Wind and snow at Hoosier Valley 12/9/17

 

Greetings!

A wicked wind and blowing snow made for a not-particularly-pleasant day at HVRM today although the Board still managed to have an early morning meeting.   Despite the weather, we managed to run all 3 Santa trains without a hitch.  The miserable conditions (especially north and east of the museum) found a few folks unable to make it to North Judson and ticket agent Loretta Kosloske will try to accommodate those folks with future ride compensation, where possible.  John DeGan was engineer on the Alco for all 3 runs and the conductor and car host jobs were rotated amongst Steve Henrichs, Joe Kingsbury, Bud Tibbie, Bob Barcus, Stephen Bulla and Bob Albert.  Others involved with operations included Tom Rainford, Mark Knebel, Bob Jachim, Doug Kosloske, Bjarne Henderson and yours truly.

The first photo shows Tom Rainford at left, doing some snow shoveling at the depot while Bob Jachim (at right) had just finished clearing the station platform.  The snow plastered against the stations train order board gives you an idea as to the wicked, blowing snow that museum members put up with most of the day.

Although Mark Knebel was out providing crossing protection for all three trains today, he still had time in between runs to continue work on C&NW boxcar # 284 as can be seen in the second shot.

Bob Albert framed some additional photos of Grasselli Tower, and Tom Rainford and I managed to get them put up in the tower today.

Long time member Dan Siple stopped by today.  Good to see Dan.

Kevin Kennedy had painted the hood on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332 in the morning, and proudly posed next to his work in photo number 3 in the West Annex of the Shop.

Margrett Cook provided a lunch of mostaccioli and garlic bread with a side of chili, along with chocolate chip cookies for desert. 

In the fourth photo, John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Tom Rainford (left to right) are show after lunch drilling one of the eight holes needed in the new cow catcher (people pusher) plate necessary for the earlier mentioned ND&W diesel.  After the holes were completed, John, Kevin and Cory are shown in the 5th photo as they prepare to transport the plate over to the 5332.  In the 6th shot, the plate is show being lifted into place.

Finally, in the 7th photo taken through the depots ticket window bars, Loretta is shown at her computer after the last train of the day had departed for its appointment with Santa!

Enjoy the week everyone.  Winter is surely here!

Les  

     

Last 2017 passenger operations at HVRM 12/16/17

 

Greetings!

Nice sunny day for mid-December at Hoosier Valley today and all three Santa trains were operated at planned capacities.  John DeGan and Bjarne Henderson shared engineer duties, Steve Henrichs was the conductor with Joe Kingsbury and Bob Albert car hosting in Long Island coach # 2937.  Tom Rainford handled the county road flagging duties for all three trains.

Mark Knebel continued work on the C&NW box car and finished the painting on "The Overland Route" slogan.  He also patched some pin holes in the roof of C&NW # 284.

GE number 11 was on standby and the first photo shows her idling outside the museum Shop building.

Bob Jachim stated that our TTO double semaphore signal was not operating properly this morning and the signals were shut down.  I checked it out a bit later and things were fine.  Perhaps a bit of ice got into the mechanism and  the sunny 40 degree temps warmed things up.  Anyway, the signals worked properly during train operations.

Last week, the guys put the "people plate" on one end of the ND&W Porter diesel, and this week, a crew consisting of Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Kevin Kennedy and John La Orange measured, drilled holes and then got the plate on the OTHER end of ND&W # 5332 installed (see photo number 2).  This moves the Porter just a bit closer to operation.

Todays trains end the 2017 passenger season at HVRM.  The 3rd photo shows Doug Kosloske offering help to detraining passengers from the last train,after its arrival back at the North Judson depot.  Thanks to everyone who had a hand in the museums train operations this season.  Your help was greatly appreciated.  WELL DONE!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Enjoy the holidays!

Les

    

The Masahiko C0. Ltd, is greatly in need of an individual who can handle its Account from its customers/client in Canada or USA.

