| Greetings! With bright sunshine and a temp up to 40 degrees today, most of the snow has disappeared from the museum grounds in North Judson. Crews were hard at work upon my arrival at 9:45. Mike Koehler and his painting friend Carl, were busy all day working on LIRR coach # 2937 in the West Shop Annex. The south side of the car had had a very liberal coating of Bondo applied; so much so that the car sides appeared white! Mike was smoothing out the roof and this side of the car. John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Cory Bennett were in the other bay of the West Annex, working on the Payloader. Since I was in Wisconsin last Saturday, I asked Dave how the repairs had gone on the new backhoe, and he said that it was running "like a top!" Crew working in the Old Shop section on MKT # 13833, the open air flatcar, consisted of Elmer Mannen and Bob Jachim putting in two cut sections of 2 x 4's between each of the roof ribs of the car, while Joe Baker worked on the electrical. That's right! Joe volunteered to install lighting on this car and from the looks of it, is probably about 80% finished. Meanwhile Joe Kingsbury was working on the cars roof. I gave Elmer and Bob a hand, and then Elmer was eventually called away to help fire up the Erie 310 to do some equipment switching. A short time later, Bob went down to talk to some visitors so I finished up the last few sections. Hope folks don't look to close at that end of the car! Eventually, the wood roof panels will be screwed down into these 2 x 4's and then a rubber roof installed over the entire car. Elmer got the Alco running with the help of Bill Dauber and he and Bill, with Doug Kosloske and Fred Boyer as switchman and conductor respectivelly, switched equipment around. The new valves for the 310 had arrived from Pittsburgh Air Brake Company after rebuilding, and been installed and apparently worked well. EJ&E transfer caboose # 184 was brought into the shop for work. Steve Newland bolted the one bottom stairway stringer from the Grasselli Tower landing, down to the ground so that he could measure how much concrete would be needed for the pad upon which the bottom of the stringers are going to eventually sit. Steve also advised that the plan is to put heavy plastic over the levers in the second floor of the tower to protect those cleaned and oiled levers when he starts in on removing the old peeling paint from the second floor interior. Steve also says that he intends to finish replacing the small section of rotten boards on the outside of the west side of the tower before the 765's arrival in May. Bob Barcus reported that nearly all of the 2 days of slots for guests to operate the Berkshire when it is here this Spring, have been spoken for. The cost for these guest engineers to sit at the throttle of the 1944 Lima built engine cost $765.00, so that is good news for the museum. Margrett Cook, Judy Boyer and Loretta Kosloske were working in the gift shop today, helped by Andy Roeske and his youngster. A great lunch consisting of tomato/pasta soup, meat loaf, hot Italian beef sandwiches, pasta salad and numerous other goodies was served. In the afternoon, I took a ride to Monterey and looked over the old Erie depot there. The 1883 structure is rough, but looks restorable. Its location (16 miles from North Judson) with the rail connection no longer in place, is a problem. Returned to the museum and found the equipment all put to bed. Cory and John had found some bad leaks in the gas tank of the backhoe, so Jason Annen got out the welder and set out to patch them. He then ground everything smooth. Tank was checked but another leak was found. So, Jason went back at it. Eventually the gas tank was successfully repaired. When I left the Shop at 4:45, John was spray painting the tank. Have a great week everyone! Les | 
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