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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