 

Regards,

Jim Park

Great weather for December at Hoosier Valley 12/2/17

 

Greetings -

Sunny December day with temps in the mid-50's!  Great weather for the first day of Santa trains!

Alco 310 was the power for all 3 sold-out trains today.  Engineer was Steve Henrichs, conductor Doug Kosloske, student conductor Stephen Bulla, car host for two trains was Bud Tibbie and for the other train was Loretta Kosloske.  Mark Knebel did the morning track inspection using the motor car (photo 1) and then flagged the country road crossings for all 3 trains (Steve Henrichs is also in the photo as he had just thrown the Shop switch so that Mark could put the motor car away for the day).    I helped Santa a little bit and also provided Mulberry Street flagman protection, as did Bob Jachim and Bob Albert.

Loretta's decorated Christmas tree in the depot is shown in the second photo.  Loretta and Bob Barcus handled depot duties today. 

Mark continued to work on the lettering on the C&NW box car this week.

We also received a truck load of composite ties earlier this week, as seen in the 3rd photo.

A few extra members would be welcome the next two Saturdays to handle the Santa trains.  If you can make it, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!   Enjoy the unseasonable warm weather while it lasts!

Les   

     

  

A short After-Thanksgiving report for Hoosier Valley 11/25/17

 

Greetings!

Late arrival at the museum today due to late family departure from home.  A lot of members took this Saturday as they celebrated the Thanksgiving 2017 weekend.

Crew were switching cars around when I arrived, getting set for our Santa trains which start next Saturday.  Doug Kosloske was engineer on the Alco S1 diesel today with Steve Henrichs the conductor.  All 3 weekends of the trains with Santa, are sold out! 

Today was not quite as warm as yesterday, but still not bad for this time of year.  Temp stayed just about at 50 degrees with sunshine all day!

Loretta Kosloske is shown in photo number 1 as she tried to get the decorations out of the bag for the depot Christmas tree.  Looked great after she finished up the decorating!  Photo later.

The second photo shows Mark Knebel in front of the completed "Route of the 400 Streamliners" slogan which is on one side of C&NW box car # 284.  Mark later worked on the other side of the car, which has been moved in to the West Annex of the Shop.  That move enables Mark to use the green lift on that side of the car.  He says that using ladders creates havoc on his legs and the green lift can now be used due to the concrete floor in the West Annex.

I decided to try to put some paint on a section of the C&NW 284's roof walk, that Bob Albert had cleaned up a few weeks ago.  Moved a section in to the West Annex and put some of the cardboard down to shield the floor (photo 3).  The end result wasn't too bad (photo 4), although it's only partially finished.

Meanwhile, Joe Kingsbury (5th photo) and Kevin Kennedy (final photo), continued cleaning the old paint and rust off of  the Porter diesel.

On the way home, I stopped in the depot and Doug showed me a copy of the most recent copy of the magazine "Bus Tours".  An HVRM train running through snow during one of our Santa trains of a few years ago, made the cover!  FAME!

Have a great week everyone!

Les

 

Rain, wind and work at Hoosier Valley 11/18/17

 

Greetings -

Very rainy all day today with the winds increasing as the day went on.  Temps were in the mid-40's and then slowly fell.  Meanwhile, work went on at the museum.

The first photo shows a cap made for HVRM in celebration of the ongoing work on Chicago and & North Western boxcar # 284.  Neat cap!

Speaking of C&NW # 284, Mark Knebel has continued working on the lettering in the East Annex of the Shop building.  The second shot shows the nearly finished lettering on the side of the car with the "400 Streamliners" lettering.  Mark has another coat of white paint to apply on the "400" part.   Looking sharp!  The third photo shows Mark masking some of the smaller lettering before spraying.

Meanwhile, Joe Kingsbury was up on the top of ND&W # 5332, removing old paint as shown in the 4th photo.  Note that some of the Porter diesel has now been primed.

There was supposed to be a membership/business meeting today, but the raw weather kept some members home and a Quorum was not present.  Those that were in attendance had a long discussion on the possibility of securing some composite ties. 

