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Car 749 History
North Shore car 749 has had an interesting past, to say the least. The car was constructed in 1928 by Pullman, and was part of a new order of steel cars designed to be used on the newly constructed Skokie Valley Route. These cars were high-speed cars, and had higher speed gearing than the previous North Shore cars. Later, during the 1940s, the car was modernized as many of the Skokie cars were. Modifications included lower ceilings with new lights, forced air heating and ventilation, painted interior instead of stained, and new upholstery on the seats.
This car is one of the last cars to undergo a complete rebuilding in the railroad's Highwood shops. Because of this, all of the parts on the car are practically new, stamped September and October of 1962. Besides mechanical rebuilding, the car was completely painted as well. This car was also one of only two cars out of service at Highwood on the last day of operation. Within a week of the railroad ceasing operations, car 749 was in a train. The car developed an electrical short, which caused it to come out of service. The railroad never repaired the car, and it is unclear exactly how much work was done to troubleshoot the problem.
At this time, the Illinois Railway Museum was selecting which North Shore cars they were interested in purchasing for their collection. The museum at that time was located in North Chicago, right near the North Shore. In addition, several members worked for the North Shore so it was possible to determine the mechanical condition and history of cars. Because of its relatively recent rebuilding, it was decided to select car 749 as the museum's example of a Skokie Valley car, despite the electrical problems. Before delivery of the car, a defective line switch was swapped out, but no other troubleshooting was done.
Car 749 was included in the original cars moved from North Chicago to Union, the new site of the Illinois Railway Museum. At this time, the car was in like new condition. Museum resources being limited however, all the cars were stored outside on various sidings. By the early 1980s, the weather had taken its toll on the car. The paint on the outside was faded, and rusting away. Windows had been broken, and various animals had entered the car to chew on seats. The roof had begun to deteriorate as well, and water leaked in various places.
Whether he was selected or volunteered on his own, in the mid 1980s Roger Hewett took on the task of project leader for car 749. The first task was to seal up the car, by replacing the roof and fixing all broken windows. The roof, including all the canvas, trolley boards, and lobster traps on the end of the car were replaced new. This took a significant amount of work, and techniques not used had to be learned. The curved wood pieces on the end of the roof, nicknamed lobster traps, require compound curves to fit to the various curves in the roof. Each piece of wood also has to be specifically matched to its place on the roof. New trolley wiring was also installed onto the new roof. Once all this work was completed, work began to branch out on various areas of the car. The steel on the #1 end of the car had badly deteriorated, and the floor was rotten. The steel was so far gone that the draft gear could have actually come off the car. It was while chopping out all this steel that an electrical short was located in a conduit. A wire supplying power to the controller had originally been pulled in with a kink in it. This kink had rubbed for many years, and eventually wore through and shorted out. This wire was replaced, and re-assembly of the floor continued.
At the same time, work was continuing inside the car. Every surface in the car, ceiling, walls, windows, doors, ect. would be carefully stripped bare and repainted. To ensure the windows would be watertight, new gasketing for the windows had to be fabricated. The gasketing was custom made, and a large batch was run off. This order was split between IRM and several other museums. Years of sitting had caused the paint on the ceiling to peel, and little chips of paint were hanging everywhere. To make it easier to work on the ceiling, each light fixture was individually removed, cleaned, and polished. Once the ceiling had been painted, they were carefully reinstalled. In addition to the painting, each of the seats in the car was removed as well. The frames were completely disassembled, and each piece was wire brushed to remove rust and loose paint. After this was done, they were dipped in a rust remover, and cleaned again. Finally, they could each be primed and painted. All of the chrome work on the seats was also re-plated to restore its original shine. When all of this work was complete, and painting of the coach section was mostly done, the frames were brought back into the car for assembly. Each frame was carefully oiled during re-assembly, and tested to make sure it functioned correctly. In order to re-upholster the seats, a special type of material was custom made in England, duplicating the original specifications of the North Shore. The cost of this material was divided between 749, 763, the electroliner, and car 761 at East Troy. The re-upholstered seats were re-installed in the car as they became available, and slowly the car began to look like a coach again.
Mechanically, the car began to take shape as well. In the mid 1990s, the electrical short discovered in the control conduit was bypassed temporarily, allowing the car to make an appearance in the Trolley Pageant. This would be the first time the car had ever run at IRM. After that, mechanical work continued on the car, re-assembling the rebuilt #1 end. By the summer of 2004, this work was nearly done, and the final connections to the controller were being made. In late October of 2004, it was time to try operating the car again. The car made one successful loop around the car line, and was returned to the barn. One week later, the car was moved to the pit for motor inspection work. The car shuffled several times on the pit with no problems. However, that night while the car was being returned to its normal track, another problem made itself known.
The car had not even hit the end of the pit track, when there was a bright flash, the substation dropped, and we were left standing in the light of the emergency lights in the car. All of us on the car had seen the flash in different places, so it was hard to determine what exactly had happened. Grabbing flashlights, we began to check fuses, motors, and anything else that might have flashed over. Finally, after opening the cover to the group switch, a large plume of smoke came out. We knew we had found where the problem was, but not what it was. The car was pushed dead using 714 back onto the pit. During the week, various people checked various areas to try and find out what had happened, but it was still not clear. On Wednesday, the car was successfully moved under its own power back to its normal place. However, after coming into the barn, smoke and a few flames were found in the group switch box. The flames went out on their own, but helped pin-point exactly what had happened. One of the cables entering the group switch box had rubbed and frayed a little bit. The cable was intermitently grounding on the steel frame, and the heat of the cable was burning the wood the cables entered the group through.
On that Saturday, all the covers were removed from the group switch. While checking this cable, it was found that a couple of insulators in the box had cracked as well. This allowed the bolts to make contact with the steel frame of the group. The box is grounded from the car, however there is a relay in the group that is connected to ground. It was found that this relay was close enough to the cover, that once the air in the group was hot enough from the short, it could actually flash over and go to ground. Once all these repairs were complete, and a quick electrical inspection was done, it was time to test the car again. It was that night that car 749 made its first mainline trip ever at IRM. It appears that this short in the group switch box caused the line switch to overload and fail 41 years ago on the North Shore. The car is now mechanically almost ready for service, although more thorough inspections are needed of various other components as well.
In addition to interior and mechanical restoration, a complete restoration of the outside of the car is underway as well. Paint is being wire brushed, rust is being removed, and problem steel is being re-welded. Minor dents and scratches are also being filled with bondo to prepare for priming and painting. The letterboards, and most of the #2 end of the car have been painted.
