| Greetings to all! Weather forecast was for stormy weather and a lot of rain today in Starke County and northwest Indiana. The World War 2 re-enactors had their outing at the museum and their field gun (cannon?) fired a number of rounds (propane only I guess) and, except for a very brief shower, the sun came out and the temps hit about 80 and, the rain stayed away! Maybe the sound of the cannon scared the rain away! Or, the weathermen guessed wrong..........again! I spent the day working on securing the last two anchors for seats on the platform of GTW transfer caboose 75072. Finally finished those anchors after a big struggle, two scrapes to the arms (bleeding both times) and hitting my head on the underframe of the car twice! Then drilled holes and bolted the last of the seats in place. If 75072 ever hits an iceberg, the car may sink, but I believe the seats will remain bolted in place! I also mentioned to Josh that we need a couple of steel plates over two of the steel wheels to prevent splash up during rainy day operations and Josh promised he would get to it when he got the chance. Josh spent his day grinding and welding places on LIRR coach # 2937. He has been working Saturdays for the past 4 months and says he needs to "catch up" on things. Meanwhile, it is good to report that GE diesel # 11 has been completely painted and looks sharp! Josh, Jason Annen and Bob Barcus put the front radiator louver casting into place and bolted it down. The locomotive now wears its medium blue and yellow striping and is now ready to have the lettering applied on the hood and the number added to the cab. Inside of cab is also painted but the windows still have to be installed along with some other minor work. Apparently, a gentleman who does the 92 day inspections for ITM was down at the museum and was to give Jason, Doug, and some others, instructions on performing these inspections in house so that the museum will not have to pay others to do it. Trainning was going to take place after the last run of the day to English Lake. First run of the day, which included spectaors from the morning WW2 re-enactment, provided a nice passenger count. I believe Loretta told me that there were 84 riders. The second run had only a "scattering" of riders (as Elmer so reported). I am not sure how many rode the last train of the day, but it was supposed to depart after the afternoon re-enactment was to finish and there were quite a few spectators for that particular "show". Quite a few members at the museum today. Mark Knebel had scraped the roof of N&W boxcar 54880 this past week and then gave the roof a nice coat of red primer. Mark says he is going to start on the cars sides this week. Jason reported that he has received the prints for this car from the Norfolk & Western Historical Society. He has received the stencils for the NKP boxcar "twins" 15797 and 15979, along with the stencils for Pennsylvania Railroad boxcar # 607627 (sans the PRR keystone herald) from Todd Flanigan. Jason reports that we need to make some repairs to C&NW boxcar # 284 before we can clean, prime and paint that car. Jason also wants to paint the Pennsy F30D class flat car. Steve Newland has finished installing and painting the new siding boards on the east end of Grasselli Tower. Jim Mennis of Norwayne Lumber donated and delivered the wood for the steps and Steve was going through that lumber to pick out the best for the steps project. The building of those steps will mean that we can at last offer visitors access to the second floor and the levers located there. Have a wonderful week folks! Les |
The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Get started.
No comments:
Post a Comment