The track less travelled and hot temps at Hoosier Valley June 24 and 25, 2016

 

Greetings!

Temp got up to 94 degrees at HVRM today, Saturday, June 25th.  Quite a bit better yesterday when they were in the low 80's.  Why mention yesterday (Friday, 6/24)?  Well, the Big Train Operators Club convention was being held this weekend in La Porte, Indiana and two busloads came down to tour the museum on Friday, and ride the train to La Crosse.  Except of course, that we can't currently operate to La Crosse, being limited to travel just to the west of the Kankakee River near English Lake.  This led to some interesting Hoosier Valley train operations for the BTOC.  The museum decided to depart EAST from the North Judson depot to just short of State Route 10/39, then go back west through the switch behind our shop on the old Chesapeake & Ohio main line, then head east out the old C&O around the curve and short of the end of track before heading back west to English Lake.  I believe that this is the first HVRM passenger train operation over the old C&O east of North Judson.  The first photo shows EL Alco # 310 pushing west on the C&O just after clearing the Main Street crossing where I had been performing flagging duties (note the regular museum rail line off to the right with the depot in the distance).   I jumped in my minivan and quickly headed west and managed to catch a shot after the 310 had just finished crossing Mulberry Street on the C&O where Bob Jachim is seen walking away after flagging that particular crossing.  BTW, the flashers at both Mulberry Street and Main Street worked, although they had not been used in quite some time.

The third photo shows John DeGan watching the BCOT folks after their arrival at the depot from English Lake .  The fourth shot shows Mark Knebel (left) and John La Orange providing assistance for one of the detraining passengers.  In all, Loretta Kosloske said that 62 BTOC members rode the special operation.  Thanks to all of the HVRM members who came out to help on the weekday.  The help was greatly appreciated.

Work got back to normal at the museum today despite the hot temps.  A group is shown in the 5th photo, working on the GE and the plans for the day included pulling the injectors in an effort to find the leak.  That's Todd Flanigan up on the hood of the 95-tonner.

Mark Knebel and Jason Ciastko put in some ties out near Main Street on the museum trackage.     

I managed to get four photos of Grasselli put up in the tower, as shown in the last photo.

Both trains ran on Saturday.

Stay cool this week as best you can!

Les    

   

Short trip to Ohio and some items of railroad interest

Greetings -

Betty and I travelled to Cleveland this past weekend to catch a White Sox game against the Indians at Progressive Field.  The less said about that game, the better!  Did manage to see some interesting railroad items at times.  Including some Norfolk Southern and IC/CN action from a seat at a Steak and Shake outside of Goshen, Indiana and also passing a beautiful two track signal bridge with a bevy of signals on a rail line just south of Toledo, Ohio.  Also managed a few photos of items along the way as per the attached, which perhaps you may find of some interest.

The first three photos show the old diminutive Nickel Plate Road depot in Waterville, Ohio which was once used by the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western tourist railroad for their trains to Grand Rapids, Ohio.  Recently that group has retrenched to Grand Rapids itself, and no longer runs to Waterville.  Supposedly the depot is still owned by NS and is considered "unused".  Note that there is no entry into the building from the platform and passengers apparently had to enter through a door in the rear.  Would be a shame if the neat structure and its classic train order board were not eventually preserved.

The fourth photo shows a Norfolk and Western class CG steel cupola caboose lettered for the Wabash Railroad at Whitehouse, Ohio.  The old Wabash right-of-way through Whitehouse is now a bike trail but the town folks have installed a building roughly resembling the original depot next to the trail, with this N&W caboose on display near that structure.  Although the Wabash did buy some old wood cupola cabooses back in the 1930's from the N&W, this caboose (NW #518388) was never a genuine Wabash caboose.  Still, nice to see that the railroads heritage is still remembered in Whitehouse.

Finally, I photographed this old New York Central caboose many years ago on private property just off of U.S. 20 east of Angola, Indiana.  I thought that being outside, it would deteriorate rather quickly, but that has obviously not been the case.  The paint may not be quite the right shade, but overall, the caboose still looks pretty good.  Kudos to the private owner of this wooden classic. 

Les    

    

North Judson Mint Festival Weekend. 18/19 June 2016

Greetings to All,
 
Too start off it was one HOT weekend in NJ, but other parts of the country
was at extreme heat. I was not at HVRM Saturday, due to another commitment.

Seems to had some ballast stone taken some where on the Erie line Saturday.

 

Both days were North Judson Mint Festival, the type that burn your feet off on

the hot asphalt. I tend to stay off that hot surfaces now. Sunday dawned again
 hot an humid. When I arrived, the C&O 2789 was pulled outside for viewing,

GE #11 was on the house track outside the north side of the shop. EL 310 had

already performed two guest engineers duty in the morning. The tourist train,

was already made up, sitting at the depot with the coach A/C running to cool

the car down inside.

