Greetings!
Well, our cold, unspringlike weather continues. Clouds, and with temps in the 30's all day. Still, work
continues at Hoosier Valley.
Arrived a bit after 9:00 a.m. and found out from Bob Jachim that the ballast under the ties that were put
in on the main line in front of the depot last week, were tamped in place before my morning arrival.
The air compressor, which was not operable last week, was fixed by Rich Warner to enable this work to
get done.
Walked down to the Shop and found out that the IC caboose, which was in primer when I last saw it two
weeks ago, had been given its coat of orange paint (see photo attached). Next up with be the Illinois Central
lettering. Fred Boyer was needle scaling the two roof walks that go around each side of the cupola when
I arrived. These still have to be primed and painted before being reattached.
I noticed that I could see my breath in the West Shop building and when Bob Albert arrived, I asked him
if the new heater was already out of order. He checked the thermostat and found out it was set at 38 degrees.
I said I couldn't paint at 38 degrees so he adjusted it upward and it finally got up to about 52. I needed the
warmer temps because I wanted to start in painting the little amusement park type diesel that usually sits on
our depot platform. Little kids like to sit in its seat, and have their picture taken! The unit has been looking
a bit forlorn lately, so I decided to give it a new coat of paint. Found remnants of white in an old paint can
in the old McGill section of the Shop, so I stared applying it.
Meanwhile, Fred had finished the work on the IC caboose roof walks, and started applying the black bed liner
"gook" to the steps treads which, hopefully, will give some traction to folks entering and leaving the caboose
once it is finished and finally put back on display. Bob Albert was working on painting the interior which
Louise Kingsbury had done a nice job on, but who doesn't do ceilings or cupola wall interiors. Smart to stay
off those ladders Louise!
Mark Knebel, who had worked on the tamping in the morning, went down to the future wye area to burn the
brush piles there, assisted by Bing Risley.
Loretta and friend were hard at work in the depot packing goodies for the upcoming Easter
Egg Hunt train, which is coming up on April 19th. Joe Kingsbury had the diesel power unit fired up on Long
Island coach #2937 to make sure it is in working order.
Todd and Kyle Flanigan were at the museum doing paperwork today and Doug Kosloske led them on an inspection
of ND&W Porter diesel # 5332.
Rich Warner was continuing to do work on the expansion of the G scale train that runs around the top of the
depot building. Rich has his Union Pacific "Bull Moose" 2-8-8-0 on the line now, and it really is a nice addition
to the Erie Triplex freight and U.P. PA diesels on the passenger train.
Diane Bennett hosted lunch which included various goodies including homemade Broccoli/Cheese soup. I had
two bowls! Yum!
After lunch, the white paint on the little diesel had dried and I was able to put on a second coat. Next week I'll
apply the second color! Right after I finished, Tom Travis showed up after his morning Union meeting at the school
bus garage. Fred Boyer told us we could put some primer on the two roof walks he had cleaned in the morning,
so we found the remnants of some red oxide in the McGill building again and went to work. We ran out of primer
with one walk done and the other about three quarters done and Tom said that he might have some similar primer
out in his van which, fortunately, he did have! So we managed to get the balance of the second roof walk finished.
Now we can put on the finished coat of orange, and get the two back up around the cupola where they belong.
We pretty much rolled out of the museum by about 4:00 p.m. but Mark was still burning brush at that time.
The Major League Baseball season starts this week so right now, every team is in first place! Enjoy the upcoming
week everyone. Spring MUST BE right around the corner!
Les
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