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