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