Issue 06-1, Spring 2006

Car Department Volunteers
Labor Hard in 2005

CTA 4451 and CRT 5001 at Castlemuir during TolleyFest 2005.

Editor's Note:
The following article consists of reports submitted by Ralph Taylor to the Museum's Board of Directors during 2005. --Ed.

Car 317
Miscellaneous interior lighting wiring has been replaced and possible different wiring routes for some of the wiring has been investigated.
Ralph Taylor and Jim Gonyo

Car 316
Fourteen feet of new belt rail has been fabricated. Enough poplar stock has been obtained to fabricate the belt rail needed for the west side of the car.
Ralph Taylor and Jim Gonyo

Car 715
The required stock to repair the bottom of the south train door has been obtained. Due to the width and height requirements, cypress had to be purchased. The entire bottom rail and 12 inches of the vertical style literally fell off in pieces when I got this door in my shop
Ralph Taylor and Jim Gonyo

Car 4288
Several pieces have been cut for the roof repair on the north end.
Rich Chappas and Jim Gonyo

Shop Equipment

Rich Chappas has donated a 12 inch Sears Craftsman band saw to the Museum. It has been positioned in the west aisle close to car 4288 so that it will be convenient for work on cars 316, 317 and 4288.

Locomotive L-202
The brake piston has been removed and is on the table in the southeast corner of the car barn. The cylinder and the piston have to be de-greased before the new packing cup can be installed. The open cylinder has been covered and the piston is covered with a plastic tarp.

Carbarn
The groundhog burrow has been filled in, parts rearranged and clean up work has been done in the southwest corner of the carbarn.

Report on Cars Lubricated

April, 2005

1. Car 20 - Journals, axle caps and armature bearings. No grease added to the pinion gears.
2. Car 445l - Journals, axle caps and armature bearings.
3. Locomotive L-202 - Journals, axle caps and armature bearings.
4. Car 756 - Journal bearings.

Report of Work Done on Car 715

May 20, 2005

The rotted tack molding on the west side of the car has been replaced. The curved tack molding on the north end of the car has been replaced. The repair on the south end train door is as follows:
The broken glass, rotted trim strips and hardened deteriorated putty has been removed.
Repair pieces for the inner style and bottom rail have been completed. The bottom rail material is of cypress, the inner style material is hard maple.
The sheet metal insert, which was rusty and loose, was removed, sanded and primed.
The bottom 12 inches of the outer style, which had the bottom door latch mounted on it and which was attempting to save intact, literally fell off on 5/19/05 while I was attempting to fit the repaired wood pieces together. A new; style piece will have to be fabricated.
The outside of the entire door has been sanded to remove all traces of epoxy putty and the paint put over it.
The installation of the new roof material will be done during June, 2005. (The nighttime temperature can not fall below 50 degrees F .
Work done by Ralph Taylor and Bill Minerly

Report of Work Done on Car 316

May 20, 2005

All of the rotted belt rail on the west side of the car has been removed. Rotted belt rail on the east side of the car has been removed in two places. Two more short sections still have to be removed. Two eight foot sections of new belt rail have been installed on the west side. Three additional eight foot sections have been fabricated and are ready for installation. Two spacer blocks for the north end motorman's air brake valve have been fabricated and installed.
Work done by Ralph and Rob Taylor and Bill Minerly

Report of Work Done on Locomotive L-202

May 20, 2005

The deteriorated packing cup on the brake piston was replaced during April, 2005. This work was completed on 4/2/05 by Ralph Taylor, Jim Gonyo and Bill Minerly. On 4/9/05, while attempting to move the locomotive from in front of the carbarn to track #1, the south motor on the south truck failed.

