New China Display Case

China cabinet in waiting room, donated by Jim Minix, Norwayne Lumber from
his fathers house.
 

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Saturday 27 Sept, Perfect Fall Weather

Greetings to all,
 
Saturday had some nice surprises for everyone. A visitor from Los Angeles CA, Greg Ramsey,
from Travel Town was down for a visit. TT has a EMD Model 40 switcher that pulls a caboose
on a short piece of track, so he got a tour of HVRM's model 40. I missed Greg as I was doing
track work on the ERIE line. Got a chance to go to TT in spring 1987 on UP Native Son 9006,
from San Diego to Los Angeles CA an return, sponsored by PSRMA Campo CA for working
members. I enjoyed the visit, but never got a chance to return. A nice museum. Brings back
many good memories of California days.
 
Got down to HVRM sort of late, but saw the track crew down on the ERIE main spiking ties.
Got down to help for quite a few ties to be spiked, it is now complete for now, as during
October, trains will be going to the Park for pumpkins. The UP tamper came out in the
afternoon an finished up getting the ties tamped. Performed flawlessly. David Cook, Cory
Bennitt, John LaOrange, Mark Kniebel rounded out the crew.
 
Grasselli Tower had workers on the upper floor working on windows an frames, Steve Newland
an Fred Boyer was the crew.
 
The newly donated China cabinet was inside the depot waiting room. Bob Albert is getting
things moved around right now an getting the IC caboose ready for displays. I have a picture
of the cabinet but will post it separately. Many ideas for the depot waiting room displays
are happening. Bob Barcus an Loretta Kosloske worked the gift shop.
 
Last Sunday visited Montecello IL Railway Museum. A wonderful day for their Railroad days
festival. Three trains were running an about 10 or so motorcars to White Heath wye. SOU 401
steam engine put on a good show. Will look impressive on the Steam Polar Express for December,
which tickets are sold out already.
 
Remember next weekend will be Pumpkin trains.
 
Tom Travis

One more summer day at HVRM 9/20/14

Greetings!

Last gasp for summer as Fall begins this coming Tuesday.  And what a wonderful day it was!

At 8:00, temps were in the low 70's, moving up into the low 80's by the afternoon, but with a

nice breeze keeping things pleasant.  But like many a typical summer day, storms were predicted

for the afternoon.

Arrived in time for the regular Membership meeting with a quorum in attendance.  A number of

things discussed which will be mentioned in the upcoming newsletter.  I did bring up a couple of

items including the fact that the bridge plate hinge pins for our TTX # 475037 piggyback trailer flat

car were received.  Thanks to the folks at R&IS for making these for us.  I mentioned that we will

eventually need some help in lifting the bridge plates onto the car.  I also asked that the sand dome

for Kanawha # 2789 be eventually moved into the main section of the Shop so that it can be needle

scaled, primed, painted and lettered.  The 2-8-4's sand dome has sat outside now for a number of

years and is deteriorating badly and definitely needs some help.

Bob Albert reported in the meeting today that he has finished the floor of IC # 9914, the caboose

that houses some of our displays.  A photo of his efforts is attached below.  Nice job Bob!

Had a number of visitors today, including some from the LaPorte County Historical Steam Society

in Hesston, Indiana, including Kathy & Darwin Enders and John Harbeck.  Kathy's father, John

Gooley, was the engineer on Notre Dame & Western # 5332, the Porter diesel that the University

of Notre Dame donated to the museum.  Kathy presented me with a copy of a South Bend Tribune

story from August of 1979, that has a number of facts about the locomotive and the railroad.  One

of the interesting photos with that article shows the 5332 pulling a New York Central arch windowed

passenger coach in 1961 with a group of Boy Scouts as passengers!  John gave me a CD with

various photos of the ND&W.

Jim Menis of Norwayne Lumber donated a beautiful cabinet in honor of his parents and a crew

went over and picked it up and brought it to the museum using Bob Jachim's pickup truck for

transport.  It was placed into the depot building.  It is a beautiful piece of furniture. Thanks to Jim

for the donation, and also the members who helped with the move. 

Mark Knebel was down at the museum earlier in the week and used the man lift to begin giving our

Orton built Purdue University crane a new paint job.  Results of his efforts thus far, are shown in the

photo below.

Bing Risley was out cutting grass today.  A never ending summer job.

