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
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
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