Finally, John LaOrange, Rich Warner and Cory Bennett worked on the oil pump on G.E. diesel # 11.  The fifth photo shows John working on the pump while Rich observes from below.  The pump was eventually removed, fixed and was being reinstalled in the unit when I left for home.

Have a good week everyone.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Les

Smaller rewards are good too, at Hoosier Valley 11/4/17

Subject: Smaller rewards are good too, at Hoosier Valley 11/4/17

 

Greetings!

No trains today at HVRM.  That and drizzle with hard rain at times, kept member participation down.  Still, the rewards for smaller projects are satisfying too!

Last week, the K-325 table car was worked on in an effort to find the leak.  That was a success, but the car had to be put back together today.  The first photo shows what was done as David Cook at left and Tom Rainford wait while Cory Bennett is over at the Shop getting the necessary tools for the work.  Job done by lunch!  In the background, Doug Kosloske (at left) discusses operations with Student Conductor Stephen Bulla.

Speaking of lunch, the menu today was chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and green beans, along with desert.  Thanks to Margrett Cook.

Loretta Kosloske handled all of the depot duties today.

After the last Pumpkin Train last week, Chicago and North Western box car # 284 was moved into the East Annex of the Shop and though temps were in the 40's today, it was still warm enough for Mark Knebel to continue working on the cars lettering as shown in the second and third photos.

Last week, Tom Rainford and I managed to get the three window frames into the engineers window on Kanawha # 2789, even though a "sticking-up-bolt", caused us some headaches.  Today I worked on the fireman's window and the bolt on that side is shown in photo number 4.  Before work even began, I cut that sucker off!  Tom and I eventually managed to get the lower window channel sill removed and the windows in, although these channels too are tight and they will also have to be cleaned up before the frames can be successfully open and closed.  One of the original upper channels on the fireman's side had a screw missing making it loose and not in its proper track.   Looked for some time through the Shop, never figuring I'd find a replacement screw, and of the two possibilities I did find, I had no hope that either would work.  The first one was horribly off, but the second one actually went in and the channel is now secured.  Eureka!  Made my day!

Last week, Bob Albert took one of our blue flags and did some straightening on it (apparently someone had run over it in the past).   Bob took it home and "Rube Goldberged" it.  Today, Cory welded it to make it solid.  So the trash can in the 5th shot is strictly a support for Bob's spray painting and NOT where the flag will end up!  We need every blue flag we can get!

Speaking of Bob Albert, he recently made some new chains to throw under the drivers of 2-8-4 # 2789 when it is parked and a couple are shown in the 6th photo.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Les

  

 

Coal Stove

Gents,

Here are four pictures of Dennis Sloane in front of his coal stove in the IC Caboose

that Dennis owns. Imagine going down the line with a coal stove in one of HVRM's

cabooses.

Staying warm on a cold day

 

Gents,

My caboose was on the train last weekend because the ARCHES caboose group from St. Louis was coming up to ride behind 401 and they had requested two cabooses on the train.  They had reserved both cabooses for the 12:30 trip.  I was Conductor last Saturday and we had a good day, almost 400 for 4 trips.  It rained a little on the first trip but the rest of the day was fine.  Last weekend was the last time for 401 to run this year.  I was scheduled to be Flagman on the train today and when I got to MRM this morning my caboose was still in the consist.  It was cold all day and we didn't have any heat in any of the cars but I did have a coal stove and plenty of coal in my caboose so I thought I would warm things up a little bit.  When the word got out that I had a fire in the stove in my caboose it suddenly got quite poplar. 

Dennis Sloane MRM

Little bit of everything at Hoosier Valley 10/28/17

 

Greetings!

We had a little rain, some snow showers, a peak or two at the sun and cold temps all day today at Hoosier Valley.

A bunch of the guys did a number of tasks as they tried to find and repair the leak in HVRM table/meeting car # K-325.

