Good weather at HVRM 7/28/18

 

Greetings!

Nice weather at North Judson this Saturday with temps around 80 degrees.  For late July, we will take it!

Good passenger counts for both the 12:30 and 2:00 trains today.  John DeGan was engineer on Alco # 310 with Bjarne Henderson the conductor.  Bob Gyurko was car host on LIRR coach # 2937 with Tom Travis handling the honors on MKT open car number 13833.  Doug Kosloske handled most of the road flagging duties.

Bob Barus and Loretta Kosloske handled gift shop and ticket agent duties in the depot.

Another section of track was spiked down leading in to the west end of the Shop building.  Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Kevin Kennedy, John LaOrange, Tom Rainford and Tom Travis did the work.  Steady progress being made.

After doing the morning track inspection, Mark Knebel sprayed for weeds around the museum property.

I was hoping to put some more crushed stone around the concrete step for the lower door into Grasselli but that didn't happen, so since Mark wasn't using the Lift, I grabbed it and putted over to the tower where I scrapped peeling paint and put some primer on the upper story on Grasselli's south facing side.  Lots still to do.

This past week, Mark had started in on the lettering of the Nickel Plate Road baggage car, doing free hand work to put the number and star on both sides of the car (see Mark's photo attached).  Late in the afternoon, he was putting the stencils on the side to trace the letters for BAGGAGE on the car.  Continuing to make progress!

No word yet on the upcoming move of the EL coach to the museum.

Recently heard some good news concerning the CRI&P brick depot in New Lenox, Illinois that was supposed to be torn down.  Now it turns out it will be moved and used for a museum. 

Have a good week everyone.  Supposed to be getting some rain this week with moderate temps but a warm up on the horizon for next weekend.

Les

    

Fw: Just a bit of time at Hoosier Valley 7/21/18

 

Greetings!

Short report today as I had to leave before Noon due to a family commitment. 

The regular bi-monthly membership/business meeting was held this morning.  The membership approved spending the monies to transport the purchased EL open window coach from Noblesville to North Judson.  Check the upcoming newsletter for additional discussed items.

It was cloudy most of the day, with a nice brisk wind that kept temps in the 70's.  An indication of the wind is in the first photo showing the red flag on the rear of B&LE caboose #1989 blowing while the car sat at the North Judson depot.   Very comfortable for a mid-July day. 

We had one guest engineer this morning.  Doug Kosloske was the conductor and Steve Henrichs the engineer.

Some time back, I mentioned that I had removed an Erie Lackawanna herald from the MKT open flat car and repainted it.  The second shot shows that herald back on the car.  Not all projects at the museum are large efforts and this is just one example of something small that could be done to help out HVRM.

Last week, I showed a photo of Bing Risley getting set to move a concrete slab into place in front of the lower door to Grasselli Tower.  I managed to get that slab leveled today and here it is in its new location (3rd photo).  The slab was once part of another structure at HVRM and Bing saved it and it has now found this new home.  I still need to get some additional gravel around it.

Also from last week, I mentioned that John La Orange used the Payloader to bring some additional ties over to the west side of the Shop for the track being laid there.  The last photo shows those ties in place.

Enjoy your upcoming week everyone!

Les

Fw: Light rain doesn't damper Hoosier Valley 7/14/18

 

Greetings -

Had clouds most of the day and the light rain occurring mid-day, never amounted to much at all.  Temps stayed in the low 80's. 

Doug and Loretta Kosloske were off doing their NASCAR thing in Kentucky, so Charlene Gyurko competently handled ticket agent duties in the North Judson depot.  GE diesel number 11 was the power for the two guest engineers and the regularly scheduled runs.  Bjarne Henderson was engineer for the day.  John DeGan was conductor for the 12:30 train to English Lake and also gave some training instructions to Kevin Kennedy.  Bob Albert handled the conductor duties for the 2:00 run.  Kevin and Robert Gyurko were train hosts today.

