Hoosier Valley before the December 2016 snows - 12/10/16

 

Greetings -

Cold day at HVRM today with temps in the upper 20's, but a little bit of sunlight at times.  Supposed to be getting some good snowfall starting tonight through Sunday night, then again on Tuesday and still more (with frigid temps) for next weekend!  We shall see! 

Santa trains continued and photo 1 shows the second train of the day getting set to stop at Arlington Street in North Judson to pick up Santa and Mrs. Claus!  That's train conductor Steve Henrichs on the back platform of LIRR # 2937 and if you look closely, you might be able to see a little bit of Kevin Kennedy who was out flagging the various crossings to English Lake for the second and third trains of the day after Mark Knebel flagged for the first train.  Jason Ciastko and I were "Santa's helpers" for the three trains today.  By the way, please note that Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose # 1989 was NOT on the end of the train today after Jason and Mark had managed to get the old caboose stove fired up in the morning.  Unfortunately, the 1989's brakes froze up and couldn't be thawed so the "little red caboose" had to stay behind today!

John DeGan was engineer for the trains today, Steve Henrichs train conductor, Bob Albert assistant train conductor and Bud Tibbie as the conductor for the 2937.  Doug Kosloske and Jason assisted with passenger boarding at the North Judson depot.  

 

Sparky Byers and Rich Warner got the new caboose horns installed on ND&W Porter diesel # 5332 today and fired the diesel up, to check both the horn and the original Porter bell.  Sparky reported both worked fine.  The second photo shows the new horn up on the cab roof of the old Porter.

Another section of shelving was added against the north wall on the new concrete floor of the West Annex of the Shop building.  In photo 3, Dave Cook, John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Sparky check on the installation.

Finally, Joe Kingsbury continues to work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  Both side door work can be seen in the last photo.

Have a great week everyone!  Hope the snow doesn't turn out to be too bad out your way!

Les

A chill, but progress, at Hoosier Valley 12/3/16

 

Greetings!

Had a nice day last Tuesday (November 29th) with temps getting up into the mid-50's.  Decided to try to take advantage and head to the museum and work a bit on the 899.  Was greeted by the new concrete floor which had been poured the previous day over track 3 in the West Annex of the Shop (see photo 1).   Smooooth, to say the least!  But I knew this pristine condition wouldn't last long (see below).

Today was the first day for our Santa trains and December greeted us with more typical weather with temps not getting above the upper 30's and clouds all day!  I was elected to give Santa a hand before train departures from North Judson and was assisted on these three trains for the day by both Tom Rainford and Tom Travis.  While we were waiting for the first departure, Tom Rainford and I took off the glass covers over the N gauge model railroad of North Judson to rerail some freight cars that had tipped over and some others that were derailed.  That's done....until the next time!

A fellow from the Orange Empire Railway Museum apparently visited the museum this past summer and noted that we had a temporary metal plate over the wiring at the bottom of our "Right Turn Only" warning signal (photo 2).  The temporary plate in question is at the bottom of the signal and a close up is shown in the third photo.  The guy from O.E.R.M. said that he had the correct US&S plate for this part of the signal and last month, Mark Knebel received the plate.  I went over to the Shop and eventually found the correct size bolt for the top of the plate and after a bit of a struggle, managed to put it in place.  The 4th photo shows the correct plate installed!  Thank you for this great donation Mr. Palmieri!   BTW, when the weather warms back up a bit, I'll put a bit of black paint on the bolt head.

The three Santa trains today had the following crews:

Engineer all 3 trains:  Bjarne Henderson

Train conductor: Doug Kosloske (trains 1 and 3); Steve Henrichs (train 2)

LIRR coach # 2937 conductor all 3 trains:  Bud Tibbie

Assistant to 2937 conductor: Steve Henrichs (trains 1 and 3); Tom Rainford (train 2)

In the North Judson depot today were Bob Barcus, Loretta Kosloske and Tami Shaw.

Flagmen for the day included Mark Knebel (for county road crossings) and Bob Jachim, Tom Travis and Les Beckman (at Mulberry Steet).

Others assisted with the trains or in work .

Meanwhile Rich Warner, Sparky Byers and Jason Ciastko worked on ND&W Porter # 5332.

John LaOrange got GE diesel # 11 up and running.  John also worked on the putting up the first of the recently donated storage racks on the northwest corner of the new concrete pad section in the West Annex (photo 5).  That's Tom Travis watching.  A closer up view is shown in the sixth photo.  Some equipment has also been put back into this section.

