2009 IRM Snowflake Special

Looks like there's going to be a fantrip in a little more than a month: http://www.subchat.com/read.asp?Id=744095

This is the second year in a row IRM's done a Snowflake special. Methinks they're raising funds to get a pair of 22- and 2400s once those are taken out of service when the 5000s start arriving later this year.

What do you suppose are the chances of selling a ticket at the last second after being unfavorably lined up on the extra board?

Well what have we here: http://www.irm.org/store/index.php?main ... cts_id=697 (hint: it's a ticket purchase link)

Reposted as requested. Sounds like a good trip. Wish I could get there!

Hello group-

If you've been intending to buy your ticket to IRM's SNOWFLAKE SPECIAL on the
CTA on Sunday, March 29, and haven't done so yet, it's not too late! There are
still tickets available for this 9-hour tour of Chicago's 'L system, which will
start at Forest Park terminal (Desplaines Ave.) on the Blue Line and will
include all or parts of the Blue, Pink, Green, Orange, Brown, and Red Lines.
The train, made up of a pair of 2200-series Budd-built cars and a pair of "work
motor" 2400-series Boeing-Vertol-built cars, will leave Forest Park at 9:00 am
and return there about 6:00 pm. Lunch stops will be provided in the Loop.

Tickets are $42.00 per person and may be purchased with your credit card in the
IRM online store, by visiting:
http://www.irm.org/store/index.php?main ... cts_id=697 .
Your tickets will be held for pickup at Forest Park if your order is received
after Saturday, March 21st. Tickets, if still available, will also be sold on
the morning of the trip at Forest Park.

This excursion is a fundraiser to secure indoor storage space for cars 41 and
22. Just two winters ago, Car Dept. volunteers were hard at work replacing all
of the wooden trolley boards and saddles on car 41 after damage caused by
outdoor storage took it out of service. The cars still sit outside, where even
good paint and materials are no match for the weather. But if this excursion is
a success, the cars will have earned their spot in a barn.

Our planned route for the trip will cover 108.3 miles, of which 3.2 miles are on
yard and connector trackage. We plan (subject, as usual, to changes on the day
of the trip if we run late) the following photo and video opportunities:
- a photo stop at Conservatory/Central Park station on the Green Line
- photo/video stops at Racine (Blue), Pulaski (Green- long shot over the BRC!),
Kedzie or Pulaski (Orange), Belmont (Brown), Southport or Damen (Brown),
Rockwell or Western (Brown), Fullerton (Red), and 63rd (Red)
- a visit to the farthest-south point on the 'L, the bumping post on Track 1 of
the 98th St. Yard at the end of the Red Line

As always, comfort stops will be ample and well-timed.

Please feel free to re-post this address to any Chicago-area rail-related
message boards that you feel are appropriate. Help us get the word out!

Hope to see all of you on the SNOWFLAKE SPECIAL-- hopefully without the
snowflakes!

Richard Schauer

Hope to see all of you on the SNOWFLAKE SPECIAL-- hopefully without the
snowflakes!

The "without the snowflakes" is not looking likely. Up to 5 inches of snow is being forecast for the area starting tonight through midday Sunday. A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect from 7pm tonight until 1pm Sunday.

As we have tickets for it, I do hope they have some plan for getting the word out should it be cancelled. As I believe most if not all ticket sales were via the web site, presumably they have the list of ticket purchaser's e-mail addresses.

I thought winter was done. And I'm supposed to be outside refereeing a soccer tournament next weekend.

Hi Guys. I was the charter director for the fan trip. Here are a couple of pics. Photo by Lorenzo Gunn Jr

The charter went as far south as possible for a CTA "L" train, I call it 9930 south, 0130 east.

Photo by Lorenzo Gunn Jr.

Here the charter approaches the "end of track" running on the "fence track" as seen from Michigan AV bridge crossing the 98th ST yard.

Photo by Terry Gaskin

Finally, the view from the inside. This isn't an expressway median..this portion of I-94 is the Bishop Ford Freeway, so it's a freeway median.

David Harrison

On the north side we did a lot of special moves and staging using the features of the Clark Corridor. The Corridor is controlled from Clark Tower and has many of the features like mainline railroad CTC with nearly a dozen interlockings, all remotely controlled from the tower and bi-directional signaling on all four mainline north tracks and two tracks on the Brown line branch to Paulina station. Sitting NB at Fullerton on track 3, for instance, we needed plenty of PA announcements...."Attention passengers...this is NOT a RED LINE train, his is a charter train....PLEASE DO NOT BOARD". One move at Paulina included the charter unloading photographers and then changing direction to go east of the Lakeview interlocking while Clark tower rerouted the following Brown line train to the SB track where both trains posed side by side with headlights on. Here's the pic for that move.



Yes, the say started out like a mid-winter snowstorm, instead of a day a week into spring. In this pic we see our supervisor trudging the Morgan Middle Track to rescue our pre-charter transfer of equipment.



IRM likes to bring out tokens from years gone by including several front-end signboards. Here the charter pulls out of the 63rd ST Middle track SB on the Red line with a board promoting a Sox game at 35th ST.




David Harrison

David, glad to see you showed up here. Now you'll probably nag me about pictures here too.

I was negligent in not following up afterwards but David put on a good trip. Lots of fun stuff including all three non-revenue connections between lines (two of the three in both directions).

And in case anyone was wondering regarding my comment above about soccer this past weekend, yes, it was cold. Yes, it snowed again Sunday morning. But we played anyway. First time I reffed on a snow-covered field (gone quickly with the sun). Crazy weather!

Chicagopcclcars wrote:Hi Guys. I was the charter director for the fan trip.

And it was an excellent trip! Hats off to everyone involved.

I took some photos as well, which are on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidfullarton/. Also worthy of watching is some video I shot of the trip's lights-out run through the subway, from the lead car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQf6878rCFo

I loved the video and you know why!!!! Great shot at Conservatory.


David Harrison

Thanks! Your narration was excellent and makes the clip.

Speaking of narration, as I recall you self-produced several VHS tapes several years back with all kinds of CTA "L footage (All-The-6000s-You-Missed-Productions, if I recall correctly). I have volume six (from the IRM bookstore). Do you have any plans to re-release these on DVD?

Yes, that too was me..."All The 6000s You Missed." You can find some various materials on You Tube under my other name...msibnsf. Thats for the museum and the BNSF railroad, the model that is. I'm contractor for the museum's Great Train Story. DVDs???? Right now too much to do and too little time. But I won't say no 100 %.

David Harrison

Nice movie Clip, byte, I actually rode that line myself way back in 1991 during my only visit (hopefully I'll go back) to Chicago, And the train went by pretty fast, just as fast as NYCTA's 2 and 3 express line trains when they blow by stations

Great to have MSIBNSF on here! You have some great videos on youtube.

Thanks...in many instances it's just the tip of the iceberg. I've videoed the "L" since the late 70's.

David Harrison