Snow at HVRM 11-6-10 and a train chase!

Greetings!   Especially to you lovers of winter!  Got up this morning to find the ground and the car white.  Since neither are usually this color, I figured we must have had a light snowfall and going out to start the car confirmed it.    Managed to make it to the Board meeting by 8:00 a.m.  Interesting meeting.  Included in the discussion were the website for the museum; a report on the good passenger totals for October special runs; possibility of converting another flat car into an open car for the train; windows for Grasselli Tower; looking into moving the Monterey depot; expected finish date for LIRR coach 2937; checking in to possible future usage of a Metra car; future Santa, Valentine and Easter trains; extension of the North Judson depot platform and new stone unloading at the trail area site and at LaCrosse; along with other subjects.     After the meeting ended, Bob Jachim took a new wood frame for the replacement window on 899 to the car to measure it for a fit.  The snow had already mostly melted by this time.   A crew including Doug Kosloske, Mark Anderson and John DeGan were working on a brakeshoe on Alco 310.  Bill Byers, a surprise visitor, helped out on this project.  Good to see Bill at the museum and I showed him around a bit after lunch.  A young man who was a volunteer at Hesston showed up and Bill and he talked about some of the other volunteers at that organization.   Good sandwiches on Kaiser rolls, ravioli and split pea soup for lunch, with a couple of different deserts.   Mike Koehler finished sanding the Bondo on the north side of 2937 and then primed it while Fred Boyer and Joe Baker worked on the south side, grinding welds and removing the rubber gaskets around the windows.  Fred and Joe applied a plastic sheet below the windows on the south side to protect the already primed sides.  I joined in to help Fred and Joe later in the afternoon.   Pat DeGan and Margrett Cook manned the gift shop in the depot.   Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske worked on a tentative schedule for train rides for next year.   Rolled out of the museum at 4:00.  West of LaCrosse on the way home and far off in the distance, I noticed a string of covered hopper cars parked on the Chesapeake & Indiana's ex-C&O main line.  I then realized that there appeared to be a red diesel on the west end of the string.  "Could this possibly be a moving train?"  Cut down the next county road and headed north.  Finally made it past the string and yes, they were on the move!  A genuine train chase!  Hadn't done anything like that for a while.  And then I realized that the train chase was more like a snail chase, the train was moving that slow.  I estimated 5 m.p.h. if that fast!  Still, the slow pace had allowed me to catch up with the train.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera.  Dang!  The two units, chopped nose Geep # 2003 and ex-P&L chopped nose Geep # 8314 running in reverse, and the 45 mostly CSXT covered hoppers, would have made a great photo running into the lowering sun.  The very last hopper on the train was L&N 242294.  Rather surprising to see a Louisville & Nashville car still so lettered.   Have a great week everyone.  Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight as we go from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time!   Les