problems with their relationships, with their careers, with their finances, with their physics homework: whatever it is, I can help them. Or at least baffle them.

So if your local paper does not carry “Ask Xerxes” please write and ask them to get with the program. Thanks. Here’s a sample from recent columns:

Dear Xerxes:

I have a problem: my tax adviser recommended that I make some charitable contributions before the end of the calendar year to reduce my tax burden, but I’m not sure what non-profit agencies would make the best use of my money. I’ve read that some of the best-known non-profits have huge overhead expenses, such as officers who make up to half a million a year. Where is there an organization that would use 100% of my donation for the stated purpose? (signed) Wondering in Woodstock

Dear Wondering:

I’m glad you asked that question! As it happens, I know of one quite close to you there in McHenry County. The Illinois Railway Museum is run by volunteers, so the Board of Directors and other officers serve on a volunteer basis. And I happen to know all of them, and can tell you they are as honest as the day is long. 100% of your contribution to a designated fund will be applied to the intended purpose. And your name will appear in genuine print in the nationally-distributed newsletter. What more could you ask?

Dear Xerxes:

I have a problem: my wife says I’m lazy and useless. She says I just lie around all day watching TV and drinking beer. She says I need to exercise more, but I just hate that stupid treadmill and things like that. She says I need to find something to do, or I’ll have to live in the garage. She says I’d better do it soon, or else. What would you suggest? Nagged in Niles

Dear Nagged:

That’s another good question. Obviously, you need a hobby. I've talked to experts, and they all recommend a hobby that combines healthy exercise, learning new skills, working with people, and doing something that benefits the community. If there's a volunteer-based railroad museum near you, they probably have just the program you need!

Dear Xerxes:

I have a problem: a block of mass M is placed at the top of a frictionless hemisphere of radius R and given a slight impulse. At what height above the ground does it leave the surface of the hemisphere? Stumped in Steubenville

Dear Stumped:

First, I hope you understand the basic principles involved. Obviously, the mass will pick up speed as it slides down the surface. Its speed at any height can be found using the conservation of energy, since we’re assuming friction is negligible, and non-conservative forces do no work. So the kinetic energy is equal to the change in gravitational potential energy. The block will remain in contact with the surface as long as the normal component of the gravitational force is greater than or equal to the radial force needed to keep the block moving in a circle of radius R, which is just Mv^2/R. I’m not going to solve the problem for you, but the answer is a simple fraction of the radius, independent of the mass.

Dear Xerxes:

I have a problem: I have more money than I know what to do with. I need to find something useful to do with all this wealth I have lying around. What would you suggest? Midas in Midlothian

Dear Midas:

By now, the answer should be obvious. IRM has many worthwhile projects that need serious financial support. Just off the top of my head, there’s the Land Acquisition Fund, the Carbarn Fund, the Infrastructure fund, the Mortgage Fund, the various departments…. the list goes on and on. You could do a great deal of good!

Dear Xerxes:

I have a problem: I just can’t figure out who to support for President in the upcoming election. There are so many issues, and it’s all so complicated! Baffled in Berwyn

Dear Baffled:

And you’re asking me? What, are you crazy?!?

Yule Like This

2011-12-14T17:12:00.008-06:00

Phil Stepek helped me unload the items I had picked up last Saturday, and stored them so the Steam Dept. can pick them up this Saturday, when I won't be out. Thanks, Phil!

After that, most of the day was spent stripping paint from car 36. This picture gives a view of most of what was accomplished. It just takes a while.

The kingpin at the #2 end has never seated properly, and was sticking up as seen here. This is a serious accident hazard, since the lights are usually not on in the car. The car has been moved several times, and I kept hoping it would drop in, as they usually do, but no. So I got a large hammer and finally got it loose and removed it. The bottom end is slightly bent, somehow, so I'm hoping my buddies in the Steam Dept. will be able to straighten it out. That shouldn't be very hard. The kingpin is 2" in diameter, almost 3' long, and weighs a lot.

It was too damp to paint in the 319, but I cleaned off another cord hanger and did some more surface prep on the ceiling.

I also discussed some of the electrical wiring on the Charles City locomotive with John Nelligan and Rod. There appears to be no provision for access to the contactors and reverser under the hood, other than by squeezing yourself into a very tight space, where there's no room to move your arms. What an awful design. Simple things like sequencing the contactors and replacing tips are next to impossible. So we're trying to decide on a solution.

But today was also the holiday party for the Wednesday crew! This year's was bigger and better than ever. And a large number of people showed up to eat.

Here we make good use of the big bandsaw as a picnic table.

Everybody went away happy, I think, and probably heavier than before. It's that time of year!

Early Christmas Present

2011-12-10T11:10:00.003-06:00

We have just received a donation of several valuable items from an anonymous donor. First of all, we have the headlight, builder's plate, and number plate from a steam locomotive at Sterling; I believe this was one of the GTW 0-8-0's, although the people I was working with didn't know the details. Here's a quick snapshot of them in my trunk, where they'll stay until I can unload them at the Museum.

And there is this nice Pullman ladder, used for access to upper berths in a sleeping car. And also about two tons of old Trains magazines, which are destined for our bookstore.

On behalf of the Museum, we greatly appreciate this generous donation. Our thanks to the donor, and to those who helped get this material to IRM. If you have similar items you no longer need, or know someone who does, the Museum will be glad to make arrangements to pick them up for preservation.

Winter Work

2011-12-09T20:38:00.008-06:00

IRM has never allowed the cold weather to stop progress - work continues throughout the winter unless the roads are completely impassable. I had Thursday free, so this is what happened.

The space heater was able to get the 319 up to a workable temperature, so most of the time was spent sanding, filling, and then painting the ceiling with white primer. I also painted some other sections with a first finish coat. I have almost got one half of the main compartment covered with a first finish coat; the final prep and second finish can be done relatively quickly in the spring.

And a good alternate project is stripping paint from car 36, mostly the window sill molding strips and window posts, as seen here. At least in the center aisle I can turn on the lights.

And lots of other things have been going on. The Schroeder Store has been rebuilt by contractors; the front framing has been replaced, and the window openings boarded up to protect the building's interior.

The diner is nicely decorated for the holidays.

In the truck shop, this is the current state of the 972 truck kit. I think maybe the guys had to run to the hobby shop for another 2oz. bottle of Floquil.

And as surely as the sun rises in the east, Tim Peters will be working on Chicago wood L car 1797. Here he is making window molding strips, helped by new member Frank Kehoe. Our shop facilities are heated and available for use year-round. You can come out any time and find something useful to do!

319 Report

2011-12-04T19:45:00.003-06:00

Work is continuing on the 319, although I haven't managed to take any pictures recently, for various reasons. But any pictures of the progress would be pretty much the same as the ones I've already posted. I'm now about half-way along in repainting the main compartment. And when it's too cold to paint, I can continue on stripping the exterior of car 36.

In other news, the Happy Holidays operation was in full swing on Saturday, despite the rainy weather. Ticket sales have been going very well. Thanks to all those who have organized and are helping with this attraction!

Time to be Cool

2011-12-01T21:02:00.003-06:00

These people are just so cool. Back when I was in college, dorky guys like me were filled with despair because we knew we could never be quite like this hipster here. It was awful. But I guess I got over it. (Photo from the IC 1380 by Frank Hicks)

Note: Hicks Car Works does not actually endorse trying to be 1970s-style cool by smoking Lark cigarettes or by any other means.

Visit to North Freedom

2011-11-20T08:12:00.010-06:00

On Saturday, a crew from IRM appeared at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisc. to pick up the carload of North Shore seats we've been talking about. Rod Turner, Frank Sirinek, Mike Stauber, and Gwyn Stupar left early in the morning and drove to Baraboo to get a U-Haul truck.

My wife and I made it a mini-vacation: we drove up on Friday and stayed overnight at the Dells. We then met the others on Saturday morning. (Photos by Margaret Miller.)

The seats were already neatly stacked inside the car shop barn, and we had only a short distance to move them.

But they quickly get heavy!

By 11, loading was finished, and the truck headed back to the property to be unloaded by another crew.

Our thanks to Bill Buhrmaster and the others at Mid-Continent who helped make this possible. We're also talking about cooperating on other future projects.

And, of course, our thanks to those who contributed to the seat fund. This will provide us with spare parts for our North Shore fleet for a long time to come.

Looking for Bargains?

2011-11-17T20:29:00.007-06:00

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and typically stores are advertising all sorts of sales on anything you might want to buy. Me? I'm driving up to Wisconsin with some friends to pick up some used furniture! You could help -- there's still time!

And I did some more painting today; another section of the center ceiling, seen here (R) part way through.

And I also started on arm rests.

Meanwhile, work is continuing to fix up the front of the Schroeder store, although the contractors didn't seem to be there today.

We call it the "Schroeder Store" because that's what it was when it was located in town, but when it opens on Main Street the name will probably be changed. Something like "Diamond's House of Bargains" would be good. We'll let you know when it opens!

Happy Holidays Will Be Here Soon

2011-11-12T18:23:00.009-06:00

We're all set to drive up to Mid-Continent Railway Museum next week and pick up the North Shore seats I've been talking about. We can still use your financial help - thanks!!!

I spent most of the day, as usual, painting the main compartment of the 319. This time it was mainly the ceiling. As seen here, another center ceiling panel and the clerestory have been finished.

Among other things, I had to wire-wheel and repaint another buzzer cord hanger, like the one to the left.

