Warming Up at HVRM Shop 2-15-2014

Greetings
 
Finally after weeks of subzero temps everywhere, things are starting to warm
up, including HVRM. Many things to report on todays activities inside the west
shop area.
 
After a grueling week of driving school bus in nothing short of harsh winter
conditions, I was ready for some relaxing activities. I got up early to meet
some friends at Fingerhut Bakery for breakfast. WOW was I surprised at
7am to find almost all tables full, but managed to sit down with a couple of ham
radio friends who were not at the master table. I guess everyone in North Judson
was having the same idea, get out of the house and enjoy the day. So after
an excellent breakfast, I proceded down to HVRM. Most of the activity seemed
to be at the shop building. A large crew had already assembled inside and
were starting on projects. Walking into the west shop, it was actually very
warm. The new heater was inspected last Monday an bought on Tuesday
an transported to North Judson. Its a monster, and does it put out the heat.
I'm not sure what the btu's are, but in the range of 600,000 I think. Runs on
#1 diesel fuel. The second surprise was the concrete for the long anticipated
floor along the rail will be poured Monday morning. About 27 yards have been
ordered. The day was spent in prepartion of leveling the sand and putting down
the wire. The side boards were beefed up to prevent bowing when the concrete
is being poured. John, Cory, Dave and Steve Hendrics were the workers.
 
The back-hoe tractor was started and managed to get in close to lift the bent
coupler to be put in John LaOrange's truck for another attempt to get it straight
again. It was found out it is hollow and if heated up, it most likely will be able to
get it back to normal.
 
After the tractor moved out, the payloader pulled in to have it serviced. Change the
oil, change fuel filters and have it greased. Cory, John and Sparky worked on
this project. 
 
Steve Hendrics moved a small cabinet from Grasselli tower inside and primed
it for future painting. Steve also did some more work on a pipe he has ground
down, primed and final painted today.
 
Joe Baker was there today also doing whatever. Joe Kingsbury was busy
around the shop building also. Margret was there today to provide lunch
for the crew. Loretta was in the depot drumming up throttle time participants.
Doug was over at Osinkis auction today and came back with a list of bought
items. Bob Barcus was holding down the gift shop. Mark Kniebel doing all
types of odd jobs today also. Elmer Mannen showed up in the afternoon an
stayed for about an hour or so. Steve Newland, Richard Warner were also in
attendence.
 
I took on the task of starting to grind on the ND&W west end and getting a start
on the task that is going to take a long time to complete, removing the old paint.
Haven't work this hard in months. Was fun to get all dirty again and I was the first
to make the new heater look like it has been inside the building for months, dirty.
 
About 3pm, it was time to pull the loco and IC caboose into the other shop in
prepartion for the cement pour. This only took a few minutes with the payloader
providing the power.
 
Shop was locked up and everyone moved over to the depot for a meeting.
The annual dinner will be held at the Revolution Restuarant in Valpo in April.
More in the newsletter coming out soon. A couple of other items were discussed
and adjourned about 3:45pm.
 
Headed towards home for a hot shower and clean clothes. Hope everyone has
a better week and warms up some. Drive safe, roads are still ice coated and
slick. Things are looking up at HVRM, come on out and visit with us some Saturday.

LIttle of this and that....and that....and that....and that...at HVRM 2/8/14

Greetings Winter Season enthusiasts!

Well....maybe not.  This has been a tough winter for us here in Northwestern Indiana.  Much snow and frigid temps have frayed the edge of many folks.  Snow piled everywhere!  Tom Travis told of a particular bad corner in LaPorte where high snow piles at the corner caused a couple of serious accidents.  Of course, not only us in the Hoosier state are feeling the winter, as it had been bad in many of parts of the good old U.S.A.

The last two Saturdays at the museum saw heavy snow and horrid road conditions, keep attendance down.  Just 4 people showed up last week.  We had an overnight snow again last night and road conditions were again poor at best.  Temps stayed in the upper teens and we had light snow again just about the whole day.  Despite this, we had a number of folks show up today, although there was no formal Board meeting.