The insulation resistance readings; on the motor armatures are as follows:
North truck:
North motor: 1.75 Megohms @ 500 V DC
South motor: 37.2 Megohms
South truck:
North motor: 57.0 Megohms
South motor: 0 Megohms

An inspection revealed that the commutators on all of the motors were filthy with burned in carbon dust so bad that the slots between commutator bars could not be seen and the surface of the commutators could not be seen. In addition, the mica V-rings, which should have been banded with mica tape or lacing, were not. They were just painted with red varnish, which has deteriorated and is cracked and splitting up. This area has to be banded by wet winding dacron tape and painting with varnish.
The motor brushes were badly worn down. Twelve of the brushes, the best of the lot, were put in the north motors and the locomotive was moved to track one. J. Hazinski is obtaining new motor brushes from Helwig Carbon in Milwaukee.
The controller segments and fingers were badly burned up. These have been repaired by Don MacCorquodale 5/15/05. An inspection of the trucks has revealed that the flat steel pieces bracing the kingpin bearings, are all fractured except for one.
On that one, the bolts have fallen out. In addition, the bolts holding the kingpin bearing to the car body on the south truck have all come loose. The nuts have broken off an inch. In addition, several of the long bolts going through the steel braces and the kingpin bearing have fallen out. The estimate for the rewinding of the south motor and clean-up of the other motor in the truck is between six and ten thousand dollars.
Work done by Ralph Taylor, Bill Minerly, Jim Gonyo and Don MacCorquodale

Miscellaneous Car Work

July 16, 2005

Report of Work Done on Car 20

6/17/05 Raised the two third-rail beams on the east side of car 20 totheir normal location.

Report of Work Done on Cars 5001 and 43

Replaced the trolley shoes.
Ralph Taylor - 2 hours; Jim Gonyo - 2 hours.

Report of Work Done on Car 5001

5/25/05 Installed cleats for the trolley rope on each end of car and repaired the battery connection in the battery boxes on both cab cars.
Ralph Taylor - 2 hours; Jim Gonyo - 2 hours.

5/22/05 Replaced the trolley shoe on the north end of car.
Ralph Taylor - 2 hours; Bill Minerly - 2 hours.

5/21/05 Replaced the north trolley pole.
Ralph Taylor - 2 hours; Bill Minerly - 2 hours.

Repaired trolley shoe for the north trolley pole.
Ralph Taylor - 1.5 hours.

Report of Work Done on Car 4451

7/4/05 Replaced broken seat back in car and cleaned and lubricated the moveable seat mechanism.
Don MacCorquodale - 4 hours.

Report of Work Done on Car 715

July 16, 2005
7/10/05 The rebuilt south train door was installed.
Ralph Taylor - 4 hours; Matt Del Giudice - 3 hours.

7/8/05 Second coating of gray latex installed on the straight roof section.
Ralph Taylor - 1.5 hours; Chuck Galitz - 1.5 hours

7/3/05 First coating of gray latex installed on the straight roof section.
Ralph Taylor - 4 hours; Don MacCorquodale - 4 hours.

7/1/05 Installed polyester mat preceded by a coat of white latex and two coats of latex over the mat, on the straight roof section.
Ralph Taylor - 6 hours; Jim Gonyo - 6 hours; Fred Zinke - 6 hours.

6/29/05 Installed ice stop on top of the roof.
Ralph Taylor - 4 hours; Jim Gonyo - 4 hours.

6/27/05 installed ice stop on west side of the roof.
Ralph Taylor - 4 hours; Jim Gonyo - 4 hours.

6/26/05 Installed ice stop on the east side of the roof.
Ralph Taylor - 6 hours; Jim Gonyo - 6 hours.
Don MacCorquodale - 6 hours.

6/24/05 Removed remaining roof saddles.
Ralph Taylor - 4 hours; Fred Zinke - 4 hours.

6/22/05 Removed remaining roof canvass and about 1/3 of the roof saddles.
Ralph Taylor - 5 hours; Jim Gonyo - 5 hours.

6/20/05 Removed roof canvass, and roof boards.
Ralph Taylor - 5 hours; Jim Gonyo - 5 hours; Fred Zinke - 5 hours.

