319 Report

In order to repaint the 319 interior, I need to fill in various cracks that have appeared in the original paint. And I don't want to sand it all down to bare wood. So acting on advice from Bob Kutella and Pete Galayda, I went to an auto supply store and bought some polyester glazing putty. This is somewhat similar to Bondo; it uses a cream hardener but is a smoother consistency and has a longer working time. It's intended only for shallow applications like this. This is what it looks like after application.

About a half hour later, it's ready to sand. Sanding off the thin layer left over the old finish paint is not difficult. I now have a nice smooth subsurface.

And once I was satisfied with the work done by my new girlfriends Polly and Esther, it seemed feasible to put a coat of primer on the entire wall I've been using as a testing ground. It looks pretty good if I say so myself.

I also started applying the putty to some other walls.

And I put a first coat of finish paint on the wrecking tools, window shade tracks, and the last four windows.

And in other news, Phil explained what the ATSF trucks we rerailed last week are for. These trucks have tread brakes and will not fit under the Silver Pony dome car, which still has its skirts. So they will go under the baggage car Olympus, (which has lost its skirts -- eek!) and the disk-brake trucks from the Olympus will go under the dome car. Hope that makes sense. If we had unlimited funds the correct trucks might be available, but of course we have at least ten good uses for every dollar that comes in.

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West LaGrange

Does this look familiar? On Thursday, B&G installed the ElectroMotive sign from the EMD plant in LaGrange on its new base alongside the connector track, as seen here. Since it faces northeast, a good picture will have to be taken early in the morning, just as the sun rises over the Hoffman barn. Maybe next week.

Here's the back of the sign, by the way. Your message here, at reasonable prices.

I did some more painting; the final four 319 windows got white primer on the inside surfaces; the first three are seen here.

I also did the remaining window shade tracks, and the wrecking tools, which will likewise be painted the basic wall color.

Then two electric car trucks arrived from Cleveland on a flatbed, so I helped unload them. We're still receiving parts from the Trolleyville collection.

Joel is running the big forklift, while Dan Fenlaciki watches. An EIB truck without motors was unloaded and placed along Bruneau Ave.



Here the truck driver helps Joel position the forks over a 4000 motor truck. This truck is heavy, dude! Five of us wound up sitting on the back of the fork lift to put sufficient weight on the rear axle so it could be steered. I sure wish I could have taken a picture of us!

Then we had a derailment to clean up. These trucks had been pulled out of the material yard, but one of them went on the ground. After Joel, Dan, and I put it back on the rails, it's evident what the problem is. You may notice that one wheel isn't even touching the rail. This problem can easily be fixed, of course.

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All Sorts of Progress

First of all, you'll want to hear about progress on our Chicago & West Towns streetcar #141. The rebuilt motors arrived a couple of days ago and work has continued since them to put them into the trucks and under the car. When I arrived, the car was up on jacks; one truck was already complete and in place. Frank proudly shows us the new underbody equipment.

Frank S., Gerry, Pete Galayda, and John Faulhaber work on adjusting the various parts of a traction motor in the second truck.

And here Rod and Gerry have raised the final motor and are moving it over to the truck.

By the end of the day the car was back on its trucks. Frank is sure he will be able to have it operating next year.

For me, it was pretty much more of the same. I had wanted to install a missing bolt in one of the steps on the 309. It had never seemed to line up properly, but after some more drilling and adjustments, I finally managed to get the bolt attached. This provides an additional margin of safety. And I walked out to check on the 321, as usual. Everything seemed to be in good order.

I then sanded down the remaining two windows from the 319, and put a first coat of white primer on the outside surface of the final four. I'm glad this job is nearly complete!

And here you can see that the foundation for the Schroder Store has been finished, so it can be set down sometime soon.

Attached to the side of the building is a printed sign: "This structure slated for DEMOLITION". I can only assume it's just typical IRM humor.

