Sunday, February 10, 2013

Summer comes in a bit early at HVRM 5/19/12



Greetings -
 
Had temps in the 90's at HVRM today!  A little early for that kind of weather.
 
Arrived at the museum in time for the regular bi-monthly business meeting at 8:00 in the depot.  One interesting bit of news is that storage tank cars will be coming back in to the museum in the near future.  Twenty five cars very soon, with an additional 25 cars in the very near future.  More may possibly come later.  Another very interesting bit of news is that GE 95-ton diesel #11 finally received its waiver!  This means that, after we get various brake and air valves back from Pittsburgh Air Brake Company, we will finally be able to use Interlake Steel # 11 on our passenger trains.  Hurrah!  Check your upcoming newsletter for other news from the meeting.
 
Hoosier Valley operating personel moved cars around this past Friday putting privately owned Long Island caboose #58 over on the display track, and switching GTW transfer caboose #75072 at the very end of the caboose track and over next to NKP camp car (kitchen car) # X58538.  The GTW caboose will be used by some of the museum's ladies to sell craft items this summer.  Because it is longer than the LIRR caboose, it covers up the old "stone crossing" which members used to get to NKP X58538.  I asked Doug Kosloske, conductor for today's trains, if they could pull the GTW caboose back forward a bit, so I could try to dig come of that stone out, which they did when they made up the first museum train of the day.
In the meantime, Elmer Mannen asked me if I could flag the crossings for the 11:00 train, which I did.  Mark Knebel handled the job for the 1:30 train. 
 
Despite the hot temps, other work continued at the museum.  I managed to get some of the stone dug out and moved over to where the GTW caboose will sit.  Managed to get "breaks" into the NKP kitchen car and the depot.
 
Rich Warner was trouble shooting the faulty air conditioning unit on the museums LIRR passenger coach #2937.  The car had to be held out of the consists for the trains today, but the air conditioning needed to be fixed.  Rich got the a/c running and it seemed to be cooling the car during its test run today.  Keep your fingers crossed!
 
A hoist was needed for the crane at the new oil drum storage site in the Shop, and John LaOrange moved the one we were using in the diesel area of the Shop over to the oil drum storage area.
 
One of the cars switched on Friday, was the C&EI tool car #A-1054.   The car was put in to the East shop annex next to the recently installed racks and John, with help from Dave Cook, Bob Albert and Elmer, started removing stuff from the car and putting it up on the racks.  There is a LOT of stuff yet to go!
 
Steve Newland and Joe Baker continued their work on Grasselli Tower.  Progress is definitely being made.
 
I think I saw Jon Oram riding in the B&LE caboose on the first train today but I didn't see him at the museum later.  But I did see his handiwork in the "notes" left on the N gauge display layout in the Pullman Troop Sleeper.  I found the dog Jon, but not the deer!  A little bit of detective work for our visitors.  Nice touch!
 
No work on the EL caboose painting, but Joe Kingsbury heard from the Boy Scouts doing the project and work is to resume shortly.  Joe continues to work on the museums ex-EJ&E motor car #591.
 
I managed to get over to Norwayne Lumber and talked to Jim Mennis about making windows for privately owned passenger coach # 899.  Good to finally get that project started.
 
Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske manned the gift shop and sold train tickets today.
 
In addition to Doug, the train crew today included John DeGan, Fred Boyer, Bob Albert, Joe Kingsbury and Randall Downs. 
 
I pulled out for home a bit after 4:00 and was stopped by the returning LaCrosse train out on Toto Road.  The Pennsy markers on B&LE caboose #1989 sure do look sharp!
 
Enjoy your week everyone!
 
Les            
 
 

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