According to a second hand report from a 'civilian' spotter, there was an orange trolley car with two trolley poles riding on a flatbed trailer moving south on I 39 south of Rockford, IL yesterday. Anyone know some more about this move? What was it, where was it going, and where did it start the trip?

Always curious about trolleys, and moving rail equipment seems to be an ever increasing challenge and adventure.

Bob Kutella

68trolley@comcast.net

Can't help with the car move that you asked about.

But moving street cars and trollys has gotten easier in recent years. Because of the number of new operations and heritage lines,company's like Silk road Transportation have come into existance,

The move equipment to and from builders and re-builders on a regular basis.

The Pennsylvania Trolly Museum has used them is the East and out West the Western Railway Museum used them to move cars.

Their trucks have moveable rails that can be set to any gauge in the bed.

You still have go to in some strange routes in order to miss power lines, fixed bridges and so forth.

When the WRM moved a car from San Francisco to the museum it was routed by way of San Jose-- 50 miles south!

Ted miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> You still have go to in some strange routes
> in order to miss power lines, fixed bridges
> and so forth.

> When the WRM moved a car from San Francisco
> to the museum it was routed by way of San
> Jose-- 50 miles south!

Ted,

That is nothing compared to the move that the folks at Pacific Locomotive Association had to do to move its dining car from Sparks. The SP gave then the ex-dining car out of a work (wreck?) train in Sparks. But the SP would not move the car by rail. So the PLA had to truck the car by road. But the route over Donner Pass was restricted by scafolding. So they had to go south to Mojave and over Tehachapi Pass to go north to the East SF Bay area.

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

Brian,

That was quite a trip!

I think it is the same dining car that the PLA volunteers have been working on at Sunol; I guess every museum has cars that were in work train service and "some day' will get restored.

Well, this one has been! Lots of paint stripped from the inside and the wood interior is a beautiful sight to behold. They are now working on such things as light fixtures and seating.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

Brian,

That was quite a trip!

I think it is the same SP dining car that the PLA volunteers have been working on at Sunol; I guess every museum has cars that were in work train service and "some day' will get restored.

Well, this one has been! Lots of paint stripped from the inside and the wood interior is a beautiful sight to behold. They are now working on such things as light fixtures and seating.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

Here in Wisconsin in the Mighty Midwest, we have used Miner Rail Services of Donnellson, Iowa. They do a roll on-roll-off that works just fine.

East Troy Electric Railroad
jftrolley@aol.com

> According to a second hand report from a
> 'civilian' spotter, there was an orange
> trolley car with two trolley poles riding on
> a flatbed trailer moving south on I 39 south
> of Rockford, IL yesterday. Anyone know some
> more about this move? What was it, where was
> it going, and where did it start the trip?

> Always curious about trolleys, and moving
> rail equipment seems to be an ever
> increasing challenge and adventure.

> Bob Kutella

Bob: I am kind of curious. Your thread kind of went off on a tangent. Did you ever find out what kind of trolley car was on the truck on I39 southbound from Rockford?

Les

midlandblb@cs.com

> Bob: I am kind of curious. Your thread kind
> of went off on a tangent. Did you ever find
> out what kind of trolley car was on the
> truck on I39 southbound from Rockford?

> Les

Still no answer to the mystery. BTW we just moved a tank car to the IRM site using Silk Road Transporation. A classy outfit but there was an unusual litany of troubles including a question on weight, the load being higher than the shipper "estimated", and two flat tires on the 300 mile trip. How do you fix a flat on one of those trucks? Glad it was not my job. In spite of that they were only about 4 hours later than expected and the car was unloaded without incident.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net

> Still no answer to the mystery. BTW we just
> moved a tank car to the IRM site using Silk
> Road Transporation. A classy outfit but
> there was an unusual litany of troubles
> including a question on weight, the load
> being higher than the shipper
> "estimated", and two flat tires on
> the 300 mile trip. How do you fix a flat on
> one of those trucks? Glad it was not my job.
> In spite of that they were only about 4
> hours later than expected and the car was
> unloaded without incident.

> Bob Kutella

Bob: Congrats on the "new baby." You guys have really got a great tank car collection. How many is that now? And what type car and what's the history?

Les


midlandblb@cs.com

> Bob: Congrats on the "new baby."
> You guys have really got a great tank car
> collection. How many is that now? And what
> type car and what's the history?

As we have often said, you cannot have too many tank cars! Our collection spans the technology and history of these cars from 1910 to the 1960's in sizes from 4000 to 20,000 gallons. Seems to me we still have fewer than 10 on the site but most have been restored with new paint and lettering and are inspected and in operating condition. This one is a product from the Standard Tank Car Co. built in Sharon PA in 1918. The car had never been upgraded with type AB brakes and it retains its type KC brakes and sits on a set of 50 ton Andrews clone trucks. Bolsters and sideframes have casting dates back to as early as 1904. The restoration is as IRCX 1277 and portrays the car circa 1932. (That is for Indian Refining Company of Lawrenceville, IL)

It has a volume capacity of nominal 10,000 gallon and is about 35 feet long over pulling faces. So far all costs have been born by a very generous corporate sponsor in the petroleum industry.

Bob Kutella

68trolley@comcast.net