A real blue (and green and black and red and white) Saturday at Hoosier Valley on 4/30/16

Greetings!

Spring took a step back today at the museum with a high of 47 degrees and rain just about all day!  Good day to work inside, if you could do it!

Went back behind the Shop to look at the B&O color position light signal installed there to see how the brackets we got with the GM&O CPL signal head are attached.  Looks like the brackets we have will work! 

Steve Henrichs was painting levers in Grasselli Tower and the results at the end of the day are shown in the first photo.  Some levers painted blue, some green, some red, some black and even a white/black combination!  I counted 11 levers painted.  Well done Steve!

Speaking of painting, Mark Knebel painted one of the storage tanks orange earlier in the week.  Looks great, but raining too hard for me to get a decent photo.  Meanwhile, Mark cleaned out the train cars for an upcoming special trip for school kids this coming Friday.  Always looking for help on these special run days!

John LaOrange and Tom Rainford put rust inhibitor in the Erie S1 Alco.

The second photo shows Joe Baker taking some measurements for electrical work on C&EI tool car #A-1054.  Bud Tibbie helped him out with this project.

I noticed that someone had been fooling around with one of the train number boards on ex-Metra/ex-IC Highliner #1502.  One of the boards had a correct train number (754) showing, but the other number board was all screwed up.  I decided to correct it.  Simple project that turned out to be more involved than I had thought.  I first noticed that the chain and lock on the front platform end of 1502 was missing, meaning that anyone had access to the car.  The "jumbled" number board was in the motorman's (engineers) compartment, which WAS locked.  There is a special key for this and Mark told me that there were some of those keys hanging over his desk in his office.  Walked over, got them, tried them, none worked!  Put them back.  Talked to Mark again and he said there might be another key in the drawer in his desk.  Walked back over there, found said key, tried it, success!  Took a while to twist the number strips around, including a number of walks down to the ground, back up to the motorman's compartment, etc.  Finally got the second number board set up for train 754 as the third photo (taken from the platform of GTW transfer caboose #75072) will attest.  Locked the motorman's compartment up again.  Hopefully no one will fool around with these numbers in the foreseeable future!  Then started looking for a short chain and lock to secure #1502 again against unlawful entry.  Mark found a new lock to use, but then I had to find a suitable chain.  I searched a couple of buildings before I found a chain from the Shop that would work.  A bit of driving and more walking, all in the light rain that was falling all day, but the job finally got done!  So much for helping Steve Henrichs up in the tower with the lever painting!

Margrett Cook prepared an "Italian" lunch, including pasta and pizza.

After lunch, Cory Bennett and others, worked on the Tamper.

John DeGan spent the day working on cleaning up the mess that was between Track 1 and the south wall of the East Annex part of the Shop building.  By the end of the day, this area was greatly improved.  The fourth photo shows John and this much improved area.  For some time we had talked about getting this done, but Mr. DeGan actually DID it!  Well done John!

Had to take off a bit early this afternoon due to a family commitment.  Hopefully it stopped raining later in the day, but my guess is that it did not.  Some spring days are like that!

Have a good week folks!

Les    

 

 

 

 

Illinois donation and work at HVRM 4/23/16

Hi Folks -

HVRM member Bud Tibbie was a member of the Homewood Rail Committee when he lived in Illinois when that group secured the donation of an EMD rebuilt diesel and a wide vision caboose and put them on display near the Amtrak/Metra station there.  As part of that display, a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio color position light (CPL) signal was to be installed but that was never done.  Bud contacted the Mayor of Homewood and the committee and it was eventually decided to donate the signal head to Hoosier Valley.  This morning, Bud, Joe Gasiorek and myself, met Bill Wolfete (sp?) from the committee at the display in Homewood and we loaded the signal head into my car and took it to the museum today.  Here are some photos taken by Betty Beckman this morning showing the removal of the signal head.  That's Bill on the walkway of the diesel in photo one while Joe and I look on.  The second photo shows Bud taking the signal head out of the compartment in the diesel and the third photo shows Joe and I receiving it.  Once we got the signal head to the museum, Mark Knebel, Bob Albert, Bud and I put it into the museums signal storage car.

The rest of these photos show some activities at the museum today.  The fourth photo shows Bob getting set to put up a new photo in IC caboose # 9914.  The photo shows a Monon passenger train led by their F3 units at the deport in Monon, Indiana.  Bob recently put a new piece of rail on display in the caboose as shown in the fifth photo. 

Steve Newland was scraping old paint from Grasselli Tower today.

The ex-Union Pacific tamper (photo 6) was out today doing its thing.  After the stones were tamped, Tom Rainford is shown in photo 7 filling the holes made after the tamper finished its job.   Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy and myself, also assisted Tom on this effort.

To finish on a bummer note, the last photo shows a bit of graffiti that was apparently recently applied to our Purdue crane.  The police were notified and came out and took our complaint.  We will need to get this "criminal act" removed as soon as possible.