 

Both days count was over 120 riders. I was a car host on the MKT open air car,

along with Randall Downs an son Matt. Joe Kingsbury an Bib Tibbie. Conductor

Doug Koslosoke, enginners Bjarne Henderson, John LaOrange. Bob Albert performed

road crossing duties for both runs. Mark Knebel was off working on the Erie line.

Bob Barcus an Loretta Kosloske manned the depot gift shop. New members, Jason,

an his wife also assisted on the train an in the gift shop.

Railroad north of the Kankakee river still blocked with grain cars.

 

At the end of the operations, the tie tamper was switched to be able to get out

of the shop during the week, most likely for some tie tamping with fresh ballast

along the Erie line. Friday is a special run for the Big Train Operators Club holding

its convention in La Porte, (G scale). the club will arrive at 8:30am an train ride will

be at 10 am. Car hosts an volunteers for various places around the museum, Grasselli

tower, shop buildings etc. Come out an volunteer. Hope to see you this coming

weekend.

 

Finally the weather is more tolerable heat wise, but drink plenty of water.

 

Tom Travis

To Hot For A Shot at Hoosier Valley 6/11/16

Greetings -

Temps well into the 90's today which limited extracurricular activities at the museum.  I showed up a bit past 7:30 and passed out TEAM PORTER #6 caps to certain individuals.  These caps came courtesy of Sammy King in appreciation for help in moving 0-4-2T number 6 last year, from the museum to Colorado, where Sammy resides.

Board meeting with various items discussed.

After the meeting, I headed over to Grasselli Tower where I opened windows, turned on the fan and puttered about all day.   Hot, but out of the sun at least.  Steve Henrichs wanted me to put some photos up of Grasselli when it was still in East Chicago, Indiana.   Never got around to doing that, but the photos will eventually get put up.  One of them was very interesting; showed the tower in 1928 with a steam locomotive about to roll by.  What was interesting about that particular photo is that it showed three windows next to the second floor door, whereas Grasselli now has only two windows in that location.  From some blackened support 2 x 4's we found when the tower was apart during its move to North Judson, we know that there was a fire at one time.  Obviously it wasn't bad enough to lose the building, which was obviously repaired.  The three window arrangement was most likely replaced when the fire occurred and now we at least know that it happened some time after the 1928 photo.

Had a number of visitors during the day and between them and the heat, I never made it around the museum.  So not sure what else was going on.  I heard that John LaOrange continued his work on GE number 11.  And of course, we ran both trains with John Degan, Steve Henrichs and Bob Albert handling engineer/conductor duties with Tom Rainford and Randall Downs acting as car hosts.  There were also a couple of guest engineers in the morning.

Supposed to be a roller coaster temperature ride this week.  Enjoy, if you can, the summer temps that are coming in a little early!

Les

Photos from Hoosier Valley 6/4/16

Greetings to all,
 
Arrived late at the museum, as I was running behind. Les had arrived earlier and had done a few
things. I moved over to the depot for awhile an was talking to a friend from the Ham Radio community
who was going to take a ride on the train later. Doug came in an asked me to be the road crossing
guard, since Mark was on another job of mowing grass with the John Deere tractor. So at 12:30pm
the first train left the depot, flagged all the way to English Lake. Repeated same at 2:30pm.

Photo 1  -  Joe Baker installed this voltage meter this morning to check on the status of the battery in the B&LE caboose.

Photo 2  -  We were asked to furnish the type of paint used in painting our IC caboose.  We try to accommodate, but this photo shows the problem!

 

Cliff Deal from St Francisville LA sent me an e-mail that his group was restoring a 1972 IC caboose an wanted

a match for the Pumpkin color. They have been following our web site on the progress of restoring

our IC caboose. Alas Joe Kingsbury who keeps all the codes for the paint of the restored equipment

at HVRM came to the rescue an passing along the Sherwin Williams Brand of orange. Thanks much

Joe.

Photo 3  -  G.E. oil/water leak; still looking!, Cory was not at the museum to lead on the

search

Photo 4  -  Tom Rainford filling depressions in the ballast after recent tamping job done with our donated U.P. Tamper.

Les Beckman assisted earlier on this job.

 

Most of HVRM members were assisting with train operations. Bob Barcus an Lorretta Koslovske

were working inside the depot.

 

Not many tourist riders today. Randall Downs was on the open air car. Joe Kingsbury was on

the LIRR coach. Les left earlier as had things to do Saturday. I stuck around till about 4pm,

helped closing shop doors an then stayed for some conversation.

 

Board meeting Saturday morning at 8am. Next weekend is Mint Festival in North Judson with lots

of activities downtown.

 

As most of HVRM members received the news letter, on the back page is a letter from our

lawyer stating that INDOT supports HVRM an this should of not happened with CKIN.

 

The membership of HVRM stands resolute for a new, more responsible railroad operator,

in as much that the new operator shall assure the continued success of the museum's operation.

 

Going to be a very hot weekend, so drink plenty of water. Hope to see you at HVRM....

 

Tom Travis