Report of Car Work Done 7/16/05 to 9/10/05

Car 715

The roof framing members on the south end of the car are intact. They had some soft dry rotted areas. All of these framing members have been given three coats of Liquid epoxy to stabilize them.
The rotted roof boards on the south end heave been removed. Approximately 2/3 of the roof boards are intact.
The tack molding on the south end is all rotted and will have to be replaced.
The roof framing members on the north end on the sides are disintegrated and have been removed. New wood members will have to be fabricated.
Most of the roof boards on the north end are intact.

Car 4451

The feed valve plugged up again and was cleaned by Don MacCorquodale.
The trolley pole hook on the north end pulled loose from the roof boards on Sunday, 9/4/05 because the roof boards were rotten. Temporary repairs were made on Sunday morning, 9/5/05, by adding a 3/4" thick board across the rotted roof board section.
The back of one seat fell apart on Sunday, 9/5/05, due to rotted wood and rusted metal springs. Will repair on 9/11/05 with a seat back from car 4208.

Car 316

Minor miscellaneous pieces of hardware have been .fabricated, and installed.

Report of Car Work Done 7/16/05 to 9/10/05

Locomotive L-202

L & S Electric has again been contacted for estimates on repairing the four motors on this locomotive. The Museum has to make preparations for the physical work and the monetary costs involved.

Cars 40 and 43

The paint on the roofs of these cars is 75% gone. Large rust areas are visible coming from the drip guards above the air intake openings.
Since we use these cars for the Polar Express Trains, permission is requested to paint the roofs of these cars this fall with an oil based enamel with as close a color match as possible.

Cars 6101 and 6102

The paint on the roofs of these cars is deteriorating badly. Large areas are peeling up.

Report of Car Work Done 9/11/05 to 11/19/05

Car 715

All of the rotted roof boards on the south end of the car were replaced. Ice shield underlayment was installed and the polyester roof mat and roof coating was installed. Except for the tack molding on the end of the car, the south end of the roof has been completed.

Car 5001

The middle M-G set failed at the end of October. The exact date is unknown. One of the commutators arced over to ground, burning up the mica V-ring. The leads to this end of the unit have been disconnected.

Since there is no battery in the middle car (not yet replaced) this equipment is still operable. The M-G set will have to be replaced next spring.

Locomotive L-202

This locomotive has been moved to track 3N in preparation for removal of the trucks and motors. A proposed procedure has been prepared.

Car 43

The carbon in both trolley shoes was worn down and both carbons were replaced on 11/13/05. One screw-pin holding the slide (actually the "keeper" slide) on the south shoe was worn out. A new pin was machined and installed on 11/19/05.

Report of Car Work Done 11/19/05 to 1/29/06

Car 715

The northwest roof framing member is 75% complete.
The hardwood stock for the northeast framing member has been purchased and the framing member has been rough cut from the stock.
Hardwood stock to make approximately 60 lineal feet of the ½" x 1" roof boards has been purchased.
Both framing members should be completed by the end of February.

Locomotive L-202

The repair estimate for the f our motors has been received from L&S Electric. They will do the job at cost. Their costs range from 55% to 65% of the billing price. Because of incomplete data on these motors, the estimated billing price is around $20,000.00. The FRTM price will range between $12,000 and $15,000.

It is suggested that only the two worst motors be repaired. In addition, the fractured steel bearing supports be removed and either welded ourselves or taken to a welding repair shop to save the expense of a field weld.

