| Hi - The 20" of snow reported at North Judson from the snowfall this past week, including a lot of lake effect snow, greeted members at the museum today. Fortunately today's weather was sunny with temps getting up to 25 degrees by the afternoon. Bing Risley had his Bobcat out and did a great job of cleaning up the parking lot at the depot and plowing the road and parking spots at the Shop. Cory Bennett used the Payloader to tackle the snow on the road and parking around the museum office and display car area. Meanwhile, Bob Jachim shovelled out a path on the platform into the depot while John DeGan worked on taking care of the snow out behind the Erie shed. When I showed up, I took a crack at making the Jachim path into the depot wider, and spreading salt on some ice patches. Bob Jachim was delievering Christmas baskets to needy familys from the American Legion. Over 100 baskets were made up, so many thanks to Bob for his volunteering. The inside woodpile for the stove in the Shop had shrunk to next to nothing, so someone went outside and dug out wood from the pile buried under the snow. The snow never did melt in the cold inside the Shop and each piece fed into the wood stove all day, sizzled momentarily as the snow quickly melted. Mike Koehler was finishing up his second day of work on LIRR passenger coach # 2937. Fred Boyer was helping out on this and later Andy Hershman showed up to start in on some welding under the windows of the 2937. Judy Boyer, Loretta Kosloske and Margrett Cook worked in the Gift Shop in the depot. Joe Kingsbury/Elmer Mannen started in on applying primer to the B end of CSS flat car # 18010. Lunch consisted of hot beef sandwiches, stuffed peppers, chili soup, and pumpkin bread for desert. Mike Healey, John DeGan and Tom Travis removed additional snow from the depot platform after lunch. After chow, I went down and took over for Mike on grinding the window frames on the north side of LIRR 2937 to remove old paint. Got a few windows done before the grinder seized up on me. Meanwhile, Fred was grinding off Andy's weld beads on the south side of the car. Jason Annen reported that the IHB had turned down our request for the donation of one of their last two NW2's. Both 8811 and 8814 will have to be scrapped so that the Harbor can receive stimulus monies for new Genset units. A sad end to the IHB's long history with the EMD NW2 units. John LaOrange and Cory, with an assist from Tom Travis, worked on the engine of the Payloader. Earlier in the morning hours, the west shop had some rearranging taken care of. The REA trailer was repositioned further to the east, lots of pallet loads were moved to the north side of the shop and Steve's woodshop was reorganized. This effort was to provide a warm place to work on equipment during the winter season. Payloader fuel/oil filters changed, crankcase oil changed/replaced, air filter blown out. The valve oil cover was leaking oil on the block, so it was decided to take it off and put a new gasket on. Many accessory items needed to be removed first to get the cover to clear the valves, some heat was needed on 2 bolts and with some muscle from Cory they were removed slowly. John cleaned the head with cleaner, while Cory scrapped off the old cork gasket and cleaned the inside of the cover. Gasket material was applied and cover reinstalled quickly. With only one Salamander heater working, temp in the west shop was up to 50 degrees, making it comfortable. Joe said that up on the CSS flat it felt nice, with some ceiling fans to blow the warm air down it will make a difference at ground level. Well folks, northwest Indiana got hit hard by snow this week. Besides the 20 inches at North Judson, other totals I heard included 25" at La Porte and 33" at Wanatah. The forecast is for some additional snow this coming Monday, supposedly anywhere from 4 to 8 inches. Looks like we will have a White Christmas for sure! Have a great Holiday everyone! Les/Tom | 