Finally, on the way home, I followed the museum line into La Crosse and noted a lot of covered hoppers apparently stored.  I counted about 200 similar looking gray painted cars, with CTIX (and other) reporting marks.  There were also a mixed bag of about 25 covered hoppers just to the east of downtown La Crosse.  All of  these cars were parked on the main line.

We are getting close to our initial passenger train operation in May. Any help will be appreciated.

Les

Spring finally SPRINGS!! at Hoosier Valley 4/16/16

 

Greetings!

Well, spring got here with a vengeance today.  Temps got into the low 80's(!) and we had sunshine all day.  Not everything was perfect though; I managed to break my reading glasses at the museum, so if this report has spelling errors, blame it on these back up Walgreen's cheapies!

The plan was to use the Lift to bring the locker up into Grasselli Tower's second floor through one of the unfinished windows.  When I arrived at the museum , the lift was down and Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were working on it.  This gave  me a chance to go over and plant a couple of iris's into one of the flower beds.  The other bed had the ties that were around it, moved and Bing was taking those old ties away.  More on that curious bit of info later.  The boys eventually got the Lift working again and then Steve Henrichs, Bud Tibbie, Kevin Kennedy and myself drove it over to the West Annex of the Shop and loaded it.  A fun job!  Drove back to the tower and got the LIft raised up to the second level and with Bud and Kevin inside and Steve and I on the lift itself, we managed to get the thing through  the window opening and onto the platform where an old wooden locker had once been.  I was too busy to take any photos of this actual work but here are a couple taken after the fact.  The first one shows the window opening that we used for the move. The second one shows Steve Henrichs standing in front of  the locker after it was moved into place.  About this time, Steve Newland arrived and he decided that, rather than putting a piece of plywood over the opening, he'd try to put a set of the window sashes that he had made previously into the opening and photo 3 shows his attempt.  Unfortunatlely he had measured these for one of the other window frames and thee were just a smidge too tight!  So, back to the drawing board and he and I then put a piece of plywood over the opening.  Now finished with the Lift, we turned it over to Joe Baker who was exchanging one of the old fluorescent parking lot lights with a new LED fixture, thus the removal of the old ties around the flower bed.  Bud went over and gave Joe a hand with this project.

Steve Henrichs touched up the paint on the locker and also painted the old table in the tower.

Joe Kingsbury continued work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.

Margett Cook made mostocolli for lunch with a salad and cake and ice cream for desert.

Meanwhile, the track gang decided to replace some additional ties in front of the depot and the fourth photo shows the gang later in the day . That's Mark Knebel with shovel in the foreground, with John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Dave Cook (left to right) in the background.  Kevin Kennedy also helped on this project.  Nine ties were installed, but some still have to be spiked down, a project to be finished another day.

Earlier in the day, GE number 11 was fired up to test for leaks.  The fifth photo shows John DeGan and Steve Newland having a discussion as the 11 sits outside the Shop.  In the sixth photo, Rich Warner checks the radiator just before the 11 is run back into the Shop.

Finally, it's no secret that HVRM is having problems with the current operator of the freight operation on the common carrier tracks and with the Town of North Judson itself.  For those who are members of the museum, Bob Barcus explained this on page 4 of the current (April) issue of the museum newsletter.  For those who aren't members, I've tried to make a photo of this last page and its shown in photo 7 of this report.

Keep your fingers crossed on this one.  There is the possibility that things will be a-changing at the museum. We hope not, but it could happen.

Les

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Slip sliding away to Hoosier Valley 4/9/16

Greetings!

Old Man Winter doesn't want to quit!  After a horrible weather day on Friday, woke up this morning to ice on the roadways.  Managed no more than 35 m.p.h. (mostly less than that) all the way to Starke County.  There was an 8:00 a.m. Board meeting, but needless to say, I arrived late!  Temps were in the low to mid 30's but a bright sun for most of the day, plus salt on the roads, finally managed to melt the slick conditions despite the bitter cold wind.

Spent a bit of time watching the gift shop in the depot as we had a light member turnout and Bob Barcus had to run to the bank to make some deposits.

Then went up to Grasselli Tower where I photographed the northwest corner (photo 1).  Steve Henrichs has his painted lockers ready to bring into the tower and through one of these windows is the way he wants to get it up to the second floor.  I talked to Cory Bennett in the afternoon about this and he didn't seem to know that this was the plan but said it probably could be done, providing the lockers fit through the window opening.  I measured and they do, providing they come in sideways.

I spent much of the morning, trying to get one of the levers in Grasselli pushed into the "back" position.  Finally managed to get it done, but it was a struggle.

Bud Tibbie invited me over to his house in North Judson  to see his newly acquired Milwaukee Road HO gauge S3 class Northern, number 265.  A beautiful engine to say the least.  And quite a layout that Bud has abuilding there. 

Was over at the West Annex of the Shop in the afternoon and found the work ongoing on Chicago & Eastern Illinois tool car #A-1054.  Here are some shots of the progress:

Photo 2 shows Joe Baker using one of our shop vacs to clean up some of the sawdust and dirt.

