where goest the ftra river...the museum acquired a lot of equipment used in our operations and...

FRL-08-2

file:///C|/Users/Matt/Downloads/FRL-08-2beab.htm[3/29/2012 5:25:48 PM]

Issue 08-2, Summer 2008

Paul Pedersen of the Pedersen Company of Saint Charles and SouthElgin donated and installed this new planting in our entrance way toCastlemuir. The plants were donated by Peter Orum of MidwestGroundcovers. Paul and his company are most widely known andrecognized for the award winning design and installation of the "GreenRoof" plantings atop of Chicago's City Hall. In addition to doing theplantings personally, Paul and company have maintained it during theyear. Thank you so much, Paul for your interest in and care for theMuseum!

Where Goest the FTRA

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(Fox River Trolley Association)As I sit up her in the snow and cold of west central Wisconsin wonderingwhen winter is going to end, my thoughts turn to warmer days and the FoxRiver Trolley Association.

As an original member of RELIC (Railway Equipment Leasing andInvestment Co.), I have seen the Museum start as an idea of a bunch of youngCA&E fans from Lombard and Glen Ellyn evolve into the organization it istoday almost 50 years later.

It is almost like the museum is member of my family. Like cousin or an uncleor a nephew or niece. It has both good and bad attributes. I think that theMuseum was and is positive force in not only the area but for its members aswell. It has potential to be more.

There are a lot of things about the FRTA that are intrinsically good. Theyinclude its location in Chicagoland, its very scenic and historical right of way,the oak tree and the location at Castlemuir and the extension into the ForestPreserve.

Several years ago the original RELIC group which was, on purpose, a groupof exclusion, saw the need for change and became FRTA, on purpose, a groupof inclusion.

But as time has marched on the Museum seems to be falling behind. Itcontinues to be slow to adjust to the social environment and this may causeits demise. One thing I have learned over the years is that change isinevitable. Whether it is liked or not. And to quote some one (AlanDeutchman, author) "Change or Die."

Assuming that we all want FRTA to live on after we are gone, we, themembers, need to look forward to the future and meet its challenges.

What can we do? I think there are three basic things to get done:

1. Expand the membership. We need more people, active and inactive, to dothings that need to be done. We are not always the most cordial hosts to ourriders and other folks. We must make them feel welcome and we shouldencourage them to join and volunteer. There have been several articles in pastissues of "Fox River Lines" about this. Let's not just talk about it. Let's just doit! Yes it's hard to do sometimes but anything worthwhile is not always easy.

2. Expand the board of Directors. FRTA seems to have become a little inbredover the years. We need new, smart, connected people from the area to givethe Museum their insights and experiences. They would broaden our appealfor other members. They do not have to be railfans. Let's just do it!

3. Reactivate the Capital Fund Committee to help fund the projects at theMuseum. This group did an outstanding job in getting the extension and otherthings financed and done. I could suggest a list of projects that would take atleast one page but we all know what they are. Let's just do it!

I want to see if our group has the intestinal fortitude and the foresight to

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change for the good of the Museum, its friends, its members and society.

Fred Crissey

MissionTo preserve and interpret Chicago's electric transport era thatbegan in the 1890s and peaked before 1950. The electrictransport era is significant because electric railways,including interurban, rapid transit, and streetcars, helped theChicago region grow to be one of North America's greatmetropolitan areas. The Museum strives to show that electricrailways were more than convenient, they were and are away of life for generations of people from all walks of life.

The Museum fulfills this mission by preserving, interpreting,and operating historic railway vehicles on its demonstrationelectric railway, over the Aurora, Elgin and Fox RiverElectric route at South Elgin, Illinois. Furthermore, themuseum preserves, displays and interprets smaller artifacts,photos, oral histories, and documents which help relate theimportance of electric transport in and around the ChicagoMetropolitan Area, putting them in context with theirsurroundings and era.

Many of us remember the old "Life Magazine." It was a "picture magazine"developed in the late 1930's and succumbed to television in the 1970's. Itfeatured reporting the news with pictures with extended captions but little orno extended story text. This issue of "Fox River Lines" is in that context andconcept.

