Pumpkins and sunshine at HVRM 10/22/11

Greetings -   After missing the last couple of Saturdays at Hoosier Valley, was greeted with some cool temps but abundant sunshine today.  Temps started in the mid-40' and ended in the mid-50's, but I think it made it up to the low 60's during the day.   This was the second of two "Pumpkin Train" days and I spent the day as car host on the three scheduled trains.  I heard that we had over 500 riders for the trains and sold a lot of pumpkins at the "patch".  Was on B&LE caboose 1989 for the 11:00 run, split time on the 1989 and EL caboose C345 on the 1:30 run and worked NKP open flat car # 1946 on the run at 4:30.  Lots of happy riders today and hopefully a good day for the coffers of HVRM.  I asked some of the folks where they had heard about the runs, and some said "the paper", others "on the radio" and some "from friends".  Most riders seemed to be "first timers".   Andy Hershman and Fred Boyer were in the cab of EL Alco 310 today, splitting the duties, with John DeGan conductor all day.  Car hosts included Randall Downs, Doug Kosloske, Bill Dauber, Tom McKee, Joe Baker and yours truly.  Elmer Mannen, Bob Jachim, Mark Knebel and Joe Kingsbury protected the crossings at times during the day and also helped in loading and unloading passengers.  Judy Boyer, Margrett Cook and Pat DeGan were kept very busy in the gift shop while Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske handled ticket sales and Loretta the pumpkin patch activites.  Others helped out too, including Louise Kingsbury and her daughter and grandaughter.     Because of the emphasis on members joining in to handle the days trains, other work was light today.   Joe K. was working on painting the NKP bay window caboose 471 in the west end of the shop in the morning.  One side has been completely done in the bright caboose red with light gray band across the top.  The other side has the light gray band finished, with about 2/3rds of the red paint done.  Both ends also have to be painted red.   Mark Knebel had finished painting the Pennsylvania Railroad 50' boxcar and it was decided that the car would be moved from the end of the caboose track over to the display track so that the complete train for passengers could be placed on the caboose track.  The operating crew got this done during the "lull" between the operation of the 1:30 and 4:30 trains.   John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Cory Bennett worked on fixing the leaking water line on the line leading to the ouside faucet behind the old Erie maintenance building.    I'm sure I have missed some of the folks who helped out today.  It's been a long day and I'm pretty tired as I type this tonight.   Hope everyone has a good week.   Les