Schedule For Completing Car 715 Roof

DESCRIPTION

1. Finish fabricating two roof framing members
for the north end
2. Install framing members
3. Fabricate 200 lineal feet of 1/2" x 1-5/8"
poplar roof board
4. Install roof boards on north end.
5. Paint roof boards
6. Install ice shield under layment
7. Install polyester roof mat and coat
8. Re-coat roof-north end. (two times)
9. Refurbish trolley board support members
10. Refurbish trolley bases
11. Install trolley board support members
12. Install trolley boards
13. Install trolley bases and power cable
14. Fabricate track molding for south and north end
15. Install tack molding on south and north ends

Totals

Man Hours

8

10
8

20
2
8
12
2
15
20
20
20
20
5
6

176

MWD

-

2
-

4
x
1
1
1
-
-
2
2
2
-
1

16

MWD = Museum Work Days. - = Off site work. X = Miscellaneous work.

CNS&N 715 is an important part of the Museum's collection. Thus, getting it ready for the 2006 season is a priority job.

Ralph Taylor

Spirit of Partnership

The members and friends of the Fox River Trolley Museum volunteer their time and funds to provide a memorable and educational experience for our visitors. Many of us work long and hard on such activities as maintaining the cars, making train crew assignments, keeping the grounds up, running the gift shop and taking care of the hundreds of other tasks needed to run the museum. Sometimes, though, despite the hard work, we encounter critical comments from our visitors. People will ask about the lack of visitor facilities or the shortness of the ride. They will also help with suggestions to improve things that start out, "You should." Now, like many people, I often feel a bit taken a back when I run into comments like these, but instead of being frustrated, I instead change it around in my mind as an opportunity to invite a critical visitor to help the museum. How, ask for their help.

When you ask for help, you are changing the relationship we have with our visitor. You turn the conversation from one of critical concern to acting as partners. The word partner is important here. Why is it important? Partners are equal participants in an activity of common interest, in our case, explaining history. Let us look at what this means concerning the Fox River Trolley Museum.

Our museum exists to provide a service to the community. We are the caretakers of a significant part of the historical story about who we are and how we came to live the way we do. Since 1959, the Fox River Trolley Museum's members and friends have volunteered to build a museum to tell this story. We tell the story with artifacts, antique railroad cars and a ride on a 105-year-old railroad. We tell this story to thousands of people every year-our visitors. Our visitors are our partners in our activity. Without them listening to us and riding with us, there would be no story, no museum, no preserved artifacts, no railroad cars and no railroad. But, our visitors do not know that they are our partners. And, this is where we must begin to educate them.

The best place to start with educating our visitors that they are our partners is when they ride with us. Let our visitors know that they are partners in the museum. Tell our visitors that this museum is their museum and that they can help in improving it for tomorrow's visitor. Tell them that they can help. When our visitors know that they can help and that they are our partners, it will change the relationship that they have with us. Our relationship changes from passive to active, from visitor to partner. So, what is the power of this partnership relationship? When you treat visitors as partners, visitor comments, even of our critical visitors, change to suggestions for positive action. And, positive action is what will build our museum for future generations to come.

Ed Konecki

Comments: edkonecki@aol.com

Editor's Note:

This "Front Platform" was reprinted because of its timeliness.

Mission

To preserve and interpret Chicago's electric transport era that began in the 1890s and peaked before 1950. The electric transport era is significant because electric railways, including interurban, rapid transit, and streetcars, helped the Chicago region grow to be one of North America's great metropolitan areas. The Museum strives to show that electric railways were more than convenient, they were and are a way 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 demonstration electric railway, over the Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric route at South Elgin, Illinois. Furthermore, the museum preserves, displays and interprets smaller artifacts, photos, oral histories, and documents which help relate the importance of electric transport in and around the Chicago Metropolitan Area, putting them in context with their surroundings and era.

Collections Assessment Report

January 29, 2006

Chicago Railways Co. Concrete Signs

The Fox River Trolley Museum owns two concrete Chicago Railways Co.-1908 signs that came from the Blue Island Avenue carbarn. The signs were installed in the building walls above the carbarn track entrance doors.
The building had been purchased by the Chicago Board of Education and was being torn down to make room for a new school. The building demolition contractor removed the signs and loaded them into Fred Lonnes' s dump truck.
One of the signs broke as it was being unloaded at the Museum site. The other one is intact.
The date of this acquisition was about 1988.
It is suggested that these signs be part of a display, set in the ground vertically where it can be easily seen. The area around the signs could be landscaped with volcanic rock. It has been suggested to combine these signs with the two concrete gateposts from the Castle dairy farm, recently donated to the Museum by Cambridge Homes.