The Museum acquired a lot of equipment used in our operations andsustained improvements on our facilities and greater member participation inactivities beyond train operations. This then is " `LIFE' " at the Fox Rivertrolley museum" in 2008.

Don MacBean

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Chuck Galitz hard at work (notice the sweat) in August `08 on the westtruck of AEFRE #5. He is removing the axle keeper.

Chuck Galitz installed the four windows on the engineer's side ofnumber five's cab. They had to be replaced after vandals destroyedthem. Here is the "finished job" taken in the fall of 2008. The specialglass and fittings had to be ordered . . . and not from your local AceHardware or Home Depot but from an industrial glass supplier. Anumber of months intervened between the ordering of the glass and theinstallation.

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No. 5 with the new windows parked on track 2 north next along side ofthe South Shore cars.

AAR Cart - push carAfter being separated from the cart, the numerous pieces had to befurther cut up for future disposal or retention. The pictures in thissection show the progress of the cart's transformation from a cart to a"push car."

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At last, the cart is "getting cut down to size." After being separatedfrom the cart the numerous pieces had to be further cut up for futuredisposal.

Fred Lonnes, Ed Konecki and Chuck Galitz with rail placed on the"new" push car at Coleman yard before its movement to Castlemuir.Note the newly arrived motor car CP 7700-12 in the background.

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Pat Storm guiding rail to the new push car.

Fred Lonnes, Pat Storm, Chuck Galitz in "Casey" Tractor and EdKonecki placing yet another rail on the new push car.

Motor Car CP 7700-12 is coupled to the fully loaded new push carready to move to Castlemuir where the rail will be unloaded in a reverseprocedure for later placement on track 1.

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"Cherry Picker" is not used for picking cherries along the Fox RiverLine, even though "Choke Cherry trees" grow in abundance along ourright of way. Chuck Galitz purchased it for his use and the Museum'sbenefit. This "Cherry Picker" makes wire work and similar endeavorseasier and more efficient. The industrial name is bucket lift.

A gas motor generator set acquired from the CA&E by RELIC back inthe 1960's finally gave up the ghost. (Not to be confused with CRT/CTA4103). It was used to power the Jackson tampers. It was replaced by thisone seen here in its first day of real "revenue" operation. Phill Kovari istending the operation of the generator and moving it along and keepingthe cables straight and untangled for the tamping crew. Fred Lonnes, EdKonecki and Art Lemke tamp the ballast and make use of this new poweron the curve just north of Duerr's Pond Crossing.

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CPR 7700-12 Motor Car justarrived on line and unloaded byFred Lonnes. This unit replacedthe old AT&SF unit which wasgasoline powered. The CPR unitis diesel.

2008 Car Department Activities

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North Shore "Silverliner" coach 756 is currently the primary restorationproject of the museum. Ralph Taylor, Grant Harrison and Jim Gonyo havebeen removing the old roof and carlines, removing the insulation, de-rustingand priming the steel portions and installing replacements for the woodportions of the carlines. Janet Gonyo has also been working on the interiorof the car. This will be a multi year project as efforts move from the Southor No.1 end of the car.

Grant Harrison (back to the camera) and Ralph Taylor work on thecarlines of CNS&M 756. This is a long job as there are 34 of them to bereplaced. Joe Hazinski photo.

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Grant Harrison power vacs the old insulation as part of therehabilitation process.

Grant Harrison and Ralph Taylor in early stages of the rehab work ofCNS&M 756's roof.

CTA rapid transit car 4451 was out of service until Don MacCorquodalewas able to track down a contact problem in the line switch which was notallowing the car to accelerate beyond "switching speed." Later in the seasonthe unit was again taken out of revenue service due to the ceiling panels inthe center of the car coming loose from the carlines. Jim Gonyo and RichChapas have subsequently refastened them to the carlines in March of 2009.

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North Shore Line coach 715 suffered a bent and broken trolley pole. SinceNorth Shore trolley harps are specialized, one was borrowed from 756 whileRalph Taylor splice repaired the broken one. Subsequently we locate a sparebut bent North Shore pole in the storage reefer and Ralph has straightenedthat pole out without the need of a splice. Joe Hazinski has been priming andpainting the window sill stock for the West side of the car with hopes that itcan be reinstalled next season.

