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
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