| Hi! A cloudy and very windy day at Hoosier Valley this Saturday. With wind gusts up to 35 mph, the mid-40 temps didn't give much warmth. The weather didn't stop Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, John LaOrange and Mark Knebel from getting the payloader and the "new" backhoe out and start replacing worn out ties on the main line track just east of the depot building. About 12 ties were replaced by lunchtime with the backhoe making much easier work of the project. Rather than the old way of digging out the old ties and then using a set of tie tongs to drag them free from under the rails, and then digging out the ballast so that the same set of tongs could pull the new ties into place using a good dose of old fashioned muscle, the backhoe just pulled out the old ties and pushed the new ties into place. Thank heaven for progress!! The 310 was fired up and with Elmer Mannen running the old girl and Bill Dauber sitting in the firemans seat, the crew went to work sorting out cars that were going to be used for our future vintage freight photo opportunity. John DeGan was the conductor while Doug Kosloske was brakeman for the exercise. I went down to the Shop and found Joe Kingsbury, Joe Baker and Bob Jachim hard at work putting together the center wood benches for the MKT 13833 open air passenger-riding flatcar. Steve Newland walked by and told me that the Long Island passenger car had been taken down to the wye earlier in the week and turned around so that the other side of the car could be painted. Steve and I went in and looked at the car and saw that MIke Koehler had put the Brunswick Green paint on the roof and end of the car which already had the coat of Charcoal Gray paint. The car number (2937) also was attached to the center of the car below the windows and the lettering for the "DIESEL" and "WATER" caps had also been applied. Missing on that side is the LIRR herald. The stencil was apparently incorrectly done and Mike has to have it re-made. Nevertheless, that finished side of the car looks absolutely great! I then went back and gave the two Joes and Bob a hand with the Katy flat car. When they broke for lunch, a group of five high schoolers from Bishop Noll H.S. showed up for a tour and I took them around the museum. The undefeated basketball team from Bishop Nolll had won their early sectional game being played at North Judson/San Pierre High School and they had to find some things to do while the later game was being played to determine their opponent for the game at night. A nice bunch of young men! After lunch, Bob Albert told me that he had gone down and done some repairs to the crossing flashers on State Route 10 that had been bumped by a snow plow earlier this winter. He then put some new historic photos in the depot waiting room, including one of the C&O depot in Malden, donated by Jeff Kehler and the C&O Historical Society. Bob also told me that while he was looking for info on the NickeI Plate Road's old Burr Oak depot which he thinks might have been sold and moved, he instead stumbled across the news that an old Lake Erie & Western depot still existed in Hibbard, Indiana, a fact he was quite shocked to discover. We continued work on the flat car with some additional help from Randall Downs, finally getting all of the center seats put together and bolted in place. The car is really looking good! The track gang was joined by Rich Warner after lunch and put in 12 more ties. Dave got the dump truck out and with the payloader filling it, dumped ballast next to the track with the new ties. Eventually lighter stone will be put over this stone to extend the station platform. The switch crew continued their work after lunch and eventually had 10 of the 12 freight cars for the vintage freight train sorted and placed on the runaround track. Those cars included NKP boxcars 15797 and 15979, NKP gon 45622, C&NW boxcar 284, MDT refrigerator cars 13385 and 14070, N&W boxcar 54880, WCHX tank car 1114, N&W hopper car 40639 and Wabash wood boxcar 49114. Doug had told me that there were going to be 12 freight cars and when I asked him, he said that the other two were still over by the shop building; PRR boxcar 607627 and TTX flat car 475037. Some of these cars will have to be repainted and/or touched up and all must be mechanically inspected. Andy Hershman was doing some welding in the shop today. Steve was trying to dig out the location where the concrete pad for the Grasselli Tower steps leading down from the landing to the ground. Not a fun job with our rocky soil. Others at the museum today included Pat DeGan, Margrett Cook and Loretta Kosloske working in the depot and Tom McKee, Bruce Emmons, Bob Barcus, Andy Roeske and Jason Annen. My apologies to those I missed mentioning. A busy day for sure. Have a good week everyone! Les | 
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