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
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