Old man winter finally shows up at HVRM 1-14-12

Greetings!   After what has been a mild winter (in the 50's through the middle of this past week and less than 2" of snow), winter showed up on Thursday with in excess of 5" of snow throughout the Region.  There was a good snow cover at North Judson today and temps were barely above 20 degrees all day.  At least the sun was out at times.   Due to an errand, I was late arriving at the museum, not getting there until after 10:00.  Rich Warner was working on the switches on the G gauge layout that runs around the top of the gift shop area.  Judy Boyer and Loretta Kosloske were working in the depot.  I found a broom and swept the station platform, but couldn't find the shovel, so had to go over to the Erie building to locate one.  Did a bit of digging out at the ends of the platform.   Saw Joe Baker almost immediately thereafter and he reported that the north wall of the East Shop building annex had been cleaned of junk.  This is to accomodate the heavy metal shelving from the Milk Station that will eventually be put into this area, after concrete posts can be installed when some warmer temps show up.  I walked down to the Shop and had to admit that the guys did a great job.  Not sure who helped besides Joe, but saw John DeGan, Fred Boyer, Bob Albert, Cory Bennett, Steve Newland, Doug Kosloske and a few others in the area.   A good turnout today, considering the weather.  Mark Knebel picked up pizza's for lunch and the members scarfed them down.   After lunch, Bob, Steve and Ryan Kertis joined Bruce Fingerhut over at the Milk Station building, to continue with cleanup.  I decided to head over to the Shop where I found Fred working on removing the bolts from the benches and the wheelchair anchors in the EJ&E transfer caboose so I found a wrench and pitched in.  This is being done so a new rubberized floor can be put in the car.  This is the same type of floor that was put down in the B&LE caboose some time back, and it has held up very well.  After Fred and I finished, we went over to C&O 2789 and removed the right marker light bracket so that Fred could check to see if a similar bracket can be made for the left side.  Turns out that it would fit, so Fred took the bracket home as a pattern for a new one.  We then did a slow walk around the K-4 and noted some of the problems that need to be addressed in its cosmetic restoration.  Fred managed to locate the latch and we were able to get the door to the stoker motor open and take a look at it.  It was a long time ago that Bill Byers managed to get that motor running one day.     Don't forget that next Saturday is the Annual Meeting of the museum which will be held at the North Judson Public Library in the downstairs meeting room at 1:00 in the afternoon.  Hoosier Valley will hold their elections at that time.  Running for office:   For President:  Cory Bennett                          Les Beckman   For Treasurer:  Margrett Cook                          Bob Barcus   For Director (two to be elected): Joe Kingsbury                                                     Tom Travis                                                     Steve Newland                                                     John LaOrange   All members in good standing will be allowed to vote so please try to attend the meeting if at all possible.   Have a great week everyone.  Try to stay warm!   Les

Smokin' end to 2011 at HVRM on 12-31!

Greetings!   Our mild winter continued with temps in the 40's again today.  Arrived at the museum about 9:30 and noticed smoke coming out of the open door of the Shop.  Obviously, a diesel had been fired up!   Went in to the depot where I found Loretta Kosloske and Bob Barcus working on train planning 2012.  From the little I could hear, it sounds like an interesting schedule.  The diesel went past the depot and I eventually stuck my head out the door to see what was going on.  Turns out that the crew was using GE # 11 to do some switching.  Since I had never been in the 95-tonner when it was moving, I decided to take a walk down and see if I could catch a short ride in the cab.  Elmer Mannen was engineer with Fred Boyer as fireman and invited me aboard.  John DeGan and Doug Kosloske were working on the ground.  The crew had shoved the dead Alco into the passing siding and had pulled out the now finished Nickel Plate caboose # 471.  Bay window 471 really looks sharp in her new coat of red paint with NKP High Speed Service lettering in the light gray band across the top of the car.  The crew went into the caboose track and coupled on to Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose # C345, since she is the next project for the painting crew.  They pulled the EL hack out and put it on the main, then shoved everything back into the caboose track.  They then went and picked up Alco 310 and headed back toward the shop.  When they stopped short of Mulberry Street so that John could flag the crossing, I thanked Elmer and Fred and detrained the GE onto the depot platform.  I enjoyed the ride in the unit.   I noticed a bit later that the crew had put everthing away, so I assume that the C345 ended up back in the West Shop Annex for painting.   Decided to go down and see what, if anything, was going on with the cleanup of the old North Judson Milk Station.  Found Bruce Fingerhut, Bob Albert and Steve Newland hard at work.  They had a Bailey's truck partially loaded with boxes of good items for that store.  There was also a dumpster with stuff that was too far gone to save.  I pitched in.  Others helping included Fred (after his crew duties were finished), John LaOrange, Mark Knebel and Ryan Kertis.  A lot of the steel shelving which had been taken apart, was loaded and moved in both Mark and Ryan's pickup trucks and taken over for use later in the Shop.   After the truck was driven to Bailey's, we started in burning old cardboard boxes and other burnable "junk".  This fire really got going after a while, with lots of smoke at times.  Fortunately, the folks that live behind the old Milk Station are very tolerant of our efforts.  I think that they are glad that the old structure is eventually going to go.  As we neared the end of a very tiring day, one of the ladies that lives in one of the neighboring houses, even brought over a pitcher of hot sweet tea for Ryan, Bob, Bruce and myself.  A nice gesture to be sure.    Mark stopped by to tell us that the museum had been "buttoned up" so we stirred up the fire to try to get some of the unburned items at the bottom of the pile to the top.  But I was tired and decided to call it a day at about 4:15 p.m.   Hope that everyone has an enjoyable New Year!   Les