 

Charlene had me cut some 4' dowels down to 2' for her to assemble some new "Hobo Packs" for the gift shop, where Bob Barcus worked all day.

On July 12th, Mark Knebel had put some aluminum tape over the rust holes on Nickel Plate Road baggage car # 344, putting ProFlex Sealer on the tape for application of paint later.  The first photo attached is Mark's shot of that tape.  Mark came back on 7/13 to put on the first coat of green paint on that tape and my photo of the result is shown in the 2nd photo.

The track crew continued their work on putting the new track into the door on the back side of the Shop's West Annex.  The 3rd shot shows their work and the beginnings of the "curve" to meet the new switch to be installed.  This work continued in the afternoon and the fourth photo shows Cory Bennett up in the Backhoe, breaking up the hard packed dirt, with Tom Rainford (at left) and John La Orange then shoveling the loose dirt over to the side.  John eventually got the Payloader out and moved a new set of the composite ties over to the track for continued construction.

Last week, Bjarne and sons Lars and Paul, redid the south side of the Pullman Troop Sleeper.  The 5th shot shows some of our blooming wild flowers with the car in the background while the sixth photo gives a better perspective of the results of the three Henderson's work.   Looking good!

Bing Risley lifted the concrete slab into place at the lower door of Grasselli Tower as per the 7th photo.  The end result will be shown in a future report.

Bob Jachim, myself and Mike Healey, all flagged the Mulberry Street road crossing at times.  The last photo shows Mike doing the honors for the arrival of the 12:30 train back to North Judson.  Bob Albert and Tom Rainford flagged the road crossings out of town on the various runs. 

Finally, I would be remiss not to report on the purchase of a "new" passenger car for the museum through the good graces of Doug and Loretta.  With the move of the Indiana Transportation Museum out of their long home in Noblesville, Indiana, Erie Lackawanna coach # 3328 became available and will eventually move to HVRM.  The car was originally built by the Pullman Company in 1917 for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western's electrified operation back east as DL&W # 676.  The Lackawanna eventually renumbered the car as 2328.  After the merger of the DL&W into the Erie Railroad, the car became EL # 3328, and then Conrail # 3328.  Toward the end of its commuter life in 1983, it became New Jersey Transit # 4328 before NJT retired it in 1984.  ITM acquired it, along with some sister cars, in 1985.

As nice as it is to be getting a new open window passenger coach, we must also report that the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society decided not to send their caboose 81528 to HVRM, opting to keep it at the new operation that will be starting up out of Atlanta, Indiana.  A logical decision by the MRHTS.

Stay cool, and have a great week!

Les 

  

Fw: Moderate temps at Hoosier Valley 7/7/18

 

Greetings -

After a day in the 70's on Friday, temps got up to 81 degrees at the museum today.  Still low humidity, so not a bad day for grunt work!

Spent all day working on replacing two of the arch windows in passenger coach # 899.  First photo shows the interior of the first window after preparing the opening for the new window.  The new windows were built by Ross Robinson of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada).  Have had these replacements for a while but found out that they were a little bit too wide for the window opening.  Over to the Shop to run them through the table saw.  The surgery was successful!   The second photo shows the window installed while the third shot shows this same window as seen from the outside of the car.

Although I spent the day on the 899's arch windows, I did manage to get a few other shots.

Bjarne, Paul and Lars Henderson spent the day polishing up Pullman Troop Sleeper # 7256.  The 4th photo shows Paul power washing dust and grime off of the car before the elbow grease was started.  The 5th shot shows Bjarne starting in on the cleaning while in the 6th shot, Bjarne, Paul and Lars (from left to right) proudly pose before the now pristine car.

Mark Knebel worked on the exterior of Nickel Plate Road baggage car # 344 this week and the seventh photo shows his work to date.  Only the other end of the car needs to be finished as about 2/3rds remains to be given its coat of Pullman Green paint.

