Saturday June 9th, HVRM Doing Tie Replacement on Storage Track

Les,    

          Here are a couple of pictures I took today.  Bjarne washing the troop car . Kevin, John, Dave, Cory,

Mark installing 63 ties and Mark getting  68 more ready to install.

Greeting to all,

Another hot day at HVRM today, but did not keep the tie replacement team

from doing their job. Tom Rainford provided the photos for the report today.

I have sent a couple of other items of interest to the HVRM RESTORATION

Page blog. Just google it, should come up. One picture sent by Mark Knebel

shows the repainted GTW 75072 caboose an the Purdue crane in the background.

Both pieces of equipment have been repainted recently. The PRR flat car has

been pulled around to the #2 track outside the shop. Some shuffling of equipment

Saturday ended up with the 2 cabooses an open air car being sent to the end

of the turntable track lead. Mark did not say what he is going to do with the

PRR flat car, maybe letter it? Oh the GTW caboose was moved back to the

run around track at the west end of the equipment. Joe Kingsbury said that

there is no reason that the newly rebuilt dining car can't be pulled out of the

building. He had a couple of boards to paint, but is ready. I finally looked

over the new power panel Joe Baker installed for power for the kitchen car

an dining car an other outlets for other applications. Maybe Les can get

some pictures next week of it.

I'm getting ahead of myself. At 8am HVRM had a board meeting well attended.

Many items were discussed including the North Judson town meeting the

prior Monday. More awareness is building in the community as to get CKIN

to remove himself from the railroad an get the new operator signed. Also

I passed along some other PDF's HVRM RESTORATION PAGE blog that

have been news lately. La Crosse posted in a local paper that removal of

CKIN is needed. Projects include replacing ties in storage track with 2nd

rollover ties that were received the Monday before. Talk of Grasselli getting

estimates of getting outside replacement of siding an closing off windows

on the lower floor. A couple of windows upstairs need to be replaced, also

window sills. Roof needs replacing an possible replacement eventually also.

Estimates are needed on that issue. Again it is a long term project. The

reefer sheds were talked about, the person donating aluminum siding,

for his name, has said that he has moved some more stuff out of the way

an is getting closer to the metal all the time. Again a project that will be

done when we have time. Small work crews can only do so much. Hard workers

do it as fast as possible. Jim Mennis again supplied morning doughnuts for

early arrivals. Thanks again.

Operations started after the meeting of a couple of guest engineers

prior to the tourist train.  Margret had a good lunch avail to everyone,

BBQ on a bun, hot beans, salad, cottage cheese, veggies, an to top it off

homemade ice cream. All the windows an doors were open with a nice breeze

blowing thru, but will be OH SO BETTER when the newly rebuilt dining car

is out. FYI, the lunch money that Margret has been collecting for years has

been paying for the materials gone into the new car. Give Margret a BIG

THANKS next time you see her. Train riders for the 12:30pm train was 29.

2 pm train was on the verge of being put away, when 4 passengers showed

up at 1:55pm. No problem, the train ran, an the kids were thrilled to ride.

The pictures are self explanatory, but give a good picture of ongoing activites.

The annual fish fry at the Volunteer Fire Dept was held at 4:30pm an it was

mobbed. The trucks had to go out during the dinner for some reason, but returned

quickly. The local fire dept deserves a lot credit for protecting the community against

fire issues in an out of town.

Mint Fest is on next weekend, HVRM will be offering train rides both Saturday

an Sunday. Please come out an help if possible. Train crew was Bjarne Henderson

engineer, Bob Albert Conductor. Bud Tibby conductor/car host. Loretta Koslovske

Bob Barcus depot workers. New member Kevin Bulla is training for conductor

an did road crossing protection for both trains today.

Everyone have a safe week out there. Be careful on the highways, as there

are detours everywhere an the stone trucks are rolling fast an lots of farm

equipment is moving, just like the monster sprayer going north on IN39 at

8:45pm, hard to see only a couple of blinking lights Saturday.

Tom Travis

La Porte, IN