Favorite memories on the CSS&SB

Here is a video clip from 1968 on a trip from South Bend to Chicago, including at stop at Shops... awesome footage!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwBVzWZTyT8

Here is Car 34 being run at the 2009 IRM Trolley Pageant...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGHx-R93xw8

And MY favorite, the last revenue run of the orange cars on September 25, 1983...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO0Cw-6hHJI

Thats great. When did IRM decide to start running the coaches. I thought they couldn't run on their overhead and the cars themslves had to be rewired for 600V? Now I have an extra excuse to get there this coming season.

jlaroccoii wrote:Thats great. When did IRM decide to start running the coaches. I thought they couldn't run on their overhead and the cars themslves had to be rewired for 600V? Now I have an extra excuse to get there this coming season.

Since the old South Shore cars have antiquated electrical components, they can be run under 600v; They just can't be run at full speed.
There were times before NICTD and state funding kicked in the South Shore experienced considerable voltage drops well below the regular 1500v, and the trains still continued to run somehow.

In the late 70s/early 80s my brother was stationed at Grissom AFB. Every summer I would go stay with him for a couple of weeks and in there somewhere we always worked in a visit to the South Shore. It started with the early, early drive to get to Michigan City for the first WB train and then the EB run to South Bend. One trip I rode in the cab of the train to South Bend recording it with my old cassette recorder. For the trip back to MC I rode in the vestibule of the second car. We would eventually ride to Chicago, see some trains there, and then ride back to MC so we could photograph and record the evening EB runs. I still have those tapes and they are wonderful memories of those long ago summers that don't seem like they were that long ago. My last visit was 1982, right before the new cars were delivered. I have made more recent trips to see the South Shore, but it just isn't the same.

Jim Mihalek
Lakeville, MN