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Windy City West

If IRM were a sailing ship, we would be making rapid progress on our journey home from Cathay. As it is, however, the recent strong winds made me worry about the tarps again, so I checked on the 321. It's basically OK; part of the east end had come loose, so I attached another clamp and tightened things up. No harm has been done.

Most of the rest of my time was spent sanding down two more 319 windows, as seen here. Only one to go. But it gets pretty tiresome, I must admit. I also wire-wheeled all the old paint off the wrecking tools that will be installed in the 319.

Every car seems to have had a different arrangement of wrecking tool box. Fortunately, the 308's was never touched, so I'm using it as a guide to what things should look like. The tools will be painted with the basic interior wall color.

I also looked at the interior of the 277 to remind myself of its condition. The Illinois Terminal traction meet will be held at IRM next April, and we want the 277 and 518 to be as ready as we can make them. We need to decide what can be done by then. Expert help will be welcome.

And in switching news from last Sunday, the Rio open car has been moved into Barn 8. Here it is, as viewed from the platform of the 234. Keeping a tarp on it was harder than we thought, so with some shuffling, we are able to make better use of the available indoor storage space. This is a restoration project for the future, but it's good to have nonetheless.

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Heat, Light, and Power

As sometimes happens, we've got exciting news from elsewhere on the property, while what I personally was doing is rather drab. Well, tough!

I spent some time cleaning windows in the 319 and installing more screws as needed in the window shade tracks. The windows had a lot of signs of some sort taped to them over the years., so all the gunk has to be removed. I also worked on a window shade that wouldn't stay in place; it had glued itself together and would not completely unroll, in any case. So I went to our storage and got a replacement; after some time and effort, it was installed and works OK. For some reason the railroad rebuilt the window shade boxes in the 319 so they cannot be removed. The only effective way to replace a window shade is to remove the window and work on it from outside.

I also went to the 321 and fastened the tarp more securely. The wind was really blowing today, and that helps identify any problems with the tarps not being fastened down well enough.

Then I worked on freeing up the ventilators, some of which hadn't been moved in many years. There are ten of these Utility ventilators on each car; six of them have adjustable louvers (L) and the other four don't (R). These have sheet metal plates in them to prevent any ventilation whatsoever, which was useful in the winter, I suppose. I'll remove these plates next spring; they've been removed from the blue cars since we only operate in the summer.

The Schroeder Store has been rotated and placed over its permanent foundation, as seen here. I'm not sure what needs to be done before it can be set down.

This view down Central Avenue gives you a good idea of what it will look like when the street is extended to become Main Street. If you would like to live along Main Street, I'm now a real estate agent for the Museum and will be glad to sell you the deed to a buildable lot with all utilities included, at a bargain price!

But seriously, folks, we're saving the best for last. Today the 1630 was moving under its own power again! The air pump is still not working, so the locomotive was attached to air hoses connected to air compressors (R), sort of like a hospital patient walking down the hall connected to IV. But it moved back and forth 100' or so several times.

And as you can see below, the whistle attracted a good crowd, considering the limited number of visitors we had on this dreary day. I'm sure that steam, when it returns, will be a huge attraction. The Steam Dept. can be very proud of their accomplishments.

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319 Report

Yesterday was mostly window work. Four repainted windows were ready for installation. First, I removed the last four unrestored windows from the car, and moved the four spares from the 318 into their slots. Then the hardware was attached to the new windows, and they were installed along with the repainted window shade tracks. One nice thing about the car is that all the window shades are in good condition. You will notice that the window on the right has different hardware than the rest. I can only think this must have been done by the railroad near the end of service. In any case, I have no choice but to leave it as is.

I also finished installing the new globe fixture for the ceiling light and put the bulbs back in. It was later repainted with a first finish coat. The only thing left is to put the globe in, but I'll want a helper for this job. I installed the first globe by myself and nearly dropped it in the process. That was frightening!


Later in the day I sanded down one of the last four windows. Also, Gerry is in the process of moving spare trucks out in the material yard, so I went out and marked the 318 truck for him, since we'll want that available as a shop truck.

And it was a beautiful fall day again.

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