Working on IC Caboose/ND&W 5332

11-23-2013
 
Joe Kingsbury works on the cupola area of the Illinois Central caboose. It was
discovered around the base to the roof, it had rusted out, leaving a hole for rain
water to get in, an soak down thru the wall, rotting the wood. Preps are being
made to get the display caboose painted both on the inside and outside. More
bondo is required to build up the surface for painting.
 
Notre Dame & Western 5332 resides in the HVRM shop. During the week of
18 November, for three days, the diesel was moved. What was thought a two
day move, turned into three days, due to the lowboy trailer getting stuck on the
C&I tracks. Eventually the trailer made it over, but the problems were not over.
Unloading the diesel from the lowboy, the PRR flatcar broke the rail, calling
for a new cut piece of rail. Working under the PRR flat car was not easy to do.
Eventually all was replaced an the Porter 65 ton diesel was pulled off the
lowboy.
 
A massive effort of men and machines. A job well done by all HVRM members
who helped in this short term notice to get it moved before bad weather set in.
 
Thank you very much. Photos by Les Beckman
 
Tom Travis

Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: Switcher Arrives at Hoosier Valley

Donated university switcher arrives at Hoosier Valley museum

Published: November 20, 2013

The switcher en route to the museum grounds in North Judson. Photo by Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum NORTH JUDSON, Ind. – The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum has taken delivery of its new 65-ton center cab Porter switcher, No. 5332, donated by the University of Notre Dame. The locomotive once served the university's coal-fired power plant. Museum volunteer Fred Boyer tells Trains News Wire that the locomotive was transported on a 46-wheel truck and trailer from the university to the museum grounds in North Judson on Tuesday afternoon. It will be used by the museum for excursion operations when it is restored. That is expected to take about two years. According to Boyer, the museum has not finalized fundraising plans for the restoration. For more information on the museum or to make a donation, go to www.hoosiervalley.org.

 

 

Museum, university discuss locomotive donation

By Brian Schmidt

Published: November 21, 2013

No. 5332 rests with the rest of the Hoosier Valley collection at North Judson. Photo by Fred Boyer The truck carrying No. 5332 navigates the grade crossing onto the museum grounds. Photo by Fred Boyer The heavy-duty truck waits to pick up the locomotive in South Bend on Tuesday. Photo by Fred Boyer NORTH JUDSON, Ind. – The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum has taken delivery of its new 65-ton centercab Porter switcher, No. 5332, donated by the University of Notre Dame. The locomotive once served the university's coal-fired power plant. Museum volunteer Fred Boyer tells Trains News Wire that the locomotive was transported on a 46-wheel truck and trailer from the university to the museum grounds in North Judson on Tuesday afternoon. The truck departed from the university campus in South Bend with police officers escorting the oversized load at 8 a.m. It arrived at the museum at noon after its 65-mile highway journey. However, a clearance problem at the grade crossing entry to the museum grounds delayed unload until 4 p.m. Boyer says the museum expects a full mechanical restoration will take up to two years. He adds that the locomotive will be used by the museum in excursion service once it is restored. It has been stored at the university for at least three years. The museum plans to restore the locomotive to a previous paint scheme, per the university's request. However, the museum has not chosen which paint scheme it will use. According Dennis Brown at the University of Notre Dame, the school decided to donate the locomotive after the rail spur was removed in 2012. He adds that moving coal by rail from the university's stockpile no longer made sense, either. The university approached two other local museums, but settled on the Hoosier Valley group because it was best-suited to restore, operate, and maintain the locomotive. For the donation, the museum has agreed restore the locomotive to its active service appearance and provide reasonable access for Notre Dame Utilities Department personnel that previously operated the locomotive, and allow the university the right to have a number of guest engineer program slots annually, according to Brown. The university spur, widely known as the Notre Dame & Western, was named by Brother Borromeo Malley, the university's director of utilities from 1937 to 1978, and never incorporated as a common carrier. In the 1970s the plant received about 1,000 cars of coal annually. Abandonment was instituted by the city of South Bend and the university, which coveted the unused right-of-way for a recreation trail. The Surface Transportation Board approved the abandonment in April 2012 and the following October the rails were removed. According to Boyer, the museum has not finalized fundraising plans for the restoration. For more information on the museum or to make a donation, go to www.hoosiervalley.org.

 

 

Les

Raising the debt ceiling doesn't increase the nation's debt

Pres. Obama Sept. 18, 2013

 

 

The PORTER report

Report from Les Beckman, See more pictures on RYPN under Thread, Notre Dame Railroad 

---

 

11-19-2013

 

I went over to Hoosier Valley today, getting there at 11:00.  Report was that the

truck with 5332 had just cleared La Crosse.  Arrived about 11:30.  Then the guy

tried to drive over the C&I "hump" and his low trailer got stuck.  We spent the

day trying to get it so it could be pulled onto museum property for unloading. 

When I left there at 4:00, it was closer, but still had not cleared the crossing.  Fred

Boyer said he had to stay as he was going to be acting as conductor for the GE for

the move of the Porter off of the trailer.  I called him about 5:15 and he said that

they had finally gotten it over and just left it there.  Going to work on it beginning

at 8:00 tomorrow morning.  

 

Wednesday 11-20-2013, unloading of ND&W 5332 was accomplished. 

ND&W 5332 Coming To HVRM 11-16-2013

Greetings,
 
After a whirlwind of mad activity to get ready for the movement of Notre Dame & Western
5332 with happen Monday and Tuesday (11/12 NOV). The equipment needed for
loading the engine at ND, was loaded on Cory's drop trailer, rail, Richards tractor, other
big equipment yesterday morning. Mark's pickup truck was loaded with smaller items,
spike malls, spikes, torching equipment, threaded rod etc. All was loaded up
quickly before noon. The convoy leaves at 6am from North Judson to South Bends
Notre Dame campus, steam plant. The truck an drop trailer from Michigan City
will be there ready to load. The moving company has secured all the moving
permits, escort, Indiana State Police, etc. Loading will be on Monday, with movement
to North Judson on Tuesday. The route is quite long, no exact time frame for
observation. Upon arrival in North Judson, it will be off loaded if time permits.
Tuesday may be the best day to observe the unloading, but I can't guarantee it.
If the sun goes down before getting it done, it may be more dangerous for everyone.
 
Other work going on Saturday, Fred and Joe working on the IC caboose, grinding
the cupola area and taking off the walk way around the cupola on the south side
to get at the holes in the metal that leak the water. Only way to get at it was removal
of the walk way.
 
Joe Baker worked on electrical in the west shop getting rid of a flexible conduit
line to above the south entrance door and installation of another electrical outlet
inside the middle shop area. A switch will be installed for the exhaust fan in the
peak of the middle building, to do away with plug in electrical cords.
 
The electrical man lift was moved from the east shop to the IC caboose, set
up on the south side, to sand the upper portion of the caboose side. It was moved
out of the way, as ladders seem to work better. Next week we will move
the man lift into the west shop on the new concrete pad poured a couple of weeks
ago, waiting for equipment to be put into the west shop area for restoration.
The man lift has not been used in years, scaffolding and ladders have sufficed
for any work on sides of cars. The lift is in excellent shape, cleaned the platform
of years of debris, and works great.
 
November meeting was held in a short period of time, nothing much to note.
 
After the meeting, mostly everyone left the museum, only to return Monday
morning to South Bend and Tuesday await the arrival of the diesel engine.
 
Tom Travis

Down to Serious Work at HVRM 11-09-2013

Greetings on this wonderful day in Hoosier Valley Land. Temp made it up to
64 degrees, plenty of sunshine, fresh air, windy, lots of leaves everywhere.
A good day to get something done.
 
Started out at Fingerhut with the amateur radio "Hams" for a good bull session
of radio talk. Excellent breakfast as normal. Lots of guys I haven't seen for some
time. Good to catch up on the news around the local area.
 
