Deterioration's not always a bad thing; Hoosier Valley 8/22/15

Greetings!

Arrived at the museum a bit after 9:00 a.m. to find a strange new artifact on the premises.  Turns out that one of the old telephone poles that the museum had acquired eons ago, had rotted at the base during the week and the wind had actually broken it with only the wire holding it in place.  The far end of the electric line ends up entering the old C&O motor car shed and photo one shows the pipe at an angle which also caused the electrical box inside the shed to be pulled from the wall.   After it happened, Tom Tittle suggested trying to use one of the poles that ran down the old C&O right of way and one was found in very good condition and was used as a replacement.  The second photo shows Cory Bennett up on the Lift putting the line on a couple of the old insulators.  Then the electrical box had to be put back in place.  I gave Tom Rainford a hand on this part of the project and the third photo shows Tom hard at work.  Incidentally, Tom jumped about two feet when the flash went off when I took this photo.   Flashes when fooling around with electricity are not a good idea.  Sorry about that Tom!  The fourth photo shows our new Chesapeake & Ohio artifact at the end of the day. Sure looks good!

We had some guest engineers this morning using GE Interlake Steel diesel #11.  Trains for the day included the 11, EJ&E transfer caboose #184, MKT open car #13833 and LIRR coach #2937.  John DeGan was engineer with Bjarne Henderson as conductor.  Car hosts included Matt Downs, Randall Downs, Joe Kingsbury, Louise Kingsbury, Rich Warner and Bud Tribbie.  Bud pointed out to me that there was a nut and washer missing from the ramp between EJ&E 184 and the open car and I managed to search the old Erie shed and find one and put it on before the 12:30 train to English Lake left the depot.

Fred Boyer and Steve Newland continued their work on the repainting of the south wall of Grasselli Tower.

Margarett Cook cleaned out some additional items from GTW transfer caboose #75072 and I took all of the stuff that remained and tossed it out.  Appreciate Bing Risley's help in taking the old rugs over to the dumpster and for Bud's help in cutting those rugs into smaller pieces for the disposal.  Only one cabinet remains in 75072, and Margarett says that she wants to save this for later use.  One other item saved was a plastic display case that Bob Barcus put in the gift shop in the museums depot.

Bob Albert continues working on displays for Illinois Central caboose 9914.  Bob's shown in photo 5 in the Shop, doing some cutting on the radial saw.  Some of the pieces shown are for a future exhibit of NKP oil drums.  Not sure exactly what that means, but I guess we will eventually find out!

Doug McGill came down to the museum earlier this week and loaded up his Plymouth 4 wheel diesel, with some assistance from Cory Bennett.

This afternoon, Cory showed me some chains in the Shop that belong to member Ron Schlatter and are maked with his name.  Good looking set of chains!

Just as I was leaving this afternoon, I suddenly realized that Mark Knebel had repainted the Nickel Plate Road camp car (our kitchen car) recently, as shown in the final photo.  Looks real good!  Might have to try to reletter the car now.  I did try some lettering on another project this afternoon, but the less said about that effort, the better!

So, some deterioration is not always bad as it resulted today in a new genuine railroad telegraph pole being placed on museum property and shabby looking paint on our kitchen car being replaced with a new sharp paint job.

Enjoy the summer weather folks!  Autumn is right around the corner.

Les

   

Digging In The West Shop----8-15-2015

Greetings to all,
 
Saturday was hot an humid. Not a good day to be in the sun, but there were workers
everywhere in the sun.
 
I arrived, an it was still cool, so I started to do some painting on the trim I had installed
last week. Got out the grey paint an tried to cover up the white paint. I walked over to
the manlift, which I should of moved last week, well again the tire was flat. It will not
stay inflated for some reason. Mark had it off an taken in to repair, did not find the leak.
So my best intentions were not accomplished. I did nail on the last piece of wood to the
bottom of the crack in the rear of the shed. Painted it grey also. Touched up peeling
paint areas.
 
Saw Mark, asked if I could be the flagger at the road crossings, as I had to leave early.
He said yes, that gave him an John time to move the freight cars back to the storage areas.
Moved everything off the Erie main line. They were done by 2pm. I flagged road crossings
for the 12:30pm train to English Lake.
 
The water line was replaced Wednesday, an covered back up. Water flows again.
 
Went over to the shop area to sign in, an found Cory, David an Bud digging in the west
shop area with the Bing's bob cat loader an the backhoe tractor. About one half of the
dirt floor is now cleaned out. Concrete an rail is on the way soon. Laying one section of
rail an pouring concrete may happen. If anyone needs nails. Norwayne Lumber gave the
museum a pallet of nails not needed. Some HVRM will keep, others either need to be
given away or tossed. If you need some, come over an see what we have. No activity
on the tool car or ND&W diesel. Margret was cleaning out more things in the GTW caboose
today. I did not look inside to see what is left in it.
 
Trains had 2 guest engineers today. Bjarne Henderson, student engineer, Doug standing
watch over him. Steve Hendrich was conductor today. Bob Barcus an Loretta manned the
depot duties today. Both trains today had good crowds on board. Did not get count, but
at least  100 people rode. Randall Downs provided commentary on the open air car.
Joe Kingsbury an Richard Warner manned the LIRR 2879 coach.
 
Steve Newland was working on the west wall of the depot, hot working in the sun for him.
Will need the man lift soon for higher work. Bob Albert worked on the orange IC caboose.
Said its ready to put artifacts back in display cases. Noticed Bing mowing grass near the
shop area. The demolished house project is getting closer to being done. A couple of more
dumpster loads should take care of it.
 
Margret prepared a nice lunch for the working members. ham sandwiches, fried potatoes,
bean salad, cake, drinks.
 
