Old friends and cool weather at HVRM 9-8-12

Greetings!   Arrived at Hoosier Valley at 8:00 and sat in on the Board meeting.  Great weather today with temps in the low 70's!    Fred Boyer and Andy Hershman shared cab duties in GE # 11 while Bob Albert was conductor for the 3rd week in a row (does that give him permanent possession of the job?).  Joe Kingsbury, Bill Dauber and Randall Downs were car hosts.  All 3 trains seemed to be well patronized.  The operating crew also managed to squeeze in a Guest Engineer between regular runs.   Steve Henrichs continued painting the exterior of Grasselli Tower while Steve Newland continued his work on the windows in the second floor.  Steve N. reported that Joe Baker had located the correct round downspouts in Chicago for the type originally used on the tower.   I worked on getting the last replacement arch window installed on passenger car # 899.   A number of folks showed up who have not been at the museum in some time.  HVRM member Ross Robinson of Ottawa, Canada stopped by with his camper as he prepares to head out west to the Great Plains and eventually California.  Ross brought along Tom Travis who has not been at the museum for a while. Great to see Tom.  Also showing up along with his 4 kids in tow, was Donnie Lewandowki.  It was also great to see Mike "Moose" Ross again.  Mike says he has rejoined the museum, which is wonderful news.   Cory Bennett, John LaOrange and Mark Knebel were putting in new ties down on the old Erie in the vicinity of the interchange switch.  Not sure who else was working down there.    Although the storage tank cars have left, Mark reports that we can expect about 15 covered grain hoppers to arrive soon for a short lease period.   Bob Barcus was holding down the fort in the museum's depot, selling tickets and also handling gift shop sales.   Rolled out of North Judson at just about 4:00 p.m.  Hope everyone has a good week.   Les