| Greetings Black Friday survivors! Temps today in North Judson topped out at about 34 degrees, but it really wasn't that ugly as the sun shone most of the day. Usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a light day attendance wise, and this day was no different. Still, activity continued with those members present. Rolled in about 9:00 and found Loretta Kosloske and Bob Jachim setting up the Christmas tree in the depot. Went down to the Shop and managed to finally get the wood stove fired up. Suprised no one had started it earlier. Headed over to coach 899 and started in on trying to get the arch window on the northwest end of the car out. This window had a small hole put in it earlier this year, and I decided to try to fix it up for the winter. Finally managed to get the frame out with the broken window still attached which was good, and headed over to the Shop to work further on it. A crew had Whitcomb # 27 fired up and when I asked Doug Kosloske, he said that they were going to pull the South Shore flat off the turntable lead siding and move it into the Shop to start on its conversion into an open car for passengers. Cory Bennett got the Payloader running and he, Mark Knebel and John LaOrange headed down to the Erie to pull out some more bad ties and replace them. The bad news was that Cory showed up some time later and when I asked him what had happened he said that the ties were frozen in place and couldn't be budged. So much for trackwork until next spring! The crew got CSS # 18010 spotted on track 1 of the Shop and started on removing the uneven deck from the car. Joe Kingsbury handled the torch, cutting off balky bolts and Bill Dauber, Elmer, Bing and Doug started in getting the planks off of the car. Chris Zardt showed up and I talked to him for just a few minutes. Apparently Chris now works for the Strasburg and right now is involved in repairs to their ex-Canadian National 0-6-0 # 7312 and also working on the 1472 day inspection on ex-Great Western 2-10-0 # 90. Stopped for lunch which consisted of hot grilled ham and cheese sandwiches or home made sausages, home made potato salad and cake for desert. Good eats! After lunch, Cory, John and Mark decided to tackle taking the signs off of the Model 40 that is parked out near SR 10/39. We usually take these signs off of the little diesel for the winter to prevent them from deteriorating too much, but this year they are in bad shape and will need to be repainted before being put out again next year. Loretta got the new train in operation around the depot Christmas tree. A number of folks had a chance to operate the little 0-6-0 and its train using its radio control transmitter. Steve Newland was working on cutting out stringers for the lower portion of the Grasselli Tower steps. Bad news is that when he ordered the wood from Norwayne Lumber, he failed to take into consideration that the Tower now sits higher than it did when it was still in East Chicago. So, he will need at least one more step. Good news is that Bruce Fingerhut had told him that there some nice pieces of lumber in the old Hibbard building and Steve looked them over and decided that he could use them for the extra material needed. CSS 18010 looked entirely different when the boys finished with it after lunch. All the decking had been removed and the car needs to be scraped, primed and painted before a new deck is put on. Should keep folks busy for a while. I worked all afternoon on the arch window from 899 and finally was able to get the hard-as-a-rock dried putty cleaned out enough to accept a replacement window. Although I was able to make a pattern, I couldn't find a suitable replacement. So the bad news is that that job will have to carry over to next week. I was able to find a temporary piece of wood that (mostly) filled up the now gaping cavity where the arch window once sat in the car! Finally hit the road at 4:00 p.m. Enjoy the week everyone! Les | 
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