Got down at the museum about 8am, Board meeting being held in the kitchen
car. Membership meeting next Saturday, most likely 1pm, as now that tourist
trains are over. If you desire to run for an office, sign up sheet in Kitchen Car
bulletin board, President, Treasurer, and 2 directors. Not much new from the
meeting. Short meeting, done by 9am. Off to work.
 
Fred and Doug ran the guest engineer program today, six ran the diesel today.
I did flagging at the crossings up to 500 North. Nice to get out an pace the train.
 
Steve Newland worked on Grasselli tower today, most likely did some wood
project around the windows. Did not stay all that long.
 
Payloader got a new starter this past week, died last week and now starts
fine. BTW, backhoe tractor is now back in service, found out the repairs to the
transmission were done free of charge by the repair company.
 
Work commenced on spiking down the rail where the ND&W engine will be
unloaded hopefully the last week of November. After the 2 sections were done,
they were unbolted and lifted by the payloader to one side to permit the semi
truck to drive into the ROW and drop the trailer. The sections will be lifted back
in place, reconnected, an then the unloading rail will be set up. The PRR flatcar
is in position to be pushed on to the trailer, couple up to the diesel and pull it off.
During the week, all equipment had been moved down to the east end of the yard,
cept for the Purdue crane and 3 trucks that are at the west end of the siding.
Plenty of room to get the diesel in to push the flat car up the ramp. Maybe more
info will be given out at the membership meeting next week.
 
Joe was busy today working on the IC caboose up on the north side of the cupola.
It has been discovered a large hole is where all the water is leaking in. Much
grinding to get down to bare metal. I'm not sure how it will be fixed. Not sure about
the south side of the cupola yet. So more metal work needs to be done before
priming of the outside.
 
Concrete is ready to be poured between the rails in the west shop. During the
week Richard and Cory welded angle iron to the inside of the rail for the flanges
and installed a water drainage system to the west end and to the outside. Bob J
put wood blocks between the wood ties to keep concrete from flowing out from
under the rail. No idea when concrete will be poured. But will before the shop
is filled up with cars for winter restoration.
 
Some projects for the winter are, replacing bearings on the LIRR coach, tool car
floor being fixed, IC caboose being painted and the ND&W diesel put in over
the pit for inspection. A curtain between the west and middle shop is going to
be installed so it is easy to open an close. Stencils for the EJ&E caboose have
been received and Bjarne will paint them on.
 
Have a good week, drive safe, darkness now comes an hour earlier, so plan
ahead.
 
Regards
 
Tom Travis  

ND&W 5332 Progress

Just an update on Notre Dame & Western 5332, Porter diesel, donation to HVRM.
 
Notre Dame University has selected HVRM to donate it 44 ton diesel locomotive
to HVRM as of last week. A group went over to take off items on the diesel, B&O
steam whistle, used as a air horn. Bell taken off aft end of diesel that came from
Illinois Central, Pacific type engine, 1115. Standard bell put on by Porter locomotive
company. Four marker lamps around the cab area, including a box of lenses
for the marker lamps. Four rerailers on each corner of the frame.
 
ND&W 5332, loco number was selected by a priest who was in charge of power
plant at Notre Dame. His father was an enginner on the NYC who drove steam
engine 5332 during his career of employment.
 
At HVRM 11-2-2013, work was being done for unloading platform of the diesel.
Ties and rail were laid out from the roundhouse lead to the empty field area
on the west side of the museum. Spiking commenced, but cut short by rain.
 
Rails were set up on #3 track to torch angles into ends of rails for loading an
unloading. Sticks or rail were cut for proper lenght of trailer. Rails will be set on
drop trailer with threaded rods to separte them for standard guage between rails.
 
A heavy duty (12) axles semi and trailer for transport of Porter diesel. A towing
rig will be used at Notre Dame to winch diesel onto the drop trailer.
 
No time frame (dates) for transportion is scheduled at this time.- 

Drizzly hard working day at HVRM 11-2-13

Greetings!

 

Cool day in 40's with light rain in afternoon.

 

A number of guest engineers kept the operating personnel busy all day.  Crew included Fred Boyer, John LaOrange, Doug Kosloske,

Bjarne Henderson, and probably others that I missed.

 

Bob Albert put the last of the windows in the cupola of the yellow ex-IC display caboose.  Interior about finished.

 

Joe Baker working on electric alongside the recently installed concrete floor strip on the south wall of the West Annex of the Shop.

 

Gandy Dancers started two sections of panel track on the turntable lead.  Ties set down, rail moved onto ties and joint bars joining the

rail to the existing track bolted in.  Spiking started by hand with Mark Knebel driving spikes on first rail before drizzle made working

uncomfortable.  Others on track crew included Cory Bennett, Rich Warner, Dave Cook, Tom Travis, Steve Henrichs, Bob Jachim, Les

Beckman and Bing Risley who dragged rail to the track from the storage yard. 

 

A number of visitors to the museum today.  Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske in depot.  Margrett Cook and Diane Bennett made lunch

with help from Judy Boyer.

 

Daylight Savings Time ends tonight.  Set your clocks back an hour.

 

 

Les

 

    

 

  

 

 

Summer hanging in there at HVRM 10/12/13

Greetings!

 

The calendar says Fall, but old Mother Nature wants to keep summer around for a while yet.  Sunny morning in North Judson with the temp getting up to 83 degrees.

 

Museum Board meeting this morning at 8:00 a.m.  Cement for the West Annex to the Shop is still on track (pun intended)!  Also discussed putting new muffler or

long pipe on the Long Island passenger car to direct exhaust away from the side where the passengers load.

 

Steve Henrichs was using the Man Lift as he continued scrapping, priming and painting the final few feet of the roof eaves on Grasselli Tower.  Joe Baker and Steve

Newland worked on the interior, including installation of the new second floor windows.

 

Since Steve Henrichs was using the Lift, I hung around the Pullman Troop Sleeper and gave some of our many visitors information on the car and also on Metra #1529

which is coupled to it.  Lots of visitors today with many from Illinois including 6 different gentlemen who operated GE diesel #11 as part of the museums Guest

Engineer Program (GEP).  Many of these folks stayed around to ride the only train of the day, a 1:30 p.m. departure for La Crosse.  That train was well patronized, with

riders in both of the open air flat cars (MKT #13833 and NKP #1946), in LIRR passenger car #2937 and in two of the cabooses, EJ&E #184 and B&LE #1989.   Two

of the other cabooses were also on the train, but not utilized for passengers.  

 

Finally was able to use the Lift in the afternoon and I started scrapping the windows on passenger car #899 to remove paint that I had slopped on the glass.  Eventually it

clouded over and  the wind picked up, but the temp remained in the 70's and the threatened rain held off.  Bing Risley stopped by to talk and told me that he and Mark

Knebel had finally been able to remove the old tree stump that sat outside the refrigerator car building over on Arlington Street.

 

There was probably things going on in the Shop building but I never made it over there today.  

 

Passenger train arrived back in North Judson and Loretta Kosloske told me that they had 147 riders.  With the GEP participants earlier, if was a very nice day for Hoosier

Valley to say the least!

 

Packed it in about 5:00 p.m.  A long day for sure.  Enjoy the coming week.  Columbus Day observed this coming Monday, so kids may be off, so drive carefully.

 

 

Les      

Record Crowd at Pumpkin Patch 10-19-2013

Greetings to all,
 
Great day at the ole Pumpkin Patch. Just a bit on the cool side for riding in the

open air car, but many people did with many blankets wrapped around them.

Packed passenger car, with overflow to the Erie C345 bay window caboose.

Over 430 people rode the trains, with what I think about 300 pumpkins were

sold. One of the best turnouts in a long time.