The next one in line, however, is different from all the others. The strap is leather, rather than brass, and the castings are completely different. If you look closely, you can see where the screw holes for the original hanger were filled in. So now the question is whether this was replaced prior to July 3, 1957. It's easy to imagine the brass hanger could have been stolen while the cars were stored at Wheaton after service ended, and a replacement was installed at Cleveland. Who would know? I have a replacement of the right sort, and I'm inclined to install it if only because removing the old paint from the leather strap is impossible. And the leather strap is liable to break during revenue service, which would be embarrassing.

Lots of other activities are going on; this one caught my eye. It's sort of a truck kit, located here in our new truck shop. This is for the 972; it's the famous St. Louis EIB (Elliptical Integral Bolster) design. Bob Kutella has more info on the department blog.

It seems like Halloween was only yesterday, and yet everywhere you look people are getting ready for the holidays. IRM is no exception. If you have any young children, the Happy Holidays Railway event is an excellent activity!

319 Report

2011-11-10T17:30:00.010-06:00

It was cold and wet today, but the car is tight enough that a space heater does a good enough job of warming up the car for painting. Tim Peters continued work on the 1797; he just never quits.

I took the four repainted windows from the shop and put them in place in the 36. Two more were taken from the car to the shop for rebuilding, whenever Rich has some spare time. Thanks!

And then it was time for more filling, sanding, and painting in the 319. Here is a before and after comparison. Today was a primer day.

As you can see, I hope, the painting is slowly making its way along the main compartment.

Meanwhile, the M-37 has been moved outside the barn, probably due to complaints by the neighbors.

And I took a couple of pictures of trees, since there was some actual color to be seen. These will be added to the Scenery Album.

And last but not least, contractors have started rebuilding the front of the Schroeder store. There's a lot of wood that needs to be replaced. But when it's done, it will be a pillar of the Main Street business district.

Think "North"

2011-11-05T19:30:00.010-05:00

Today was mostly more painting; the weather is seasonable and things went well. I put a second finish coat on the four windows for car 36. I also decided that the 36's interior color is different from the 319, so I'll have to get it matched sometime.

And then more painting of the walls in the main compartment.

And I walked out to 14 to check on the 321; all is well.

Bill Wulfert handed me a card which he had found; it's a standard Bob Bruneau color card. One side is a solid blue of a familiar tint; the other side has this label in Bob's handwriting. What's interesting here is the date: this is just two weeks after the 309 burned. Evidently the idea of repainting the car blue had surfaced immediately after the fire.

The word for today is "North." As in North Shore seats. I spoke to a couple of people today, and plans for transporting the seats are in good shape. If anyone wants to help, let me know. And North Freedom, where we'll be going. And maybe even as in North Pole. Remember, Santa's gonna find out who's naughty or nice, so it would be nice if you made a donation!

We Get Results

2011-11-03T17:31:00.013-05:00

Gerry Detloff and several others have finished applying the rubber roof to the M-37. I'll post some more on what was done and what we learned after consulting with Gerry. And watch for an article about this project in Rail & Wire. In the meantime, here's a couple of views of the completed car. The rubber membrane was attached with contact cement, and there's also a plastic furring strip attached along the lower edge on each side.

Later in the day, the repo man came by to confiscate the powered lift which they had borrowed to work on the M-37.

It was sort of a grey day, so that gave me an idea: grey paint! Rich Witt has been working on four windows for the 36; he stripped them, applied glue and filler as needed, and then painted them with white primer. This seemed like a good time to apply a first finish coat of grey; perhaps I can paint the second coat on Saturday, so the windows can be rotated out of the shop. Thanks to Rich and Bob for their help!

The rest of my time was spent on the 319 again. Some more white primer on various parts of the ceiling and walls, then I finished another ceiling section with a first finish coat. Also sanding and filling, and fixing a door closer which was out of adjustment.

Excitement is growing all across the land about the North Shore seats we will be acquiring! Have you made your contribution yet????

It's a Big Job!

2011-11-02T16:38:00.002-05:00

Courtsey of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority comes this training film made by the Lost Angeles Transit Lines. Lots of neat stuff, including that 4-letter word the bus. We all need some refresher training from time to time, so let's sit back and watch this three-part film.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Seats for North Shore Car (updated)

2011-10-28T06:30:00.003-05:00

IRM has just been given the opportunity to acquire a complete set of walkover seats for a North Shore car at a very reasonable price. This is an exciting offer that probably will never happen again.

The seats were installed in a wooden steam road combine at the Mid-Continent Railroad Museum many years ago, so they have been protected from the weather and are in excellent condition. They look nice, but of course are not quite the right size or style for this car. So Mid-Continent has decided to have new seats fabricated to the correct design, and the North Shore seats have been offered to us. The price is $2500 for a set of 23, far less than we would have to spend to make new ones. And then there will be some expense for transportation to Union.

We can use some of these seats now to replace damaged upholstery in the 160 and 714, and the rest will help with 251 and 253, which we may want to restore at some point in the future.

Of course, you can help. Your donations now will help make this possible. If you're a North Shore fan, or have ever ridden a North Shore car, please give generously. We'll be paying for this out of the restricted fund for car #763, so please mark any donations for R763. Thanks!!!

Update: We now estimate the transportation cost at $200, for a rental truck one-way. The move will be taking place on Saturday, Nov. 19th, so we would like to have any donations by then. Thanks!

Update: John Horachek has informed me that these seats came from car 165, in about August of 1963. At that time he was in charge of coordinating the various museums in acquiring cars and parts, and directed the Mid-Continent guys to the 165. Since there was no scrap value in the seats or frames, they were given away for free. And he points out that we could have bought a lot more stuff with our $2500 back in 1963!

There Goes the Neighborhood

2011-10-28T06:18:00.011-05:00

I found this rather disreputable-looking freight car sitting amongst our nice shiny CA&E fleet yesterday. Are there no zoning laws?

Actually, the M-37 is quite historic and is getting a new roof, which is very good. It's the only surviving example of the earliest form of intermodal transportation. The doors on each end swing open, and two containers could be rolled inside. We have one of these containers also. So preserving this car is important.

The roof is being covered with a rubber membrane. This should do a good job of protecting the car while it sits outside. It will of course need to be stretched, but once it's in place, it should last well. I don't think we have much experience with this type of covering, so I'll try to learn what I can and perhaps add it to the roof FAQ page.

This is, of course, just a temporary fix. The only permanent solution is to build a new barn. So any contributions towards indoor storage space for our equipment will be most welcome!

The whole day was spent painting the interior walls, as seen here. I started putting the first finish coat on the end bulkhead, door, and toilet compartment. It looks good, if I may say so myself. When the paint is fresh, you can see reflections in it.

I also removed two buzzer cord hangers and took them to the shop to be wire-wheeled down to bare brass.

They were then put back in place and painted with white primer.

A Frightfully Good Time

2011-10-23T10:09:00.001-05:00

A frightfully good time was had by all on Saturday, I think. I continued to slowly repaint the main compartment in the 319.

And as always, there were many ongoing projects in every department. I can only show a couple of them.

As I happened by, Mike Stauber and Dan Fenlaciki were installing the new people catcher under the west end of the 141, supervised of course by Frank Sirinek. This is one of the many underbody components that had to be re-engineered from scratch as the car is restored. The lighting made it nearly impossible to get a good picture, though. So see it for yourself.

And Bob Kutella has been lettering the newly repainted hopper. As you can see, it now reads "GREAT NO." Bob has decided that a few abbreviations will save a lot of work.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, with just the right sort of weather to bring people out for....

Terror on the Railroad!

I was a trainman on the Screamliner, so was unable to take pictures during the event, and in any case we're forbidden to take pictures of the actors. So here are some shots I took during the day.

The Screamliner sits on station 2, where incoming passengers board the RDC.

After a thorough ride of screams and fright, people make their way over to the Train of Terror, a motley collection of stationary equipment on the west wye. This includes a boxcar sitting on the lead to Yard 1, accessed by a wooden passageway.

I guess I could take a picture of this: Phil had the Birmingham's kitchen set up with coffee, hot chocolate, and assorted snacks for the operating crews and actors. It makes it much easier to get through the night. Thanks, Phil!

I don't know the exact totals, but we had lots of visitors and were running the train until 12:40 the next morning. What a scream!

Meanwhile in St. Louis...

2011-10-22T19:33:00.007-05:00

David Wilkins Writes....

I spent Saturday at the Museum of Transportation helping with the ongoing restoration of St. Louis Public Service PCC Streetcar #1743. This car is a 1946 product of the St. Louis Car Company, and in 1958 was sold to MUNI in San Francisco. It lasted in service there until the early 1980s, when it was loaned to the group operating East Troy at the time. Later, it came to MOT, where it was on display, until a restoration began. The car has been an on again, off again project for a number of years, but has picked up full steam in the past 2 years.

Right now, we are at the point where we are reassembling the car's interior after it was stripped out. Work on the exterior is mainly complete, with work focusing on the front, including the distinctive "brow" sunshade that distinguished the SLPS cars.

Here we see one of the window guards that we've test fitted to the car. MUNI removed these, and we've reworked a set we took from a scrapped SLPS 1600 series car.

Of note, the former SLPS cars that were stored in St. Charles County have been scrapped. The developer that bought them went into bankruptcy, and the bankruptcy estate scrapped them. Before the cars were cut up, we were able to get a lot of spare parts, including this, the line switch cover, which was missing from our car. As you can see, when the car was in SLPS service, it had the car number painted on it, which survived through all the years at MUNI into today.

Also, I noticed we have a new graffiti removal product in the shop. I wouldn't use it though, after all isn't SoyGreen made from people?

A Pain in the Neck

2011-10-20T18:57:00.004-05:00

Today's news: more work on the ceiling in the 319. It's really a pain in the neck, but somebody's got to do it.

