Twenty Five years of HVRM was celebrated this past weekend. North Judson
holds the annual Mint Fest downtown annually on Fathers Day every year.
Weather was not the greatest on Saturday, rained most of the day and made
things not enjoyable. Sunday was nice, overcast, but did not rain.
Friday 6/14 was a work day down at HVRM. Mark and Cory put up two canopy
tents with picnic tables spread around. BTW, Diane Bennett took the time to
stain all the picnic benches to make them look nice, Thanks much Diane.
Mark and Cory finished up putting ballast in the display track area. Ties have been
replaced now and the track is now ready for the display cars again.
Les and Tom got the manlift out of the shop to put up some rope on poles for
Tom's amateur radio special event station for the 25h Anniversay. More later on
that. After that Tom finished up grinding an priming the steel tool car on the south
side. Les shoveled lime stone that Bing had dropped a bucket full by the crossing
guard shack to cover up the concrete brick for the steps. Looks good.
Saturday 6/15 started out warm an cloudy. Tom unloaded radio equipment
into Grasseli Tower on the 2nd level. Pulled up the antenna with the ropes that
were put up yesterday. Even though the upper level is still in the painting phase,
Joe Baker cleaned up the floor area nicely, providing an area for a cardtable an
chair for the radio station. Electrical power is only about 96 volts, but good enough
to power up the radio. I had a birdseye view of the depot-signal area. It was nice
watching the semaphores work as the train passed over the track circuit near the
depot. Radio communications were poor due to static crashes and a high level
on noise. It seemed not many ham radio operators were on Saturday. Sunday
was much better conditons an finally communicated with many radio stations
on the air waves. Steve Newland worked on a cabinet installing a large door on it
to mount the timeout grinders. Train ridership on Saturday was not all that much. I don't have a count for the day. The Erie Alco 310 was used on the tourist train, an had a
problem on the first run of the day. The relay was not working properly again an
the GE was fired up to pinch hit for the 310. After a slight delay the tourist train was
off. The Alco was pushed down to the shop area to get some service. The GE
provided power for the tourist train all day with no problems. A relay switch was
replaced with a new part and the Alco ran flawlessly after that. A couple of
test runs were made an all went well. Motor car rides were give on demand.
The UP motor car ran flawlessly all day providing many rides for visitors. At
4pm, a heavy rain was falling and wrapped up a dismal day.
Sunday 6/16 started out again overcast, but weather was looking to be on the good
side. The amateur radio station in Grasseli tower went very well all day. Lots of
curious visitors both asking a lot of questions about the tower an radio. Tourists
came to ride the train today. All the runs had nice turnouts. Before the train was pulled
out of the caboose trace, the EMD Model 40 was fetched from the IN10 spot an brought
back to the museum. It was placed on the Erie track near the interchange track as
not to foul the line for the motor car rides. GE 11 ran around later in the day to get on
the east end of the model 40 to push it to the caboose track. It was positioned
near the depot to have the plywood arrow boards taken off, broken windows removed
and possibly repainted soon. It is not going back out again, a billboard with a vinyl
banner may replace it, so it can be seen better from the highway both ways of travel.
A too do project. someday. Bjarne Henderson with his son Lars, both worked on the
Pullman troop sleeper both Saturday an Sunday applying lettering to the car. It is
getting close to being done soon and pulled out of the shop building. The 2789 got a
nice bath on Saturday to wash all the dust of it. Fred had mounted the classification
lights on the head end to make it look more complete, noted by the picture. The other
picture is of me in Grasseli tower at the radio looking hot, which it was getting up in
temps. Steve has got windows fixed so they open now, but no breeze yesterday.
Coming up June 29th is the first of a couple of picnic trains to La Crosse IN at 2:45pm,
cost 12 dollars in addition to the fare for the ride. Make reservations by June 23rd. Pay
at the depot.
Many thanks to all who helped out with both days of train operations.
