| Greetings! Day dawned cloudy with a 70% chance of rain in the forecast. Train crew pulled out one of the storage tank cars and put it on the interchange track. Now down to an even 10 storage cars. Craig Rohrer had reported earlier in the week that the Chesapeake & Indiana crew had brought in a TTX flatcar and two tank cars. The TTX flat is the museums which had been loaned to the C&I for trackwork. Turned out that the two tank cars that came in are actually C&I cars also, and not new storage cars. Those two cars were put out on the C&I line near the museums "advertising" Model 40 alongside state route 10/39. I opened up the 899 passenger car so that Bob Jachim could look at a damaged window. I took off the moulding on a different window so Bob could measure that one, so he can make a replacement window. Tom Travis had put coach green paint on a part of the lower portion of the 899 this past Thursday and I got a number of "thumbs up" for his work. Thanks Tom! Since rain was in the forecast, I decided not to even try to do any additional painting, closed the car up again and then volunteered as a car host for the three scheduled pumpkin trains. The rain started lightly before the 11:00 train to English Lake left, but many folks remained out on the GTW transfer caboose platforms. During the run out to the "pumpkin patch" located next to the Erie North Judson Trail, the rain picked up but it did not deter the 96 riders from picking out pumpkins. During lunch, the rain really started coming down and by the time the 1:30 train to LaCrosse was ready to leave, there was a real downpour. Still, 104 passengers made the trip to LaCrosse. Most stayed on the train during the wying of Alco 310 and on the way back to North Judson, the rain slowly let up. By the time this train got to the "patch", the rain was almost non-existant. During the layover between the second and third trains, the rain completely stopped and the sun actually peeked out. The 4:30 train to English Lake was the best weather wise, and another 65 made this trip. Loretta Kosloske ended up with only a few extra pumpkins. A total of 265 riders; a great passenger carrying day for Hoosier Valley! The rain put a damper on most other activities, but John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Mark Knebel did manage to get some new ties put in out on the old Erie line next to the Trail. I am not sure if the weather permitted Steve Newland and Joe Baker to get any work done on Grasselli Tower. Loretta, Bob Barcus, Andy Roeske, Margrett Cook, Pat DeGan and Judy Boyer ably managed ticket sales and the gift shop in the depot. They were busy much of the day. Train crew was rotated between John DeGan, Fred Boyer and Doug Kosloske, with each getting time in the engineers seat, as fireman and as conductor. Mark Anderson served time as apprentice conductor. Car hosting besides yours truly, included Joe and Louise Kingsbury, Bill Dauber, Tom McKee and Randall Downs. Elmer Mannen provided crossings protection for the 11:00 run to English Lake while Mark Knebel did the honors for the 4:30 trip. Good to see Chuck Ness at the museum today. I probably missed mentioning a few folks. Enjoy the coming week everyone. Les | 
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