There was sanding and filling, then I started painting the next ceiling section with primer until I ran out of paint. (L) So I went back and started at the bulkhead, painting the ceiling with a first coat of the finish color (R), until I ran out of time. There's lots more to do, and I'm not sure how to go about making it look different each time. But hey, you can go ahead and clap. There's nothing wrong with it.

In other news, thanks to B&G, we have a nice new people door at the SW corner of Barn 8. That's a welcome improvement.

And our friend Ted Miles in California has donated an excellent IT antimacassar. Thanks, Ted! A lot of people scoff at the macassar threat, but here at Hicks Car Works, we take it seriously. Every little antimacassar helps!

Dave's Depots - St. Louis Soutwestern Railway - Tyler, Texas

2011-10-19T14:19:00.004-05:00

This week found me back on the road for work for the first time in about seven weeks. It's been a comparatively light travel year for me, as I've "only" boarded an American Airlines jet 61 times since January 1, 2011. I still need four more flights to keep my Platinum status with the airline.

Work recently took me to Tyler, Texas, the county seat of Smith County. The town is located at the crossing of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway's (also known as the Cotton Belt) mainline and a line of the Missouri Pacific Subsidiary International Great Northern Railroad. The depot is an attractive structure, constructed out of brick, with a tile roof. A local model train museum is located in the freight house portion of the depot. The main portion of the building houses the offices of the local transit authority.

Hanging on the depot wall was the original Arrival and Departure board. The Cotton Belt wasn't really known for its passenger service. Everywhere it went, the Missouri Pacific went, usually faster and with better equipment. The Cotton Belt went freight only through Tyler in 1956 and ran its last passenger train in 1959.

Happy Birthday, Randy

2011-10-18T11:35:00.002-05:00

I'm sure you all join me in wishing a happy birthday to Hicks Car Works Head Blogger and 37-year IRM veteran Randy Hicks! He's seen here not long after starting as a volunteer at the museum, which I believe - subtracting his IRM tenure from his age - would have been when he was about two years old.

Southern Railway in Steam

2011-10-16T21:21:00.008-05:00

On Saturday we went down to Monticello to see Southern 401 in steam and ride behind it. Here are some pictures from the visit.

And I wasn't the only IRM member who had this idea. I happened to run into Dan and Chris Buck and Dave Fullarton there.

Another barn has been constructed; the track gang was working on the leads while we were there.

And there's also this nice new section house.

Thursday Update

2011-10-13T20:01:00.013-05:00

On Thursday there was more progress on the interior of the 319, with sanding, filling, and painting, including parts of the ceiling. Progress is seen here. Nothing too different.

Some of the other projects that were going on may be more interesting. Since all of the windows are out of the 1797, it's easy to see the interior details from the sidewalk.

Tim has been making good progress on the roof, as seen here.

And I helped Tim and Frank a little with moving a heavy piece of canvas that will be installed on the car soon. Here Tim is seen hosing it down to make sure it's thoroughly soaked.

Mike Alterio has been helping Frank Sirinek on the West Towns car for a long time. Here he is marking out a piece for the catcher mechanism under the end platform. Because this car was a body, all of these mechanical parts had to be re-engineered from scratch.

And the GN hopper has been moved into Barn 4 temporarily. As promised, it's now red all over.

Chicago History Museum

2011-10-11T15:46:00.019-05:00

I had a couple of hours to spare downtown, so I went to the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society) at Clark and North. It contains all sorts of Chicago-related material, and there are many different sorts of displays celebrating Chicago's proud history of crime, vice, corruption, violence, bigotry, exploitation, and things like that. But my main interest, of course, was in the railroad equipment.

There are just two pieces of equipment in the collection, but they're both uniquely historic. It's fortunate that they're now safely housed in a climate-controlled environment, and should last forever. The lighting, as you will notice, is dim. So you had to be there.

The Pioneer is the first locomotive to operate in Chicago, on the Chicago and Galena Union, by far the oldest surviving Baldwin engine, and the only one built during Matthias Baldwin's lifetime. It was also perhaps the first locomotive selected for historic preservation. It's been modified over the years, and ran under steam occasionally until 1948, so some modifications have been made. But the basic design is unchanged.

To the left, perhaps you can make out some of the drop-hook valve gear, which uses double eccentrics, mounted outside the main rods.

This is a view of the truck, with the bottom of the cylinder; you can see the two cylinder cocks with the control rods. The frame is on either side of the boiler, attached with heavy angle brackets. You have to see it to believe it.

The cab is open for visitors, with signs explaining some of the controls. Several parts are missing, but they were probably replacements anyway. For the 1948 Railroad Fair the C&NW built a replica four-wheel tender, and it was displayed at the Villa Park CA&E station for many years, but it has disappeared.

John H. White wrote a small book about the history of this locomotive, which they used to sell at the museum but it's no longer available. I'll dig it out and update some of the history. It's a fascinating story.

And then there is South Side Rapid Transit car #1, the first rapid transit car in Chicago. It was built by Jackson & Sharp in 1892 as a trailer to be pulled by steam; it was electrified in 1897 with the new Sprague MU system, and that's the period to which it has been restored.

The car is open to the public, but carefully arranged to avoid wear and tear. The car was preserved by the CTA until about five years ago, then given to the CHM for public display.

Some plexiglass boxes were cleverly designed to keep people from sitting on the cross seats.

The motorman's cab.

The chain-driven reverser is mounted under the longitudinal seats, which have been removed here so you can see the mechanism.

The compressor. The car seems to have retained all of its electrical equipment.

The motor truck. It's completely dark under the car, and I couldn't see what I was about to take a flash picture of, so I'm not even sure what the equipment mounted just over the truss rod might be. Help?

Update: My old friend Tom Hunter sends along this picture (slightly cropped) of the South Side car when it was in storage at Wrightwood. It's in much nicer quarters now!

Black and White and Red All Over

2011-10-10T22:31:00.016-05:00

Today was a holiday, so I was able to do more on the 319. First, I finished tracing all the lettering in the main compartment. Here's a sample tracing made to Hicks Car Works standards. I also took pictures of all the lettering, such as this one.

If you're a CA&E modeler, and your models do not yet have the correct interior lettering, this should help you fix such a glaring defect.

But seriously, folks, then it was time for more sanding, cleaning, filling, and painting. It's going along pretty well, as seen here.

By the way, notice that this one light fixture is unlike all the others: it's round instead of square. Just another oddball detail.

The cover of the thermostat seems to have been severely pounded with a hammer for some unknown reason. I have no intention of operating the electric heaters, so it doesn't really matter, but I removed the cover and took it home for body and fender work. If I can't straighten it out, I have a spare from the 318.

On the other side of the compartment, the thermometer is in good condition. The numbers are barely visible, but it more or less reads the correct temperature.

In other news, I met a new member, Frank Kehoe, who is seen here helping Tim Peters install ventilators on the roof of the 1797. Tim is out of sight behind him. Progress on the car is going well.

Meanwhile, out in the yard, the GN hopper car seen last time has gotten a coat of primer put on by the contractor, one "Dr. Paint", and here Bob Kutella is supervising the touch up process.

By the end of the day, Dr. Paint had started to turn the car red. Pretty soon it will more red than the newspaper! Sorry, that's what happens when I get too near to Bob K.....

Finally, there isn't a lot of fall color around the campus, yet, but here are a couple of trees over near the Steam Dept. picnic ground. It looks like many of them may fall before they turn.

Smell the Fresh Paint

2011-10-08T20:16:00.009-05:00

Today was a great day for painting, so it was possible to make good progress on the 319. Here are some views of the main compartment after sanding, filling, and painting with white primer.

This includes some parts of the ceiling. The "Empire" ceiling has a lot of different parts. In some areas the old paint is still in good condition, in others it's not, for reasons I can't explain.

One of the less pleasant parts of this process was cleaning off 60 year's worth of dirt and grime from the roof of the "Vistadome" washroom. But now you can see through the windows once again. It may not be obvious, but I'm standing on a ladder and shooting down into the toilet compartment.

There were lots of other things going on, and we seemed to have a pretty good crowd for this late in the season, judging by the number of people who wandered all the way back to Barn 8. And Jerry was nice enough to switch out several cars to enable some photography.....

Inside the Triple Valve - Part III

2011-10-07T14:07:00.002-05:00

With the aid of a large socket wrench, we have here a disassembled quick action portion of the M valve. There's a spring loaded shaft pushing on the small cylinder, so that it does not activate unless the brake pipe pressure drops rapidly.

The book says not to lubricate the quick action parts, since they are used so seldom. But they should be cleaned, of course. It's important to check that the parts seat correctly; if they don't, it can open a direct leak from the brake pipe to atmosphere.

And it's a good idea to check the emergency feature before starting service each day. You should be able to hear the quick action clearly, as the brakes set rapidly and each valve in the train dumps air to the exhaust.

Quick 319 Report

2011-10-07T13:57:00.008-05:00

I spent much of the day Thursday working on repainting the main compartment of the 319, which I hope to get done over the winter.

Here are some before and after shots. Lots of sanding, filling, and painting with white primer.

I also talked to Rod about repairing triple valves, and he showed me the techniques he uses for lapping the surfaces. We looked at the valve from the 319.

And I walked out to check on the 321, as I often do.

And some contractors were sand-blasting this hopper on the connector track.

Inside the Triple Valve - Part II

2011-10-04T16:50:00.008-05:00

There has been little progress removing the larger end of the quick action portion on the 308's valve. I'll need a bigger wrench. (Maybe I can borrow one from the Car Shop when nobody's looking. Shhh -- don't tell anyone!) Meanwhile, let's finish disassembling the slide valve portion.