C.A.&E. R.R. Co. Telephone Cabinets

The Fox River Trolley Museum owns three wooden C.A.&E. R.R. Co. telephone cabinets. Two of these cabinets are intact and are on the museum site. One of these cabinets is in pieces and is being rebuilt by Ralph Taylor.
As far as is known, these three telephone cabinets were the only telephone cabinets from the C.A.&E. R.R. Co. that were saved. The cabinets were home-made by the C.A.&E. at the Wheaton Shops.
A blueprint drawing for these cabinets was made by the C.A.&E. and is in the possession of Ralph Taylor. These cabinets should be installed and used for the Museum's own magneto telephone line. By doing so, they will serve a useful purpose and add to the completeness of a typical electric interurban railroad.

Concrete Whistle Post

The concrete whistle post presently installed on the west side of the A.E.&F.R.E.Co. mainline track just south of the Museum driveway entrance came from the Rockford and Interurban right-of-way just west of Cherry Valley. The whistle post was on the south side of the right-of-way just before a slight curve to the left (north) as one faced east.
The whistle post was noticed by Ralph Taylor and Wendell Dillinger while on an inspection trip in Wendell's Chrysler. The post was dug loose with shovels from Wendell's trunk, but in the process of trying to loosen the post up, about a foot of the concrete at the bottom broke off. The top part of the whistle post was loaded into Wendell's car.
The date of this acquisition was 1961 or 1962.
The whistle post was installed on the A.E.&F.R.E.Co. mainline before the Museum started operation in 1966.

C.A.&E. R.R. Co. High-Level Switch stands

The Fox River Trolley Museum owns five high-level switch stands that came from the C.A.&.E.R.R. Co. Four of these switch stands were purchased from Commercial Metals. Where these were used on the C.A.& E. is unknown. One of these switch stands was originally used on switch #55. This switch stand was replaced with a C.A.&E. switch stand that came from one of the switches at Renwick. (Most likely the switch from the C.A.&.E. mainline to the spur track for McGraw Electric and Chicago Gravel).
This switch stand was "rescued" by Ralph Taylor and Rick Mink about 1966 and hauled to the museum site in the back of Ralph Taylor's 1951 Chevrolet pick-up truck. (The switch stand had been found laying in the ditch at Renwick).
All of the above mentioned stands were made by Morden, Chicago Works.

Ralph Taylor

Friendly Neighbors
Help Track Department

Three volunteers from the Illinois Railway Museum dropped in on Saturday, April 10, to supply much needed help in maintaining the main line south of stop 54 in preparation for the 2006 season. Our thanks to Adam Robillard, Frank DeVries and Tom Hunter for their invaluable help,

Adam Robillard and Frank DeVries plating ties in foreground, Chris Nelson and Matt DelGuidice using the tie inserter, and the rest of the crew (Ed Konecki, Al Barker, Patrick Storm, Bill and Jim Minerly, and Chuck Galitz) cleaning out slots for new ties.

Matt DelGuidice operating the tie inserter as Chris Nelson guides in the tie with the inserter hook.

Corrections

Please accept our apologies and note the following corrections:

"Fox River Lines" issue 05-3 Fall 2005: Caption for the picture on page one (1) should read Hiroaki Miyagawa instead of Matt DelGiudice.

In the list of participants in the lead article on track maintenance for 2005, the name Patrick Barker should read Patrick Storm.

In the "From The Observation Car" column "Quiz Answers" the answer to question three (3) should read g. (not shown) Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad.

