Springlike day at Hoosier Valley 1/21/17

 

Greetings!

Our amazingly spring like temps continued at HVRM today, with temps getting up to 65 degrees and sunshine most of the day.  Not bad for the middle of January!   We will take it...and hope that Old Man Winter isn't going to drop the boom on us in the near future!

Pizza was secured and furnished to the membership today for lunch.

Annual meeting day at the museum and, because of a scheduling conflict, we were not able to hold the meeting at the North Judson Library as we have been doing for quite a few years now.  So instead, we had the meeting on the new concrete floor of the  West Annex of the Shop Building.   The first photo shows the gathered membership with the Board members sitting at the table in the front.  From left to right we have Director Joe Kingsbury, President Cory Bennett, Vice President Doug Kosloske (who is reading the minutes from the previous membership meeting) and Director Bob Albert.  Three of the Board members were not present for various reasons.

We won't report here on the various goings on at the meeting except to say that the membership approved a negative operating budget for 2017.  The projected income covered the projected expenditures, but projected legal services brought the budget to the negative side.  The museum has adequate funds on hand, to cover this red ink.

One other thing I should mention is that Loretta Kosloske presented the proposed 2017 train schedule.  Most of this is the same as was done this past year and reflects again only being able to operate as far west as English Lake.

Because of the Annual meeting, activities were subdued but Joe Baker and helper were doing electrical work in C&EI work car # A-1054 including the installation of the first ceiling fan in the car.  Joe Kingsbury also continued working on one of the end ramps of the car after the meeting ended, as seen in the second photo.

On the way home on Bigler Road this afternoon, I spotted a string of 14 MQRX covered hopper cars sitting on the old C&O main line just to the east of milepost 219 and the CFS unloading area (third photo).  My guess is that these aren't cars of fertilizer but are instead, storage cars, as there was another much longer string of MQRX hoppers (and a few box cars) to the east of La Crosse on the ex-C&O main.  The current operator continues to secure income from the rail line!

Hope everyone enjoys the great weather and has a wonderful week.

Les   

Chilly 30 degree day at Hoosier Valley January 14, 2017

Greetings!

Mid-January and a cold day at HVRM.  Not quite as bad as some places around the country as an ice storm is hitting the plains and the midwest this weekend, after depositing heavy rains again in California.  The ice is supposed to hit central and southern Indiana but we will apparently be spared up here in the northern part of the state.

I finally managed to get over to North Judson today in time to attend the morning Board meeting.  Found out that the members had already been hard at work, fixing holes in the State Routes 10 and 39 crossing of museum trackage.   

Interesting Board meeting with a number of items brought up including a long discussion on future museum plans.  Next Satuday will be the Annual business meeting of the membership.  Because the Library room had been booked, we will hold the meeting in the West Annex of the Shop on the new concrete floor.  This part of the building is insulated and, with our large wood furnace providing heat, should provide a comfortable environment for the meeting.

I spent most of the morning going through various records in Secretary Mark Knebel's office, looking for a blue print of our steam locomotive; 2-8-4 # 2789.  Found a lot of papers, but unfortunately, not what I was looking for.

Due to the relatively light turnout, we secured fried chicken and home made potato salad from the Blue Jay restaurant for lunch.  YUM!

Members in attendance today included all of the Board members, Cory Bennett, Doug Kosloske, Bob Albert, Bob Barcus, John LaOrange, Mark Knebel and Joe Kingsbury.  Also guests Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy, Rich Warner, Loretta Kosloske, Tom Rainford and yours truly.

Others at the museum today included Bing Risley, Dan O'Barski and Tom Royce.

Tom Rainford told me that he and Jason Ciastko had spent about 5 hours cleaning out the old coal pieces and coal dust from ND&W Porter diesel # 5332 on January 7th.  A dirty job to say the least, but the Porter is now a lot cleaner! 

Joe Kingsbury is nearing completion on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  I've included some photos I took in the afternoon, before we broke and headed for home (some members live in central Indiana and wanted to try to beat the ice storm's arrival).  The first photo shows one end of the car and the second one shows the opposite end, with Joe down at the end doing some work. Joe is shown in the third photo with his sledge, working on the old sloped platform.

Please consider coming to the museum's  Annual Meeting next Saturday.  It will start at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.  Early weather reports call for a rather balmy day in the 50's!  Let's hope the weathermen have it right, but whether they end up being correct or not, the meeting will be held.  Your attendance would be welcomed!

Have a great week!

Les