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.