Jim Gonyo and Ralph Taylor at the north end of CNS&M 715 workingon roofing the car. Note the scaffolding . . . it came from the CA&EWheaton Shops.

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CNS&M 715, in its new roof, train doors, paint job waiting forpassengers at Blackhawk station in the Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve.Chicago Rapid Transit unit 5001 became disabled after Trolleyfest whenthe battery circuit P switch failed and would not re-Iatch so the Motor-Generators would not start. Joe Hazinski located a spare substitute breaker inthe car barn and Ralph Taylor and Grant Harrison installed the switch. Laterthe North end trolley shoe and harp failed and actually disappeared. JoeHazinski came up with a replacement holder and renewed the carbons andalong with help from Chuck Galitz and Ralph Taylor taking care of the pole.The car is operable but a number of improvements need to be made to theinterior floors, bodies, horns and electrical system in 2009.

CTA L-202 operated the caboose trains for the last time in 2008 until thetwo non-functioning motors are removed for rebuilding at the L & S Electricmotor shop in Appleton, Wisconsin. Prior to the caboose trips DonMacCorquodale worked on the huge K-14 controller dressing its fingers andcontacts. Ralph Taylor and Jim Gonyo have started the preparations forremoving the trucks so the motors can be pulled by removing the king pins.Wood for cribbing to jack the locomotive has been budgeted for as theproject continues during the 2009 season.

South Shore 7 and 14 had some loose roofing material and covers removedby Jim Gonyo. The stabilization of both these cars is a major challenge for2009.

Car Barn reorganization was started with the installation of heavy dutyshelving obtained by Ralph Taylor so that material from the South Eastcomer can be moved to the South West comer. Joe Hazinski and RalphTaylor would assemble a unit of shelving and then Joe would start movingparts stored on the East side to the West. Eventually the West side was filledwith six units. Grant Harrison and other passers-by were recruited to helpmove some of the heavier items to there new storage location. The objectiveis to move all the floor mounted power tools from the isle to the East sidewhere it will be easier to use them. By the season's end Joe Hazinski

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estimates that about one third of this project has been completed and partswill continued to be organized as they are located and sorted. Much remainsto be done in 2009.

CTA Rapid Transit car 4103 has been receiving continued attention byBob Hillman as he has been de-rusting the exterior section by section with awire wheel and then priming the work. The near term goal is to make the carmore presentable with a better paint job. In 2009 efforts are planned tostabilize the interior by starting to seal the car up and evicting the wild lifethat resides within so the many spare parts can be sanitized, organized andonce again available for the museum's needs.

Bob Hillman has undertaken the huge task of getting CRT/CTA 4103 inpresentable shape. A major part of the process is arresting "rust cancer."

Bob Hillman continues the tedious labor of chipping away the rust. A majorapplication of primer shows the substantial progress being made.

San Francisco MUNI PCC 1030 finally has started to receive attention asnew member Phil Kovari has expressed interest in the car. He and a cousin

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have started to clean up the interior of the car and with Joe Hazinski s helpthe underside controller cover was remounted. Ralph Taylor obtained twonew safety glass window panes for the rear windows and he, Joe Hazinskiwith major help from Grant Harrison installed the gasket fitted windows tothe car. The technique developed by Grant with tools obtained by Ralph willbe useful as many of our CTA all-electric cars have windows installed in thesame manner. The near term objective is to stabilize the car and make itmore presentable.

CTA Rapid Transit cars 40 and 43 were prepared for the "Trolley PolarExpress" service. Fred Lonnes assisted Joe Hazinski in servicing the OhioBrass Form 5 couplers so that the two cars could be coupled together. RalphTaylor started to service car 40 and discovered that the Motor-Generator setwould not start. After looking over the wiring diagrams and consulting withFred Lonnes it was determined that a resistor had failed. A spare was locatedas a result of the car barn reorganization, installed by Ralph Taylor and thecar was once again made serviceable and connected to 43. The carbons in 43trolley shoes were renewed and a spare set was made up and placed in thecar. I received reports that the 600 Volt power jumper between 40 and 43 tellout and grounded causing 40 to go dead on the trip down for the first PolarExpress trip. Chuck Galitz and Ralph Taylor were able to quickly repair thecable and only one trip had to be substituted by 5001. Thanks go to FredLonnes and Ralph Taylor for rescuing cars 40 and 43. Once again 5001 cameto the rescue to finish the charter operations.