Bob Barcus manned the depot gift shop today with Loretta Kosloske the ticket agent.  Charlene Gyurko provided Bratwurst for lunch.  I noticed that Steve Henrichs was the engineer for the day while Doug Kosloske was the conductor.  The 8th photo shows the detraining of the passengers after the 12:30 p.m. trains arrival back at the North Judson depot.  That's Bob Gyurko on the left in the yellow shirt with conductor Kosloske on the right.

In the afternoon, when I went to trim the second arch window for number 899, I noticed that the track gang was hard at work on the track going in to the west side of the West Shop Annex and I got the 9th photo.  shot .  That's Dave Cook at left, with Tom Rainford and Mark in the white shirt in the foreground.  Cory Bennett is partially hidden behind Tom.

The second arch window was successfully installed in 899 in the afternoon.

Hope everyone has a great week.  Temps are supposed to go back up into the 90's so, stay cool!

Les  

 

Fw: Heat and humidity at Hoosier Valley 6/30/18

 

Greetings!

Was not at the museum last Saturday due to a visit from out of town relatives.  Last weekend was in the 70's, but this Saturday found summer coming in with a vengeance!  Was in the low 90's with high humidity and the goodly breeze was blowing strictly hot air!

Had two guest engineers in the morning with G.E. number 11 providing the power.  Steve Henrichs was engineer for the day with Bob Albert the conductor.  

Despite the heat, the track crew continued their work of putting the new track in to the back entrance of the West Shop Annex.  The first photo shows the crew taking a well deserved break while Cory Bennett drops a load of mixed ballast and dirt on the recently laid track.  The second photo shows a second load being dropped while John LaOrange (at left) and Joe Kingsbury watch.   The composite ties used on the track can clearly be seen in this shot.  The 3rd photo shows Tom Rainford starting in on spreading out the ballast.

Had a number of visitors up in Grasselli Tower today.  Charlene Gyurko provided Chili with cornbread and green jello for lunch.   Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske manned the depot.  The 12:30 train left with Bob Gyurko collecting tickets and manning the P.A. system in air conditioned Long Island coach # 2937 while I handled the ticket collecting in the Missouri-Kansas-Texas open air car.   Upon the arrival back at North Judson, I grabbed some shots of the west side of the Shop.  In the 4th photo, NKP baggage car 344 can just be seen to the left of the building.  Mark Knebel had put the black paint on the roof of the car last weekend.  The fifth shot gives a better view of the trackwork done by the Gandy Dancers earlier in the day as mentioned above.  In the sixth photo, number 11 is shown as it goes through the switch off of the old Chesapeake and Ohio track and onto the Erie Railroad right-of-way heading for the museums depot.

All of the riders for the 2:00 train opted for the air conditioned LIRR 2937, so I got a reprieve from train duties and instead, provided crossing protection at the Mulberry Street watchman's shanty.  Bob Jachim had provided the Mulberry Street protection for the earlier guest engineer trains.  Doug Kosloske handled the flagging at the other road crossings for the first train while Tom Rainford did the same for the second train.

It's been a while since we tore up a section of the asphalt parking lot near the depot looking for a water leak, and after lunch, a repair patch was put into place as seen in the seventh photo.

Josh Sobczynski put up the computer screen in the corner of the depot (last photo) earlier this year and returned today to make some adjustments.  This screen gives a report (visual and audio) of train action in the Chicago and northern Indiana territory.  Interesting to say the least!

Stay cool folks!  And enjoy a safe and sane 4th of July!

Les  

   

Fw: Triple day Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum report

 

Greetings -

Had a very short day at the museum back on June 9th, due to having a tooth pulled earlier that week.  There was a Board of Directors meeting that morning and I only stuck around for a little while before heading for home.

This past weekend (June 16th and 17th) coincided with the annual North Judson Mint Festival and the museum was open, with two train rides on both days.  Got the "good news" upon arriving on Saturday morning,  that someone had thrown a rock through one of the windows of passenger coach 899.  Both the 16th and 17th saw temps in the 90's with high humidity and working in an extremely hot 899 wasn't fun.  Got the broken glass cleaned up and fortunately had an extra window frame (with glass) on hand and managed to get the window replaced (see photo one). 