 

First train was sort of late getting to platform to load passengers. Doug was

training a couple of conductor trainees, an it resulted in lots of people on the

platform cold and lots of figgety kiddos. But once loaded, everyone got settled

down for pumpkins.

 

Fred was in the shop working on the IC caboose cupola, found some more

rust that needed to be taken care of. Worked on the caboose till called to be

engineer for the final run of the day. 

 

Steve Newland worked on Grasselli tower windows, in between helping Richard

with the pumpkins at the SR 10 pumpkin patch.

 

The back hoe tractor transmission has been reinstalled, an Richard spent some

time this past week tightening up bolts, so its almost ready to run, put in oil and

some other things need to be done.

Bob an Loretta manned the gift shop, John LaOrange was engineer for two runs,

Fred for the final run of the day, an Doug was conductor. Everyone who was there

kept busy all day. Joe was in the passenger car, Randall an Matt on the open air

car, and myself in the Erie C345. The local VFW provided lunch for many hungry

folks.

 

Thats about it for this week, getting light later each day, dark earlier each night,

weather next week wil be cold and possible snow flakes. Too early for that

new. Drive safe everyone

 

Tom

Rain In The Pumpkin Patch 10-5-2013

Greetings to all in this wild month of October weather wise. Tropical storm situation
in Pensacola FL, just where I'n headed Wednesday for 5 days, snow 3 foot deep
in the Dakota's, extreme fire conditions still in CA, massive amounts of rain in
the NW US. Where is it going to stop, and what will the winter be like around here.
 
Well any indication, it was wet in North Judson today for the Pumpkin Trains
to SR 10 park. This morning started out on the muggy side, train crew had
the entire train out in front of the depot for possible large crowds. I helped
Loretta punch tickets as she worked the cash/credit card machine, many were
prepaid, so made it easy on her. Lots of extra pumpkins tickets were sold at
the ticket window. Richard was busy trying to get freon into the Long Island coach
before departure at 10am. The coach cooled somewhat, but got a full charge
when the car returned from the first run. The wind seemed to pick up on the
way back to North Judson from English Lake, so rain was imminent soon.
 
Getting a sandwich at the American Legion tent before the next train run, gave every
one a break for a few minutes. The second run went fine except for the arrival back at
North Judson depot, it started to pour buckets, lots of people braved the rain and
got wet running to their cars, but some riders stayed on the train for an extra 10 minutes and it pretty much quit raining. Next train went off fine, cept for arrival at
the park, it poured buckets again, most of the pumpkins were snatched up by parents
in record time and reboarding the train quickly. A lot of riders opted to ride the coach
back to the depot to get out of the rain on the open air car. A bag of small wash
clothes were provided by Mark for folks to dry off with. At least some of the kids
were dry again. I counted almost 6 babies, 6 months or younger today on the train,
one itty bitty one was only 8 weeks old, maybe a new record for new railfans some
day. A total ridership today was 243 for 3 runs, not all that bad for a rainy day.
 
Steve Hendrichs and Steve Newland worked on Grasselli tower, Steve H using the
manlift to get some more painting done under the eaves, Steve N doing wood work
inside the upper level of the tower.
 
Fred Boyer was working on the IC caboose today, did not even get a chance to
see what has been accomplished in the last 2 weeks.
 
Not much else going on around the museum work wise.
 
Lots of conductor trainees on the job today and a good size crew too. Nobody told
Randall that the train time had changed today, so no bull horn narration on the first
run, as he missed the train departure. But darn the bad luck he caught up with the train at the park, only to discover his batterys in the bullhorn were dead, but Randall being Randall, he got Matt to run him down to buy more batterys, so for the 2nd an 3rd run
full narration of every twig and colored leaf was done. All in jest Randall, I had
even thought to hide his bullhorn when he went for batterys, but decided not to,
fearing he might return bigger an louder for the Halloween train.
 
In all, things went well, no  major problems.
 
Next Saturday at 8am is HVRM board meeting most likely in the depot.
Please attend to hear good news.
 
October 19th is the next 3 trips for the Pumpkin Patch train. I will not be at
HVRM on the 12th or 26th of October.
 
Have a safe week, drive safe, its getting dark earlier every evening now, watch out
for goblins out playing in the leaves.
 
Tom

September out like a lamb (?) at HVRM 9-28-2013

Hello!

 

Beautiful day at Hoosier Valley today.  Made it into the low 80's by the afternoon, but a nice breeze kept it comfortable.

 

This will be a short report as I was asked to work in the depot today by Loretta Kosloske.  Fortunately, Bob Barcus did show up due to a schedule

change, so I only had to sell tickets.  I didn't screw too many things up, but then it's hard to teach an old dog (like me) new tricks!  My apologies

for my derelictions of duty!  Because I spent most of the day in the depot, I didn't get around to see much of what else was happening, thus the

meager report.

 

Diane Bennett was working with Bob in the museum gift shop.  Margrett Cook hosted lunch in the old NKP camp car, which is now our dining car.

 

I did manage to get the signals turned on in the morning, and they performed flawlessly all day, including both of the Erie semaphores.

 

The morning run to English Lake had the best patronage, but there were passengers on all of the trains.  Also had a guest engineer between the first
and second passenger runs of the day; a gentleman from Oak Park, Illinois.  He and his wife also later rode the 1:30 p.m. train to English Lake.

There were a lot of members on the passenger trains today.  I think that perhaps they were getting re-certified. 

 

Steve Newland continued working on repairs on the second story floor of Grasselli Tower.

 

Cory Bennett had the welder out and was working on the repair of parts for the back hoe.

 

Bing Risley was cutting grass around the refrigerator car building and track storage yard.

 

Heard a report today that said that both ex-Chessie SD-18 #7311 that used to work on the JK Line and the ex-L&HR C-420 that was long stored at

Hoosier Valley, both were seen heading east this week at Milford Junction on a CSX freight.

 

As I said, a short report.   Here comes October, and autumn!  Have a great week everyone!

 

 

Les

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

   

Fall Is In The Air Today, Tomorrow Will Be Fall

Greetings to Everyone,
 
What a glorious day it was a North Judson IN today. Signs of fall are everywhere.
Leaves are changing color, corn is turning to brown, beans are turning, a crisp
wind from the north made it an excellent day to be a part of HVRM.
 
Membership meeting was at 8am sharp. A quorum present for a meeting today.
Discussion of turning the Metra car into a eating facility was discussed. Some
different ideas were presented to the membership. After some clarification of
exactly what the car function would be, tables, chairs only, no food prepartion in
the car itself, me an Les proceeded after the meeting to set up a table an chair
to show everyone that the overhang would not interfer with bumping your head.
Some other ideas were brought up. Making a small table for 4 persons on each side
of the aisle. Tables lining the entire lenght of the level floor. I think it will work,
moving out of the cramped kitchen car dining facility. The problem of how to heat
the car in winter, to keeping it cool in summer were talked about. Use electric baseboard
heat in winter, opening upper level window with screens put in, window fan sucking
out hot air and pulling in fresh air from the center doors. I believe that it can be done,
the car being insulated and having tinted windows. No word of the outcome.
 
Board meeting was held after the membership meeting an adjourned about 10am.
The 25th Anniversary went off very well, over 300 rode the train, many more ate the
lunch, and everyone enjoyed the live entertainment around the museum.
 
After adjourning, the train was readied with Alco 310 for today engine, MKT open air
car, LIRR coach and EJ&E handicap car was added to consist to check out the
brake issue from last week that was corrected. B&LE 1989 caboose was at the
west end of the train. Well over 100 people rode the train today.
 
A large group working on the backhoe tractors transmission to take it out for
service. Cory, Sparky, Ben, John, proceeded to get it out in record time. After lunch
it was lowered on to a wood pallet and taken over to Richard Warners building for
pickup next week to be repair. What exactly the problem is unknown at this time.
Fluid did smell burnt and had metal shavings in the pail.
 