Here are all the parts neatly numbered. 1) The piston and its stem. 2) The graduating valve, just a flat piece of metal. 3) The slide valve, which wraps around the stem. 4) A small leaf spring to push the graduating valve onto the upper part of the slide valve. 5) The spring which pushes the stem down onto the slide valve seat.

Here's a better view of the graduating valve and the upper surface of the slide valve. All these parts need to be cleaned of any grease or dirt, then slightly lubricated with graphite.

The slide valve itself is 1 1/16" wide, and the graduating valve is 7/8".

And here is the graduating valve inserted into the stem. The parts are cleverly designed so that you can't assemble them the wrong way.

Finally, here's a sample color plate from a Westinghouse manual on triple valves, which is about the size of a Bible. The upper picture is the Release and Recharge position, and the lower is Service. The various colors indicate the air pressure in each passage: yellow is brake pipe, orange is atmosphere, etc. This is actually an L triple for steam-road passenger cars, since I don't have a similar book for electric car equipments. The L triple is very similar to the M; the main difference appears to be that the L has a built-in safety valve, which evidently wasn't thought necessary for electric service. And then there's page after page explaining in detail what happens in each position. This is really high tech for the cast-iron era.

Interurban to Milwaukee

2011-10-01T19:47:00.007-05:00

It's getting towards the end of the operating season, so traffic is falling off. The two-car North Shore train (714 and 749) was the only mainline operation. But it was a beautiful autumn day, and we had a moderately good crowd. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Joel and I certainly did.

There were a lot of families, a few groups of railfans, and so on. It's a nice break from pipe wrenches and sandpaper. Several people wanted pictures of their children with the conductor, and then I'd take pictures of the whole family together for them.

Our friend Tim Lesniak was visiting from the Connecticut Trolley Museum at Warehouse Point. I showed him through a couple of the CA&E cars, then turned him over to other Car Dept. people. Here we see Tim and Christine in front of the train. They spent all day there and were suitably impressed.

At one point, there was some concern that the 749 needed more grease. So Joe and Gwyn Stupar heeded the call and came down to the depot to check it out. After a little TLC, everything was fine. Thanks!

Let's face it -- your life is dull. Your friends are a bore, there's nothing on TV, you're sitting there staring at a computer... you need some excitement in your life! Be sure to make plans now to visit Terror on the Railroad! If that doesn't scare your socks off, nothing will!

Inside the Triple Valve - Part I

2011-09-25T15:53:00.013-05:00

It's time to take apart a triple valve so we can clean and lubricate it. This will insure that it continues to operate properly, otherwise we may regret it. First, let's prepare a clean surface to work on.

This is a Westinghouse M2A triple valve with graduated release, quick recharge, and quick action features. We'll see what that means later.

Here are two views of the complete triple as removed from the pipe bracket. The valve is held to the bracket with three bolts, and there is a rubber gasket (#9356) to make a nice reliable seal for all the various ports.

The view to the right shows the ports of various sizes and shapes in the face of the triple valve body.

At the other end of the body is the cylinder cap, held by three special bolts. It also has a gasket (#131A) to seal it to the body. Fortunately this appears to be in excellent condition. Inside the cylinder you can see the face of the piston (yellow arrow).

Here the piston assembly has been pulled part way out, so you can clearly see the piston itself. It has a brass slip ring to seal it to the cylinder. Diameter is 3 1/2".

The piston assembly is the most important part of the valve. The piston and its stem (black arrow)are on top. Below that is the slide valve (blue arrow) which wraps around the stem and is held down by a leaf spring. There is also a graduating valve, which you can barely see (red arrow) which rides on top of the inner part of the slide valve. The graduating valve can move back and forth about 5/16" over the slide valve.

Here is the bottom surface of the slide valve. We're not meant to know what all these various little ports do - that will cost you extra. The main point is this: a slight difference in pressure on the piston will cause it to move the graduating valve over the slide valve, but a greater difference in pressure is needed to move the slide valve itself, due to the greater friction.

And here's a view of the cylinder. You can see the square cutout at the bottom; this is where the slide valve moves, and you can see some ports in the floor of the cylinder which line up with the slide valve as it moves back and forth.

The other part of the system we need to check is the quick-action portion, shown here in the yellow rectangle. This needs to be cleaned, but we are advised not to lubricate it because it is used so seldom.

Well, I can remove the small end of the quick-action valve; here we see the cap, spring, and plug. But the big end seems to be frozen. Maybe some penetrating oil will do its magic. So we wait.... (to be continued).

Meanwhile, let's ponder what all these parts are supposed to do. The motorman charges the system by putting his motorman's valve into release; this charges the brake pipe up to control pipe pressure, 70 psi.

1. If the brake pipe pressure is greater than that in the auxiliary reservoir, the triple valve piston will be pushed all the way into the body, into Release and Recharge position. The triple then releases any brake cylinder pressure to atmosphere, and sends air from the brake pipe and the control pipe into the auxiliary reservoir, to charge it to 70 psi. The brakes are released, so we can move the train. The control pipe provides the quick recharge feature, so the reservoir will be filled quickly.

2. To slow down or stop, the motorman reduces (at a moderate rate) the pressure in the brake pipe. Since the auxiliary now has higher pressure than the brake pipe, the piston moves out to Service position. Air from the auxiliary reservoir flows into the brake cylinder (which can no longer exhaust). So the brakes come on.

3. For a moderate brake reduction, such as 10 psi, the pressure in the auxiliary at some point will drop slightly below the brake pipe. The piston then moves in, taking the graduating valve with it, but stopping when it hits the slide valve. We are now in Service Lap and all ports are closed.

To increase the braking force, a further reduction in brake pipe pressure can be made, so the triple goes back to Service, then Service Lap again.

The parts are proportioned so that when the auxiliary drops to about 50 psi, the brake cylinder has risen to 50 psi, and they are equalized. This is the maximum brake pressure you can get in Service position. Any further (service) reduction will accomplish nothing.

4. To release the brakes, the brake pipe pressure is increased. The triple moves into Release and Recharge, and the auxiliary pressure starts to increase. If we don't want to release all the way, but just reduce the brake cylinder pressure, that's called graduated release. The auxiliary pressure will rise above the brake pipe because the control pipe always supplies 70 psi, and the piston will move out slightly. But this time, it stops when it hits the slide valve, and we are now in Release Lap. The port connecting the brake cylinder to exhaust is closed, so the brake cylinder pressure stops decreasing. Without the control pipe, graduated release would not be possible. We can partially reduce the braking pressure by increasing the brake pipe, and the triple will move between Release and Release Lap.

5. Finally, there's the quick action feature. In an emergency, the brake pipe pressure is reduced rapidly. and this causes the spring-loaded quick action portion to open. This puts the valve in the Quick Service position, otherwise known as Emergency or Dynamite or "Oh NO!". The quick action valve dumps air from the auxiliary reservoir and the control pipe into the brake cylinder, so that we get a maximum brake pressure of 70 psi. It also dumps air from the brake pipe to atmosphere, thus helping to quickly reduce brake pipe pressure along the train.

Well, I hope that was educational. Be sure to study this carefully - there may be a pop quiz soon!

Fall for IRM

2011-09-24T19:29:00.009-05:00

It was a beautiful fall day at IRM. I thought about trying to take some pictures of the various cloud formations passing by, but there was too much else to do. I checked out the tarp on the 321 in Yard 14 and the container, and all is well.

This seems like an opportune time to clean and check all the triple valves. I'll post some more pictures as they are disassembled. In the 309, the valve is located under a seat frame, as seen here. The M2A is mounted so that the parts move horizontally. The 308's valve is under the car.

The 319 has an M2B triple. It's mounted so that the parts moved vertically, and if there's no air it would tend to fall into the release position. I'm not sure if there's any advantage to one mounting or the other; when air is on it probably doesn't make any difference.

Once in a while a streetcar motorman will get confused and start going around the loop in the wrong direction. (Actually, of course, this happens if the streetcar line is blocked for some reason. So it seemed like a good excuse for a picture.)

I started working on repainting the main compartment in the 319. I'm thinking about trying to remove all the paint from the molding strips in the ceiling, where it tends to peel for some reason.

Here's a picture of the wall before I started sanding. The marks on the wall are gouges caused by the seat back coming out the frame. This one walkover seat is not original; it was installed in 1953 when the oval window at this location was rebuilt. And it seems to never have worked very well.

David and some old friends of his from Kentucky were visiting. I also met a couple of visitors from Seashore. So a good time was had by all. As usual, there were many other projects going on, too many to list. And preparations for the Train of Terror are in full swing. You won't want to miss it!

Museum Showcase - Saturday - UPDATED

2011-09-18T11:59:00.014-05:00

The first day of IRM's Showcase Weekend this year was an unqualified success, with good crowds, good weather, lots of equipment in operation, and so on. What more could you ask?

The star of the show was undoubtedly the Leviathan, a privately-owned locomotive recently built to 1860's type designs and visiting IRM.

It attracted lots of attention, and pulled a train of two Boonton cars for several trips full of passengers.

It's certainly great to see operating steam at IRM again. I was too busy to take pictures of everything, but the Zephyr, the silver train, a caboose train, and several electric cars were operating.

The three of us spent most of the day operating the Veracruz open car. This, of course, is very popular with the public and we had lots of enthusiastic passengers.

And there was lots more. Here's just a random sample: the Matchbox made a rare appearance. Here it is with Frank Sirinek as the conductor.