Mark Knebel had the doors on the automobile end of NKP baggage car # 344 open, as can be seen in the second photo, as he had to get in and put primer on that end.  A photo taken on the 17th (3rd shot), shows his work on the car to this point.  BTW, that's member Bing Risley and Corky next to the car.  Mark was also able to clean the crud off of the trucks on the north side of the 344 and get those painted, as can be seen in the 4th photo.  The plan was to get the 344 pulled slightly forward so that Mark could get the man lift up against the other end of the car, so that he could put primer on that end this upcoming week.

As I said a bit earlier, there were train rides on both the 16th and 17th.  I arrived at the museum on Sunday just as Alco # 310 was pushing the 12:30 p.m. train west out onto the ex-C&O line.  A short time later came a call from the cab of 310; the Alco had lost power!  Fortunately, the brake work had just been finished on G.E. number 11 and Doug Kosloske and John LaOrange fired her up and took off on a rescue mission, eventually bringing the train back to North Judson.  After unloading passengers at the depot, the dead 310 has uncoupled from the train and set on the caboose track and the 11 was coupled up to the train in time to make the regular 2:00 p.m. departure.  John found out the problem with the 310 was a bad fuse, and the Alco was soon operational again.  Little items can sometimes result in big problems!

Train crews for the trips were Steve Henrichs (engineer) and Bob Albert (conductor) on the 16th and Bjarne Henderson (engineer) and Steve Henrichs (conductor) on the 17th.  Car hosts for these days included Joe Kingsbury, Bob Gyurko, Bud Tibbie, Tom Rainford, myself and others also helping out on the trains and also with flagging duties.  Hot temps divided ridership amongst the MKT #13833 (open car) and LIRR #2937 (air conditioned coach) on a pretty even basis.

Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske were in the depot and Charlene Gyurko provided a hot lunch both days and also assisted in the depot on the 17th.       

On the 16th, a crew started in on the extension of track into the west entrance of the West Annex of the Shop building.  Using the backhoe and shovels, their results are shown in the final two photos.  Ballast forthcoming!

This unusually hot spell is supposed to break this week with normal high temps (around 81 degrees) in the extended forecast.  Let's hope it is so!

Have a great week everyone!

Les

   

Fw: Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum report June 2, 2018

Greetings -

Cool, sunny day at North Judson.  Greeted by the first of two Guest Engineer trains.  John DeGan was engineer with Bjarne Henderson as conductor.  Doug Kosloske was the road crossing flagman for all of the guest engineer trains and the two regularly run trains.

Mark Knebel continued to work on Nickel Plate Road baggage car # 344 and is seen in the first photo continuing to remove rust and old paint from the car.  Evidence of his work giving the car a coat of primer earlier in the week, can also be seen.   

Told Bob Jachim that the Rose of Sharon bush in the west telephone pole "garden area" in the parking lot near the depot, had expired and Bob said that it would be okay to remove.  Bud Tibbie and I went over to the Shop area and got one of Mark's chainsaws, walked back over and Bud cut the large, dead bush down and removed it to the back of Bob's pickup to take over to the burn pile.

Now that the brake cylinders on the rear end of Interlake Steel G.E. diesel number 11 are now working, the Shop crew started in on the units front brakes.  In the second photo, John La Orange shown at left, Tom Rainford (under the unit) and Dave Cook are shown.  Later, John and Dave are shown sliding a part in to Tom for reinstallation (photo # 3).  

The entry from the Pullman Troop Sleeper into Metra "Highliner" commuter car # 1529 has been impassible lately and Bud Tibbie and I decided to try to find out the problem.  John LaOrange stated that the rear door of 1529 might not be locked but is just extremely hard to pull open.  I found a LARGE screwdriver and managed to get the blade wedged in between the door and the jam and was able to slide open the door.  Bud then figured out how to use a bungee cord to keep the door of the 1529 from sliding closed.  Visitors will now once again be able to walk through double deck # 1529 to see how Chicago area commuters were transported from the Chicago's south suburbs to and from downtown Chicago.