After that was accomplished, Mark, John, Cory, Sparky, Ben all went down with the
air compressor to tamp 25 ties put in last week. Mark during the week spiked all
the ties by himself. Until the tractor is fixed, no track work to be done!
 
Les worked on the passenger car painting loose ends to complete the car in green.
 
Bjarne fixed a few spots on the Troop car with paint.
 
Steve Hendrics used the man-lift to prime paint the eaves on Grasseli tower. Joe
Baker worked inside the upstair tower area. Steve Newland showed up later to
work on window frames.
 
Diane Bennett fixed lunch for the crews today, Margret was at home with David today,
resting from some blood pressure issues. Lunch went quick today, as many people
stepped up to eat. Good soup today.
 
I stuck around till almost time for the train to return, but headed out on the road
beside the C&I and caught it where the road crosses over, for a couple of next
photos. On the way up I say a flock of wild turkeys, must of been 20 or more all
on the rail row. Big looking bird. Hunting season is around the corner too.
 
Took the back way home thru Wellsboro. The elevator is getting very close to being
open again with new machinery everywhere. The fertilizer building is getting closer
each day for loading. I saw Chessie 7311 on the lead track to CSX. Diesel 850
and C&I IC engine were on a siding near the elevator.
 
Fred was working on the yellow caboose roof today. It gets closer all the time for
paint inside an out.  Primer inside should happen soon. Bjarne has not hear from
the ICHS, Les said he would get in touch with his inside contacts to see what the
problem is with getting the lettering prints.
 
Concrete is still on the adjenda, having only to find the time to pour it in between
track work  and fixing tractors.
 
Have a good week, drive safe, hopefully the U.S. goverment will not shut down on
Oct 1st due to budget problems.
 
Tom Travis

A Quiet Saturday 14 September 2013

Greetings to all,
 
Quiet Saturday at HVRM compared to last weeks 25th Anniversary party. Beautiful
weather, 42 degrees going down this morning with lots of fog south of US30 at the
gravel pits, but once by there, clear blue sky.
 
Arrived in time today for the board meeting, was cancelled prior due to Cory being
on the road, Doug gone for the day. Well it didn't work that way, Doug did show up,
Bob Barcus only one did not show up, but forged ahead with the days activities.
Board meeting is now scheduled for 8am, 21 Sept. Doug had train conductors
to train for the day, 3 were there for work. Doug was conductor, Fred, engineer.
 
I drove to Fingerhut for a quick breakfast, met up with the local amateur radio
operators and talked for 20 minutes or so. Busy place this morning, all tables
were filled and more people just kept coming in. Finally got a corner table,
had already ordered, and got my food fast. On the way down, John was on the
payloader getting a stack of 25 ties for the Erie line. By time I arrived, changed clothes, maybe 5 ties were installed. Mark, John, myself and new guy Sparky,
Dave backhoe operator. Tie replacement went well up till a little before noon,
when backhoe tractor hydralic system started to act up, system was very slow
responsing. Went for lunch, back again, tractor would not go backwards, checked
oil level, seemed normal. Dave went an got more fluid to top off system, but
slownest  persisted and the last 5 tie removal an inserting new ties extremely
slow. By then tractor would not back up in reverse, so Dave just came up to
tie at an angle and proceeded to work with difficulty. Finally finished and Dave took
off with the tractor to the shop area, he had to leave early anyway, so the problem
will have to be looked at next week. Some ideas on problem, bad pump in hydralic
system, but why would pump affect backing up tractor? Went forward just fine.
 
Finished up an back to depot for rest. 2:45pm train departed, arrived back at
little after 5pm. Oh the EJ&E car had been set out before first run due to car
would not pass brake test. Will be looked at next week. Train put away on
siding, Alco ran down to diesel 850, hooked up and moved it out on C&I mainline
for pickup later next week.
 
A couple of guys from MRM stopped after the 2:45 train left, said they knew
Dennis Sloane. Next weekend is the big blowout train weekend down in Montecello
IL. Steam engine 401 will be operating, along with an assortment of other diesel,
freight, passenger trains. Some new items for the show will be on display.
 
Ross Robinson, member from Ottawa ONT Canada, had knee replacement on
his left knee Friday morning, I will have a get well card in kitchen car for signing.
We hope all is going well for Ross. He will be in ortho rehab for 2 weeks, then
back home. He hopes to have the right knee replaced in January of next year,
in time for summer traveling in his small camping trailer.
 
That it for now, enjoy the beautiful weather, drive safe and see you all next
Saturday at North Judson....
 
Regards
 
Tom   
 
 

HVRM 25TH ANNIVERSARY OPEN HOUSE 9-7-2013

Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum 25th Anniversary will be a day to remember for everyone
who attended. It was a very comfortable day temp wise, only a few sprinkles in late afternoon,
but otherwise perfect for a good time.
 
The activity started Thursday with tent set-up and parking signs and getting the grounds
to look good. A long day for everyone who participated. Big tent for the food tent, good size
tent for the Bluegrass music tent and lots of little shelters for various things. The grounds
were mowed to perfection, trash picked up and cleanups everywhere. Cory, Mark, John,
Tom, Les, Diane, Bing, Dave were all on hand for this work. Mostly everything was all
ready up when I arrived, due to driving school bus, I got some help putting up a small
10X20 shelter. I helped put up some tent also. Les worked on painting the east end of
the passenger car. He finished just as I went down to see him and we went down to
Fingerhut for coffee and donut break. Levi Mayes was already there having lunch, so we
sat with him for about an hour. Levi grew up near the Virginian Railway, remembering the
yard, steam engines, lots of very interesting early years living conditions in the mountains
of West Virginia. I had to leave by 12:30pm to get back for the afternoon bus route. Les
continued working on the flower bed, weeding, and planting a few native species from
the railway right of way, that grow wild in the summer. Mark painted a couple of switch
throws. John, Mark and Les picked up all the burnt wood that was at the west end of the
tool car down to a pile of dead trees near the wye area. Bob Jacqim brought down some
traffic horse for the parking lot.
 
Things on Saturday started early. Lots of things needed to be done getting set up for the
days activities. Visitors started to come in early for a look at our museum depot and shop
areas.
 
8AM was the Flag Ceremony by the American Legion Post #92 at the flag pole area. A very nice
ceremony was held with at least 12 legion members present with the colors, trumpet player,
and flag raisers. Peggy Bohac photographed most of the day events that went on all over
the museum grounds. She did an excellent shoot of the flag ceremony with a group photo of
legion members and HVRM members. Many thanks to Peggy for her efforts.
 
9AM with the magic show for kids, along with face painting & temporary tattoos, which was
very popular with the kids, everyone had something. The Fair Oaks Mobile Dairy trailers showed
up for display and was a popular exhibit.
 
11AM was the first train of the day to English lake. The train had a full consist of cabooses,
LIRR air conditioned coach car, 2 open air flat cars and the EJ&E transfer caboose for wheel
chairs recently repainted an lettered for the anniversary. Alco Erie 310 S1 was the engine for the day, with GE #11 Interlaken Steel, was on standby duty. C&O 2789 2-8-4 was pulled out of the
shop for display. Shop buildings were open to the pulblic and lots of folks visited our work areas. The Illinois Central caboose was still in the shop being restored along with the Whitcomb
diesel. Grasselli tower was open for display both down and upstairs areas. Signals were
on displaying colors and working semaphores. The Union Pacific motor car was on duty
for rides out on the Erie line to the east. It was on the caboose track and went out thru the
switch and on to the mainline. The total ridership for the day was over 300 riders, good turnout.
 