Have a good week everyone
Tom
holds the annual Mint Fest downtown annually on Fathers Day every year.
Weather was not the greatest on Saturday, rained most of the day and made
things not enjoyable. Sunday was nice, overcast, but did not rain.
Friday 6/14 was a work day down at HVRM. Mark and Cory put up two canopy
tents with picnic tables spread around. BTW, Diane Bennett took the time to
stain all the picnic benches to make them look nice, Thanks much Diane.
Mark and Cory finished up putting ballast in the display track area. Ties have been
replaced now and the track is now ready for the display cars again.
Les and Tom got the manlift out of the shop to put up some rope on poles for
Tom's amateur radio special event station for the 25h Anniversay. More later on
that. After that Tom finished up grinding an priming the steel tool car on the south
side. Les shoveled lime stone that Bing had dropped a bucket full by the crossing
guard shack to cover up the concrete brick for the steps. Looks good.
Saturday 6/15 started out warm an cloudy. Tom unloaded radio equipment
into Grasseli Tower on the 2nd level. Pulled up the antenna with the ropes that
were put up yesterday. Even though the upper level is still in the painting phase,
Joe Baker cleaned up the floor area nicely, providing an area for a cardtable an
chair for the radio station. Electrical power is only about 96 volts, but good enough
to power up the radio. I had a birdseye view of the depot-signal area. It was nice
watching the semaphores work as the train passed over the track circuit near the
depot. Radio communications were poor due to static crashes and a high level
on noise. It seemed not many ham radio operators were on Saturday. Sunday
was much better conditons an finally communicated with many radio stations
on the air waves. Steve Newland worked on a cabinet installing a large door on it
to mount the timeout grinders. Train ridership on Saturday was not all that much. I don't have a count for the day. The Erie Alco 310 was used on the tourist train, an had a
problem on the first run of the day. The relay was not working properly again an
the GE was fired up to pinch hit for the 310. After a slight delay the tourist train was
off. The Alco was pushed down to the shop area to get some service. The GE
provided power for the tourist train all day with no problems. A relay switch was
replaced with a new part and the Alco ran flawlessly after that. A couple of
test runs were made an all went well. Motor car rides were give on demand.
The UP motor car ran flawlessly all day providing many rides for visitors. At
4pm, a heavy rain was falling and wrapped up a dismal day.
Sunday 6/16 started out again overcast, but weather was looking to be on the good
side. The amateur radio station in Grasseli tower went very well all day. Lots of
curious visitors both asking a lot of questions about the tower an radio. Tourists
came to ride the train today. All the runs had nice turnouts. Before the train was pulled
out of the caboose trace, the EMD Model 40 was fetched from the IN10 spot an brought
back to the museum. It was placed on the Erie track near the interchange track as
not to foul the line for the motor car rides. GE 11 ran around later in the day to get on
the east end of the model 40 to push it to the caboose track. It was positioned
near the depot to have the plywood arrow boards taken off, broken windows removed
and possibly repainted soon. It is not going back out again, a billboard with a vinyl
banner may replace it, so it can be seen better from the highway both ways of travel.
A too do project. someday. Bjarne Henderson with his son Lars, both worked on the
Pullman troop sleeper both Saturday an Sunday applying lettering to the car. It is
getting close to being done soon and pulled out of the shop building. The 2789 got a
nice bath on Saturday to wash all the dust of it. Fred had mounted the classification
lights on the head end to make it look more complete, noted by the picture. The other
picture is of me in Grasseli tower at the radio looking hot, which it was getting up in
temps. Steve has got windows fixed so they open now, but no breeze yesterday.
Coming up June 29th is the first of a couple of picnic trains to La Crosse IN at 2:45pm,
cost 12 dollars in addition to the fare for the ride. Make reservations by June 23rd. Pay
at the depot.
Many thanks to all who helped out with both days of train operations.
Have a good week everyone
Tom
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