With the weather turning colder, Mark Knebel has put a hold on the lettering of Chicago and North Western PS-1 box car # 284.  While the weather was still good, he managed to get the informational data put on the car (photo 1).  Eventually, he wants the car put into the West Annex of the Shop building, which is heated.  Right now, the Porter Notre Dame & Western diesel occupies part of the track space back there.  Hopefully, some shuffling will eventually be done and C&NW 284 will get switched in.

As part of that project, the roof walk will have to be put back on.  The second photo shows Bob Albert doing some clean up work on those parts.  Earlier in the morning, Rich Warner had welded a section of one of the roof walk ends back together as it had somehow broken off.  This roof walk job will be done after C&NW 284 is put into the Shop.

Rich and Joe Kingsbury were in the West Annex working on the Porter diesel and the 3rd photo shows Rich removing some rusted steel from the cab.  After lunch, Tom Rainford came over and helped Rich and Joe out and the 4th shot shows Tom doing some of that clean up work.

Speaking of lunch, Margrett Cook provided meat loaf, potatoes and corn for lunch today.

Bob Barcus worked in the gift shop while Loretta Kosloske handled tickets.  Today was the day for the Not-So-Scary/Scary animal show, with train departure at 4:00 p.m.   Loretta also rode the train out to the museum spot where the show was held.  Erie Lackawanna  Alco # 310 was motive power today, but GE # 11 was fired up and stood by as back up power.  Doug Kosloske was engineer for this twilight train, with Bjarne Henderson as conductor.  Steve Henrichs was engineer for number 11 with John LaOrange as fireman.  There was some problem with the oil pressure on the GE, but eventually John and Rich were able to find the problem.

I spent the day working on trying to get the three frames into one of the windows of Kanawha # 2789.  It took me much of the day to get the grooved steel window track removed but I finally was able to get it done.  Had some other problems but eventually managed to get the three frames into the engineers window.  The fifth photo shows the frames in place but much still needs to be done including grinding the original upper window track to removed some of the roughness so that the frames will slide better.  After that is done, then the frames will need to be removed again so that glass can be inserted into the currently empty places.  Now that the 2789 stays inside on Saturdays, this project can get going again.

Finally, as I was getting set to head for home after the train had left, I happened to walk past the Porter diesel.  I had mentioned in previous museum reports, that Joe had needle scaled one side of the cab, and I noticed that this old paint removal has exposed the USA that had been painted over after Notre Dame purchased the unit as U.S. Army surplus.  The sixth photo shows that USA lettering.   Can you see it?

There will be no train operations now until December and the Santa Trains, except for miscellaneous switching.  Supposed to be cool next week with high temps in the 40's and 50's, all below average.  Try to stay warm, and have a great week!

Les 

   

Enjoying it while it lasts at Hoosier Valley 10/21/17

 

Greetings!

Great weather for late October today in North Judson for the final Saturday of Pumpkin Patch trains.  All 3 trains were well filled with the overflow caboose EL # C345 being used on the first two trains. 

Earlier this week, Bud Tibbie, Cory Bennett, Rich Warner and Tom Rainford went to Harvey, Illinois to pick up some donated items arranged for by Bud.  The first three photos show the items after they brought to the museum and put in the West Annex of the Shop.  They will be used!

Operating crew for today included Doug Kosloske at the throttle of EL S-1 Alco # 310.  Student conductor Stephen Bulla was running the show although conductor Bob Albert was on hand.  Various folks doing car host duties at times today including Tom Rainford, Bud Tibbie, Jim Vosberg, Kevin Kennedy, John DeGan and yours truly.  Bob Jachim was the Mulberry Street flagman while Mark Knebel covered flagman duties out on the roads away from North Judson.  Bing Risley flagged Main Street today.  Bob Barcus was in the gift shop with Loretta Kosloske covering tickets.  Loretta was also out at the pumpkin patch being ably assisted by David Cook, Cory Bennett, Tom Travis, Louise Kingsbury and John La Orange.  Margrett Cook prepared lunch for the gang.  