Photo 3 shows Joe Baker's "helper" Nick K. (sorry Nick, I already forgot your last name) finishing up some of the electrical work.

Photo 4 features Joe Kingsbury cutting one of the short supports, which are visible in the previous two photos.

Finally, in the 5th photo, the cage for the air conditioning unit is shown in one of the cars windows.  Some day we will be eating our summer lunches at the museum in cool comfort!

Mark Knebel was out cutting brush again today.

Sparky Byers and John LaOrange worked on GE diesel number 11.

More winter-like weather moving in tonight and into tomorrow.  Come on OId Man Winter....GIVE IT UP!

Les

  

       

 

Winter returns with a vengeance to Hoosier Valley 4/2/16

Greetings!

Old man winter decided to throw a red board (see photo 1) at Spring today at HVRM.  Temps in the low to mid 30's with a howling wind (gusts up to 50 m.p.h.) with snow squalls at times interspersed with sunshine.

Doug and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot and put away items from last Saturday's Easter trains.  The second photo shows Loretta up in the depots attic after Doug had handed her an Easter basket!

It had been decided to replace some of the bad ties in front of the depot, and the rest of the photos show the track gang at work.  The crew consisted of Dave Cook (medium gray hooded sweatshirt), Cory Bennett (red cap), Tom Rainford (dark cap), John La Orange (brown knit hat and tan hooded jacket) and Mark Knebel (light gray hooded sweatshirt).  Although the removal and placement of ties is now mechanical (our machine itself is interesting to operate), today we went back to spiking by hand.  Mark is in the last photo is shown with the spike maul in his hands, while Tom is in the background keeping the tie tight to the rail.  Mark did almost all the spiking of the seven ties before running out of steam.  Us old guys tried to give him some assistance with John La Orange putting in two spikes on the last tie and yours truly doing just one.  But Mark had to do the very last spike.  The wind was so bad that the railroad push cart (seen in the background in a couple of the photos), all of a sudden took off down the track and I had to go chase it before it ended up out on Main Street!

While we were doing track work, things were happening over in the Shop.  John DeGan tightened the screws on the engineers seat in S1 Alco # 310.  Sparky Byers replaced an oil line in GE diesel # 11.  Joe Kingsbury continued his work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  Bob Albert worked on the IC 9914 display caboose on which he finally had to close the door as the snow was blowing it too hard.  Margrett Cook made Sloppy Joes and other goodies for lunch.  And just for the record, the track crew wasn't the only work being done outside.  In the morning, Joe and Rich Warner worked on the air conditioning unit on the Long Island coach, # 2937.  Not a day for air conditioning, but Old Man Winter can't hold on forever!  Spring will win out in the end!

Have a great week everyone.

Les

        

Perfect Weather for Easter Trains 26 March 2016

Greetings to all.

 

Saturday dawn was nice, but cold, it did finally warmed up after the first run. I was assigned

as car host an enjoyed riding the EJ&E 184. Equipment for the train has been gone over for

any defects, an everything came up runnable. The KATY open air car was still out of service,

but mounted on the trucks once again. With over 450 eager riders on three trains was awaiting.

 

Engineers for the Easter train were John LaOrange, John DeGan, Conductor was Steve Hendricks

Many car hosts helped out with the cabooses an LIRR coach. Joe Kingsbury, Bud Tibble were in

full conductors uniforms an it made a nice touch to the visitors riding the coach. Randall was on

the open air car, Bob Albert was on a caboose,

 

The LIRR couch took some coaxing to get it started, but finally right before departure on the first

run it sprang to life. The heat was turned on an the coach warmed nicely for the folks inside.

On the cabooses the first run was on the chilly side, but the rest of the runs were nice an sunny

an warm.

 

Bob Barcus, Loretta Kosloske, Beth Lasayko all helped with ticketing an gift shop sales.

 

Helping at the park on IN 10, where the egg hunt was held, Louise Kingsbury with daughter an grandkids

helped with passing out Easter treats an grandkids as the Easter rabbit. Loretta Kosloske came out to

make sure all went as planned.

 

Lots of folks enjoyed the ride an had a great time. Over 450 adults/kids were booked on 3 trains

an the pictures show. Final picture was the Easter rabbit waving to the departing train back

to the depot. 

 

May 7th will be the beginning of the regular tourist season. Many projects continue over in the

shop building. Joe an Bud are working on the tool car putting up walls. Go check it out

sometime. The GE 11 is most likely put back together an running after taking out the oil

cooler, having it repaired. It was no easy job, but Sparky, Tom, Richard worked very hard

unbolting the oil cooler, taking it out with a winch up thru a side panel. It was taken down

to Seymour IN, south of INDY to drop it at a repair shop, Richard also went down to pick

it up. I did not see it replaced, but went back in the same way it came out an must

of been successful. Hopefully nothing else will come up with GE 11 in the coming season.

Matt Lasayko also worked on the signal system during the day, fixing multiple problems

with semaphore an light signals. Thanks Matt

 

Many thanks to all who helped out behind the scenes for the success of the Easter train.

 

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter

 

Tom