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
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