Weather to be thankful for at HVRM 11-26-11

Greetings!   A cloudy, windy day, with rain in the forecast for the afternoon, but a temp of 56 degrees at North Judson at 9:00 a.m.  Certainly not bad for a late November morning!   Ran the flag up the pole once I signed in.  I realized I'd have to take it down if it started raining.   Joe Baker was working on the new electrical boxes near the museum sign at the entrance to the museum off of Mulberry Street.   I drove down to the east end and found Bob Barcus taking some photos of the freight equipment.  Bob says that he is going to be updating the web site.  He also reported that Google is running HVRM ads on searches for the museum.    Eventually made my way down to the Shop where I found the temp at 50 degrees.  This is typical as the metal in the building has a tendency to hold in the cold.  John La Orange had gone up to town for a firebrick which he was going to see if it would fit into the wood stove that Tom Travis had brought down a while back.  John reported that the brick will fit, although slightly larger than what the wood stove calls for.  When that stove is installed, it should provide for a nicer workplace in the insulated West Annex of the Shop.   Speaking of the West Annex, I walked back and found Joe touching up the yellow handrails on the NKP bay window caboose.  Still a lot of touching up to do, but the old 471 is looking great!  Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were working on a problem with the backhoe.  "Don't ask!" was Cory's comment.   Ryan Kertis showed up and we decided to walk over to the storage tracks and look at some of the equipment that he had not been able to inspect since he joined the museum back in October.  We managed to get into the NKP wood tool car and talked over what it would take to attempt to restore the car.   Doug Kosloske and Elmer Mannen fired up EL 310, using the Alco to pull GE # 11 out of the Shop so that the big tarp could be pulled down on the number 2 shop track to provide a tight wall so that the West Annex can be heated.    Bob B. joined Mark Knebel in taking the stuff out of Mark's office and putting it into the donated trailer.  Mark had found a copy of an Indiana Harbor Belt timetable from 1913 which included whistle rules for calling Grasselli Tower.  Neat find!   Margrett Cook brought in soup and some home made pizzas for lunch.   Bob Albert, Steve Newland and Jon Schmidt had been helping Bruce Fingerhut in cleaning out the old Erie Milk Station and eventually showed up for lunch.  Steve fired up the Payloader in the afternoon to help in clearing out the junk in the building.   The Scouts arrived and started giving Joe a hand with the work on NKP 471.  Ryan also pitched in.   I decided to go over to the Troop Kitchen car and do some additional sanding to try to find some additional lettering.   Dave, Cory and John tackled the water pump which had given up the ghost.  They found a new pump at Hoppe Hardware and spent the afternoon getting the old one out and the new one in.  So we have water again in the Shop!   Ryan came over and when I told him that I was not having any luck with my sanding, he pointed out a number 3, which I had missed!  Turns out, with him and I working at it, we found the old U.S. Army number on the kitchen car; K-325.  The old car is slowly giving up her secrets!  Bob Albert came over and we showed him the Army number and also the C&EI maintenance-of-way number (A-1054) that we had found last week.   There were a few raindrops and I decided to head back and take down the flag.  But no rain came, and when I got to the depot, I found Mark already in the process of running the flag down the pole.  The temp was still in the upper 50's.  Not even the grayness of the skies could keep this from being a wonderful day!   Stopped in the depot for a few minutes.  Loretta Kosloske was asking folks about the possibility of a renewal of the the museums Annual Dinner to be held on a Sunday in February or March.  I gave a thumbs up!    Darkness is coming early to the museum at this time of the year, so I pulled the plug for the day at about 4:15 p.m.   Enjoy the upcoming week everyone!     Les

Cloudy, breezy day at Hoosier Valley 11-19-11

Howdy!   Cool temps in the 50's all day.  But not bad for mid-November.   Arrived at the museum about 9:00.  A group was working on tamping ballast at the east end of the grounds around the newly installed ties.  Included were Cory, Dave, Mark Knebel, John LaOrange, Tom Travis and Bob Jachim.   I again tackled the errant turnout target on the switch leading in to the number 2 track of the Shop building.  After much work, and an assist from Tom T., I finally managed to get the target tight!  A victory after 4 days of work spread over the last month!   Joe Kingsbury was working on NKP bay window caboose 471.  Much of the lettering was done but the Scout troop from South Bend showed up and continued their assist.   Jon Oram was working on the N Gauge display layout in the Pullman Troop Sleeper.   Joe Baker reported that he now has 3 of the "torpedo" heater restored to service!   Bob J. has finished the removal of the "flower/weed" bed from around the museum sign off of Mulberry Street.  Area looks neat!   Bob Barcus, Judy Boyer, Louise Kingsbury and Pat DeGan were working in the depot gift shop today.   Elmer Mannen was working on the Whitcomb.   The container donated by Canadian Pacific, was delivered to the museum late in the morning.   Bi-Monthly meeting was held at in the afternoon.  Big news to come out of the meeting was that the museum agreed to purchase the Long Island passenger coach from owner Mike Koehler.  Two individuals have agreed to donate the funds for the purchase.  More details of the meeting will be in the upcoming newsletter.   In the afternoon, Ryan Kertis and I started sanding on the side of the old Army kitchen car in an effort to try to find the C&EI car number from when it was assigned to the Dolton Yard Center work train.  Ryan managed to find a number A-1054 and will see if this might be the number.   Bing Risley was moving parts around the equipment part with his Bobcat.   Took off at 4:00 for home.   Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!  Enjoy the day!   Les

Projects around HVRM

		Projects around HVRM Prep work for Main street crossing repaving. Track/tie replacement on the east switch. Repainted NKP steel boxcar by Mark Kniebel. From, Thomas View Slideshow Do more with these photos Beautiful full-screen slideshows Comment on and Like your favorites Download full-resolution copies
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HVRM November 12th, 2011 Report

Greetings,
 
Today was a typical November day at North Judson, good weather, temps in the
high 50's. Les is in WI for the weekend.
 
