Car 460

Here's another great photograph sent in by Phil Becker, taken June 27, 1957, a week before service ended. Car 460 is westbound at Weisbrook on the Aurora branch. This car, of course, was acquired by IRM as part of the Trolleyville collection and has been restored. Phil sent it along with a contribution to the Trolleyville fund. There's always plenty that needs to be done, so you can still help!

(Copyright Phillip T. Becker. May not be reproduced without permission.)

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Wheaton Limited, No. 3 of a Series

How many of us thought we'd never see this sight? Here is Chicago, Aurora & Elgin car number 409, repainted in authentic colors, at IRM. Photo taken July 4, 2010, while your blogging team, the CA&E wood car train crew for the day, awaited our turn in the IRM Trolley Pageant.

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Painting the CA&E Cars

IRM has hired a painting contractor to paint four of the CA&E cars from the Trolleyville collection. This is an important step in getting the cars ready for revenue service, so keep reading.

Charlie Strong, one of our volunteers, was planning to do much of this work while he was laid off from his regular job on the railroad, but he was called back and is now working full time. That's important for him, but as a result we need to find some other way to get the cars painted.

We have hired Jim Followell to do the painting; he's done work for IRM before. He will paint the 319, 409, 451, and 460, all in the final red and grey paint scheme. There's a bonus if he gets the job done by July 4th, which he believes he can. The 319 will be painted first. Everybody, including me, wants to see the 319 get painted so its place in the Diesel shop can be taken by the 409. Jim has quoted a price of $2200 for the labor including surface prep and painting the sides of the 319, not including underbody, roof, or lettering. This seems reasonable to me. Julie will pay for the three steel cars, but the 319 is my project, so I need help. Any contributions will be most welcome, and of course you will still be eligible for our own "Take the Throttle"-type runs when the 319 is operational. I'm sure we'll have the 319 ready for service by July 4th.

Charlie has already done quite a bit, of course, but Jim started today on surface prep for the next coats of paint. Here we see Jim (L) and his helper Cody (R) hard at work on the car, in spite of the brutal heat outside. (Sorry, I brought my camera but not the battery, so these are cell phone pictures. Anyway, it's proof that they're working hard!)

And I should point out that work on the steel cars is continuing, thanks to Stan and the rest of the guys. The 460 has its trolley poles installed so it can run by itself, and more work was being done today. Rod, Stan, Joe, and several others were on hand for the TV gig, and continued working on various projects as time allowed. A lot is getting done!

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Trip To Cleveland

Last Friday, Norm Krentel was generous enough to take a day off from work and drive to Cleveland and back (in one day) to pick up some essential parts for one of our cars. This was a lot of driving, and we can't thank him enough! I should have mentioned this before.

While CA&E 36 was in the RTA shops at Cleveland, all of the contactors were removed from the boxes, and three of them were sent by the Lake Shore Electric group to Redmond-Waltz, an electrical contracting firm, for analysis and quotes on rebuilding. However, Redmond-Waltz were never paid for their work and could no longer make contact with anybody. Fortunately, we were able to learn where the three missing contactors had gone and arrange for their return. Without them, we would be unable to complete the control system correctly.

In other news, the difficulties and delays we experienced in moving our cars to IRM were as nothing compared to what some of the other groups have encountered. Due to the weather, it was only today that the last two CA&E cars, 303 and 453, left Brook Park. The 303 is going to Warehouse Point, but has been embargoed at Scranton due to the snow, as I understand. The 453 is en route to Scranton, but may not make it. And the OX is still at Cleveland. Best wishes for a safe journey!

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The Last Season

I was able to stop out at the museum today to look over the new acquisitions and have added some interior pictures to the cars' photo galleries on the museum website. In the 460 I also found this mounted in between original 1950's advertisements on the car card rack:It's the operating and fare schedule from the last season at Trolleyville, U.S.A. in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, a subtle reminder of the place these cars called home for over four decades. The next year the operation would be shut down and the 460 moved to dead storage in Cleveland along with the other cars.

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The Final Unloading

Today the final two cars in this series were unloaded: CA&E 460 from the Trolleyville collection, and South Shore line car 1100, which had been stored in Michigan City.

Here is the 1100 sitting on its dollies as it arrived this morning.

And here is the 460 right behind it. As before, we had a large group of people on hand to help. I really didn't have much to do other than take pictures. So I did some odd jobs part of the time.

And these are our two forklift operators: our own Nick Kallas (L), and Richard from White Bros.

In other news, the heating/AC unit for the new shop extension arrived and was put on its pad. Here we see Dave Diamond running the Bobcat, as the two contractors watch.

The 1100 half way through the unloading process.

After it's on both trucks, the Com Ed 4 pulls it away and moves it into Barn 8.

Interior views of the 1100. Notice the writing over the motorman's position. There was no easy way to turn equipment around on the South Shore, so east and west were permanent directions!

This is really a nice setup.

The ladder up to the platform.

Then it was time for the 460.

Finally the 431 is coupled onto the 460 for the first time, and moves it over to Yard 8 for temporary storage. Julie Johnson was the motorman.

All four CA&E steel cars on display.

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