RE: Winter and Santa arrive at HVRM 12/10/2011

Greetings!   Back hoe update. Richard Warner has been working on the problems. He and his assistant engine mechanic, will work on the transmission. He has the capablility to completely rebuild it for parts only. The bolt that broke in the engine, he was able to back out the broken bolt with an easy-out. It was very loose in the threads. The rocker arm is bent. Dave Cook thinks the water in the hydraulic system, that was removed when the system was flushed, may of had something to do with these problems. Future looks good for rehab before spring.     The first measurable snow late this week was on the ground and with temps today in the low to mid-20's was a favorable setting for the first ever Santa trains at HVRM.  Beautiful blue skies and sunshine all helped the atmosphere.    Life came to Alco 310 and the crew switched cars around in the morning so that the two Santa trains consisted of a nice warm LIRR coach 2937 and a less than warm B&LE caboose # 1989 which was used for the backup move to English Lake.  Both the 11:00 and 1:30 trains had been sold out, but a few extra riders were able to be accomodated on both trains.  C   Loretta asked me to pick up Santa Claus at his place (fortunately a bit south of the North Pole) and I took him to the Arlington Street crossing where he waited for the train to give him a ride.  Scenario was that there had been a problem with his reindeer and once on Board, Santa asked for the kids to "keep an eye out for them".  On the first run, believe it or not, the train spooked up a herd of (wait for it....) 8 reindeer!  Dasher, Dancer, Comet, etc., come back!  No such luck!  Santa visited with each child, and gave them a nice little wrapped present.  In addition to Santa, Fred and Elmer in the cab, Doug as conductor and Bill Dauber and Joe Kingsbury collecting tickets, made up the train crew.   Total ridership for the day was reported as 216 with a bit over 40% of that being kids and youth.   Bob Barcus, assisted by Margrett Cook, reported a good day in the museum gift shop.  The Union Pacific G gauge train that circles the gift shop derailed and Mike and I had to give Bob a hand in rerailing it including dragging the tall ladder in from the display Troop Sleeper .  Apparently a switch was somehow thrown by accident.  Fortuntately, this minor problem happened while the first Santa train was out on the line and the G gauge was back in operation by the time the passengers arrived back at the depot.   Mark Knebel and John LaOrange acted as road guards for both Santa runs.   Ryan took photos of the train itself (11:00 run) and on the train (1:30 run).   Bob Albert, Louise and Steve worked in the old Erie Milk Station building today, burning a lot of worthless paper items.   Bing Risley brought lunch, including a number of goodies, including three different soups.  I made a meal of the Chicken Noodle!    I checked on the Nickel Plate caboose before I left the museum and the exterior appears to be finished.   A number of other museum members were around today including Tom Travis, Tom McKee, Dave Cook, Tom Royce, Randall Downs, Jason Jordan and probably others I missed.  The cold weather and the concentration on operating the caboose trains, kept other activities to a minimum.   Enjoy the week everyone! December 17th is the last day to sign the list in the kitchen car for President, Treasurer and 2 director positions. Newsletter arrived last week also, great color pictures of HVRM Pumpkin Patch.   Les

Back Breaking Work at HVRM Office, 12-03-2011

Greetings to all wherever you may be,
 
Today started out as an overcast, rainy day, but by late afternoon it was quite pleasant. Board meeting was short, about an
hour. Big news is that HVRM will start the Annual General Membership Dinner again next spring. Details will follow.
I arrived late again, due to some issues trying to get going this morning. Les reported that the  troop kitchen car/ex-diesel
office, the C&EI number has been found with the help of Ryan Kertis last week and he has contacted the C&EI Historical
group for some stencils and the board approved repainting it next year back to C&EI. In lieu of the Metra car being converted
for a lunch room, with some work inside the troop kitchen car, it will be converted to a lunch room. A working stove did
provide heat at one time, with some tinkering should work again.
 
After a quick breakfast at Finger Hut Bakery with Les, we returned an started to work with Mark K, John L, Richard , Les,
an myself on taking up the screwed down luan board inside the HVRM office building. Mark has removed all the contents
of his office out to the 48 foot container, set up for office duties. The old carpeting was taken up and rolled  an taken
outside. Then started the removal of the 4x8 sheets of plywood, nailed in with ring shank nails, extremely difficult to remove.
A small area was started with crow bars and some extreme pounding, the hard back breaking work commenced. A variety
of tools were used and after some trial an error, breaking a pitchfork in two, bending a long bar wrench, another long handled
broken pitchfork was used. First a crow bar was pounded under one edge and the long handled pitchfork pulled it up off the
floor, I used a heavy duty spike puller bar to get under the flooring and keep it up while Mark kept pushing the fork in
further to pull up more plywood. Amazing we finished finally and then pulling the nails out of the floor. Underneath the
plywood was the orignal planks for a floor. Two of the large planks were pulled up and there was no blocking under the
joists to keep the floor level. Plans were made to jack up the building and put supports under the floor. Lots of water
damage to the door area will need to be address later.
 
A quick trip down to the milk building to see how the crew was coming along. They have removed a sizeable amount of
material to either the dumpster or truck. Inside the building remains a large amout of questionable material for resale
at Baileys. Bob A, Steve N, Bruce F, Fred B, Randall were all working at the milk building.
 
The Christmas train for next week was being readied charging batterys and maintence. Joe K, John L, Doug K were all
busy.
 
Elmer M and Doug K were also working on the diesel engines down at the shop area. John and Richard were also
taking the backhoe tractor apart, transmission and engine damage all caused by a 69 cent bolt inside the transmission
a long time ago damaging parts that will require an extensive amount of money to fix. Stay tuned for further details.
 
Loretta K, Bob B and John DeGan were about at the museum thru the day.
 
Some upcoming events will happen in January, office elections for President, Director (2), and Treasurer position.
Make sure that you come out to vote, its important to all the canidates running and the future of the museum.
 
Some ideas are needed for goals that could be worked on in 2012 by everyone. Tourist train operation, restoration of
railroad cars, track work, shop cleanup. The shelving out of the milk building will be coming to the shop buildings.
The shelving is heavy duty and can be put up all the way to the ceiling. Needed to get all the clutter that occupies
floor space unto shelves will be great. Many other projects need to worked on, Grasseli tower, landscaping, cleanup of
the yards, coal pile, worn out ties, make the museum presentable to the public. Lots of hard workers needed.
 
Have a safe week, only 22 days till Chrismas. I got a present today for myself, a Black & Decker 1/2 inch, 7 amp, heavy duty
electric drill down at Norwayne Lumber, got to have those toys for restoration work.
 
Tom
 
http://hoosiervalleyrestorationpage.blogspot.com/