Tim Peters has a broken arm as a result of a traffic accident, but he keeps working on the 1797 anyway. I can't explain how, it's astounding. Here he is, smiling in front of the paint job on one side of the car he completed this week.

A new paint job was recently applied to CTA car 30, and it came out of the barn for the first time today. Here we see the experts discussing what needs to happen next.

And we got to see and ride the world's oldest surviving trolley bus!

CTA cars 2153 and 2154 were open for visitors, and had the lights on.

For supper, we all enjoyed Fay's Barbeque and the West End Jazz Band, as usual. We got to talk to several old friends, meet a couple of new ones, and a good time was had by all.

Operations then continued late into the night, but I don't have any pictures of them (yet). If you have some good ones, send them in!

Frank adds...

I managed to snap a photo of David with the sign that we surreptitiously placed on the back of the open car during periods when my father was running.

And here's an "only at IRM" scene heavily laden with Chicago transit. CTA 2153 and 30 are stopped at the 50th Avenue "L" station while CTA 3142 is stopped at the car stop and CSL trolley bus 84 pauses at Depot Street.

And finally, Dan Fenlaciki took Indiana Railroad 65 out for a couple of night trips around the streetcar line. The car is seen here boarding passengers at Central Avenue.

In Memoriam: Ed Allen

2011-09-13T19:05:00.002-05:00

We regret to report the death of Ed Allen, a noted expert in the electric railway field and long-time friend of the Museum, who has died after a long illness at Cleveland. We have no information on any funeral arrangements; he will be buried in Wheaton next to his wife.

Ed worked in the Wheaton Shops of the CA&E, and was on duty the day passenger service was suddenly terminated. He was tasked with going to Forest Park to close up the station and return the cars stored there. He was later the chief mechanical officer for the Iowa Terminal RR, and then worked for the RTA in Cleveland, where he retired. I believe he is survived by two sons.

Any further information, or personal recollections of Ed Allen and his accomplishments would be welcome.

Out on the Maine Line

2011-09-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

In late July, Katy and I visited my aunt and uncle in New Castle, New Hampshire, where they have retired. The trip was welcome as all of July, St. Louis had experienced temperatures around 95-105 degrees. While on vacation the "hot" day was 83.

New Castle is located near Portsmouth, and is across the harbor from Maine. One day, we visited Portland and Freeport, Maine. Portland is home to the Maine Narroww Gauge Museum. Railroad history-wise, Maine was noted for having several 2 foot gauge railroads, the largest of which was the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The museum itself is located on the grounds of the old Portland Company, a large industrial concern that even made narrow gauge locomotives and freight cars for the various 2 foot gauge railroads in Maine.

On display inside the museum were several cars, including the world's only 2 foot gauge parlor car. The car, build for the Sandy River Railroad, saw service with that line and the Sandy River and Rangely Lakes Railroad in Maine. After abandonment, a physician in Phillips, Maine purchased it and had it placed on his property. After World War II, Ellis D. Atwood purchased the car for his Edaville Railroad in Massachusetts. The car is simply beautiful.

The museum also operates a short run using the narrow gauge equipment on trackage along the Portland waterfront. We took a ride and managed to see these beautiful views.

Of course, the real highlight of the vacation was visiting Freeport, Maine, home of L.L. Bean. I managed to purchase this Madras jacket for fire-sale prices.

A Mt. Pleasant Visit

2011-09-05T19:02:00.013-05:00

We've just returned from a vacation in Iowa to attend the Old Thresher's Reunion in Mt. Pleasant. This is a huge festival that occurs every year over the Labor Day weekend. If you've never been there, it's well worth a visit. The main focus of the Reunion is on antique farm machinery, such as steam tractors, older gasoline tractors, combines, and so forth. But there's much more: food, antique automobiles and trucks, animals, saw mills, stationary steam engines, food, arts and crafts, clothing, country music, food, books, toys, church services, preserved buildings which were moved onto the site, a log cabin village, concerts, gun fights, dancing, marching bands, food, and so on. What am I forgetting? Oh yes, probably of greater interest to us are the railroad operations. There's a standard-gauge trolley line and a narrow-gauge steam line, both of which operate on separate loops about a mile and a half in circumference. The main purpose of each of these is to provide transportation around the property for the thousands of visitors, rather than as museum displays.

The trolley line has about six operating cars, running continuously around the loop. This is CA&E #320, which was completely rebuilt and restored between about 1990 and 2005 to its appearance during the 1920's.

This is one of the two Rio open cars. This is an operating favorite because open cars can load and unload so quickly, which helps keep traffic moving. The trolley line even provides owl service: one car provides service through the night for people who want to get back to their campers.

This is car #381 from the WCF&N, the last streetcar to operate in Iowa. It's a 1930 Perley-Thomas car originally built for Knoxville.

During the Reunion, every available open space near the trolley loop is crowded with RV's, tents, and campers, up to a few feet from the track. And I should mention that the line includes some steep grades and sharp curves.

This is a car from Milan, Italy.

Finally, they also have this cab-on-flat which operated on the Keokuk dam until 2002.

Separate from the trolley operation is the narrow-gauge steam line. This is Surrey, Sussex, and Southhampton #6, an 1891 Baldwin. It's a beautiful locomotive with good exhaust sounds and a very nice whistle. The whistle gets lots of use because the track is not fenced off and is usually occupied by people and vehicles until the train approaches.

The other train was being pulled by a Plymouth from the WP&Y. Due to the large number of people, the two trains run continuously, and load-and-go at each of the two stations throughout the day.

The passenger cars were all built in the shops on flat car frames. Those seats are from the Blue Bird Bus Company, based in Mt. Pleasant. Much of the equipment seems to have come from the WP&Y.

This is an outside-frame 2-8-0 from Mexico (FC y Z) on display in one of the barns. There's also a German 0-4-0T which was temporarily out of service for maintenance.

Finally, there's a building which includes a number of stationary steam-powered engines of various types, most of which operate. This is an electrical generator that was originally installed in a Mt. Pleasant hospital. Zoom in to read the details; it's quite interesting.

More Art from Zach Ehlers

2011-08-16T07:19:00.002-05:00

Our friend Zach Ehlers provided us with his latest artistic creation, CA&E 451 on the trolley loop at IRM. Thanks Zach!

John Cloos

2011-08-09T19:25:00.004-05:00

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of a good friend of the Hicks Car Works. John Cloos passed away on August 5. John was a good friend to both IRM and the Fox River Trolley Museum. He will certainly be missed by all that knew him.

Details about the Memorial Service can be found here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=153002342

Steam Updates

2011-08-03T07:28:00.007-05:00

Quick notes: Here is a picture by Tim Peters of a locomotive kit being delivered to IRM yesterday afternoon:

And here is a brief video by Tony Gura, one of our blog readers from California, from the recent Iowa Rail Festival:

Thanks!

Steam at IRM

2011-08-01T18:10:00.001-05:00

It's official! The Leviathan will be coming to Union for several weekends soon! Since we haven't had operating steam lately, this will be a great experience, and it's certainly something new and different. Your duty as a loyal citizen is to show up early and often and bring your family and friends. And tell them to be as numerous as possible.

Dates are: Aug 7, 13, and 14; Sept. 3, 4, 5, 17, and 18.

(Amstein photo)

San Francisco Electric Cars

2011-07-27T18:15:00.010-05:00

As most of you probably know, Muni's F line has a collection of PCC's which they have painted in various historic paint schemes from all around the country. Yes, I know either the doors or windows aren't always correct, but it's still a lot of fun to see and ride.

My favorite, of course, was the Chicago car. I'd say the colors are very good, although it may not look quite right on your screen.

And then there's Birmingham.

The city is crowded and busy, so I saw several I couldn't get a chance to photograph well.

And of course, there's an Illinois Terminal car.

The operators kept telling us the F line is a favorite location for pickpockets. So beware!

And for older standard equipment, there were a couple of cars from Milan, Italy in operation.

And for a change of pace, our train from Denver to SF had this Metroliner car on the rear end. It's being used to measure track geometry. It's unusual to see a car with a pan on the end of the train!

Going Green Gone

2011-07-27T17:29:00.006-05:00

We've just returned from California, where "green" is very popular. Every business is proud of how green they are. Not me. I'm getting rid of this green paint as fast as I can, though in a green way, of course. I finished stripping the siding on car 36 below the belt rail on the south side, as seen here. But then I needed a platform to do the rest. Since I don't anticipate needing our portable scaffold in Barn 8 any time soon, and it's usually just in the way, I disassembled it and moved part of it to the center aisle of Barn 6. I was then able to start on the letterboard and the rest of the siding. But in weather like this, one sooner or later has an energy shortage.

I also checked with Bob Kutella and Rich Witt who are helping with refinishing the windows for the 36. Thanks! And I installed the second recovered seat cushion in the 308, and made sure everything's ready for operation this Saturday.

That reminds me: the wood cars will be operating this weekend. Update: We need another trainman for Saturday, and for Sunday there's only a conductor signed up so far. On Sunday I can be part of the crew if needed, but we still need another person, either motorman or trainman. And for next weekend, we need a full crew for Saturday. Help!

We're always encouraging people to donate to IRM, of course. So today two visitors came along and handed me two large plastic bags full of coins, a year's worth of spare change, I guess. Our office manager, Jan Núñez, graciously accepted this contribution and is hoping the bank will have an automatic change counting machine. Well, every little bit helps, but if it's all the same to you, we'd prefer checks.

And since I'd been away for a few weeks, it was time to make the trek out to 14 again to check on the 321, after all the rain. The tarp is basically OK, but I was disgusted to see that the tie-down straps I had installed about a month ago had already worn through and broken. Note to self: don't buy any more sale merchandise from Ace Hardware.