12 Noon the train returned and the hog roast lunch was in full operation with a long line
of hungry people waiting clear up to the wood platform at the depot.  The guest engineer project
also had one person run the Alco out on the Erie line for about an hour. The pork was excellent
and plenty to go around. The Peter Nye Bluegrass band was playing and had a good group
listening to the music. The band rode the 2:45 train to La Crosse, going to in the LIRR coach
and coming back in the the Katy open air car. While in La Crosse, they brought the instruments
to the grounds and started playing again for 30 minutes or so till train loading. A large group
formed around them listening. A retirement ceremony was going on inside the library and when
it ended everyone came outside to listen also.
 
2:30PM train return from English Lake the Culver Pipe & Drums were playing music on the depot
platform. Wonderful to hear bagpipes coming into the station. The group was excellent and music
wonderful. A very large crowd was on the platform was waiting to board the 2:45pm train to La
Crosse. The crew pulled the consist down to the runaround track, switched the engine to the
west end of the train in record time, recoupled. air pumped up and pulled up to the platform an
departed almost right on time. I rode the NKP bay window caboose along with conductor John
DeGan and 2 conductor trainees. The 1:30 train ride to La Crosse, my wife Maureen and daughter
Brianne rode with me.
 
Returning from La Crosse at 5pm, the events were winding down, tents had already been taken down, things being put away. By 6PM everything was back to normal, tent stakes pulled out of
the ground by Bing and his little skid loader bucket, tables and chairs put away. The train was
switched on various tracks, locked up, 2789 pushed back into the shop and #310 put away.
Some time was spent in the depot after all way done to cool down and reflect on the days
activities.
 
Joe Kingsbury had his steam engine 4-4-0 on display all day in the parking lot. Amazing piece
of machinery that was totally machined and put together by Joe.
 
Maybe in 5 years, another anniversary open house will be put together bigger an better than
the 25th's. Amazing what has been done in the last 20 some years in North Judson from
nothing to a tourist operation. Train rides continue to the end of September. The museum will
be open every Saturday from 8am to 4pm. Come out an visit. The next 6 months will be
getting ready for next year. Restoration of rail cars, tie replacement track work on the main line
is needed badly.
 
Some old members showed up Saturday that have earned respect from all HVRM members.
Dan Siple, Bob McKown, Chuck Ness, Elmer Mannen, Bruce Emmons. Good to see everyone
out visiting. Watch for the next newsletter giving a full wrap up on all activities for the day.
 
Again many thanks to all the volunteers who made this event happen. Come on down next
weekend, any beats pork sandwiches for lunch?
 
Tom Travis, Restoration Grunt 
 

Rain, rain, go away.....No! Stay! at HVRM 8/31/13

 

Greetings one and all!

 

August 31st, and Labor Day weekend.  Traditionally, the end of summer.  Had some hot, hot weather this past week.  Storms through last night and then a lot of rain came in today.

 

Doug Kosloske was working with future conductors in a training session in the NKP kitchen car.

 

I arrived right during some heavy rain this morning.  Bob Barcus, conductor for the passenger trains today was soaked from getting the passenger train ready to go.  I tried to turn on

the signals, but was raining too hard to make it to the electrical signal box, so turned on the light on the train order signal at the depot.  Finally made it over and turned on the signals

hoping that the top blade on the double semaphore (signal 948-1) would go to green.  Turned out that the single semaphore (signal 921-1) wasn't working at all, so became a "red"

signal meaning that the top blade on signal 948-1 only had to go up to yellow when the block cleared.  Whew!  Had a big group of Mennonite folks on the 11:00 train and fortunately,

the rain let up just before departure.  Not sure what the total passenger count was.  Train consisted of the EL Alco #310, LIRR passenger car #2937, MKT flat car (open car) #13833

and B&LE caboose #1989.  EJ&E transfer caboose #184, which has our wheel chair lift on it, was again, not on the train due to flat wheels.  The 11:00 train departed on time with

John DeGan at the throttle.  Joe Kingsbury and Randall Downs were car hosts, with Steve Henrichs, conductor trainee, riding along.

 

The rain is sorely needed here as it has been a particularly dry August, so although heavy, it was very welcome.

 

Meanwhile, another crew (with John LaOrange as engineer) and using GE 95-ton diesel #11, had been out east of Main Street with EJ&E #184, grinding down the above mentioned

flat spots on the wheels using a set of  abrasive/grinding brake shoes and running the 11 and 184 up and down the track.  The operation was a success and after the 11:00 train departure,

the GE put the 184 back into the Shop and then took number 11 back east and set it on the long storage track before breaking for lunch.  After lunch, the crew took number 11 and did

some switching.  There was more heavy rain, lightning and thunder before the 1:30 p.m. train departure and the open car was closed to riders.  After the 1:30 train left, the switching

crew brought the Alco C-420 over west and parked it next to the Shop in preparation for a possible eventual move from the museum.

 

Light work crew today because of the holiday, but Bob Albert continued with interior work on the IC yellow display caboose.

 

I managed to finally get a pattern made for the grab iron that has to go onto the TTX flat car.  I also managed to give Dave Cook and Cory Bennett a hand with brake shoe replacement

on EJ&E #184, after the abrasive/grinding shoes were removed.

 

Steve Newland continued work on the interior floor of Grasselli Tower around the chimney area where the floor had deteriorated and the floor boards need replacing.

 

Sun finally broke through around 4:00 promising a muggy Sunday, before more rain is supposed to move in and cooler temps arrive next week.

 

Have a great holiday weekend everyone.  Enjoy this "last gasp" of summer.  

 

 

Les

 

P.S. Remember next Saturday is the open house for HVRM. Many activities

are planned for everyone, kids to adults. Bring your appetite, a hog roast

is planned for lunch. Many tents are planned on being put up Thursday

morning.

 

Come on out an enjoy the fast approaching FALL weather, see all the

newly painted cars from over the summer. The gift shop is stocked with

everything from train pictures to T shirts.

 

Stop by Grasselli Tower and see all the work accomplished over the summer.

The lower level is accessable now around the boiler.

 

Be looking for you at the HVRM's OPEN HOUSE 7 September 2013!!!

 

Tom Travis

 

   

 

 

Late Summer Doldrums...not at Hoosier Valley on 8/24/13

Greetings!

 

Late hot summer weather with kids heading back to school and vacations still occurring, seems to be a good background for slowing things down at the railroad museum.  Not so HVRM.

 

Arrived just after 9:00 to find the train already sitting at the depot for the 11:00 departure.  The "Gandy Dancers" of Mark Knebel, David Cook, John LaOrange and Cory Bennett, were

working on replacing a couple of switch ties on the east end of the museum property.

 

I went over and took some measurements requested by a gentleman in Australia (NOT a misprint) who is going to be making a model of the F30D TTX flatcar like our number 475037.

 

I noticed that the museum signals were not working, so I went down to the electrical box and turned them on.  All seemed to be functioning perfectly, but more later.

 

Fred Boyer was showing a couple the second floor of Grasselli Tower, so I wandered down to the lower level.  We had talked about removing a couple of the wood planks that comprise

the walkway to the interlocking machine so that future visitors could get around the old "octopus" hot water boiler furnace that is still in the tower.  Right now, the lower lever is loaded

with "junk", but eventually it too will be cleared up and then visitors can walk all the way to the back of the structure.  One alternative to removing the walkway planks would be to move

the old furnace over closer to the wall, although that would be quite a chore and also entail new piping, even though the furnace will always remain non-operating.  It took some time to

find the correct wrenches in the Shop building and to convince the old rusted bolts to give up the fight, but eventually I managed to get them removed and the two planks taken off.  The

bottom line is that it appears that this idea will enable future visitors to get around the furnace!  Some clean up/paint up of the area will eventually be required.

 

Joe Baker had arrived and continued his priming and painting of the new window frames that Steve Newland had made and brought to the tower.

 

Mark Knebel had finished painting the  EJ&E transfer caboose this week, and Joe Kingsbury was tracing the 184 number on the side of the car with actual painting to happen later.

