Greetings to All,
Well 2014 is here, it came in with cold an snow last week. The two
week school vacation stretched into another 3 days with very frigid weather,
and lots of blowing snow. All we could do was just stay inside for an
extra couple of days. Thursday, the 9th was the first day back to school.
La Porte was lucky, INDY and Ft Wayne both had no school all week,
but the warmup came friday, temps almost to 40 degrees plus over an
inch of rain. Now its flood watches on the Kankakee River. The reappearing
lake in the parking lot at HVRM was again full, might not go down anytime
soon due to frozen ground.
For some late late news on the Santa trains of 12-14-2013, total count
of riders was 260. Again it was a lot of fun for everyone. Things went well
and everyone had a good time with Santa.
01-04-2014, was not much of a work day for anyone. Cold buildings
made it hard to work in. Only a couple of workers showed up and most
of the operations were over by noon.
01-11-2013. Started off with a board meeting in the depot. The regular reports
were given by the board. A couple of items was for heat in the west building, cost
estimates for a wood/coal burning stove with forced heat vents to various areas
of the building were to be investigated. Another item was the large door at the
west end of the building, for installation of door opener. Roof problems continue
to give us fits, leaking and freezing on the floor. Concrete is still in the works
for the west building, only when the crew finds time to pour on a Saturday. The forms
are ready and sand has already been put down.
The one an only big job for the day was putting batterys in the ND&W diesel. After
the board meeting, John LaOrange headed to the shop to put water in the Erie 310
and get some heat on the engine block. After getting the diesel started, and filling
the shop with exhaust, the Whitcomb and Porter were pulled outside the building.
Richard Warner brought his John Deere tractor with hay forks on the bucket
down to the museum to lift the big batterys one at a time into the battery boxes of
the Porter ND&W engine. The old batterys were taken out earlier, as they were
empty of fluid and some had large cracks in the cases. The eight batterys were taken
out of the Whitcomb, filled with water, an were put in the ND&W diesel. These
batterys are only about 5 years old, so should get a couple more years of use
out of them. Joe Kingsbury will or has connected all the batterys so charging can
begin. Joe can't even do simple testing of electrical circuits without any power,
so this should help. The battery boxes were cleaned out, scraped and painted.
This job was accomplished before noon. Diesels were pushed back inside
the building an the ND&W was positioned over the pit for access to the traction
motors. Erie 310 sat outside for a couple of hours idling to charge up batterys.
Other activity on the IC caboose was Fred Boyer working on bondo the south side
of the caboose. More places need bondo all the time. Ed Keeler did floor repairs
to the rotted wood in the caboose.
Bob Albert brought up the subject of the Wabash 4th Sub, Gary IN to Montpelier OH,
book is now complete an printed. Cost is about 45 dollars and Bob Barcus has
ordered at least 5 or more copies, with 2 already spoken for. If you desire a copy,
please contact Bob Barcus so he can save you a copy. Bob Albert has high praise
for the new book already.
Next Saturday, 01-18-2014, 1PM at the North Judson town library for the museums
annual meeting and election. Please try to attend an vote for candidates for various
offices in the museum. Wish Elmer Mannen a Happy Birthday also, actually it was
today, but he was not at the museum today.
Big your ideas an comments for the Annual meeting, new ideas are always
welcome.
Have a good week, days are getting longer each day, yeah, but still not over
with the cold an snow just yet.
Tom Travis
Well 2014 is here, it came in with cold an snow last week. The two
week school vacation stretched into another 3 days with very frigid weather,
and lots of blowing snow. All we could do was just stay inside for an
extra couple of days. Thursday, the 9th was the first day back to school.
La Porte was lucky, INDY and Ft Wayne both had no school all week,
but the warmup came friday, temps almost to 40 degrees plus over an
inch of rain. Now its flood watches on the Kankakee River. The reappearing
lake in the parking lot at HVRM was again full, might not go down anytime
soon due to frozen ground.
For some late late news on the Santa trains of 12-14-2013, total count
of riders was 260. Again it was a lot of fun for everyone. Things went well
and everyone had a good time with Santa.
01-04-2014, was not much of a work day for anyone. Cold buildings
made it hard to work in. Only a couple of workers showed up and most
of the operations were over by noon.
01-11-2013. Started off with a board meeting in the depot. The regular reports
were given by the board. A couple of items was for heat in the west building, cost
estimates for a wood/coal burning stove with forced heat vents to various areas
of the building were to be investigated. Another item was the large door at the
west end of the building, for installation of door opener. Roof problems continue
to give us fits, leaking and freezing on the floor. Concrete is still in the works
for the west building, only when the crew finds time to pour on a Saturday. The forms
are ready and sand has already been put down.
The one an only big job for the day was putting batterys in the ND&W diesel. After
the board meeting, John LaOrange headed to the shop to put water in the Erie 310
and get some heat on the engine block. After getting the diesel started, and filling
the shop with exhaust, the Whitcomb and Porter were pulled outside the building.
Richard Warner brought his John Deere tractor with hay forks on the bucket
down to the museum to lift the big batterys one at a time into the battery boxes of
the Porter ND&W engine. The old batterys were taken out earlier, as they were
empty of fluid and some had large cracks in the cases. The eight batterys were taken
out of the Whitcomb, filled with water, an were put in the ND&W diesel. These
batterys are only about 5 years old, so should get a couple more years of use
out of them. Joe Kingsbury will or has connected all the batterys so charging can
begin. Joe can't even do simple testing of electrical circuits without any power,
so this should help. The battery boxes were cleaned out, scraped and painted.
This job was accomplished before noon. Diesels were pushed back inside
the building an the ND&W was positioned over the pit for access to the traction
motors. Erie 310 sat outside for a couple of hours idling to charge up batterys.
Other activity on the IC caboose was Fred Boyer working on bondo the south side
of the caboose. More places need bondo all the time. Ed Keeler did floor repairs
to the rotted wood in the caboose.
Bob Albert brought up the subject of the Wabash 4th Sub, Gary IN to Montpelier OH,
book is now complete an printed. Cost is about 45 dollars and Bob Barcus has
ordered at least 5 or more copies, with 2 already spoken for. If you desire a copy,
please contact Bob Barcus so he can save you a copy. Bob Albert has high praise
for the new book already.
Next Saturday, 01-18-2014, 1PM at the North Judson town library for the museums
annual meeting and election. Please try to attend an vote for candidates for various
offices in the museum. Wish Elmer Mannen a Happy Birthday also, actually it was
today, but he was not at the museum today.
Big your ideas an comments for the Annual meeting, new ideas are always
welcome.
Have a good week, days are getting longer each day, yeah, but still not over
with the cold an snow just yet.
Tom Travis
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