Jumping into February 2015 at HVRM! 1-31-2015

Greetings!

With a major snowstorm due into the area as we move into February, the weather was still nice at Hoosier Valley today.  And there

were a number of  things going on.

Tom Travis arrived at the museum today to find John LaOrange in the process of doing the COT&S on Erie Lackawanna Alco # 310.

Naturally Tom offered to give John a hand with all four of the brake valves.  The first 2 photos attached to this report, show some of

the work that went on in this effort.  This was a job that pretty much took all day.

I arrived shortly after Tom and went up to check on Steve Henrichs to see what he was doing in Grasselli Tower.  Soon ended up

going over to Hoppe's Hardware in town to get a piece of 1" pipe, that was 6" long.  It took a while to get that piece into its proper place.

Then Steve needed to turn the main pipe slightly and didn't have a pipe wrench big enough to do it, so walked over to the Shop building

where I found the one that Steve is using in the third photo.  This part of the effort is now finished.  Two more sections to go!

Bob Albert was working on repairs to one of our portable steel steps and the fourth photo shows him cutting a section of steel to make

a new angle piece for the repair work.

Dave Cooks grandson is shown in the last photo doing some grinding on C&EI tool car # A-1054 preparatory to welding a plate onto

the old ventilation windows.  In the meantime, Fred Boyer was cleaning rust side sections of the car.  I did some grinding on one of the

previously welded ventilation windows that Cory Bennett had done.

Joe Kingsbury continued his efforts in tracing the mangled wiring in ND&W Porter diesel #5332.

Doug Kosloske manned the gift shop in the depot today in the absence of Bob Barcus.  Loretta arrived after lunch, and took that job over.

Others at the museum today included Bob Jachim (who as usual, made the morning pot of coffee), Mark Knebel, Joe Baker, Dave Cook.

Margrett Cook provided lunch in the NKP kitchen car.

As usual, we had some visitors come by.  We are always open on Saturdays (except major holidays) and always enjoy having visitors

stop in and see us.

Have a good week and keep the snow shovels handy!  Winter is quite done with us yet!

Les

Lots of Inside Projects at HVRM 1-24-2015

Greetings,
 
Arrived late yesterday morning, as I slept in some. Getting up at 4:30am daily gets
to be old real fast. Busy days driving school bus during the week, an even afterschool.
 
As I drove up, noticed Mark Kniebel doing some track inspection on the C&I. Not much
activity outside, but plenty going on inside the shop building. Cory & Dave working on
the tool car removing rusted vents along the top side of the car. Using a torch to heat
up the rivets, then knock them off, grinding the metal on the car, putting steel over the
openings, welding them on, an Fred grinding the corners smooth. Intense work standing
on ladders, so the electric man-lift was brought around from the other side of the car.
The lift was used to inspect the roof, finding the corners of the roof rusted out. Joe will make
a replacement metal piece an weld them back on. Nice standing on a flat surface for a
change, makes getting to the roof easy.
 
Joe an Richard were working on the re-wiring project of the ND&W 5332. Lots of wires replaced,
but some are still a mystery.
 
 John an Sparky were working on the belt project inside the ERIE 310. Slow tedious work,
kneeling down, cold building, an hard to get bolts back into correct holes. Alignment still needs
to be done, so the belts are square. The new belts are nice looking an should last a long time.
 
Steve Hendrich was working in Grasselli tower, taking off some sort of metal switch behind
the big levers. Just slow tedious work getting at the bolts securing them. Has 7 or so boxes to
take off, knelling down, bent over, a very hard floor on the knees. Les Beckman assisted in
bolt removal. Temps inside the tower was in the 40's an lots of sun coming thru the windows.
Toilets walls have put up recently, but the door is still  off due to needed window work in the

corner. Lots of mud, but today is getting colder an snow is falling now.

 

Bob Barcus manned the gift shop for the entire day. No visitors today, but a constant stream

of workers coming inside to warm up.

 

Come on out to help inside the shop building, lots of tasks available, sweeping floors,

picking up debris, assisting workers. Learn a new task, welding, torching, metal work.

Grinding on the side of the car will get the rust off from the fire.

 

Have a good week everyone.

 

Tom Travis

Re: Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

Tom -

Thanks for the correction.  I meant to mention the work being done with the replacement belts on the

Erie 310, but just forgot to include it.  My bad!  Thanks also for mentioning Bob Albert and his work

with the scrap pile.

Les    

From: Thomas Travis <wa9ngo@hotmail.com>
To: Tom Mulvaney <kr4bd@aol.com>; Ross C Robinson <restorer@ncf.ca>; Les Beckman <midlandblb@sbcglobal.net>
Cc: HVRM BLOG <wa9ngo.trains@blogger.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2015 10:51 AM
Subject: Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

John LaOrange an Doug K worked on the ERIE 310 putting on new belts either the air
compressor unit or the generator. Don't know if they got all the new belts on or not,
 4 or 5 needed replacing.  
 
Bob Albert has been filling scrap metal dumpsters, first one is about ready to go, an
a couple more are needed for the rest of the scrap.
 
Tom
 
 

Howdy!

Annual Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum membership meeting today at the North Judson Library.  Despite the

event taking a big chunk out of the time during the middle of the day, things still got done at the museum.

