HOT HOT HOT at HVRM 5/31/14

Greetings!

Despite temps edging into the 90's today, we had another good day at Hoosier Valley.

I arrived a bit after 9:00 a.m. and found the train crew already hard at work.  Turns out

Alco #310 had a fuel supply problem so after some attempts were made for a fix, it was

finally decided to use GE #11 for the day.  Since EJ&E #184 had to be switched in to

the consist, and because the crew was running a bit behind, there was no time left to

pull C&O 2-8-4 #2789 out of the Shop building for outside inspection and photographs.

Engineer was John DeGan with John Kimsey as conductor.  Others in the crew included

Doug Kosloske, Joe Kingsbury, Bill Dauber, Randall Downs and possibly others.

I noticed Fred Boyer working up in Grasselli Tower, so I went up to see what he was

doing and found him cleaning the end sills on the two windows on the east side of the

tower over the stairs.  After cleaning, he was going  to apply a number of coats of a

product that will bond to the porous wood, fill in the cracks and end up with new solid

wood.  I took a couple of photos of Fred doing his thing!  Also, there is a photo of the

new brackets built by Steve Newland so that the steam radiators can be reinstalled in

the tower. 

When I was in the depot, I noticed only one of the New York Central Historical Society

2014 calendars was still on the counter and I asked Bob Barcus if we had sold all of

the others and he stated that yes, we had.  A very nice calendar!  

My main project for the day was to get the two bridge plates for TTX 475037 painted

and I'll try to include a photo of the two plates; one after painting and one still in primer.

I did also get the second one painted so the next time I'm at the museum I'll turn them

both over and finish the painting on the other side.

Lots of visitors came down and wandered around the shop today and after a futile search

for a "Wet Paint" sign, I finally made my own!

When I was looking for the paint for the bridge plates, I went down to the east end of the

museum property to ask Mark Knebel if we had any cans of it still around.  While there,

I got a quick photo of the "gandy dancers" in the process of installing a number of new

ties on the museums main line.  In the photo are Mark, Dave Cook, John LaOrange and,

in the cab of the backhoe, Cory Bennett.  Hard work on a hot day!  In the afternoon, the

crew took the tamper down and tamped around the installed ties.

Bjarne Henderson was repairing some peeling paint on the south side of the windows on

the Troop Sleeper and I've included a photo of Bjarne as Fred came by to check on his

progress.

Also, Bob Albert was cleaning out items from the inside of the orange (no longer yellow)

display caboose; IC # 9914.

Rich Warner did some welding on the John Deere tractor.  Rich has just recently returned

from Cheyenne, Wyoming where he got a tour of the Union Pacific and its efforts to restore

Big Boy 4-8-8-4 # 4014.

I did some miscellaneous fix-up items in the Shop and one thing I found was the key to the

locks on the IC double deck commuter cars.  I had wanted to put correct train numbers in

the number boards on IC #1529 ever since I had put train number 754 in the boards on IC

#1502, but couldn't gain access to the cab end of the 1529 because the sliding double doors

are quite unoperable!   Finding the key, allowed me to get a ladder out and unlock the end

door from the outside.  I managed to twist the dials and get number 757 put in the one number

board, but when I unlocked the cab, I found out that the middle number on that side of the

car won't turn and is stuck on zero (0).  I now have to find an IC (Metra) commuter train

number that has a zero as the middle number!  Got to find a timetable I guess!

Harold Lambirth and his family stopped by the museum in the afternoon.  Harold looks great

and tells me that he rapidly approaching his 90th birthday!

The heat drained me so I left for home a little after 3:00 p.m.  Have a great week folks!

Les