| Greetings all! First day of June and it was hard to beat the weather today with temp at about 77 degrees and a nice wind keeping things cool all day. Some rain showers moved in about 2:30, but couldn't spoil this day! Arrived about 8:00 a.m. to find the operating crew already at work. The tender for the 2789 had not yet been moved from its winter siding location in to the Shop to couple up with the 2-8-4. The tender was moved inside and left a short distance from the Kanawha's cab so that the two drawbars could be set into place. After spotting the tender, the crew went back to get the train ready for the first passenger run. Student brakeman (didn't catch his name...my bad) with John DeGan as Conductor and Doug Kosloske as Engineer. Tom McKee later rode with Doug in the fireman's seat during the first two trips. Joe Kingsbury, Bill Dauber and Randall Downs were car hosts. Mark Knebel provided crossing protection. The heavy rains that hit North Judson on Thursday and Friday apparently did a nice job of cleaning the Train Departure board so I found some chalk and wrote in the three scheduled train trains for the day. Steve Henrichs was tossing out used lumber from the second floor of Grasselli Tower. He, Joe Baker and Steve Newland worked in the Tower all day. The ceiling of the Tower got its final coat of tan paint. Looks real good! Fred Boyer showed me the photo map diagram he is working on and asked for comments. He has the diagram on the old desk that was once up in Grasselli Tower. Two of the legs had been badly damaged during a move at Hoosier Valley and Fred set out to fix them. I opened up the Mulberry Street watchman's shanty and was disappointed to see that the cinder blocks I had recently put in front of the door were "rocking" when stepped on; a dangerous condition for visitors. So, took all the cinder blocks out and then started to fill in in front of the tower with the stone/dirt mixture. Also put some ballast in to a low spot between two of the ties that the museums Gandy Dancers recently put in in the area in front of the shanty. Spent most of the morning but it looks pretty decent now. I asked Bing Risley to dump a load of pea gravel on the stone/dirt to provide a better walking surface. Tom Travis managed to do some more grinding on the rust on C&EI #A-1054 and painted those areas. Tom had to leave early to attend a graduation party this afternoon. Meanwhile, in the Shop, the boys trying to get the 2789 coupled to its tender were having difficulties. The pin wouldn't drop. Cory Bennett, Fred, John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Rich Warner were banging on it. Apparently got it somewhat into position but not completely. Then Cory pushed the tender forward and the pin dropped in on its own! So much for grunt work! Bjarne and Lars Henderson and a friend of Lars, were working on the Troop Sleeper. After lunch, Cory got out the welder and finally welded the new studs on to the boiler front of the Kanawha. After he finished, Fred bolted the classification lights into place. The front of the 2-8-4 is looking better all the time. Unfortunately, no camera so no photo. Spent the afternoon fiddling around with the REA highway trailer. The good news is that t he raised floor section in the back has now almost settled back in place. The bad news is that the piece of metal I thought would fit for the rebuild of the side door, doesn't! Rats! Rain hit just before the departure of the train to La Crosse but most folks had already boarded. Rained hard for about 5 minutes then slacked off to nothing. I too had to leave early today, rolling out about 3:00 p.m. All in all, a good day. Progress continues to be made! Enjoy your upcoming week! Les | 
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