The seventh photo shows one of the two new end doors recently installed in C&EI tool car # A1054 by Joe Kingsbury. 

Others assisted with the trains today or in various work around the museum.  Including Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Margrett Cook, Louise Kingsbury, Joe Baker and others.  Margrett prepared a very nice chicken soup today for lunch and Louise furnished desert.

Have a good week everyone.  Supposed to get colder toward the end of next week.  Well, I guess it IS the winter season after all! 

Les

No Turkey hangover at Hoosier Valley on 11/26/16!

 

Greetings All!

Two days after Thanksgiving 2016 and the turkey and trimmings weren't enough to keep museum members from doing a good days work at the museum today.  The nice weather (40's) and even an occasional peak at the sun certainly didn't hurt matters!

Accomplishments included:

1.  Bob Barcus doing some work on the security cameras in the Shop.

2.  Loretta Kosloske putting Christmas decorations in the depot and around the area.  Loretta reported that the first two Santa Train days (12/3 and 12/10) are completely sold out!

3.  Bud Tibbie and yours truly got all but one of the seats off of the two platforms of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.

4.  Joe Kingsbury continued working on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  The first photo shows Tom Travis peeking in the hung door on one side of the car while the second photo shows Joe a bit later doing some grinding work.

5.  The museum decided to contract out the pouring of the balance of the concrete for track number 3 in the West Annex of the Shop.  The third photo shows Cory Bennett welding the flangeway iron on the track while his helper Tom Rainford watches the efforts.  This welding job was completed by the end of the day after which the concrete area next to the track was cleaned up for the upcoming pour which could occur this week!

6.  Bob Albert continued work in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914.  This car is rapidly filling up!

7.  There were some problems getting the Union Pacific tamper running and the 4th photo shows John La Orange giving Rich Warner (he of the bald head under the machine) as they tried to determine the problem.  Eventually, they got the tamper running and had it on the line to clear shop track space.

8.  I talked Tom Travis into giving me a hand in moving a number of the levers in Grasselli Tower back into place.  Certain levers if pulled forward, cannot be pushed back into place without going down to the lower floor and manipulating their movement.  Tom "jiggled" the levers up on the second floor so that I could locate them beneath the lever bed and then move the apparatus enough so that Tom could then push the levers back into place.  Mission accomplished!

9.  Toward the end of the day, Rich did some grinding on the cab roof of Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332 and then drilled holes in the new base (fifth photo) for what will eventually hold a new set of horns for the Porter.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Les 

     

  

Wicked wind from the west hits Hoosier Valley 11/19/16

 

Greetings -

Well, after an extremely mild fall this year, old man winter returned to northern Indiana with a vengeance today!  Temps topped out at about 39 degrees but a wicked wind made it feel like the low 20's!  Despite this, we had a good turnout at the museum.

John LaOrange did some sorting of items on the storage racks in the East Annex of the Shop.

The frigid wind failed  to deter Mark Knebel, Jason Ciastko and Kevin Kennedy from dragging the compressor out to the east end of the museum property to work on the track.  The first photo shows Jason and Mark with their pneumatic air hammers, digging down deep into the ballast as Kevin brings another shovel full of stones to add to some of the low spots.

Meanwhile, Joe Kingsbury and Tom Rainford continued working on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  The next three photos show their work in installing a new side door on the car.  That's Joe in the light jacket and Tom in the dark one.

Margrett Cook made both chili and chicken soup for lunch today.  The hot lunch was a welcome respite from the cold wind.

After lunch, we had the bi-monthly Membership meeting in the depot.  The current situation with the freight operator saw quite an interesting discussion.  Things continue in limbo. 

After the meeting, Bob Albert gave me a couple of framed maps of Grasselli Tower trackage both before the tower was put in place and then the original trackage with signals as of 1902.  We will eventually display these neat maps up in the tower.

Sparky Byers and Rich Warner worked on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332.  

One of the things that Tom Travis, Ross and Gee Robinson and yours truly did a number of years ago, was the restoration of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.  After the project was finished, Tom and I were asked to put some seats out on the end platforms for riders, which we did and the car was used on a number of museum trains, including the special trains at Hanna, Indiana.  Through the years, the caboose was used for other things and the platform seats deteriorated.  With two open air cars now in service, the seats were no longer needed and need to be removed.  Despite the cold weather, I managed to get the first seat off, as can be seen in the last photo.  Tom Rainford gave me a hand and we eventually managed to yank it off of the platform.  Hopefully the weather will moderate yet this fall, so that the rest of the seats can be removed.

Stay warm everyone.  The temps ARE supposed to moderate somewhat next week.

