| Folks - Well, the calendar told us the Autumn started this week. But despite a forecast of rain and possible storms and maybe even hail, we got a sunny day in the mid-60's at HVRM today! Tom Travis brought down a wood stove and managed to talk a few of "the boys" into giving him a hand unloading it. Tom says its now in the center aisle of the original Shop building. I got to Hoosier Valley at 9:00 a.m., too late to help Tom unload the stove. What could be interpreted as smart planning on my part was really just a case of being too lazy this morning to get an early start. So upon arrival in North Judson, I unloaded some items for the NKP kitchen car. It was good to see Bob Jachim up and around and cutting down weeds in one of the flower beds. Bob had some minor surgery the week before last. Plans to start on the Main Street road crossing rebuild, were apparently put on hold for the weekend. A number of folks planning on working on the project, were not at the museum this day. I had ideas to take a motor car out to Wade Tower and do some cleaning up around the structure, but again the C&I had covered hopper car parked on the main line between the La Crosse wye and Wade, so no way to get there. Speaking of covered hoppers, the C&I had about 20 of them parked just east of Main Street on their old Cheapeake & Ohio line, apparently stored awaiting the fall harvest to come in to the elevators. Some of the local farmers have just started harvesting corn. Tom and I finally hooked up and since I had some plumbing items to unload at the old Erie Railroad storage building, Tom took the bull by the horns and started some cleaning up including emptying the overflowing garbage can. We managed to make a good spot for the new plumbing arrival, and made the old items a heck of a lot neater! Elmer Mannen had Metra (ex-ICRR) Highliner # 1502 open and we joined him to see what he was doing. There is some desire to turn at least a portion of this car into extra seating for the kitchen car. We left Elmer to his calculations and then headed down to the old NKP wooden double sheathed tool car # X50110. We managed to get into the car and look it over. This car needs a lot of work, and there is a big question as to whether a restoration will ever be attempted. I pointed out to Tom that, earlier in the year during a very heavy rainfall, the car remained dry except for a couple of holes in the side of the roof where the old tarp donated by Tom McKee and put on for protection, had finally just rotted away. After we were done, it was time for coffee and doughnuts! The 11:00 train departed on time, with some riders. The recertification of engineers continued for those who could not be at the museum last Saturday. The train was made up of B&LE caboose 1989, EJ&E handicap car (transfer caboose) 184, the MKT open flat car 13833, LIRR coach 2937 and EL bay window caboose C345, with EL Alco 310 pushing out and then pulling back to the museum. Pat DeGan manned the gift shop in the depot with Loretta Kosloske selling tickets. Loretta also was guest engineer, running the 310 after the 11:00 train returned. At lunch, I put up the new flag on our pole since it now appeared that the rain forecast for the day, wasn't going to materialize. Then after lunch, Tom decided that we should ride EJ&E # 184 on the 1:30 p.m. train and he pulled out two chairs (a directors chair for him and a folding chair for me) and we sat on the platform and enjoyed the beautiful early fall day. A very nice ride. The only other passengers rode in the Bessemer caboose. Tom pointed out the brush that he had cut around milepost marker 217 on a recent Saturday. A nice job. Tom said that after our arrival back at the museum, he was going to call it a day since his shoulder was bothering him. l felt I should try to do something at least, and as we pulled past the Shop, I noticed that the red indicator board on the turnout had faded to an almost brown color. Here is something I could do with the rest of this lazy day. So, after deboarding I eventually wandered back to the Erie building and found a can of bright red paint, a brush and a paint stick. Packed it all up and drove over to the Shop, walking to the west side of the Shop where the switch was located. Waited for the 2:45 train to La Crosse to run through the switch before I started on the red portion of the target. Apparently the train load was very light, because instead of taking all of the cars mentioned previously, the train was made up of only 310 and the B&LE caboose. After they headed west, I opened the can, stirred the paint and with a bit of dilligent work, the two sides of the banner were soon finished. Looked good! Had to go around to the front of the Shop and decided to check those turnouts out there. One looked okay. Another didn't. More paint! Continued walking east, paint can and brush in hand. Some indicators are green and yellow. No paint for these. Another turnout east of Mulberry Street. Done! Continued east, passing the Erie building and found a high switchstand throw necessitating walking back to the Erie building for scrapper, wire brush and most importantly, a ladder. As I worked on this one, Bing Risley came up and we talked a bit. Bing said that he had just come back from giving Mark Knebel and John LaOrange a hand with track work out past State Route 10. Finished that switchstand and continued walking east. Bing asked about the ladder and I replied that the next switch throw was low and I would put the ladder back upon my return. The next indicator soon bore a new coat of red. There were a few more down on the east end near Main Street. Red indicators? The first two proved yellow and green, but what about the very last one? The one that had recently had new switch ties put in and which is the very first turnout that the museum installed after the move to North Judson in the late 1980's? As I walked over to the side, it looked green and yellow! But no, not yellow, just a VERY faded red. This turnout has a very high target; one I would need the ladder for. A long walk back to the switch I had left the ladder by, and then an even longer walk back to the Erie building after I was finished. And that is a wood ladder that is very heavy. I would also be at the east end of the museum with my car back at the west end at the Shop. Decided since I would have to eventually walk back to the Shop anyway, I might as well do it now and then come back with the car, picking up the ladder on the way. When I finally got back to the east end switch, with car and ladder, there was some scrapping and wire brushing before all four sections of the indicator was painted. Steve Newland gave me a wave from his pickup as I worked. By this time, I heard the 310 blowing for the crossings as it made its way back toward the depot. Finished up. Much better! There were some of these targets that would need green paint too, but that was going to be for another day! As I put the ladder back at the Erie building, I saw Mark and asked him how they had done on track work. He said that the managed to get all of the ties that were put in last week, spiked down. I don't believe that they had the compressor running, so these were probably put in the old-fashioned way; just driving them home! Managed to get everything packed away and signed out at 5:00. A lazy day had turned out quite well after all. Have a good week everyone. Enjoy the autumn weather. Les | 
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