Kevin Kennedy worked on removing old yellow paint from Notre Dame and Western diesel # 5332 as seen in the fourth photo.

Bob Albert's display information for items donated to HVRM by the Lake Shore Model Railroad Club in Chicago are shown in photos 5 through 8.

Charlene Gyurko provided lunch today while Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot.

Alco # 310 was the motive power today while G.E. number 11 is still being worked on.  In addition to engineer DeGan, conductor Henderson and road flagman Kosloske, Bob Jachim and Kevin Kennedy shared flagman duties at Mulberrry Street while Bud Tibbie and and Bob Gyurko were attendants on the two regularly scheduled passenger runs.

Our signal "guru" Matt Lasayko was down at the museum and he and helper Josh worked on various items including checking the flashers at both the Sycamore Street and Main Street crossings, signal light bulb replacements and various other things.  The 9th shot shows Matt working on the box west of the depot.

Finally, we show Mark putting primer on one of the baggage door sills on NKP 344.

Moderate temps in the 70's and low 80's scheduled for this upcoming first week of June.  Sounds good!  Have a great week everyone.

Les

      

Fw: Drizzle and a Spring day at Hoosier Valley 5/19/18

 

Greetings -

Drizzle and a bit of light rain was the order for the morning at HVRM today.  Precipitation finally ceased in the afternoon and it turned out to be a nice spring day after all.  At this time of the year, a light blue flower shows up along the right-of-way to greet train riders.  Finally got a shot of this wildflower (photo 1), but have no idea as to what it is called.  Any help is appreciated!

The boys in the Shop were working on repacking one of the brake cylinders on G.E. number 11.  John La Orange is shown working on it in the second photo shows while Cory Bennett and Tom Rainford are shown in the 3rd shot.  The work lasted into the afternoon and John and Cory are shown hard at it in the fourth photo.  This was a rough, dirty job.  Check the back of John's T shirt in this photo as compared to that same shirt in the second photo!  John reported the work was successful and number 11 is "ready for duty".

Mark Knebel has started his next painting project; Nickel Plate Road baggage car # 344.  He was done an cleaned off one end of the roof earlier this week, before rain made him cover that effort with the tarp shown in photo number 5.  He had to wait until the threat of rain was over before he could remove the tarp and start in on priming what he had cleaned. 

In addition to putting up various displays at the museum, Bob Albert also makes out the explanations for these exhibits.  Some time these explanations are simply a line long, but at other times, they are more involved.  One example of Bob's efforts is shown in the 6th photo.  He had a number of these made up, but since he was the conductor on the trains today, he wasn't going to have time to put them up.  Next week!

Speaking of the trains, in addition to Bob, Bjarne Henerson was the engineer for the day with yours truly and Bob Gyurko working as car hosts.  The 7th shot shows riders on the 12:30 train on MKT # 13833.  Bob Gyurko can be seen way back in LIRR coach # 2937, using the PA system he recently installed in that car.  The system allows the car host in the Long Island coach to talk to riders in both cars, as evidenced by the speakers that can be seen under the roof of the MKT open car.

Bob Barcus and Charlene Gyurko manned the depot ticket window and gift shop today.

I asked Bing Risley if he could drop off another load of stone for the lower entrance to Grasselli Tower today and Bing's efforts are shown in the 8th photo.  I grabbed a shovel and leveled the stone out.  The concrete slab shown in the edge of that photo, will eventually go onto the stone replacing the temporary concrete block. 

After the second train of the day, Bob Albert is show in the last photo, throwing the switch leading into Shop track 1 as the crew was getting ready to put Alco # 310 away for the day.  The photo was taken through one of the windows of Grasselli.

Have a great week everyone!

Les