Don MacBean, Editor

Board Announces Postponement of Meeting Date

Museum Secretary, Bob Wayman announced the postponement of the May 27th meeting of Museum's Board of Directors to Saturday, June 3, 2006 at 7pm at the South Elgin Village Hall.

Bob Wayman

Help! ! ! !

There are many many activities going on at the Museum that should be reported in "Fox River Lines." But they are not. All we need to paraphrase the U. S. Marines is "A few good reporters."

Being a reporter or correspondent for the newsletter can be helpful to a members knowledge and understanding of the Museum its goal and mission. Submittal requirements are very simple and easy to do. An e-mail addressed to me at DmacBRR@aol.com will get the story to me. It can be part of the e-mail or an attachment to it either an MS-Word or WordPerfect or a text document will do.

Pictures can be scanned and sent as JPEG files to accompany the stories.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Don MacBean - Managing Editor

New Season - New Challenges

Spring has sprung, the track crew has been working hard putting mainline track south of stop 54 in shape before opening day. With the advent of an extended season in the fall due primarily to the operation of "POLAR EXPRESS" trains in December, the window of opportunity for track maintenance has been somewhat limited to the spring. See pictures page nn.

Each new season brings its challenges some still unresolved from the past and some new ones. In the opinion of the writer, the challenges fall into the area/grouping of being age related. And that category divides itself into two subgroups - people and artifacts.

Regarding the people grouping it subdivides also into two groups - young and old. The Museum has been favored in the past couple of years with the participation of a number of younger members - I guess 50 years old or less. Being over 70 I can say that. These people's contributions have been exemplified by commitment, hard work, long hours, willingness to learn, positive attitude, selflessness and team work. At looking around at the physical aspects of the Museum one can see the results of their efforts although their signatures are not on them . . . they are just there. The entire membership and our community owes them a great debt of gratitude and appreciation.

The other age sub-group is "mature adults" - those over 50 - that grouping established by marketing folks. The challenge here especially for those in the older group is to train, equip, instill a sense of heritage and history in the younger age group and to more effectively utilize their talents and abilities in the furtherance of the Museum's Mission.

The other sub-group is artifacts. Artifacts include not only the cars, tracks, power distribution and so forth but also books, papers, lanterns, headlights and memorabilia of all kinds. Meeting the challenges in this group has a mixed message. It might be more simply stated as "not fulfilling the mission of the organization" as a Museum as stated in our Mission Statement, Articles of Incorporation and By Laws. Our name is Fox River Trolley Museum. While progress has been made towards providing covering for more of our cars (Car barn extension) and we have acquired climate controlled space for papers and similar artifacts and the materials have been classified and stored adequately - the room for more artifacts is limited as is making them available to the public in not possible. I.e. we have not met that requirement of being a museum.

This is where the aspects of the "mature adults" sub-group join up with the "artifacts" sub group. The "mature adults" in the membership local area and distant are maturing faster and their "artifacts" are in need of a "museum" home This is a challenge.

Two other subgroups are also meeting up - young museum members and old cars young members and young members of the community and old cars much in need of hard work. This is a year of challenges . . . what is your response?

Comments invited. dmacbrr@aol.com

Don MacBean

Fox River Lines Staff

Managing Editor—Don MacBean, 817 College Ave. #5, Wheaton, IL 60187
(630) 665-2581 E-mail DMacbRR@aol.com

Associate Editor—Luke Helm, Jr.

Layout and Graphics— Jack Sowchin

Fox River Lines is the official publication of the Fox River Trolley Association, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. It is published four times per calendar year for distribution to members and friends of the museum. Reproduction of Fox River Lines, either in part or in its entirety, is strictly prohibited without prior permission from the editorial staff or the FRTA board of directors. Entire contents Copyright © 2006 Fox River Trolley Association, Inc.

Submissions: Submission of stories from members and others is necessary to publish Fox River Lines. Feature length articles are always welcome and considered. Please contact the staff before undergoing a project. Contributors submit materials with the understanding that no monetary compensation is provided.

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