 

The 11:00 train left for English Lake and the Erie TTO signal (double semaphore) went from red up to yellow as the train cleared the block.  Nice.  And then up to green.  Uh Oh!  The

semaphore blade would almost make it to the upright position, only to fall back.  Again.  Again.  And again.  I opened up the box at the base, but could not see anything obvious to why

this was happening and since my actual knowledge of signals is nil, I decided to turn off the signal circuit.  So no signals today at HVRM!

 

Train crew was John LaOrange as engineer and Doug Kosloske as conductor.  Randall Downs was car host on open car.  Not sure other car hosts.   

 

A few weeks back, Steve Newland had put in the new tongue and groove flooring next to the upper floor door and now needed to repair the rotted area around where the replacement

brick chimney will eventually go.  Unfortunately, this area uses thicker tongue and groove boards, so Steve has to take a 1/4" off each board to match it up with the old planking that is

not going to be replaced.  Plus put in new a new groove to line it up with the old, still good, material.

 

Fred Boyer worked at setting up the scaffolding next to the IC yellow display caboose and I gave him a hand with that.  Meanwhile, Joe came in and started sanding the dried Bondo on

the sides of the car to make the areas smooth before they can be painted.

 

Tom Travis had a morning bus charter, but showed up in the afternoon to use up some old black paint on the trucks on Trailer Train flat car 475037.  Nice job until Tom ran out of paint.

 

Fred Boyer ground the excess steel off of my 18" grab iron and then took the old grab iron brackets off of the TTX flat car.  I think I will be able to use the 18" grab for the 17" one that

was on the car.  Time will tell!

 

Have a good week folks!

 

 

Les

 

Special meeting at 12:45pm was for voting on purchase of used John Deere 4010 Diesel with

3 point hitch and brush hog. Tractor was selling for 7500 dollars, fair market value for that

year it was built, 1960's I believe, has good tires both front (wide front end), rear tractor tires

are practically brand new, no wear or tear on them at all. Front end of tractor has a pin hitch

on it to pull whatever with a tongue on it out backwards, handy for keeping an eye on the

item being pulled. 1000 dollars was for the brush hog, total 8500 dollars. The JD should

solve the problem of mowing the trail along the ROW and the grounds around the museum.

Motion was made, discussed, 2nd and voted on with a unamimous vote yes. Tractor was

driven to the museum later on this afternoon. The body looks in good shape, has been taken

care of over the years. Paint is in good shape. Seat is a replacement black style seat, not great

but acceptable. Had a plug in block heater for cold weather starting. Brush hog is brand name

WOODS, yellow, good trailing tire. Engine hours seemed high, but for the year it was built is

most likely normal. The fenders have some sort of added steel block with tube on top for an

umbrella cover, that did not come with the tractor, but don't think we will need an umbrella

for the driver. With a 3 point hitch, more implements can be added later on if needed. A blade would be nice for pushing snow off the road and clearing the parking lot. Should be a welcome additon to HVRM's fleet of tractors.

 

Added by Tom Travis    

 

       

    

Work Abound at HVRM 8-17-2013

Greetings to all,
 
What a wonderful day it was today at HVRM, perfect temps in the 70's, low humidity,
bright sunny sky, not a drop of rain in sight. Many projects got done today. Train rides
total was 86 for the day. The civil war group shot off their cannon, with a large boom
often. Not so bad noise to the east, but if you where in the shop area, it litterally
gave you a jolt. I could feel the air blast first, then the boom. Lots of visitors were
over the see the civil war men in their uniforms and cannon.  Fun day for everyone.
 
I arrived at 9:00am to find Les over by his passenger car assessing the NKP flat
car that had been coupled up to the his passenger car. Painting still needs to be done
on the east end and needs to get a ladder in there. Plans are to move the consist
a couple of feet to the east later in the day.
 
On my way back to the shop, Joe Baker was busy putting electric outlets back in service after the pole holding up the electric line to the east side of Mulberry St
had broke off at the base during Mondays rain storm with high winds. It happened
at night and litterally broke off at the base of the pole. NIPSCO was called on Tuesday
to disconnect the power line, as the pole was leaning in the road. The power line
never broke at the main pole, so it was holding up the broken pole. Cory, John LaOrange, Joe Kingsbury dug the bottom part of the pole out of the ground and
Norwayne Lumber had a pole to replace it. New pole installed, NIPSCO came out
again to restore power. Joe Baker was replacing the electrical outlets on the new
pole, making them secure for use again. Good Job Joe. Thanks.
 
West shop found Cory, John, Dave, Mark working on leveling the south side of the
dirt floor in the shop in preparation for concrete pour. Sand was brought in from
outside, shoveled on to the floor area, with John an Dave using a 2x6 leveling the
dirt an sand. The entire lenght was leveled, then the back hoe run up an down
packing sand down and more sand brought in, leveled again and then steel
fencing put down to prevent concrete cracking. Pouring concrete date has not been
decided.
 
Mark worked on the EJ&E transfer caboose earlier in the week repainting the outside,
completing orange on the south side, both ends, and black paint on the grating on
the platform and steps. Saturday Mark painted the gray seats on the west platform
and will continue on as time permits.
 
Doug was inside the IC yellow caboose working on wood work for the windows in
the cupola area and priming the new wood white. It is getting closer to having
windows installed soon. The outside is going to be painted IC orange with appropriate Illinois Central lettering from the IC historical society.
 
Bob Barcus worked the gift shop. The local American Legion folks were on the properity to provide lunch for museum members and the public.
 
I was down on friday working on grinding the upper level of the base of the crane.
Priming was done also. Saturday was painting the steel primed areas black again.
Filling the letters in will be done later with a small brush.
 
Les spent the day looking for 17 inch hand grabs for the PRR flat car, no luck,
cept for one 18 inch grab. What I suggested was cutting the longer grabs in half,
installing both ends and cutting the correct lenght  out of the steel, welding the
two pieces together. That is the only solution to this problem. The original pictures
of the flat car had hand grabs, but sometime during its career, they were replaced
with large pieces of steel to better climb up the step to the car. Les has also
acquired a blue print of lettering for TTX, has the dimensions where the letters
and numbers are to be positioned and the height of the numbers an letters position
on the car. He is working on getting copies made for the blueprint and then
finding someone who can make stencils of the lettering.
 
Tuesday myself an the family rode the South Shore to Chicago. Took the 10:55am
train which is the bilevel cars, which I enjoy very much. A good crowd arrived at
Chicago Randolph station. It is interesting to look out the upper level windows,
getting a view on other things from a higher position. Lunch at Macy's Walnut
Room, with Linday Yu, WLS channel 7 newscaster the next table over from us.
Couple of weeks ago on a trip to Chicago, Rosemont near O'Hare, Gibson
Steak restuarant we sas Dennis Rodman, former basketball player for the
Chicago Bulls. Around  4:45pm, we were at the Chicago river, decided to take
a boat tour of the Chicago river of all the buildings along the river. Railroad
bridges of interest is the old bridge that use to bring newsprint into the Chicago
Sun Times building and Chicago Tribune printing buildings. The rail line once
ran to Navy Pier years ago to service ships at the pier with cargo. Navy pier early
time was not a tourist attraction, it was a working ship pier with Navy ships
being tied up there. The Chicago boat tour is a MUST DO if visiting Chicago.
Return to Michigan City was at 7:10pm. I got to see a couple of the new Metra
electric passenger cars, nice looking with bigger window than the old units.
Interesting item on the cars is the number of the train using LED lights, so
easily changed, Metra used train numbers, where South Shore uses number of
electric car for dispatching. SS trains are assigned a scheduled posted number
for trips. New Metra cars have a bathroom on each car, where the old cars did
not, so you made sure that you didn't drink anything before riding. No place to potty.
 
