| Greetings! After two days of decent weather (80's), temp climbed back to the low 90's today at Hoosier Valley, but the humidity was still low. But hot and humid for the coming week! Membership meeting this morning began at exactly 8:00. Check upcoming newsletter for details. We had a visitor from the Chicago Tribune newspaper today. He operated EL Alco # 310 and also rode the 11:00 train. Might we expect an upcoming article? Loretta Kosloske pointed out that we hadn't pulled one of the baggage carts up on the depot platform this year so after the meeting, I went down and "dug out" one with a decent set of spoked wheels and rims from the future Hibbard motor car shed. With the help of Joe Kingsbury, we pulled/pushed it up onto the platform. I found the old suitcases and piled them on the bed of the cart. This cart needs new wood and a paint job. Volunteers? Engine crew for the trains today was Elmer Mannen and Fred Boyer with Doug Kosloske the conductor. Bill Dauber, Randall Downs and Joe were car hosts. LIRR coach # 2937 still out of service. Tim Wills sold tickets in the depot while Bob Barcus and Loretta handled the gift shop. Work continues on Grasselli Tower and progress is really moving forward! Steve Newland, Joe Baker and Steve Henrichs were painting the interior and exterior and working on the windows. I went up to Norwayne Lumber and found that they had finished the four arch window replacements for coach 899 and also the one new seat window frame. I'll get those primed and painted this week. I managed to get down and take the old steel ACI plate off of C&EI tool car # A-1054. Emptying this car is progressing. The new steel siding is slowly going up on the museum office. Cory Bennett, John LaOrange and Mark Knebel were working on it today. The back wall is finished and about half of the south wall. Matt Lasayko was working on signals. Quite a few visitors today and train ridership seemed pretty good. Hope everyone has a good week. Les | 