Greetings to all.
The north has been in a deep freeze for weeks now, getting tired of it all, especially around the
shop building. Too cold to work on much inside and snow is too deep to work outside. But in
the west shop restoration continues, slowly, but steady. Have had too many snow days with
2 hour delay, school closed, an early dismissals. I drove a bus load to St John IN three weeks ago
in a blowing blizzard, made it back to La Porte but almost three times the amount of time that
I normally make the drive. Just looking forward to spring in three weeks.
After catching up on errands early Saturday morning, I finally made it down to HVRM after 1 pm.
Stopped to talk to Bob Barcus in the depot for a while. Loretta was off doing a errand and returned
shortly after. Mark Kniebel was setting up the depot waiting area with tables an chairs for a planned
NARCOA meeting Sunday afternoon. This is their annual meeting for the season.
Made my way over to the shop area, walked into the west shop area, nice an warm with the wood
stove doing a great job of heating the inside. Need fans up on the ceiling to bring down all that warm
air that collects near the ceiling. A number of members working on clearing the east end of the
shop for possible pouring of concrete in the near future. Don't know how much was thrown away,
but with John LaOrange eyeing everything, I doubt much got tossed. Steve Newland told me that
on the north side of the building, items were frozen to the ground. Lots of big items need to be
removed yet, my small wood burning stove, a pallet of nails donated by Norwayne Lumber years
ago, a welder unit that has not been used. Maybe an auction of selected items could be put up for
sale. Don't know the details of how much concrete will be poured or if rail will be put in to the floor.
Bjarne Henderson, Bob Albert, were also working on the shop clean up. Noticed that the tool car
has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Grinding paint on the north side was evident with
lots of paint dust everywhere. A side window was torched out for building frame for a new window.
Lots of work to be done yet. I did notice that a possible railroad marking under the new number
as MP, MISSOURI PACIFIC, a possible number was underneath, but could not make it out.
Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner were working on the ND&W Porter engine tracing wiring. A very
slow process of trying to match up connectors. Nothing in writing can be found on how the
engine was wired. A long process ahead of them.
Hopefully March will pass quickly into warmer weather. The museums first train of the season is
April 4th. For more info go to HVRM's website. Easter train. Loretta has got a busy season of
trains and special events for the season. March is general membership meeting March 21st.
Board of directors meeting is March 14th.
FYI, ICBX has bought two F-7's from ERIE MINING an are being transported to Vermillion Railway
here in Indiana. So maybe the sweet chant of EMD 567 engines will be running soon. A couple of
pictures have appeared on RAILPICTURES.NET. Here is one of them.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=520960&nseq=4
The north has been in a deep freeze for weeks now, getting tired of it all, especially around the
shop building. Too cold to work on much inside and snow is too deep to work outside. But in
the west shop restoration continues, slowly, but steady. Have had too many snow days with
2 hour delay, school closed, an early dismissals. I drove a bus load to St John IN three weeks ago
in a blowing blizzard, made it back to La Porte but almost three times the amount of time that
I normally make the drive. Just looking forward to spring in three weeks.
After catching up on errands early Saturday morning, I finally made it down to HVRM after 1 pm.
Stopped to talk to Bob Barcus in the depot for a while. Loretta was off doing a errand and returned
shortly after. Mark Kniebel was setting up the depot waiting area with tables an chairs for a planned
NARCOA meeting Sunday afternoon. This is their annual meeting for the season.
Made my way over to the shop area, walked into the west shop area, nice an warm with the wood
stove doing a great job of heating the inside. Need fans up on the ceiling to bring down all that warm
air that collects near the ceiling. A number of members working on clearing the east end of the
shop for possible pouring of concrete in the near future. Don't know how much was thrown away,
but with John LaOrange eyeing everything, I doubt much got tossed. Steve Newland told me that
on the north side of the building, items were frozen to the ground. Lots of big items need to be
removed yet, my small wood burning stove, a pallet of nails donated by Norwayne Lumber years
ago, a welder unit that has not been used. Maybe an auction of selected items could be put up for
sale. Don't know the details of how much concrete will be poured or if rail will be put in to the floor.
Bjarne Henderson, Bob Albert, were also working on the shop clean up. Noticed that the tool car
has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Grinding paint on the north side was evident with
lots of paint dust everywhere. A side window was torched out for building frame for a new window.
Lots of work to be done yet. I did notice that a possible railroad marking under the new number
as MP, MISSOURI PACIFIC, a possible number was underneath, but could not make it out.
Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner were working on the ND&W Porter engine tracing wiring. A very
slow process of trying to match up connectors. Nothing in writing can be found on how the
engine was wired. A long process ahead of them.
Hopefully March will pass quickly into warmer weather. The museums first train of the season is
April 4th. For more info go to HVRM's website. Easter train. Loretta has got a busy season of
trains and special events for the season. March is general membership meeting March 21st.
Board of directors meeting is March 14th.
FYI, ICBX has bought two F-7's from ERIE MINING an are being transported to Vermillion Railway
here in Indiana. So maybe the sweet chant of EMD 567 engines will be running soon. A couple of
pictures have appeared on RAILPICTURES.NET. Here is one of them.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=520960&nseq=4
Another picture of Lehigh Valley 128 has also showed up down at Spencer running in the snow
around the museum.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=521063&nseq=58
N&W 611 restoration is progressing nicely also. Down in Stearns KY, the steam locomotive is getting
around the museum.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=521063&nseq=58
N&W 611 restoration is progressing nicely also. Down in Stearns KY, the steam locomotive is getting
needed attention also, and may be steamed up sometime this year.
Tom Travis HVRM La Porte IN
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