Last week we mentioned a leak in the roof of the museum's table/meeting car # K-325.  John La Orange thinks he may have found the area that is leaking and the fourth photo shows him putting asphalt on the suspected spot.

The 5th shot shows Joe Baker and Brian Elkins using the man lift to do some additional electrical work.

Meanwhile, it was discovered that a few of the recent boards put into the new depot platform, did not have screws in every joist.  The sixth photo shows Bob Jachim taking care of that little problem.

It was warm enough today, with temps moving into the mid to upper 70's, that a recharging of the air conditioning unit under Long Island coach # 2937 was necessary.  The last photo shows Rich Warner (orange hat) and Mark Knebel doing the work after the first of the three trains had arrived back at the depot.

Todd Flanigan, John DeGan and Bjarne Henderson were here for and engineer update today.  While at the museum, Todd found the stencils he had made some years ago for C&NW boxcar # 284.  Great news!  Mark had put the small informational lettering on the car this past week.    

Next Saturday will be the Halloween Special with departure from the North Judson depot at 4:00 p.m. Central Time.  With the late return to the depot, this is the only scheduled train at Hoosier Valley that operates after dark.  Doug Kosloske will have the Pennsy marker lights fired up on the Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose!

Enjoy your week everyone.  Our warm weather is due to end this week with some days seeing high temps in the 50's.  Well, we knew is was going to happen sometime!  Stay warm!

Les

Successfully avoiding the rain at HVRM's second Pumpkin Train day!

 

Greetings -

I wasn't at the museum last Saturday, so no report.  Today, there was a Board meeting in the museum's table meeting car # K-325.  Ladder up to the roof.  Apparently there is some kind of leak.  Dave Cook and John La Orange were spreading tar on possible roof leak sites at times during the day.

Mark Knebel continued his work on Chicago and North Western box car # 284 (see first photo).

Pumpkin trains went well, with all 3 trains running near capacity.  Loretta Kosloske reported 594 riders!   Most members were involved in some way, with the operation of those trains.  Here is a list of those who helped:

Train crew:  Bjarne Henderson (engineer), Steve Henrichs (conductor), Stephen Bulla (student conductor)

Depot crew:  Loretta Kosloske and Jim Vosberg (tickets), Bob Barcus (gift shop)

Car hosts:  Joe Kingsbury, Tom Rainford, Bud Tibbie, Les Beckman, Doug Kosloske

Road flagmen:  Bob Jachim, Mark Stanek, Bob Albert

Pumpkin patch:  Dave Cook, Craig Bennett, John La Orange, Rich Warner, Loretta Kosloske

It was a hectic day, and I probably have missed a few folks.  My apologies for that.

The wheelchair lift on EJ&E transfer caboose # 184, was very busy today, with a number of visitors using it.  This lift remains a terrific museum asset!

The first two runs were operated normally, but thunderstorms were moving in just before the third trains departure, so instead of going to the pumpkin patch AFTER the passenger run, it was decided to go to the pumpkin patch FIRST, and then do the train ride.  This was a great decision because the rain did not start until the train had left the patch and was  heading back toward the depot and English Lake.  The second photo shows this third train pushing back toward the depot with the PRR position signal giving a clear board! That's conductor Steve Henrichs elbow on the platform of B&LE caboose # 1989.

The rain really came down hard AFTER the equipment was stored on the caboose track, so we avoided the worst of it!

Joe Kingsbury had someone make a drawing of the number that will appear on C&O Kanawha # 2789.  I unrolled the effort once I got home and the result is shown in the 3rd photo.  I now have to get a stencil cut from this info.

Don Nickel dropped off a CD of 765 on a photo freight when the Nickel Plate Berk was here at HVRM a few years ago.

Thanks to Joe and Don for the above. 

On the way home, I spotted 4 covered hoppers spotted for CFS at their unloading area on CKIN located west of m.p. 218 (see photo number 4).  A bit further down the line, near the intersection of Bigler Road and 2200 S, sat a CKIN GP-38 (last photo).

One more pumpkin train Saturday to go!   Hope everyone has a great week.

Les