Yesterday was Veterans Day. A wonderful program was held at the La Porte
Civic Auditorium. It seems that a larger crowd occupied the floor area than last year.
The local middle schools grade 7 and 8, were transported from school to the Civic
for the program. Its good to hear the students thanking the Vets for their service.
The highlights of the program was the 21 gun salute, and the playing of Taps by
2 La Porte High School band members added to program.
 
Arriving late this morning at HVRM, the track crew Mark, John, Cory, Dave and myself
tamped stone for most of the day. The tie replacement program is complete up to the

2n switch from the east end. The entire switch has been leveled and realigned making

it look good. Bing assisted in hauling stone from the clean ballast pile to fill in bare

spots. Work terminated about 2:30pm as everyone was tired.

 

Joe Kingbury and the boy scouts have been working on the NKP bay window caboose

repainting the exterior. Things are looking good and progress is coming along nicely.

Other interior items need to be fixed, floor and seat recovering. Doug has taken out

the seats for recovering. After fixing items, a new floor of rubber matting will be installed.

Next caboose slated to be repainted is the EL bay window caboose. Boy scouts would

like to have a project to work on, possible car is the NKP baggage car.

 

The GE locomotive had the radiator drained for the winter season. The Alco will have its

coolant drained next weekend. The Whitcomb was worked on, with some items needing

replacing to make it run safely

 

The Mid America Cars have not been moved yet. The MDT, C&NW boxcars have been

placed on the #3 track to the west of the shop. The 2789 tender will remain on the

engine for the winter.

 

Milk house clearing continues with a big truck from Baileys and a dumpster. The truck

was filled and dumpster filled about 2/3 full. Doug said it didn't even dent the material

inside the building. Lots of people working inside the building, Doug, Loretta, Bob A, Steve,

and a couple of Bailey employees.

 

Arlington Street crossing has been paved and is back in service.

 

Depot was manned by Margret, Loretta and a few others.

 

Next Saturday is membership meeting at 1PM in the depot. Items are the Shop Czar,

someone is needed to  take charge an clean up the shop area. The milk shed hopefully

will provide some big shelving to put inside the buildings and get items up off the dirt

floor. This winter will be fixup/cleanup of railroad cars. Come on out and participate.

January meeting will be the election of officers/board members. President, treasurer,

2 board members (buildings,equipment). Deadline is 17 December for putting you name

on the ballot. Election committee is Pat Degan, Louise Kingsbury and one other whose name

escapes me at this time. Contact them to have your name put on the ballot, sign up sheet

is in the kitchen car.

 

Have not heard much on the conversion of the Metra car into an eating area, meeting area.

The South Shore flatcar, reel wire car, has still not been removed by IRM. The Porter

steam engine still still has not had any decision what to do with it. I would like to propose

that the Vulcan ore cars be moved to a display area, offline, and repainted and cleaned up

for display purposes. One at each end of the properity. One at the east end and one in

the area of Grasseli tower eventually. The flower bed has been removed during the week.

The telephone line pole could be removed and the landline moved to the power pole to

clean up the area. The crane with the bucket would make quick work of removing the pole.

I donated a wood burner stove to be used in the west shop, needs installation and smoke

stack installed. The REA trailer needs to be put inside for the winter again. I suggest clearing

an area in the shop, middle aisle, up against the wall, so I can work on 3 sides and work

on the doors that need to be rebuilt. The west shop area outside needs to be cleaned

up of old air tanks, cut levers, etc down to the rail storage area. Along the north side

of the west shop and couple of big scoops of ballast need to be dumped in the mud hole,

getting pretty deep with water. Clean-up of the coal pile, selling the remains to get

rid of it. Some talk of using the hopper car for dumping ballast on the row. If some device

to control the doors open/close could be devised for the flow of ballast, that would be nice.

 

Thats it for now, drive safe and have a good week.

 

Tom

 

http://hoosiervalleyrestorationpage.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

Falling back to a great fall day at HVRM 11/5/11

Greetings!   A beautiful fall day; sunny with temps in the 50's.   Started the day by attending a Board meeting.  Much discussed.  Details forthcoming in the upcoming newsletter.   Bob Jachim continued to work on cleaning up the flower beds, the plants now mostly dormant.  The front bed near the sign for the museum just off of Mulberry Street had really become overgrown, and Bob has pretty much taken care of that situation.  He wants to make that bed smaller.   Track crew of Dave Cook, Cory Bennett, Mark Knebel and John LaOrange busy again working on the east switch near Main Street.  They had 4 old ties jerked out by lunch and new ties installed.  Not sure what the final count was for the day.   Joe Kingsbury continued work on NKP # 471, the bay window caboose.  Had some help today from Ryan Kertis and a number of other folks including some young men who may have been a Scout troop.  Car is really starting to look good!   There were two Guest Engineers at the museum today and Alco 310 pulled the NKP open flat car # 1946 and EL caboose # C345.   Later in the day, the crew moved some equipment around including pulling C&NW box car # 284 out of the shop.   I worked on patching some of the vinyl over the windows of the heavyweight passenger car in the morning then spent the afternoon in a fruitless attempt to repair the "Rube Goldberg" switch marker on the turnout leading to track 2 of the Shop.  Frustrating!   Don't forget to set your clocks back, if you haven't already done it.  Remember; Spring Forward, Fall Back!   Have a terrific week!   Les