For anyone interested, an illustrated history of the Electric Railway Historical Society - a Chicago area streetcar preservation group that essentially ceased to exist in 1973 - has been posted here (scroll down to May 12th entry):

http://www.hickscarworks.blogspot.com

Frank,

Real nice history. Here are some additional comments about moving the equipment to Union:

When the ERHS voted to give their collection to Union, IRM's "body snatchers" went into high gear. Obviously Glenn, Nick, McGregor, and the IRM BOD had been aware of what was going on for some time, but when the news was announced to the active IRM membership, it was presented as… "They gave us the cars, but there is a lot of sour grapes, and some of the ERHS members are going to court. We need to move these cars NOW, because if they get an injunction, the developer will likely scrap or burn them to get them out of his way."

The decision was made to truck the cars to the museum and unload them in two separate locations; one with access to the back of Barn 4, and the other on what was the proposed alignment of the lead to future higher number barns (this plan was subsequently changed, and that track alignment was never used). In retrospect it was not the wisest decision, but hindsight is always 20-20.

Dave Shore and I were put on the payroll to move the cars; Dave to provide the brains… me the brawn. Nick just barrowed a bit more time than usual from his day job to make arrangements and negotiate the oversize load permits, and McGregor was present for his expertise and as a source of never ending irritation for Shore. Red Top trucking of Hammond was hired for the trucking; they had a low level deck telescoping trailer that we had used before, it had air bag suspension and three axles at the rear of the trailer.

The order of loading was worked out to move the most significant pieces first, constrained only by the order which the cars stood on the tracks at the farm; we only had access to one end of the building, and there was no track to switch things around; the only track at the farm was what was under the cars. An appeal went out, and about a dozen members gathered at the farm on a week night to build a ramp in front of the PCC. The next morning the truck showed up, and we were off and running.

Nick had not been able to get the route he wanted, which would have made use of a county road; the county engineer hadn't signed off on it, and we were stuck using all state routes. I don't think a longer route could have been found. We went from Downers Grove to Union by way of DeKalb, first making a stop on highway 31 in front of the R.E.L.I.C. museum in South Elgin. The drive alone must have taken five hours.

The next morning we didn't get one truck length off the museum service road before we were royally stuck, it was late spring, and the new gravel that had been spread for access was not up to the task. We spent about a half a day with a wrecker to fight the trailer into position at the unloading ramp. It never did get any better; we just learned to call the wrecker, or a Cat, or both in advance to meet us at our ETA. At least subsequent moves went via Virginia Road in Crystal Lake, and our transit time fell to about two hours.

When we hit our stride, we were moving two cars every three days, IIRC. Nick was organizing work parties as needed to move the ramp from track to track at the farm. When the court date arrived and the judge asked where the cars were presently, the attorney was able to state that they were all secure at IRM, which is where the judge ordered they should stay until the legalities were sorted out.

It's always fascinating to read these stories of the primordial days of electric railway museum development. I've contributed three articles to Orange Empire's Gazette about how energy and enthusiasm made up for lack of money and other resources. Examples--Then: pole barns erected by volunteers with primitive equipment; Now: prefab steel buildings, erected by contractors with cranes and power tools. Then: jacks and blocks; Now: fork lifts and electric car lifts. Kudos to the stalwart few who made sure that trolley cars from long-abandoned systems would still be running in the 21st Century.

IERM (The Illinois Electric Railway Museum, an early name predating IRM) and ERHS has a predecessor. The Central Electric Railfans Association (CERA) had some activities involving historic preservation of rail equipment, including operations of a wood North Shore car, which was designated exclusively for the group's use. I am unclear on the terms of this agreement, but eventually the car was scrapped, and was not preserved. Much of this had to do with the personal philosophy of a key leader, George Krambles, who was apparently more interested in the organization preserving the paper history, not the physical.

This was also illustrated on a CERA fan trip over the abandoned Chicago and West Towns interurban, where after an offer to sell cars to the group was refused, gasoline was poured down the aisles and the cars lit afire. This may have been the actual event which precipitated the creation of IERM and later ERHS.

Nice article Frank, thank you.

The article also answers a burning question that has probably been asked wherever Kaos has travelled...
..."where did they get Nick from??"
The answer: He came in a package deal with some streetcars!

Jeff

Did ERHS morph into Shore Line Historical Society or did the latter develop separately?

Sloan

http://www.shore-line.org/

Shore Line Historical Society developed separately. The full story of SLHS was in an issue of their "First& Fastest" magazine, within the past few years.

Jeff

Dennis,

Thanks for the post - a great story to be sure! I've heard stories told now and again about ERHS and the move to IRM, and it's good that some of this "oral history" is getting written down.