Les

Fw: Nice day in November; 11/5/16

 

Folks -

We are going through a stretch of mild November weather.  Rose to the upper 60's by the afternoon, with sunshine all day.  Can't beat it!

This day actually started on Friday, November 4th, when Tom Rainford and I went up to Metra's KYD Shop on the far south side of Chicago to pick up some seat and back cushions for our two Highliner passenger cars.  Since the last run of these cars occurred this past February 12th ending almost 45 years of use, we thought it would make sense to try to acquire some of these cushions for backup use for the two cars in our collection (numbers 1502 and 1529) as replacements won't be available in the future.  This morning, I found a spot on the upper level of the racks in the East Annex of the Shop and Tom and I stacked them up (see the first photo).   Also received from Metra on Friday from, were two ditch lights.  More on them in a few moments.

After a busy passenger train season, limited somewhat by our being unable to run west of English Lake, the museum took a break this week.  Since no passenger runs were scheduled, museum membership was a bit lighter than normal, but some of our work was resumed.  Included was the finish of the preparatory work for the soon coming concrete floor in the West Annex of the Shop.  The second photo shows Cory Bennett at the controls of the backhoe as John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Tom Rainford (left to right) watch Cory spread sand with the bucket.  This job was finished by the end of the day.  

Work continued on C&EI tool car #A-1054.  The third photo shows Kevin Kennedy at left and Joe Kingsbury at right while in the distance, Joe Baker (and his unseen assistant Ryan) work on an electrical installation at the end of the car.

Meanwhile, out at the east end of the museum grounds, Mark Knebel worked alone on tie installation as shown in the 4th photo.

Bob Albert installed some additional photos in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914.  We had some heavy rains in the area earlier this week and Bob reported that the 9914 showed no signs of any leakage, which is excellent news!

Margrett Cook went to Subway and brought back some sandwiches for lunch.

I mentioned earlier, that Metra has also given us a couple of Highliner ditch lights.  One of the lights on 1502 was busted and after lunch, Tom and I replaced the bad ditch light with the Metra replacement.  The results are shown in the 5th photo.  That's the old light on the ground with the newly installed light on the car.

Since I had to leave early due to another commitment, I decided to go up into Grasselli Tower and apply white paint to the numbers on levers 36, 40 and 49, which Steve Henrichs had painted prior to our October passenger runs.  Results for lever 36 is shown in the last photo.

Loretta Kosloske states that they are looking for someone to "man" the depot next Saturday since she, Bob Barcus and Tami Shaw will all be unavailable.  With no trains running, the duties will be light.

Weather is supposed to continue to be mild, so enjoy the week!  And don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Les     

   

       

 

Howdy!

My granddaughter Rowan was playing her last soccer game of the season, so the wife and I decided to go to Olympia Fields, Illinois to watch the action.  Thus, got an extremely late start for the museum, not getting there until well after lunch.  

One train was run; a late afternoon "Halloween Special" with departure at 4:00 p.m.  More on that in a few moments.

Bud Tibbie advised me that there had been some vandalism on EL Alco # 310.  Not serious, because it was found in time and the S-1 was used to pull N&W gondola # 45622 loaded with some stone out in the area of the Kankakee River bridge where it was shovelled out for use as ballast.  Not quite sure how this vandalism occurred as the Alco seems to have spent a lot of time in the Shop building recently.  Perhaps a visitor got into the unit when no museum member was around.  We need to improve our vigilance.

Since I knew I would be arriving late, my schedule for the day concentrated on just a few items of minor consequence.  Someone asked me the lens diameter of the old headlight we recently received from the Lake Shore Model Railroad Association, and I managed to get that measured (between 22 and 23 inches).  I also looked over the bell that that group had given us and found the number 76 stamped in two different places on the yoke (see photo 1).   This matches the number 76 that had previously been stamped into the top of the bell itself.  A couple of people have told me that this appears to be a Baldwin bell.  If that is true, then the idea that the bell might have been on an Illinois Central steamer numbered 76, might be suspect.  One of the folks told me that, if this IS in reality, a Baldwin bell, the ORIGINAL locomotive number the bell was assigned to by Baldwin appears on the bell shaft.  I measured the nuts holding this bell in place and the nut size is 1 and a half inches.  We have an nice wrench of that size in the museum collection, but I'm going to need help one day, to remove those nuts to look for that number.  Another project for the future!