Bob Barcus and Bruce Emmons worked in the North Judson depot.

Train consist for today was Erie ALCO # 310 and the four usual cars; LIRR coach 2937, MKT flat

car (open car), EJ&E transfer (handicap accessible) caboose #184 and B&LE caboose # 1989.

Bob Albert was conductor, John LaOrange engineer, Steve Henrichs student engineer with Joe

Kingsbury and Randall Downs as car hosts.  Jim Vosberg handled the flagman duties at the

road crossings for the first two trains.  Ridership was 48 on the 10:00 train and 60 on the 12:30

train, both of these trains to English Lake.  I counted 12 riders in the Katy open car for the

2:00 run to La Crosse, but don't know if there were folks riding in the other cars. Hopefully the

train finished its round trip and made it back to North Judson before the storm came in.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable week!

Les

   

Rare Mileage to Thomaston IN 9-6-2014

Greetings,
 
Saturday was cooler than Friday's uncomfortable heat an humidity. After torrential
rain & lightning for most of Friday evening, left a considerable amount of water in
ditches and low areas of fields. Several trees fell on IN 39, north of IN 8 an looks
like they were pushed off the road way. The Kankakee river seemed high from the
rain also.
 
Arrived at HVRM at approx 9am, after having breakfast at Fingerhut Bakery with
the local amateur radio group. Lively discussions going on with all members
present. Need to dig out some old log books an QSL cards for show & tell next
week. Les Beckman drove up behind me as I was getting out of the van. A quick
stop in the depot to ask some questions. Les an myself ended up at the garage
an looked over what needed to be done yet. I walked around the shed an noticed
that someone had picked up all the boards on the ground an a small pile of wood.
Thank you whomever did that for me. I was waiting till I had finished an not needed
any wood to fix some problem an was going to take them down to the shop for
the wood stove. I walked into the Erie shed to get some paint, an on the floor
were some items that needed to get picked up. Me & Les cleared a spot on
a cabinet an then put  the items on top of it. Cleaned up the area a little an
rearranged some things, moving toilet paper into the paint room for easier
access to the box.
 
Afterward I got to thinking about lettering for the C&O 2789 tender & cab. Looked
in Mark's office an found the box holding a copy of lettering off of C&O 2776 in
Washington Court OH. A discussion followed on what venue we should try to
get either stencils made or have vinyl made. Bjarne Henderson has experience
in vinyl, so we decided to ask him later.
 
I was looking at the gap at the north end of the garage and wondered how I could
fix it easily. The building is bowed in the middle an the 1x12 is not square on the
bottom. After several opinions Bob J came up with putting metal flashing
up under the batten boards, covering the gap and nailing in place. Paint it
and nobody will notice standing five feet away. By then it was nearing noon,
so we broke for Subway. I was going to ride the 2 pm train to La Crosse with
rare mileage on on the old PM to Thomaston.
 
Other items, Mark an John spiked about 30 ties on the Erie line with maybe 40
to go yet. Dave Cook assisted also.
 
Sparky Beyers an John worked on the UP tamper in the shop. Sparky's wife
assisted in the depot ticket office selling tickets.
 
 Steve Newland and Fred Boyer worked on window sills in Grasselli tower.

 

Steve Hendrics painted the Grasselli tower desk green.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting this out. I had Ross Robinson from Ottawa ONT

visit Monday, Tuesday, and left Wednesday. With school bus driving, time

has been not available for me,

 

Tuesday evening decided to eat the Michigan City LS&MC depot on the lakefront,

known as Swingbellys. As of mid October, they will close an move to a newer

restuarant. But the bad news is that nothing is scheduled to move into the

depot building. A waitress told me that a Sheriff's sale at a later date. Most

likely the building wil be bought, tore down an condos built.  Amtrak still makes

stops at the shelter a couple times a day, many Amtrak trains pass by also. Freight

operations most likely carried out at night by NS i think. So before Swingbellys

closes, stop by for a hamburger and enjoy the view of Lake Michigan and

passing Amtrak trains.
 

Will try an keep everyone updated on this closing.

 

Tomorrow is HVRM's open house. Maybe a board meeting at 8am in the depot.

General meeting on the 20th.

 

Summer is not over yet, as it will warm up next week. Out in Poway CA its over

100 degrees for a few days, I just enjoy the nice cool weather.

 

Tom Travis