Finally: I didn't have anything to do with this, of course, but it's great to see that the Burlington express car is painted and lettered. And this means that now everything on track 54 along Central Avenue is nicely painted. The whole line of equipment looks great!

Visit to Georgetown Loop

2011-07-26T10:09:00.000-05:00

While in Colorado we had to visit the Georgetown Loop railroad, which is running steam again on a very scenic narrow-gauge route. I wanted to ride, and we got there early in the morning, but tickets were sold out until 3pm that day, and we couldn't wait that long. Next time we'll plan ahead. So that was unfortunate, but it's good to see that the operation is very successful in attracting passengers. Here's a brief view of the operation.

Service is being provided by 2-6-2 #12. It's a long steep grade up the mountain, with many curves, so the engine really has to work.

The upper end of the line is at Silver Plume, where the shops are located. You can just see the barrel of the Shay inside the building, with the trucks sitting outside. The Shay is being reworked for operation, with extensive boiler work in progress. Here we see a brand-new superheater assembly which just arrived. The running gear is basically in good shape, with new brasses for the drive train planned.

The display building has three historic passenger cars. All of them ran on the C&S, and were displayed by the Burlington at the NY World's Fair and the Chicago Railroad Fair. They operated on the Black Hills Central from 1956 to 1988, and were then moved to Silver Plume for display. This business car was built in 1872 by the UP.

The coach was built for the C&S by ACF in 1900.

Finally, this narrow gauge RPO was built in 1880 (builder not specified).

And there are several pieces stored outside in the yard at Silver Plume. For luxurious accommodations, there's nothing quite like a narrow gauge box car made into a sleeper.

Nebraska Zephyr at Train Fest

2011-07-25T09:10:00.028-05:00

Our friend Chuck Amstein just returned from the Train Fest at Rock Island, where the Nebraska Zephyr was one of the stars of the show, and has these pictures of the action. Enjoy!

Pictures copyright by Chuck Amstein and may not be reproduced, etc.

NZ backing in to pick up passengers.

This is IAIS CEO Henry Posner III greeting the attendees.

Getting the diner ready for lunch.

The conductor has to get tough with unruly passengers.

At Bureau.

Greetings from Pismo Beach

2011-07-24T19:40:00.000-05:00

Near the entrance to popular Pismo Beach, California, is this Rock & Roll Diner in Oceano. It consists of two streamlined passenger cars: a smooth-side diner and a fluted Budd obs-lounge. The cars are still on trucks and seem to have most or all of their underbody equipment, but the interiors have been modified, of course.

I was unable to learn anything about the identities of these cars from the man running the restaurant. But food was good, the music is non-stop rock & roll, and you can watch trains roll by on the coast route across the street. What's not to like?

Illinois Terminal PCC

2011-07-24T16:05:00.004-05:00

This is #1015, one of the famous Illinois Terminal double-ended PCCs, now nicely restored and operating again in St. Louis. And in the background, you can see the McKinley Bridge over the Mississippi.

I just got home, so there will be many more photos from my vacation as time permits. With similarly informative captions.

Diesel Days

2011-07-18T12:20:00.004-05:00

It was a hot time in the old museum on Sunday, with temperatures in the 90's, but the annual Diesel Days event seemed to go off without a hitch. I did some surface prep on the 205 and spoke with Rod about getting our paint color corrected; the paint we obtained last weekend is extremely close and just needs a little work to be spot on. The plan is to take our gallon of paint and our various samples in to the paint store during the week sometime, when their manager is there, and get the mixture corrected. Then the orange-ifying can begin!

I ended up spending most of the afternoon back on Veracruz 19, our single-truck open car. I was assisting Frank Sirinek, the motorman for the day, who had tired of baking in the 3142. The open car was popular as always and it really made the hot weather much more bearable. After we put the car away around 4:30 I headed up to the depot and took some photos of the some of the diesels.

One of the stars of the show was Green Bay & Western 2407, our ex-Santa Fe Alco "Alligator," which was just made operational for the first time at IRM a week ago. It needs a bit more work before it is ready for regular use but it was operating under its own power for the diesel parade.

The Nebraska Zephyr, the jewel of the collection if there ever was one, was out for the first time since Diesel Department workers spent weeks painstakingly scrubbing and polishing the stainless steel on the entire train set and the E5. The results are stunning - the train was practically blinding in the sunlight!

Other stalwarts of the diesel fleet were out too, including the C&NW F7, which will be going to Train Festival this week along with the Zephyr and our CB&Q switcher.

Then I spent a couple of hours helping Rod, Joel and Greg with some switch moves to put freight cars away that had been pulled out of the south yards for demonstration freight train duty. I spent much of the time buzzing around in the golf cart opening and closing barn doors, fetching water and the like. Joel pointed out that some of the last switch crews working at the end of the day were made up of Track Department and Electric Car Department volunteers. Who says the departments don't work together?

The 205 Moves to Yakima

2011-07-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

Jeff Trimble, a traction fan from California, recently visited the museum and took a tour of the 205. It wasn't the first time he'd seen the car, though - he helped move it back in 1989! At the time it was one of three cars owned by Bob Hively (the other two were Brill Master Units from Yakima, WA) and stored in Snoqualmie, Washington at the Northwest Railway Museum. NRM needed more space and asked that the cars be removed, so Hively had them transported down to Yakima to the trolley operation there, which at the time was using a Portuguese streetcar and a couple of non-revenue pieces original to the operation. The Master Units were moved on Army trucks while the 205 was transported on a truck belonging to Paul Class. Only a couple of years later Bob Hively passed away. After his death all three cars were acquired by the group in Yakima, with the 205 quickly being put up for sale. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jeff was kind enough to send us some photos of the move. Thanks!

The 205 - at the time painted in an approximation of the livery it wore on Portland Traction, where it was numbered 4003 - sits in Snoqualmie with the two Yakima Master Units behind it. The car was in rough shape at the time, having spent three decades sitting unprotected in a rain forest area.

The car is eased onto a ramp for loading onto a truck. This part of the car is currently the southwest corner and has been cosmetically restored.

Some of the people involved in moving the cars, with the 205 in the background loaded atop a Gales Creek Enterprises (Paul Class) truck with the Master Units beyond.

Central City

2011-07-13T17:11:00.008-05:00

Central City, Colorado is an old mining town high in the mountains above Denver; its current industry is casinos, of which there must be at least two dozen. One of them has this narrow gauge 2-8-0 from the Colorado & Southern plinthed in front. The locomotive seems to be complete and well cared for. Behind it is a combine which also appears to be in very good condition; I was unable to find out anything about it. When we get home, there will be lots more pictures of this and other items of interest. You can bet on it!

Dave's Depots - Illinois Terminal Depot/Substation - Hamel, Illinois

2011-07-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is an ongoing series of posts by Hicks Car Works contributor David Wilkins, as he roams the country on business travel, and shares his finds with us.

A couple of weeks ago, when I had to go up to Peoria, I found that I-55 was backed up due to some serious road construction. I decided to "Get my Kicks" by taking old Route 66 as far as Springfield. I did not see Martin Milner or George Maharis though. From Edwardsville north, old Route 66 follows the old Illinois Terminal traction line to just past Hamel. There, the IT splits off in a northeasterly direction, as I took an older alignment of Route 66 to Springfield.

Right in the middle of downtown Hamel sits this depot/substation combination. It is currently used as a tanning salon. I believe the IT literally ran down the middle of the street in Hamel. The building is in good shape.

Time for painting

2011-07-12T07:34:00.009-05:00

I was able to make it out to IRM on Sunday for a rather warm and humid day in the low 90's, yet still a productive one. Much of the afternoon I spent on a couple of trips to the Sherwin-Williams store in Crystal Lake, accompanied by Frank Sirinek and with additional help from Rod Turner, to get a match made for "Indiana Railroad orange" using that company's industrial enamel paint. What we ended up with was close, if not identical, to the original sample, so I painted a small patch of it onto the 205 (below) to compare with our sample. The color may be slightly off, but in that case we'll have a reference to work from and should be able to get it spot-on the next time we go back. In the meantime, we have a gallon of paint that I can start to put on the car as a first coat. Exciting stuff - it's been a while that I've been hoping to start turning this car orange!
Another example of painting progress sits just two cars down from the 205 on track 73. Chicago Surface Lines 9020, the only surviving Chicago streetcar trailer, is getting some fresh red and cream paint courtesy of Frank Sirinek and Dan Fenlaciki, as seen below. Once this car is repainted it will make a great companion to CSL/CTA 460, displayed next to it and repainted by Frank a few years ago. Unfortunately no cars were preserved that ever hauled trailers in Chicago, so the 9020 will remain a static display piece.
After this I sauntered over to the shop, where Joel Ahrendt (below left) was working with Greg Kepka on putting a fresh coat of paint on the roof of the 160. Even the indefatigable Nick Kallas (below right) stopped by to help hold the ladder in place! I helped Joel for a bit with painting the roof on the car, a job which he was able to complete before dinnertime.

And now make sure you take a deep breath of that fresh air because we're about to take a voyage from the realm of clean electric traction over to the odiferous land of internal combustion! First, the Diesel Department fired up the museum's Alco RSD15 (below left) for the very first time on Sunday. Former AT&SF 841, it is currently in LS&I/GBW paint. Note the expectant onlookers gathered around for the show, which turned out to be fairly impressive, as Alcos often can be. And at below right, yet another newly-acquired bus was spotted. This one, a former CTA fishbowl, was roaming the property under power and is apparently getting some new windows installed.

