Greetings!
We had a strong wind today straight out of the north across a still very cold Lake Michigan. Temps were only in the low to mid 50's all day, and with winds of 25 to 30 m.p.h., temps felt like it was in the 30's. Still, we had our first regular day of operation with two guest engineers and our two regular trains at 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. The temps kept regular passenger numbers down, but our S1 Alco # 310 performed flawlessly. Engineer was Doug Kosloske with Mark Knebel and Bob Barcus handling conductor duties. Tom Rainford was a car host.
Last week's museum report included a photo of our recently repainted Purdue University crane. Mark continued his work on it this week, taping the lettering outline as shown in the first photo. Although he had already used two coats of yellow paint for the lettering, later in the day he applied an additional coat, as can be seen in the second photo. After the paint dries, he'll be able to remove the tape and then start on the lettering on the other side! Museum work is an ongoing project!
I managed to climb up into the cab of the 2789 today and after working a bit on the window tracks at the top of the cab window openings, I decided that the screws were pretty much rusted in place. I then tried the lower tracks and, as can be seen in the third photo, managed to remove one of those bolts pretty easily. A small victory! Unlike the top window tracks, these bottom ones are new and apparently were put in when the Kanawha's cab was repaired for the museum a number of years ago. Either the top or bottom tracks have to be removed in order to get the new windows in, and right now, I am pretty sure it's going to be the bottom tracks.
Rich Warner handled road crossing duties today although Bob Jachim and I managed to protect the Mulberry Street crossing near the depot.
In the 4th shot, Joe Kingsbury is shown starting on the building of the steps for Hoosier Valley kitchen/meeting car # K-325. The flat concrete floor is a good base to build these steps, exact measurements in relation to the car can be made, and work can done without weather worries. After the steps for the car are complete, they will be moved over to the future location of the car, east of the North Judson depot.
Joe Baker and helper Brian, are working on getting the electrical connections made for the future location of # K-325, and the "tunnel" under the tracks was put in today as can be seen in the fifth, sixth and seventh photos. The 5th photo shows the tube for the electic at the car location, the 6th some work being done where the line runs between two museum structures and the 7th shows the Witch Ditch after it was loaded back on the companies trailer.
The 8th photo shows Cory Bennett (in the Payloader), John La Orange (background) and David Cook (at right), as they look for switch components from our stock. The switch is to go on to the track that was recently swung around to get it lined up for the track going in to the West Annex of the Shop building. The last photo shows two pieces that were eventually found and placed in the approximate location of that switch.
Have a great week everyone. Spring temps will eventually get here....or so I've been told!
Les
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