 
Interesting story friday in Michigan City, a man walking on Amtrak high speed rail
line listening to music, did not hear the approaching passenger plane behind him
going over 100 mph. The train hit him square on, he glanced off the nose into the
ditch area. A local La Porte deputy  sheriff, was in the area when someone notified
him of the accident, he was on the scene in minutes, calling in other personell,
finding the man, in the ditch alert and responding with only a broken arm. He was
transported to Michigan city, St Anthony's hospital and is recovering okay. Luck
was on his side friday. Moral of story, don't walk on  active railroad tracks.
 
I left at 4:00pm to attend a wonderful jazz festival in La Porte at Fox park, excellent
music with a large crowd. Music lasted  up to 9:45pm an a large crowd still was
there at the time. Beautiful evening, close to full moon. From my vantage point
I could see the NS rail line across Clear lake, many trains passed in a short
period of time, then at 8:00pm Amtraks Capitol Limited passed thru town going
east. Daylight is growing short every day, soon it will be fall, harvest time an
winter, argh.... School starts Tuesday for me, driving school bus for La Porte.
Many schools in the area started last week including Know, North Judson,
South Central, South Bend area schools, so the busses are back on the road,
please be careful driving early in the morning an afternoon looking out for the kids.
 
Have a safe week.
 
Tom 

This is early August?.....HVRM 8/3/13

Greetings!

 

Our amazingly cool summer continues here in northwestern Indiana.  The temperature at 1:00 this afternoon stood at 79 degrees.  Cool breeze and low humidity.  Plus, we had some heavy, and much needed, rain both yesterday morning and evening!  The corn is high here!

 

Got to the museum to find that the operating crew (John LaOrange/engineer and Mark Knebel/freight conductor) were switching the stored rotary gondolas around.  Leasing company has asked for 12 to be returned, but not just any 12, but certain car numbers!  Getting these lined up from the 25 or so cars on lease, requires a lot of moving around.   Two cars were still be pulled out from the string before they had to break to pull out the passenger train equipment for the first run of the day.  John continued as engineer with Doug Kosloske taking over as passenger conductor with Randall Downs, Joe Kingsbury, Kyle Flannigan and Bill Dauber the car hosts.

 

A museum work crew spent Tuesday and Wednesday tearing out the old crossings at Toto Road and English Lake Road.  County crews arrived on Friday to pave over the trackwork.

 

Grasselli Tower received much attention today.  Steve Newland had brought up the 12 individual window frames for the upper and lower parts of 6 windows earlier in the week.  Joe Baker started in on priming each of these frames.  Since Joe was working on priming, Steve turned his attention to fixing a rotten spot in the floor right at the door of the second story using some of the planks from the old gymnasium floor that Jerry Karacsony had donated years ago to the museum.  These planks have been used for a number of different museum projects over the years, and we still have a number on hand!  Because of the difference in the plank widths, Steve says that this is at least the 2nd patch made on the floor at this location.  Steve Henrichs got to work on a steel box that once was on the wall of Grasselli and he wire wheeled all of the rust and old paint off of it before he primed it in the Shop building.  Later in the day, I helped him carry the box up the Towers stairs where it will eventually be put back on the wall after Steve gives it a final coat of paint.  By the way, a not on the back of this box indicates it was sent to a gentleman by the name of Finley c/o La Salle Street Station in Chicago.  Since Grasselli was built by the New York Central, Mr. Finley was almost certainly a NYC employee.

 

Fred Boyer needed to get a third bolt put on one of the lamp number boxes at the top of 2789's boiler, and I helped him wrestle one of the old wooden extension ladders up against the smokebox door so that he could get this bolt set in.  We discussed where the electrical connections to these lamp boxes, to the classification lights and to the Kanawha's headlight, might have come from.  None of this conduit exists today.  Eventually, our plans are to electrify those appliances and we would like to be able to do it in the same manner as the Chesapeake & Ohio.

 

Tom Travis spent part of the day, sweeping and cleaning the inside of the yellow IC display caboose.  Tom also wire brushed flaking paint from the Purdue crane.  Bob Albert was able to accomplish quite a bit of work in the IC caboose.

 

A big project moved forward as Cory Bennett and Dave Cook leveled the one side of the dirt floor in the West Annex of the Shop.  Eventually, concrete will be poured in this side finally giving us a decent floor for future restoration work.

 

Bing Risley moved the junk steel from the north side of the C&EI work car so that we can eventually get that side of the fire-damaged car cleaned, primed and painted down the road.

 

I noticed that Jon Oram had apparently restored the display layout in the Pullman Troop Sleeper after the cars recent restoration.  "Smoke and steam" now emit from the various steam locomotives that are on the layout.  Nice touch! 

 

Matt Layasko worked on the single bladed Erie semaphore which has been inoperable for some time.  Matt found out the problem was a broken chain, which he replaced.  The semaphore worked perfectly upon the arrival of the last train of the day from La Crosse.

 

Had a good crowd for the three trains today including visitors Wayne Hall and his wife Gloria from Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.  Also, Bill Johnson and three of his friends from Kentucky, drove their beautifully restored vintage "shorty" Thomas school bus to the museum.  Bill is involved in the restoration of ex-Union Railroad 0-6-0 #77 at the Kentucky & Tennessee Railroad in Stearns, Kentucky.

 

Keep plugging!  And enjoy your summer!

 

Les

 

     

Keepin` it warm at HVRM 7-27-13

 

Greetings!

 

Cool day for July!  Set a new record low temperature high for July 27th today; only hit 65 degrees.  Sun and clouds and a cool wind all day, with just a few drops of rain.  We really need some good rains as things are very dry.

 

Arrived at 9:00 a.m. and operating crew already hard at work.  John DeGan engineer with Bob Barcus as Conductor.  Dug out a couple of weeds in the flower bed around one of our electric poles.  Ran into Steve Henrichs who was looking for the key to the Man Lift which we located in the key box in the Shop.  Then over to the Erie shed for some Freight Car Red (Tuscan) paint.  Spent the rest of my day painting the TTX flatcar, which I managed to get finished and even had a bit of paint left over.  Didn't get around the museum much today, but here is what I know happened:

 

Steve Henrichs put a clamp on the pipe extending out from the expansion tank at the top of Grasselli Tower (which is why he needed the Man Lift).  Steve continued with the painting of the steam heat radiators for the second floor of the Tower.  Steve Newland put in two new window sills on the windows on the west side of the Towers second floor.

 

A crew worked on tamping around a number of new ties put in earlier this week on the old Erie track east of Main Street.  John LaOrange, Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Bing Risley and Mark Knebel were involved in this work, and perhaps some others that I missed.

 

Mike Koehler was working on his ex-Long Island RS-1 #467.

 

The yellow (ex-IC) display caboose continues to be worked on.  Bob Albert, Fred Boyer and Doug Kosloske were the work crew.

 

Two trains to English Lake seemed to be well patronized.  Final train of the day was a picnic train special to La Crosse.

 

Good to see the Emmons (Bruce and Annabelle) at the museum this afternoon.  Bruce was one of the founding members of the group that founded the museum to acquire the 2789 back in 1986.  Talked to Dan Siple earlier this week and Dan is doing well after his recent heart surgery.

 

Headed for home at 3:30 p.m.   Hope everyone has a great week.

 

 

Les

 

   

 

 

 

   

Hobo Day Activities 7/13/13

Greetings to all,
 
Wonderful day at HVRM today, Nice temps, fluffy clouds made the sun more
bearable to be outside. Lots of mowing grass around the museum grounds
made the grounds look good. 
 
A large tent was erected, along with tables and chairs for serving the "Hobo Stew'.
A large school bus showed up with a load of anxious kids to ride the train. Good
turnout for the first run of the  day. After the ride, lots of people went over to taste
the stew. Must of been good and plenty of it.
 