Arvada Junction

2011-07-11T21:21:00.003-05:00

Lots of people have said I needed to change my altitude, or something like that. So we're staying for a few days with relatives in Arvada, a suburb of Denver. And high on the wall of a building in downtown Arvada is this beautiful mural of Arvada Junction on the Denver & Northwestern interurban. Narrow-gauge interurbans were very rare. This is out of my territory, but I believe the two steeplecabs are hauling coal in wooden gons from mines at Leyden to the line's Denver power plant, while a local car turns onto the branch to Golden. What a great picture!

Here and There

2011-07-09T20:49:00.004-05:00

As mentioned earlier, Bob Kutella and Rich Witt have agreed to start working on refinishing windows for CA&E #36 as a background activity. The first one has been sanded down nicely. I provided some white primer, and I will order the epoxy we need to fill a few checks and cracks in the wood. Tim Peters helped with expert advice on what to order. I brought over three more windows for them to work on, and then got three replacements from storage to fill up the spaces on the car. I also did some sorting of parts, and took them over to the container. I talked to Rod about replacing a leaking valve on the 319. And the first recovered seat cushion was installed in the 308.

Then I went over to the 321 to check on the tarp, which needs to be done on a regular basis. Everything's fine. But here, we see the motor fuse box, which was held up by lag screws that have fallen out of the rotten floor. A robin decided this was a good place to build a nest, since it's pretty well protected from the weather. And the nest is decorated with loose strands from nearby tarps! After taking this picture, I lifted the tarp to look inside, and there was a baby robin working its way out of the egg. I decided it was best to move away and let Mommy get back to her work.

And meanwhile, the farmer was busy making hay over on the south 40. So there's our nature notes for today.

Recovering Seats

2011-07-09T07:17:00.006-05:00

When the old material on seat cushions starts to break up, as it did on this one from the 308, the only solution is to replace it. Today's helpful hint: Black duct tape will not work! This artificial leather type of material went by several trade names, such as Fabrikoid or Pantasote.

It's held to the seat frame with hundreds of small carpet tacks, each of which has to be removed. I'm not sure whether the frames date back to the car's construction. This frame had been on its second covering, and I installed the third. That may be approaching the limit to how many different sets of tacks you can drive into the wood. The modern material is less prone to ripping, though, so I can space the tacks somewhat farther apart. I suppose one could instead use a power stapler, but I prefer to stay with the original system, however time-consuming.

When done, it looks like this. For our level of service, this should last indefinitely.

Back to Work

2011-07-06T20:37:00.001-05:00

After the parade has gone by, it's time to get back to work.

I had noticed a few minor problems with the 308 when we were running it in revenue service on Sunday. Two seat cushions had ripped, so I removed them and took them home for new material. The cushions I can do myself. A couple of seat arms were loose and needed to be tightened up. Also, one of the buzzer cord hangers was loose, and was fixed.

Most of the time, though, was spent stripping paint from the 36. Fortunately, I may be able to get some help. I talked to Bob Kutella and Rich Witt, and Rich in particular may be willing to help by sanding down and repainting the windows as a background activity in the shop. This will be very useful. Here they are looking at the first one, which Rich had started on.

Bob was polishing the brass handles for seats in the Sand Springs car. He does a very meticulous job, of course. In fact, it reminded me of Gilbert and Sullivan:

"I polished up the handles so care-full-lee..."

And here is the 36 again, as I slowly make my way down the side of the car.

Finally, Doug Johnson, a friend of Norm Krentel from Michigan, sent me a great 8x10 print of a photograph he took when they were visiting IRM a couple of weeks ago. He somehow failed to notice that I was standing in front of an otherwise beautiful train, but it's still a very nice picture. Thanks, Doug!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2011-07-06T08:50:00.003-05:00

My July 4th Trolley Pageant post is going to be rather photo-bare. I left my camera locked up safely in LSE 150 for the day! Therefore, I'm using other people's material to highlight the day. (Thanks to Gwyn Stupar for photographing me as the "serious trolley conductor!").

I had to do the St. Louis to IRM and back trip in one day. I had to attend a wedding on the 3rd and had to be at work on the 5th. Thankfully, I had a bunch of frequent flyer miles accumulated from my business trips with American Airlines. My day began with a 6:35 am flight out of St. Louis-Lambert International Airport on an American Airlines 757. After arrival at O'Hare, Frank picked me up from Terminal 3. We had originally planned to eat lunch at Allen's Corner, but they were closed for the holiday, so we ate at the McDonald's at the Hampshire exit on the Tollway.

Here's a video of the 2 car South Shore train during the parade:

After our job briefing with Rod Turner and Joe Stupar, we went to prepare the 19 for service. The car is starting to really transform into a beautiful car. Frank S. and Mike S. have done a great job refinishing most of the seats. The parade lineup looked impressive. After we passed the Depot in review, Frank and I immediately went into service on the car line. The open car proved popular, as we were full for most circuits of the property.

Here is a video of the IC MU Cars. I was the conductor on these during the 2009 parade:

IRM Member Gwyn Stupar is turning out to be quite the excellent photographer. Here's the link to her photo stream on Flikr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44474109@N03/

After our last trip, we put the car back up, changed and headed back to O'Hare. I managed to get an earlier flight on standby, thanks to my status with AA. By 8:10 I was in a seat on an ex-TWA MD-80 headed to St. Louis.

Here is a video of the IT freight train:

The IRM and back in one day from St. Louis is something I do not recommend for the faint hearted. It was a busy day, but a fun one.

Finally, as always, it was great to see all of the IRM members and chat, even for just a short bit.

The Big Parade

2011-07-05T09:25:00.017-05:00

This year's Trolley Pageant featured 47 pieces of operating electric equipment (which doesn't include several freight cars) and if that isn't a world record I'd like to know what is.

Since I was one of the participants I didn't get to see much of it, so picture submissions will be welcome. The 308. 309, and 319 ran as a train, with a one-man crew.

In the morning, some of the equipment was staged at 50th Avenue. I thought about letting people walk through the cars, but I didn't want them tracking creosote from the platform on the floors.

Two photos by Terrell Colson

In this business you sometimes have to associate with rather shady characters.

We then moved down to the west end prior to the start of the parade at 1:00.

The 309 even got to run a few feet out onto the interchange track, which I don't think it had done since its arrival in 1964.

This is just a small part of the impressive array of operating equipment.

We then proceeded in order past the depot, in my case at high speed, blowing the whistle. Eight hours of work for 15 seconds of glory. Be that as it may, we got many compliments from visitors over the pageant, and how big and well-run it seemed to be. That makes it all worth while.

Photo by Terrell Colson

Then, since revenue service needed to resume, I spent much of the afternoon down at the east end. It was very peaceful. I also have some pictures to add to the scenery album.

And I should hasten to add that several members put in many days of work over the past month to make this all possible, much more than I did. It was a huge undertaking. Thanks to all who helped out!

A Really Big Show

2011-07-05T09:12:00.007-05:00

I'll cover both July 3rd and July 4th in my post; I'm sure that my father will chime in with more photos and info on happenings on the 4th. Suffice to say, everything went off swimmingly!

The weather was terrific both days. On the 3rd, we put together the three-car wood train with a full crew, as shown in the previous post. We ran one revenue trip before lunchtime then followed it up with the abandonment reenactment trip at about noon. Below right, the line-up on Station Track 1 before the reenactment trip included five CA&E cars - quite a sight!

We ran a couple more trips after this. The crowds on Sunday were depressingly small; on no trip did we have more than maybe 40-50 people on the entire train. Assigned to run the "clean-up" trip at 5pm, we elected to mix things up a bit and broke the train (i.e. uncoupled) there in the station, just like they would do dozens of times a day at Wheaton. Motorman Joel and conductor Ron departed on the final trip (below), after which my father and I ran the blue cars back to Barn 8. When the 319 returned to the barn we made the train back up in preparation for...

The Big Event

July 4th was the largest trolley pageant IRM has ever put on, and by a good margin too. The weather was outstanding: hardly a cloud in the sky and low 80's. I picked up David Wilkins at O'Hare in the morning and we drove out, arriving at about 9am to witness staging activities already well along due largely to the efforts of Rod Turner and Joel Ahrendt, assisted by Joe Stupar, Greg Kepka and many others. Our assignment for the day was Veracruz 19. Below left, cars wait in Barn 8 to emerge for staging; below right, our plucky streetcar.

We were staged at the north end of the 50th Avenue west track, right next to - as it turned out - the CA&E wood cars, which were staged on the east track. Joining us in the 50th Avenue area during the staging period were the Sand Springs car, CSL 1374 and 144, the New York subway cars, "TM" L7 and the Broad Street subway car.
The 19 is single-ended, but David and I quickly got the routine of swinging the pole around and moving the retriever from back to front for back-up moves down to a science. Shortly before 1pm we were sent out to the eastbound main alongside the parking lot, and the pageant started just around 1:10pm. We were probably the 15th or 16th move, so we got to see a lot of neat stuff go past us including an impressive run-by of the three-car CA&E steel train to lead off the pageant. Car 460, in the lead, flew black flags in memory of the late Julie Johnson, whose donations made possible the acquisition of our ex-Trolleyville cars, including Veracruz 19.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during the pageant and didn't take many afterwards,
but hopefully we'll be able to post more photos taken by others soon. I'd also recommend checking out the IRM webcam time-lapse at http://www2.irm.org/cam/timelapse.html (you may have to select 7-4-11 in the date box) - it is truly amazing how much activity took place over the course of the day. For a good eight hours there was hardly a minute when two or more trains weren't in motion, and a tremendous amount of credit is due to the dispatchers who made it all work: Joel Ahrendt, car line dispatcher; Adam Robillard, main line dispatcher; and Jamie Kolanowski, who dispatched the pageant. Rod Turner was unflagging in his efforts to get everything ready beforehand and put everything away afterwards, and literally dozens of volunteers made the whole thing possible by crewing all of the trains for the day.