Bright sunshine and temps up to 43 degrees, actually melted some of the snow cover.  Sure better than the

frigid temperatures we had earlier in the week.

An effort was made to burn some of the trees and brush that were removed last year during the cleaning of the

old Erie/New York Central wye right-of-way.  Lots of smoke!

Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner continued their efforts with tracing the wiring on Notre Dame & Western

Porter diesel # 5332. 

Fred Boyer put bondo on the patch that John DeGan welded onto the one end of C&EI tool car # A-1054 last

week.  Photo attached.  Fred also put the correct K4 classification onto C&O Kanawha # 2789.  The engine is

looking better, but still lots to do toward its cosmetic restoration.  As an example, a photo of the cab on the

2-8-4 is also included.

Steve Henrichs continued working on Grasselli Tower.

Annual meeting went well, including the election with all incumbents again re-elected.  The third photo shows

Louise Kingsbury and Judy Boyer checking the membership list and handing out ballots.

Hope everyone has a great week.  The days ARE getting longer, so hang in there!

Les

 

Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

John LaOrange an Doug K worked on the ERIE 310 putting on new belts either the air
compressor unit or the generator. Don't know if they got all the new belts on or not,
 4 or 5 needed replacing.  
 
Bob Albert has been filling scrap metal dumpsters, first one is about ready to go, an
a couple more are needed for the rest of the scrap.
 
Tom
 
 

Howdy!

Annual Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum membership meeting today at the North Judson Library.  Despite the

event taking a big chunk out of the time during the middle of the day, things still got done at the museum.

Bright sunshine and temps up to 43 degrees, actually melted some of the snow cover.  Sure better than the

frigid temperatures we had earlier in the week.

An effort was made to burn some of the trees and brush that were removed last year during the cleaning of the

old Erie/New York Central wye right-of-way.  Lots of smoke!

Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner continued their efforts with tracing the wiring on Notre Dame & Western

Porter diesel # 5332. 

Fred Boyer put bondo on the patch that John DeGan welded onto the one end of C&EI tool car # A-1054 last

week.  Photo attached.  Fred also put the correct K4 classification onto C&O Kanawha # 2789.  The engine is

looking better, but still lots to do toward its cosmetic restoration.  As an example, a photo of the cab on the

2-8-4 is also included.

Steve Henrichs continued working on Grasselli Tower.

Annual meeting went well, including the election with all incumbents again re-elected.  The third photo shows

Louise Kingsbury and Judy Boyer checking the membership list and handing out ballots.

Hope everyone has a great week.  The days ARE getting longer, so hang in there!

Les

 

Frigid start at HVRM on 1/10/15, but let's not that bit of Pain stop us!

 

Greetings!

These are the days that try men's souls!  Or at least their dedication!

Below zero this morning but I managed to roll out of bed, and head to the museum to try to

attend the Board meeting scheduled for 8:00 a.m.  On the days of these early meetings, I don't

bother with eating at home, but stop and pick up a breakfast sandwich and coffee in Hebron

at the Burger King there.  Surprise...the BK has been closed!  So...welcome to the New Year!

Arrived just after the meeting began.  Lots of procedural stuff, including discussion of the schedules

for the passenger train and guest engineer programs for 2015.

Wandered down to the Shop, where I found Cory Bennett welding on the interior of C&EI kitchen

car # A-1054.  John DeGan was working on a patch on one end of this car.  John stated he was

going to use some carriage bolts as "faux" rivets by removing the 4 edges on the head of the

bolts so that they would fit flush against the new piece he was going to weld in place.  I asked

him if he wanted me to grind off those edges and he said "sure!"  So, started in on that job.

Next to the A-1054, Joe Kingsbury and Rich Warner were trying to run down the wiring in the

ND&W Porter diesel.  Apparently, mice had done a job on the wiring and it is a horrendous puzzle

right now. Lots of tedious work.

Bob Albert was filling the newly arrived dumpster with items from our scrap pile.  The morning's

single digits and stiff breezes made this job not a lot of fun!  Steve Newland later helped with  Bob

with this effort.  

Lunch for todays "light" crew was pizza from the Wooden Nickel.  Great pizza! 

After lunch, Joe and Rich continued their work on the Porter while John cut the patch he was going

to weld into the C&EI car and then drilled holes for the rivets (photo attached).   After some effort,

we finally managed to get the carriage bolts through the holes in the patch and the corresponding

ones in the car body and I crawled under the car and tightened up the nuts.  Steve Newland cleaned

the end step and it was attached and then John welded on the patch (photo).

Although the temp climbed from the 3 below reading of the morning on up to the teens, it was still

cold.  Fortunately, the wood stove in the West Annex got the temp up to 60 degrees.  I've attached

a third photo of the thermometer that's in the original section of the shop and its reading at about

3 o'clock in the afternoon.  A bit of a difference, eh?

Cory and John LaOrange checked out the newly installed brakes on the Payloader.  They work!

Bob Barcus was in the gift shop while Doug and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot on passenger

train matters.

Others at the museum on this frigid day included Mark Knebel and Bob Jachim.

Well, we are now into the new year.  Come see us when you get the chance.  Members are always

invited to participate.  We'll do our best to keep you active!  Have a great week!

Les      

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