The troop sleeper car was pulled outside and put on track 3, as to not get hydralic
fluid on it. Cory and Dave took all the lines loose on the back hoe to blow out the
water in the lines. At one time someone must of mistaken the hydralic oil tank
as being the radiator and filled the tank with water. All went well and the system
is now water free. Richard got some hydralic fluid that absorbs water in the sytem
an should take care of any problems from now on. While raising an lowering the
bucket, a oil line broke. It was quickly taken off an taken down to Skip's garage
and replaced with new line. Everything now seems to run somewhat better, and the
real test will be next week installing ties on the Erie line.
 
The C&EI tool car will have its floor stripped out, left outside till its done to prevent
filling up the building with charcoal remants. The holes will be fixed and then a new
floor will be put down. Insulation installed, windows installed, door rebuilts and most
likely electric lights an outlets installed, a long project ahead for restoration. The car
when completed will be a dining eating facility next to the NKP kitchen car.
 
Talk of finally putting concrete down in the west shop is nearing reality. Maybe soon.
The IC yellow caboose in now in the middle shop awaiting some sanding on the out
side of the bondo and repainting of the car. Windows are being built an installed
in the cupola by Doug. Some sort of sliding curtain to be rigged up for the entrance
to the west shop building, between the middle an west shop area, to keep the
heat inside in winter.
 
The display track is now ready for equipment. Starting at the west end, IC caboose,
Troop sleeping car, IC Metra car and then the Model 40, if room, the Whitcomb
diesel.
 
I worked on grinding an priming the PRR flat car. About 3/4's done. The weather was
cool an I got a lot done. Dirty dirty dirty work with the grinder. Les continued during
the week to finish up his passenger car with paint on the east end. A very large (tall)
ladder was needed to reach the upper areas. I got Cory to move some steel cabinets
up too close to the south side flat car , preventing getting close to it. Also moved
was a large payloader tire beside the REA trailer to the north 40. BTW, Bing is getting
tired of getting donations of used tires, we cannot get rid of them either, please
do not bring them to HVRM. Same goes for used motor oil, no need for it. Donations
of well worn equipment shows up at the shop door also, fix it up before bringing it
down to the museum area, so people don't have to spend hours of time fixing it up.
 
Mark,during the week, has spiked about 25 ties on the Erie line, lots of hard work
by himself. Bruce Fingerhut has mowed many miles of trail during the week also.
July 30, 31 is road crossing repair, ties replaced an ballast put in also, please
come out an lend a hand, as many people as possible make the job go faster.
The English lake crossing an Toto road crossing will be replaced, with paving done
on August 1st. A grant application has been submitted to the state for replacing the
Mulberry street crossing also.
 
Everyone have a good week. Next Saturday will be general membership meeting,
please try an attend. A card will be there to sign for Dan Siple who had heart
surgery this past week. Get well soon Dan. Meeting most likely will be at 8am in
the depot at HVRM.
 
Tom Travis

Dedication Day for Troop Sleeper-7/6/13

Greetings to all, hope all had a safe 4th of July and enjoyed lots of fireworks.
Not bad this year considering the temps last year were over 100 degrees.
 
Lots of activities this week, Monday 7/1, saw Les working on his passenger car
painting on the west end. Getting closer all the time to completion. Tom working
outside of the west shop area on the REA trailer, painting the upper half with
green paint. Completed all with Les helping later in the afternoon paint some
detail angle work that a roller does not work very well on. A couple of rain showers
interrupted work and that was it for the day.  Tuesday or Wednesday C&I brought in
another trainload of grain cars for storage, filling up all the tracks. Thursday had
a track crew working on Erie track down by IN10 road crossing, including Friday,
over 50 ties were put in, not spiked or tamped yet, later. Cory, Mark, John, Joe was
the crew and I held down the small cart with the tools on Friday. Work ceased at 5pm
a full day for everyone. Friday I finished the lower half painting on the REA trailer.
Looks good, but might need another coat to hide all the rough spots. Easy to roll,
will use a long pole to do the sides in one swipe.
 
Saturday was dedication of repainting outside, and fixing wood panels and repainting
on the inside of the troop car. At approx 3pm, the car was rolled outside for pictures
of the participants in restoring the troop car. Lars and Bjarne Henderson both had
big smiles on their faces as the families inspected the car. Nice job guys and
Thanks again for all your hard work.
 
First tourist train of the day had a good size crowd on board. Second an third trains
of the day were so so on passengers. Cory and Dave worked on draining the oil
from the hydralyic system from the back hoe tractor. Water has turned the oil to
a milky color and slowed down the operation of the system. By next weekend the
tractor should be back in operation. John was engineer, Doug conductor on todays
trains. Bob picked up a load of scrap rubber and wire, filling his truck to overflowing. 
Bob and Loretta ran the depot ops today, Margret and Diane handled the lunch
for the hungry workers. Steve Newland, Steve Hendrichs worked in the tower today
woodworking and cleaning parts for the radiator system. Jason Jordan participated
in activities today also.
 
Thats about it for today, next saturday is hobo day, come out an enjoy the displays
and hobos.
 
Have a safe week, enjoy the nice weather
 
Tom

HVRM's Picnic Train to La Crosse 6-29-30

Hot week here in North Judson. Not as hot as is out west, but had humidity.
Friday turned out to be a pretty decent day, if you weren't dodging rain showers.
 
6-28 I arrived early in the morning to start working on the Bessemer inside, but
wouldn't you know it, I did not have a key, so I went to work on the battery boxes
and generator motor, air tank, ground it all down, primed it, then after it dried
painted it black, looks better as someone just sprayed over rust  with a spray
can an it was turning white. On the J caboose, I ground down the new piece of
steel over the steps, primed and painted it black also. Cory showed up to load
some wood logs in a dumpster for removal on the wye. He started to mow grass,
but a pop-up lightning storm had him put the mower back in the shop. I went over
to grind an prime the end of the REA trailer, finished up just as the rain started.
Monday I hope to start painting the REA trailer, and the roof needs a coat of
silver aluminum house roof paint applied also.
 
Saturday, I had a late start and arrived at Fingerhut for breakfast at 8:15, just as
the local amateur radio group was finishing up. Got caught up on the local news,
plus had missed an aurora opening the night before, bummer. Got down to the
rail yard an EL 310 was pulling out the NKP caboose for todays run. Spent some
time down at Norwaynes getting paint chips to match the color of REA trailer. Matched
a chip up an had a gallon mixed up for mondays painting. Stopped at Hoppes an
had a key made for caboose locks. On the way back, we ran into John Pflatz, owner
of the PRR caboose. John flew out to take a look at the museum and ride the trains.
Was very impressed of HVRM's fleet of cabooses used in tourist trains. Crowds
seemed to be good on the tourist trains. The La Crosse train featured the Picnic
train, catered by Wooden Nickel. Almost 40 people came out to enjoy the train ride
and the wonderful meal by the Nickel. If you went away hungry, it was your fault, way
way too much food. Big thanks to Marcia and her kitchen crew for turning out a
great meal. Diane Bennett, Margret Cook, and Bob Barcus set up in the public
library room the food and some tables inside, lots of picnic tables outside under
cover too. Nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes away, but not on the trip back to
North Judson, open air car people took it hard with bugs an some rain.
 
John, Cory and Mark changed out 2 rotten ties on the display track in short order.
Bjarne Henderson showed up to make some last touch-ups on the troop car before
pullout next weekend. Bob Albert and Steve Hendrichs worked on the IC yellow
caboose inside walls Next weekend will be the grand pullout of the troop car
and dedication an thanks to the Bjarne crew.
 
Mark you calendars for end of July, 30/31st will be a special work day tearing out
road crossings in English lake and Toto road. Pavers will come the 1st of August
to pave crossings. Both crossings need to have rails taken out, ties replaced, new
ballast dumped and tamped. All materials will be supplied for crossing by county
and other sources, HVRM will just supply the labor intensive work.
 
Lets hope for good news this coming week on different things happening around
the museum.
 
Every one have a good week, drive safe.
 
Tom