Cory Bennett pulled the flat tire off of our manlift and went out and had it repaired.  A bad connection at the rim was the verdict.  Some cleaning up of the rim and the tire was pronounced as fixed.  Cory said, "let's hope so or we'll be back!"

Loretta Kosloske reported a number of Guest Engineers have signed up from states beyond Indiana and Illinois, including a phone call today from a gentleman in Tennessee who had visited HVRM when Nickel Plate 2-8-4 #765 was last here. 

Fred Boyer worked on sanding down previously applied Bondo and then grinding some rough spots under the roof overhangs on the IC yellow caboose.  Fred keeps finding red paint from the original Illinois Central paint job.  Meanwhile, Bob Albert, using some of the old gymnasium floor pieces that we have on hand, worked on fixing the bad floor section in front of one of the caboose doors.  The floor in now finally finished!

Cory and company used the Backhoe to pull the Porter diesel from the old section of the Shop into the West Annex, which is insulated.  Temps in the old section peaked at 27 degrees whereas one torpedo heater got the West Annex up to 47 degrees by the afternbboon.  Quite a difference.  A regular furnace of some type would actually make it toasty in the West Annex.   Discussions on that are ongoing. 

After moving the Porter, Cory changed the oil and filter on the Backhoe.

The warmer temps in the West Annex enabled Steve Henrichs to move the long pipe for the Grasselli Tower electrical connections over and he managed to get the pipe completely primed.

Sparky Byers wanted to put a 4' florescent fixture into the cab of the Porter for light when working on the electrical cabinet.  Believe it or not, we found a brand new fixture on top of a cabinet in the Old Shop along with a whole boxful of 4' florescent tubes!   Sparky put some screws into the wood in the cab roof and hung the fixture.  First tube lit up like a charm.  Second one....no.  Tried two tubes.  Neither of them worked.  Then exchanged tubes and the good tube one did not work and one of the bad ones did.  Joe Kingsbury took the fixture done and worked on it and eventually pronounced it as "junk".  Knew there was a reason we found that stuff so easily!  Went out a purchased a couple of portable lights to use instead.

We all chipped in and purchased some pizzas for lunch.  Got the great news that a Tamper has reportedly been donated to us.  This will greatly aid in trackwork, which is an ongoing necessity at Hoosier Valley.

Tom and I have talked about painting the train order stand and finding some place to put it up at the museum.  I looked for the stand and found it but also discovered that the lower "circular" connection was missing.  I wandered around the shop looking for it and finally found it on one of the shelves that were rescued from the old Erie Milk Station building.  We now have a winter project.

Cory, John DeGan, Steve Newland, Rich Warner and Randall Downs stood around and  talked about the coupler and its bent shank that had been removed from the one end of the Porter.  Apparently the company that John LaOrange approached stated that they didn't think they could heat and then bend the 6" solid square shank.  Steve checked over the coupler and said that he thought that the shank might not be solid, but hollow.  Found a long piece of wood and was able to insert it nearly back to the hole for the pin that holds the coupler/shank in place.  An interesting discovery.  Might be able to heat and bend the shank after all.

I spent a bit of time removing some yellow tape residue from the other coupler on the Porter.  By then, it was 3:00 and still snowing, covering all of our cars.  Enough for one winter day.  We turned off  the lights and locked up.  Next Saturday's another day.

 

Richard Warner and Joe Kingsbury have completed the repairs to the John Deere tractor. The

tractor needed to be split apart to repair the PTO problem. Richard also replaced some items

that were in marginal condition. Transmission oil was replaced also. Works great now for the

brush whacker for next summer.

 

Someone spent a lot of time with the back hoe tractor cleaning out the drives around the

museum this past week of deep snow. Thanks very much.

 

Talk of acquiring an old house north of Bings home at a Sheriffs sale coming up later in the month.

The house would be torn down, as it is now unoccupied and deserted. It is a large lot and zoned

for dwellings at this time. Would clean up the corner also. A couple of large trees occupy the

properity, one which is dead, which would burn nicely in the wood stove in the shop building.

Les