I also managed to get a photograph of the diesel locomotive headlight that Art Chesna recently donated to the museum (see photo 2).  This headlight was on the second diesel locomotive delivered to the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad (better known at the Monon Railroad) back in 1942 from Electromotive (serial number 1598); a NW-2 model.  The Monon  eventually renumbered DS1 as their #11 and in 1969, sold the unit to Industrial Maintenance Service (IMS) who rebuilt it and sold it to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (EJ&E) as their number 447.  The headlight still carries this number in the number board!  The EJ&E sold the unit to BMAL, a broker, who sold it to Union Tank Car (UTC) where it was numbered 12347.  The unit was finally scrapped in 2015, a worn out warrior, but Art Chesna of UTC, managed to save one of the headlight off the unit.  His preservation work is outstanding, as you can see in the picture.

Bob Albert told me that he had put up some examples of train order hoops in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914 and when I went in there to look at those, I saw the nice job that Bob had done adding photos of the display of the crossing gate control box that was in the elevated watchman's shanty at 119th and Halsted Streets in Chicago.  That display is shown in the third photo. 

Finally, some of us were approached by conductor Bob Barcus to see if we could act as car hosts for the 4:00 train as we seemed to be short a few folks.  I agreed to help out in Long Island commuter car # 2937.  But then, shortly before departure, I was told that they had enough car hosts but I could ride if I wanted to.  I decided instead to flag the Mulberry Street crossing on both the museum track and the old Chesapeake & Ohio track that the Halloween Special would be riding over.  Also flagged for the 310 as it made its way back to the Shop.

John DeGan was engineer for the special run which used GE # 11, while Steve Henrichs was engineer and Doug Kosloske was conductor for the day with Alco 310.

Lots of other folks helping out including Loretta Kosloske, Jason Ciastko, Cory Bennett, Joe and Louise Kingsury, Tom Rainford, Randall Downs, Mike Healy, Rich Warner, Bob Albert, and some others I'm sure I missed because of my late arrival at the museum.  My apologies to those folks.

Have a great week everyone!

Les 

 

Nice finish to the 3 day Pumpkin Train event at Hoosier Valley 10/22/16

Greetings!

Day started at just under 50 degrees and ended up in the low 60's with bright sunshine all day!   The third Saturday of pumpkin trains saw 612 riders with pumpkin sales today just a little over 300.  So the final 3 day (9 train) total was 1,973 riders.  We ran close to capacity!    Thanks to all who helped today, and on the other two Saturdays this month.

Because everyone was tied up working the trains in various capacities, not much else going on today.  The only two photos are of the very end of the day with the train crew of Steve Henrichs (on the platform of number 11 in the first photo) and Bjarne Henderson (at the throttle of the G.E.) as they got set to couple onto C&O Kanawha # 2789 and push her back into the Shop.  The second photo shows just after the 2-8-4 was coupled, and just before the push was started. 

Next week is the Halloween train, departing the museum at 4:00 p.m. with very limited seating.

Have a great week folks!

Les    

Additional pumpkin train operation at HVRM 10-15-16

Greetings!

Museum personnel tied up again with the operation of our three pumpkin trains today, thus not much else going on at the museum.  From the train, I noticed that Joe Baker and his helper were doing some electrical work over at the Payloader shed.  More on this as I find out about it.

Mike Koehler was in from Omaha, Nebraska and was doing some work on this ex-Long Island RS-1 Alco # 467.  After the train schedule for the day was completed and everything put away for the day, I was able to get a few quick pictures of Mike and his efforts over by the Shop.  The first photo shows the blue light Mike had on the front of the Alco (he also had a blue flag out for protection).  The second shot shows his works after removing the bad floor of the unit.  And finally a photo of Mike himself as he was transferring some boxes into the RS-1.  Mike has a lot of work ahead of him, but the unit is in good hands.

Also, I heard that Art Chesna had dropped off the headlight from a CI&L/EJ&E/UTLX diesel locomotive.  John LaOrange and Cory Bennett helped Art unload the headlight and they put it into the Pullman Troop Sleeper for now.  Bob Barcus received the nicely done explanation plaques from Art.  Thanks to Art for this very nice donation. 

As for the trains, Bjarne Henderson was conductor for the day with Andy Hershmann the engineer.  Helpers today included Tami Shaw, Bob Barcus, Joe Kingsbury, Jim Vosberg, Tom Travis, Bud Tibbie, Mark Knebel, Margett Cook, Cory Bennett, Bing Risley, Steve Henrichs, Jason Ciastko, Bob Jachim, Randall Downs, Dave Cook, John LaOrange, Louise Kingsbury and yours truly.  Working these trains is hectic and it's hard to find out what is going on at the museum and who is doing what, so I may have missed some folks again.  Working these trains means a short time between the arrival back at North Judson of one train, and the loading of the next train.  There is a bit more time after the arrival of the first train of the day and the loading of the second train, but there is barely time to get some lunch at that time!  But all the efforts is worth it as we carried 689 folks on the three trains today!  Thanks to all who helped out.  One more Saturday for this operation, and we're looking for help then too!  Come out and give us a hand if you can. 

