Many Hands Make Quick Work on Projects At HVRM Saturday 18 Feb 2012

Greetings,
 
Another sunny day in NW IN, cool, windy, no snow on the ground, very untypical for here in February, but March is
still around the corner with some weather surprises I'm sure.
 
Early morning activity was down at the old  milk shed demolition site. All of the contents that can be saved and sold is out of
the building, shelving was taken out an stored inside a boxcar, more than enough for our needs. The brick walls have be pushed
in and the rubble loaded into a dumpster for Richard Warner to use on some project. Most likely more dumpsters will be filled
before its all over. Included in this project was, Bob Albert, Steve Newland, Cory Bennett, John LaOrange, Bruce Fingerhut, Dave Cookl
Ryan Kertis, Doug Koslovske, and a couple of others. Two bonfires continued buring debris. lots of cleanup remains to be done.
 
After lunch, work continued on repainting the Erie caboose, lead by Joe Kingsbury, 3 members of a local boyscout troop continued
there sanding and prep work for painting. Caboose is moving right along and hopefully the painting will occur in the near future.
 
I noticed the backhoe tractor outside, so the transmission problems and engine has been repaired. Many long hours put in by
Cory, Dave and Rich to get this tractor ready for summer tie replacement in the museums main railroad line.
 
Erie and EJ&E cabooses got their center pins greased in quick order. again many helpful hands made this a quick job. John L,
Doug K, Cory B, Elmer M, Mark K, The air compressor was fired up and the big air jacks lifted the caboose easily and greasing
was done quickly.
 
Some work in the kitchen car has been done recently. Removal of a wall, opening up the area for more kitchen space and a new
serving table installed. The diesel car has not been worked on yet, but once we find the time, it will make an welcome addition
to the meeting/eating area.
 
Fred Boyer and Les Beckman installed a new handle and lock for the LIRR 2937,  provided by Jason Annen, now makes the
LIRR coach locked and secured.
 
Depot duties was held down by Loretta K, Bob Barcus and I saw Judy Boyer and Margrett Cook around the museum also.
 
Some visitors were at the museum grounds touring the displays and gift shop. If the weather is nice, people will get outside
to do some traveling.
 
Everyone have a good week, drive safe and remember Lent starts Wednesday, so eat those pancakes Tuesday.
 
Tom

Short day, short report HVRM 2-4-12

Greetings -   Arrived at Hoosier Valley today at 10 o'clock.  Gray day after some snow last night, but temps in 40's as our "mild" winter continues.   Signed in on the attendance sheet in the NKP kitchen car where I found the wall between the kitchen and eating areas removed by Bob Jachim and Joe Baker.  Looks different!   Started out in the depot, putting a single section of Lionel track with roadbed on the shelf behind the gift shop counter.  This shelf has two O scale donated Troop cars and I wanted to see if the O scale non-powered Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0 sitting in the back of a display case in the depot waiting room, would look good with those two cars.  Had a heck of a time raising the top of the display case, but finally managed to do it.  Put the 0-8-0 on the new section of track and I think that the combination looks terrific.  Those of you who see this new display, please let me know what you think.  I can always return the steamer to the display case.   About this time, I was asked by Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske if I could stick around the gift shop while they made a visit to the library in La Crosse to check the activities room there to see if it could be used as a backup to a proposed Picnic train to possibly be run during the upcoming passenger train season at HVRM.   Doug Kosloske stopped by the depot and told me that they had sent the valves for EL Alco #310 to Pittsburgh Air Brake for normal inspection and maintenance.   Bob and Loretta returned and I eventually went over to the kitchen car for a cup of java.  Upon return to the depot, I was delighted to see Harold Lambirth there with his family.  Harold was instrumental in securing our crane from Purdue University in 1992, shortly after it had been retired.  Harold started his career on the coal crew at Purdue about 1945, the same year that Orton built the crane for the university.   Had some other visitors today with some modest gift shop sales.  Also had one visitor join the museum.  Bob reports good internet sales of museum items.   Because of the time in the depot, I never did make it over to the Shop building so not sure what was going on there.  I did however, go over to the Milk Station where I found Bob Albert, Bruce Fingerhut, Fred Boyer, Steve Newland, John LaOrange and Ryan Kertis continuing with their efforts to clean out the building.  I spent time giving them a hand in loading the dumpster with junk and throwing burnable items onto the fire they had going.  Ryan reported that the roof of the structure continues to sink and it won't be long before it totally collapses.   I left the boys to their work, and headed for home at about 3:15.   Les