HVRM 8-12-2017 Lots Of Work Completed Around Museum

Greetings to all

Saturday was the first meeting in the new dining car, K-325, for the monthly board of directors meeting.

Les Beckman brought up the subject of acquiring an older style fridge for Grasselli tower. It will be stored

down on the first level until room is made for the moving it upstairs. The member who donated the

aluminum sheet siding for the reefer building was brought to the museum grounds last week.

So maybe the building can be buttoned up before winter an anymore damage is done to the exterior.

A short monthly meeting.

After the board meeting, work immediately commenced on a couple of different items. Last week

it was discovered that a battery terminal on the EL 310 burnt off. So the only recourse was to get

a replacement. Doug Kosloske ordered another battery an was delivered last Wednesday. It was

put on a flat cat on a pallet, so the payloader was brought out to move the battery over to the

ailing 310, which was pulled outside the shop. Battery was installed an cables replaced, after

cleaning them up, the 310 started first time.  The EL 310 was to take over for the ailing GE #11,

which has another water leak somewhere in the system.

The trailer was pulled out of the shop with a load of new boards from replacement of the station

platform. During the week, a crew pulled up old wood  in front of both depot doors. Wood was replaced

in front of the west door, but the crew ran out of time an the east door was without decking outside

the door. The trailer was backed in to a space next to the depot on the east end. Setup commenced

of the miter saw. Deck workers consisted of Joe, John, Tom Rainford, Cory, Tom Travis, Kevin, Bud,

David, an a couple more. The replacement was completed in short order. A few boards needed a few

more cuts, but all went well. The trailer was pulled back over the west shop areas. Later in the

day, John an Tom T pounded an pulled out the old deck boards deck screws an stacked neatly.

The boards are not much good, as removal of screw broke off, an had to be forced up, resulting

in splintering boards.

Les Beckman was working over in Grasselli tower till about 2pm. Mark Knebel worked on the man

lift by the shop painting lettering on PENN CENTRAL box car. Train crew were, Bjarne Henderson,

engineer, Steve Hendricks conductor. Margret made lunch of pizza, watermelon, cantaloupe,

an cole slaw.  Depot workers, Bob Barcus, Lorretta Kosloske. Bob Jacim was also in attendance.

Kevin provided road crossing protection for both train runs.

A good first run, but the 2nd run was a little light. Not bad for middle of August an back to

school for lots of kids. The following is a explantion of the pics provide by Les Beckman.

 

Tom -

1.  Tom Rainford removing platform board with gap.

2.  Cory Bennett & Tom Travis cutting to size. 

3.  Dave Cook & Joe Kingsbury screwing new platform boards into place.

4.  New battery (yellow) in Alco # 310.

5.  Doug Kosloske replaces battery door on 310.

6.  Mark Knebel works on PC # 153177.

7.  310 gets set to replace GE # 11 on train.  

The west shop had the Porter started an moved to the west end to make room for the

track alignment machine. Doug wanted room to be able to put the EL 310 over the

the pit for some work underneath.

Hope everyone has a good week, watch for kids boarding an exiting from school busses.

I've already had one vehicle run my stop arm on the second day of school in La Porte.

Tom Travis, La Porte IN