There are ambitious plans for ear Department activity in 2009 and how muchof these tasks get accomplished is going to be dependent on an increase inthe number of volunteers. Besides the annual maintenance and inspection itis painfully obvious that we need more serviceable equipment for publicoperation and that a number of units need stabilization and appearanceimprovement. Thank you to all those named and unnamed who assisted in2008 and welcome aboard to any and all newcomers in 2009. I anticipatethat my pattern of Sunday-Monday presence at the museum will resume bythe end of April and I would sure appreciate some company on Mondays ifyou are able. In fact it would be nice if there was someone on the propertyevery day of the week to make improvements and prevent vandalism. Feelfree to contact me at 414 769-3241 or [email protected].

Joe Hazinski

Track 1 was almost completely replaced - new ties- new rails - newballast. This was a joint effort with Swanson Rail Contractors and ourtrack department headed by Roadmaster Ed Konecki.

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Note the tamper used by Swanson's crew. Picture is looking north.

Track 1 is a work in progress. View is looking north before tie tampingand surfacing. Picture is looking north.

The original track was laid down in 1967. Much of the rail came fromthe North Shore Line Highwood Yards. Picture is looking north.

Track 1 is almost completely replaced - looking south.

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Picture is looking south towards new switch 20. The final connection isyet to be made between track two and track zero. The Swanson crew isdoing the work.

Bringing order out of chaos! Joe Hazinski and Ralph Taylor startedcollecting loose parts and material (paints etc.) primarily from allcorners of the carbarn and some elsewhere and placed them in anorderly storage on these shelves. The statement "I am sure we have oneof those around here some place." is now almost obsolete. They wereassisted by Grant Harrison, Matt DelGudice and Pat Storm. It usefulnesswas recently established when parts needed for a repair were found onthe shelf and used instead of taking them from other cars.

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The Future...

as It Depends upon your point of view

•Armchair philosopher Yogi Berra a famous New Yorker and rider of the 5cent New York Subway System said: - "predictions are very hard tomake especially about the future."

•In 1899, Charles Duell, Commissioner of the U. S. Patent Officesaid:"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

•In 1920, David Sarnoff's associates said: "The wireless music box has noimaginable music value."

•In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM said: "I think there is amarket for maybe five computers."

•In 1977, Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation said:"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

•Even Bill Gates, in 1981 said: "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

•Though not a hockey fan, I like what Wayne Gretzke said: "I skate towhere the puck is going to be."

Let us not limit our imagination or sense for the future.

Don MacBean

Fox River Lines Staff

Managing Editor—Don MacBean, 817 College Ave. #5, Wheaton, IL 60187

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(630) 665-2581 E-mail [email protected]

Associate Editor—Luke Helm, Jr.

Layout and Graphics— Jack Sowchin

Fox River Lines is the official publication of the Fox River TrolleyAssociation, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. It is published fourtimes per calendar year for distribution to members and friends of themuseum. Reproduction of Fox River Lines, either in part or in its entirety, isstrictly prohibited without prior permission from the editorial staff or theFRTA board of directors. Entire contents Copyright © 2008 Fox RiverTrolley Association, Inc.

Submissions: Submission of stories from members and others is necessaryto publish Fox River Lines. Feature length articles are always welcome andconsidered. Please contact the staff before undergoing a project. Contributorssubmit materials with the understanding that no monetary compensation isprovided.

Correspondence: Comments, suggestions, and corrections relating to FoxRiver Lines should be directed to Managing Editor Don MacBean at theaddress listed above. The editorial staff appreciates your feedback.

where goest the ftra river...the museum acquired a lot of equipment used in our operations and...

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