Have a good week!

Les   

Busy, busy day at HVRM 10/8/16

 Greetings!

Arrived at the museum at 8:15 to find much activity already going on.  This was the first of our Pumpkin Train Saturdays and our GE ton GE # 11 was busy adding the two "overflow" cabooses to the normal consist.  Members were pretty much involved in the operation of these trains which needed a car host for each of the cars, two folks in the depot ticket office in addition to the manning of the gift shop.  I managed to get the second floor of Grasselli Tower open and then checked for my assignment which was hosting folks in Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose # C345.  Tom Rainford was the car host in NKP bay window caboose # 471 while Bud Tibbie handled NKP flat car # 1946, one of our open air cars. 

We were busy all day and no time to take photos, although I did manage to get a shot (shown below) of a young couple from Highland which are rather typical of the family type folks that make these trains so popular.  Loretta Kosloske advised later that we had a total of 672 riders for the days three trains.  Quite a day!  Others who helped out today included Steve Henrichs (engineer), Bob Albert (conductor), Joe Kingsbury, Louise Kingsbury, Bob Barcus, Mark Knebel, John LaOrange, Dave Cook, Margrett Cook, Jason Ciastko, Tami Shaw, Bing Risley, Cory Bennett, Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy, Randall Downs, Joe Baker and Richard Warner.  Probably missed mentioning a few folks but it was a long, tiring day (I didn't leave HVRM until 5:00) and right now I have to admit that I'm pretty well beat!

Next week we get a chance to do this all over again!  Help is needed for various jobs.  Come out and give us a hand if you possibly can.  Your museum needs YOU! 

Les   

October comes in cool and wet at Hoosier Valley 10/1/16

Greetings -

Was raining like crazy this morning so got a late start to the museum.  Rain slacked off but occurred at intervals all during the day with temps only in the 60's.

Arrived in time to see the last guest engineer arrive back at the North Judson depot.  Motive power for it, and for the passenger trains later in the day, was the 95-ton G.E. Interlake Steel diesel, number 11.  Performed flawlessly all day!

One of the problems encountered this day was a brake problem on EJ&E # 184, our transfer caboose with the wheel chair lift.  It had to be left on the caboose track and was not part of todays consist.  More on this in a moment. 

Joe Baker was putting some preliminary electrical work in the Pullman Troop Sleeper so that a new outlet would be available for future cleanups (read vacuum cleaner) of the car.

I took some measurements of the seats on GTW transfer caboose number 75072, then spent the day flagging Mulberry Street during train movements.

Meanwhile, things were active in the Shop.  Some work was done on the track extension of track number 3 in the West Annex.  It was decided to replace the damaged exhaust stack on Erie Lackawanna ALCO # 310.  The first photo shows Cory Bennett (at left) and Dave Cook working on getting the new stack cut out of a piece of surplus pipe.  Meanwhile, EL 310 was fired up and, after the departure of the 12:30 p.m. train to English Lake, ran down and picked up the aforementioned EJ&E # 184 and brought it back into the shop.  The second, slightly blurry, photo was taken a bit later after the 184 had been spotted on Shop track 2 and shows Sparky Byers (near camera) and John LaOrange working on the brake problem.  Eventually the fix was performed successfully and the 184 was returned to the caboose track after the 2:00 passenger trains departure.

The third photo shows progress on C&EI tool car #A-1054 with Joe Baker at left and Joe Kingsbury standing at right.  The fourth photo is a close up of Joe Baker installing an electrical outlet in the car with Joe Kingsbury shown in photo 5 doing some carpentry work.

Finally, Steve Henrichs spent the day up in Grasselli Tower doing some painting.  The last photo shows the results of that work, with black Lever 36 and two blue levers 40 and 49 being added to those now finished.

Decent passenger counts for both English Lake trains.  John DeGan was engineer, Doug Kosloske conductor with Bud Tibbie, Randall Downs and Tom Rainford the car hosts for the day.

Loretta Kosloske was ticket agent in the depot with Bob Barcus manning the gift shop.

The rain is supposed to finally clear out of here with some nice 70 degree days forecast for next week.  Enjoy the early fall weather!

Les