Wind and snow at Hoosier Valley 12/9/17

 

Greetings!

A wicked wind and blowing snow made for a not-particularly-pleasant day at HVRM today although the Board still managed to have an early morning meeting.   Despite the weather, we managed to run all 3 Santa trains without a hitch.  The miserable conditions (especially north and east of the museum) found a few folks unable to make it to North Judson and ticket agent Loretta Kosloske will try to accommodate those folks with future ride compensation, where possible.  John DeGan was engineer on the Alco for all 3 runs and the conductor and car host jobs were rotated amongst Steve Henrichs, Joe Kingsbury, Bud Tibbie, Bob Barcus, Stephen Bulla and Bob Albert.  Others involved with operations included Tom Rainford, Mark Knebel, Bob Jachim, Doug Kosloske, Bjarne Henderson and yours truly.

The first photo shows Tom Rainford at left, doing some snow shoveling at the depot while Bob Jachim (at right) had just finished clearing the station platform.  The snow plastered against the stations train order board gives you an idea as to the wicked, blowing snow that museum members put up with most of the day.

Although Mark Knebel was out providing crossing protection for all three trains today, he still had time in between runs to continue work on C&NW boxcar # 284 as can be seen in the second shot.

Bob Albert framed some additional photos of Grasselli Tower, and Tom Rainford and I managed to get them put up in the tower today.

Long time member Dan Siple stopped by today.  Good to see Dan.

Kevin Kennedy had painted the hood on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332 in the morning, and proudly posed next to his work in photo number 3 in the West Annex of the Shop.

Margrett Cook provided a lunch of mostaccioli and garlic bread with a side of chili, along with chocolate chip cookies for desert. 

In the fourth photo, John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Tom Rainford (left to right) are show after lunch drilling one of the eight holes needed in the new cow catcher (people pusher) plate necessary for the earlier mentioned ND&W diesel.  After the holes were completed, John, Kevin and Cory are shown in the 5th photo as they prepare to transport the plate over to the 5332.  In the 6th shot, the plate is show being lifted into place.

Finally, in the 7th photo taken through the depots ticket window bars, Loretta is shown at her computer after the last train of the day had departed for its appointment with Santa!

Enjoy the week everyone.  Winter is surely here!

Les  

     

Last 2017 passenger operations at HVRM 12/16/17

 

Greetings!

Nice sunny day for mid-December at Hoosier Valley today and all three Santa trains were operated at planned capacities.  John DeGan and Bjarne Henderson shared engineer duties, Steve Henrichs was the conductor with Joe Kingsbury and Bob Albert car hosting in Long Island coach # 2937.  Tom Rainford handled the county road flagging duties for all three trains.

Mark Knebel continued work on the C&NW box car and finished the painting on "The Overland Route" slogan.  He also patched some pin holes in the roof of C&NW # 284.

GE number 11 was on standby and the first photo shows her idling outside the museum Shop building.

Bob Jachim stated that our TTO double semaphore signal was not operating properly this morning and the signals were shut down.  I checked it out a bit later and things were fine.  Perhaps a bit of ice got into the mechanism and  the sunny 40 degree temps warmed things up.  Anyway, the signals worked properly during train operations.

Last week, the guys put the "people plate" on one end of the ND&W Porter diesel, and this week, a crew consisting of Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Kevin Kennedy and John La Orange measured, drilled holes and then got the plate on the OTHER end of ND&W # 5332 installed (see photo number 2).  This moves the Porter just a bit closer to operation.

Todays trains end the 2017 passenger season at HVRM.  The 3rd photo shows Doug Kosloske offering help to detraining passengers from the last train,after its arrival back at the North Judson depot.  Thanks to everyone who had a hand in the museums train operations this season.  Your help was greatly appreciated.  WELL DONE!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Enjoy the holidays!

Les

    

The Masahiko C0. Ltd, is greatly in need of an individual who can handle its Account from its customers/client in Canada or USA.

 

Regards,

Jim Park

Great weather for December at Hoosier Valley 12/2/17

 

Greetings -

Sunny December day with temps in the mid-50's!  Great weather for the first day of Santa trains!

Alco 310 was the power for all 3 sold-out trains today.  Engineer was Steve Henrichs, conductor Doug Kosloske, student conductor Stephen Bulla, car host for two trains was Bud Tibbie and for the other train was Loretta Kosloske.  Mark Knebel did the morning track inspection using the motor car (photo 1) and then flagged the country road crossings for all 3 trains (Steve Henrichs is also in the photo as he had just thrown the Shop switch so that Mark could put the motor car away for the day).    I helped Santa a little bit and also provided Mulberry Street flagman protection, as did Bob Jachim and Bob Albert.

Loretta's decorated Christmas tree in the depot is shown in the second photo.  Loretta and Bob Barcus handled depot duties today. 

Mark continued to work on the lettering on the C&NW box car this week.

We also received a truck load of composite ties earlier this week, as seen in the 3rd photo.

A few extra members would be welcome the next two Saturdays to handle the Santa trains.  If you can make it, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!   Enjoy the unseasonable warm weather while it lasts!

Les   

     

  

A short After-Thanksgiving report for Hoosier Valley 11/25/17

 

Greetings!

Late arrival at the museum today due to late family departure from home.  A lot of members took this Saturday as they celebrated the Thanksgiving 2017 weekend.

Crew were switching cars around when I arrived, getting set for our Santa trains which start next Saturday.  Doug Kosloske was engineer on the Alco S1 diesel today with Steve Henrichs the conductor.  All 3 weekends of the trains with Santa, are sold out! 

Today was not quite as warm as yesterday, but still not bad for this time of year.  Temp stayed just about at 50 degrees with sunshine all day!

Loretta Kosloske is shown in photo number 1 as she tried to get the decorations out of the bag for the depot Christmas tree.  Looked great after she finished up the decorating!  Photo later.

The second photo shows Mark Knebel in front of the completed "Route of the 400 Streamliners" slogan which is on one side of C&NW box car # 284.  Mark later worked on the other side of the car, which has been moved in to the West Annex of the Shop.  That move enables Mark to use the green lift on that side of the car.  He says that using ladders creates havoc on his legs and the green lift can now be used due to the concrete floor in the West Annex.

I decided to try to put some paint on a section of the C&NW 284's roof walk, that Bob Albert had cleaned up a few weeks ago.  Moved a section in to the West Annex and put some of the cardboard down to shield the floor (photo 3).  The end result wasn't too bad (photo 4), although it's only partially finished.

Meanwhile, Joe Kingsbury (5th photo) and Kevin Kennedy (final photo), continued cleaning the old paint and rust off of  the Porter diesel.

On the way home, I stopped in the depot and Doug showed me a copy of the most recent copy of the magazine "Bus Tours".  An HVRM train running through snow during one of our Santa trains of a few years ago, made the cover!  FAME!

Have a great week everyone!

Les