After the parade we ran the 19 for several revenue trips before spotting it in front of Barn 4 to take a break. At about 4pm we ran it for a few more trips and then put it away. The crowd for the day seemed good, and the ever-popular open car was always full. Overall it was a terrific day and a great success for IRM and for the Electric Car Department.

Sunset Lines

2011-07-03T20:48:00.008-05:00

Today was the 54th anniversary of the sudden end of passenger service on the CA&E, and we commemorated the day in bigger and better fashion than ever.

We operated a three-car wood train all day, and here's our crew:
(L to R) Frank, myself, Joel Ahrendt (motorman), and Ron Seevers.

At noon, we had the abandonment re-enactment: passengers were told that service had been suspended and they had to get off. Of course, they quickly found other means to get back to the station!

After abandonment, all five cars were lined up at the west end, as seen here. (L to R) 319, 308, 309, 431, and 409.

Two steel cars, 409 and 431, were running all day. The 460 will be added for the pageant tomorrow.

I should also mention that we have the Dallas crew helping out this weekend. Several members from Dallas who are associated with the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority come up to IRM each year to operate. Thanks, guys!

Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we got several compliments from people who enjoyed being part of the re-enactment.

In other news, the paving seems to have been completed and looks great, but I never got around to photographing it. Come on out and see it for yourself!

The United States of America July 4, 1776 - July 4, 2011

2011-07-03T18:57:00.001-05:00

A little musical interlude for the 4th of July. I'm sure Randy, Frank and myself will have photos and an accounting of the day's festivities at IRM.

Keep America Beautiful

2011-07-02T13:59:00.005-05:00

I don't know how many of us remember Lady Bird, but that's still good advice.

Unsure how you can help? Your tax-deductible contribution to IRM will enable us to build barns, repaint equipment, improve the buildings and grounds, and generally enhance the appearance of America's largest railway museum. What could be better than that?

Paving the Way for Progress

2011-06-30T17:13:00.019-05:00

This post will cover two days - at no extra charge! Can't beat that!

Wednesday

Wednesday was rather monotonous: I spent nearly the whole day painting the floor of the 319 with a first coat of finish brown. First I had to remove all the seat cushions and vacuum the floor. It looks great, although this backlit photograph doesn't do much for it. You need to see it in person.

This shows much better what the floor looks like with wet paint. The device in the corner is the motor cutout switch, which I hope I never have to use.

Some switching was done to prepare for the World's Greatest Trolley Pageant on Monday, July 4th. Here we see the 1268 trained with three 4000's. There will be several multi-car trains operating, of course.

I'm afraid the 1754 will not be in the pageant, but it was being switched out anyway.

Painting the floor took its toll on my aging knees and back. So after supper it was time for a relaxing stroll to view the scenery.

The rocky rapids.

Thursday

Tim Peters and I spent most of the morning turning out tack molding for the 1797 and 319. This job goes much faster when you have two people. There's jointing, planing, ripping, rabbeting, and routing to be done. Tim needs his molding soon; I'm hoping to be able to replace the roof on the 319 this winter, so there's not so much of a hurry.

In the afternoon, I put the seats back in the 319, cleaned some windows, sorted parts, and drank lots of lemonade.

Meanwhile, there are some contractors replacing part of the roof on Barn 9. These guys started work at 6:00 this morning!

The big news, however, is that paving started on the big Depot St. project. Here are a few progress photos I took during the day.

The first load of asphalt is dumped, as Dave Diamond looks on.

This took weeks of site preparation, and the first layer, at least, was poured and rolled in a day.

This weekend promises to be full of interesting action and plenty of new accomplishments to see, so be sure to come on out to IRM if you possibly can!

All three of us should be out there Sunday and Monday, so look us up and say hello. We're always glad to meet our audience!

Dave's Depots - Illinois Terminal, Peoria, IL

2011-06-28T16:10:00.004-05:00

Business took me to lovely Peoria, Illinois recently. Since I stayed downtown, I drove over to the former Illinois Terminal station. After the IT abandoned the Illinois River bridge and trackage into the station, it was sold to the city of Peoria. It was used for many years as the central police station for the city. Now it is used by the Peoria County Board of Elections. The building appears to be in good shape and well cared for.

Hot Dog!

2011-06-27T22:51:00.010-05:00

The famous Oscar Meyer Weinermobile made an unexpected visit to IRM today, so that gave us the opportunity for some unique pictures.

Hope this makes you hungry for a delicious hot dog at Nick's, otherwise known as the Central Avenue Diner, the Salem Diner, or various other names, not all of them appropriate. But the food alone makes the drive out to IRM worthwhile!

And there's no cover charge here at Hicks Car Works for viewing our newly-installed manhole covers from the Chicago City Railway!

Most of the day I spent stripping paint from the 36. The North Shore cars in Barn 6 were switched around; the main purpose of all that work can only have been to provide better lighting for working on the 36 and photographing it when done. Thanks, guys!

Highwood West

2011-06-27T08:58:00.010-05:00

I started out my Sunday at the museum with some sanding work on the 205 followed by new primer applied to the angled dasher at the east end as well as some of the end window sills. I neglected to take any photos of this work, but it wasn't that photogenic anyway. Neither was the paint matching I did with the help of Rod Turner. We now have a sample of Indiana Railroad orange to take to the paint shop in Crystal Lake to have a test gallon mixed. Within a few weeks I hope to see the car turning from brown to orange!

I spent most of my time, though, helping with the North Shore cars being readied for the Trolley Pageant on the Fourth of July. Most work concentrated on the 251 and 757, our two Silverliners. The latter car has been stored in Barn 4 for several years now so this will be its first public operation in four or five years. Joe Stupar, Greg Kepka and Rod were able to repair a control resistor issue with the 757 (below left) so that it is again fully operational. Joel Ahrendt also worked on the car including locating a replacement air hose. Meanwhile Dan Mulvihill (below right) did motor inspection and lubrication on the 251 while I helped out by looking over the car's switch group and reverser.

The 757 isn't quite ready for revenue service, but a crew of people is working on the interior and there are plans to have it repainted at some point as well. Joe and Gwyn Stupar have been working on replacing some of the car's flooring and John McKelvey (below left) has been diligently going through and reupholstering all of the car's seats with specially-ordered material obtained several years ago. Below right, motorman Joel Ahrendt stands in the doorway of the three-car train after completion of work at the end of the day.

The Trolley Pageant will be quite a show - don't miss it!

And finally we have a couple of "around the grounds" photos. Below left, one of the Chicago City Railways manhole covers which were just installed on Central Avenue. Below right, the museum's latest acquisition. Please note that Hicks Car Works does not endorse or recommend bustitution or bussification.

Visit to the Sanfilippo Estate

2011-06-26T11:41:00.022-05:00

Yesterday we attended the gala benefit concert for the IRM Steam Department held at the Sanfilippo Estate near Barrington -- it was a tremendous success, and everybody enjoyed themselves immensely. The estate houses an incredible collection of organs, calliopes, mechanical music devices of all sorts, juke boxes, phonographs, chandeliers, slot machines, stationary steam engines, art works, stained glass, posters, and knick-knacks of every sort. And oh yes, railroad equipment. The estate is not open to the general public, but hosts benefit events like this one. So let's go!

There is so much to see that we can only give you an inadequate sampling.

The highlight of the evening was a concert on the world's largest theater organ, presented by Dave Calendine, brother of Jeff Calendine in the steam department.

His talents are unbelievable, and exploited to the fullest the huge array of sounds the organ can produce, including cannon fire, bagpipes, bells and whistles, earthquakes, and steam locomotive exhaust. You had to be there. The five-manual console rotates, raises and lowers. The 32' open rank makes the building shake.

After the concert we were able to visit the carousel building which includes the railroad equipment. There's a steam loco, a wooden caboose, and a parlor car.

#18 was built as a narrow-gauge 2-6-0 by Grant in 1888, and later rebuilt to standard gauge.

Like many similar locomotives, it has been substantially modified over the years.

The three pieces all are now equipped for link-and-pin couplers.

The parlor car was originally a chapel car, but little of the original structure is left. It was heavily rebuilt, and is now wider and taller than any ordinary passenger car.

The hall is so crowded with various things that photography is difficult.

In any case, the event was a great success and they're talking about making it a yearly event. So don't miss out on this unique opportunity!

Routine Maintenance

2011-06-25T07:12:00.004-05:00

Today was mostly some cleaning and straightening, nothing too exciting. So not too many pictures. I spent a couple of hours in my storage container, and picked out most of the rest of the good window shades. I believe it's much better to store spare CA&E window shades hanging vertically, rather than rolled up on a shelf.

A control pipe hose on the 309 was badly worn, so I replaced it with one from storage. I then put the three-car train together in preparation for July 3rd and 4th. July 3rd, of course, will be the re-enactment of the abandonment, and the 4th will be the parade. Don't miss it!

And then there was more stripping paint on the 36. Progress is slow but steady.

Work on the street project is continuing. Here Max has finished inspecting one of the new manholes for the electrical system. Some day we'll have working antique stoplights at this intersection!

And this is the 1024 (née 24), our oldest rapid transit car, built in 1898. Keep this car in mind, I may have occasion to refer to it later.