I will not be at the museum next weekend, Les will be back to work.
 
Have a good week everyone. School has started, watch out for those school busses.
 
Tom Travis 
           

The blue man is at it again! Hoosier Valley 8/8/15

Folks -

Good Day!

Arrived just after the museum Board meeting had started.  Board discussed possible donation of a Parlor Car and also a 1600 h.p. Alco RS-3, but moving costs would be high.  Also disclosed that the new plastic pipe for the water line has not yet come in.  It was reported that Porter 0-4-2T was loaded this past Tuesday and has left North Judson for Colorado.

The man with the blue paint can (Mark Knebel) has been at it again as evidenced in the first photo. 

Photo number 2 shows Fred Boyer at left applying new primer to Grasselli Tower while Steve Newland at right puts on light green paint over a previously primed section.

Bob Albert continued his work on the Illinois Central display caboose.

I spent some time looking again for the bell clapper for C&O 2-8-4 # 2789.  Found some other bells with clappers, but not the one for the Kanawha.

There were guest engineers for throttle time this morning and a nice passenger count for the two regularly scheduled trains.  In the third photo, John DeGan at left, Bjarne Henderson (behind John), Joe Kingsbury (facing camera) and Steve Henrichs, discuss the charging of the air conditioning system on Long Island coach # 2937.

It was mentioned that sand should be applied around the new water line pipe and the fourth photo shows that a load of sand is sitting in the museums dump truck awaiting future usage.

The final photo shows Tom Travis applying gray paint to the Payloader shed.

Cory Bennett and John La Orange worked on repairs for the first yard switch out near Main Street.

Have a great week everyone!

Les 

  

 

Successful trench warfare at HVRM 8/1/15

Greetings!

Nice day at Hoosier Valley today.  Still warm, but also less humid.

Arrived at the museum about 9:00 a.m.   Found Bob Jachim and Mark Knebel in the final work of restoring the torn up ground around the back wall of the museums depot building.  You may recall this area being torn up from last weeks report as the museum searched for a serious water leak.  Photo 1 shows Bob in the background with Mark working around the water meter.

When the leak wasn't found near the depot, museum personnel started looking for the leak on the old water line using the Payloader to dig a trench.  Results of that effort is shown in the second photo.  In the end, the water leak wasn't found....TWO water leaks were found.  The museum intends to replace the old line.

Other things going on around the museum included Dave Cook draining the oil out of the fuel tank of 0-4-2T number 6 (see photo 3).

I spent some time adding white paint to some of the numerals on the newly painted levers in Grasselli Tower.

There were a number of Throttle Time participants this morning and the regular trains of 12:30 to English Lake and 2:00 to La Crosse were operated.  The departure of the La Crosse train is shown in the fourth photo with Conductor Steve Henrichs at the right on the platform of GE #11 with student Conductor Kevin Kennedy on the left.  Doug Kosloske was engineer for all of todays runs.  The fifth photo shows the train westbound past Grasselli Tower.  Note that B&LE caboose #1989 is still not in the consist.

Fried chicken from the Wooden Nickel for lunch today.

Steve Newland continued his work on the south side of Grasselli (photo 6).

Mike Koehler, with help from a friend of his, worked on his LIRR RS-1 #467.  

Tom Travis is shown in the process of adding some corner trim to the Payloader shed in photo 7 while he is shown cutting a piece of trim to the right size in the eighth photo.

Bob Albert was working on exhibits for the ICRR display caboose.  He had to destroy a wasp nest over the platform of Illinois Central caboose #9914.  Way to go Bob!

Bob, Tom and myself did some repairs to the wood stepladder shown in photo 7.

Supposed to have moderating temps this week with highs in the upper 70's to low 80's.  Sounds good to me!  Have a great week everyone!

Les

 

Bright blue, light green and digging dirt at HVRM 7/25/15

Gents -

Arrived at the museum around 8:30 a.m. to see this site at the depot (see first photo)!  What's going on?  Turns out our normal water bill from the town of North Judson is for about 1,700 gallons of water per month.  Last month we supposedly used 58,000 gallons!  Obviously, we have a leak somewhere.  This is the effort to find it around the depot earlier in the week.  Unfortunately, the leak was not found there.  The second photo was taken a bit later in the morning after they started digging up the old water line. In this shot, Cory Bennett is operating the back hoe, with Mark Knebel down in the ditch while Tom Rainford gives directions.  When I left at about 2:30 p.m., this ditch was about four times longer, and the leak still hadn't been found.

A couple of throttle times today.  John DeGan was the instructing engineer with Bjarne Henderson as conductor.  Later, I noticed Steve Henrichs as the engineer with Joe Kingsbury, Bud Tibbie and Randall Downs as car hosts on the regular passenger trains.  Quite a few visitors and riders today including two bus loads of kids from a summer camp up in Gary, Indiana.  Good news is that Long Island passenger coach #2937 has had its air conditioning fixed and was in the trains consist.  With temps approaching 90 degrees today, that was really good news!  Unfortunately, there was a problem with the lights on Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose #1989 and, although Joe Baker tried to find the problem, the caboose was not in the train linedup today.  

After painting the dark green trim on the Mulberry Street crossing shanty last Saturday, I decided to tackle the coal bin.  The third and fourth photos show the before and after views.  Looks a little bit better I think.

Steve Newland has recently started work on the south facing wall on Grasselli Tower which was pealed badly.  The fifth photo shows him hard at work  while the sixth shot captures the patch already redone.

Doug Kosloske was working on GE #11 in the Shop.

Finally, a couple of shots taken around the museum.  The seventh photo shows the start of the flooring in C&EI tool car #A-1054.  And in the last photo, the results of someone (perhaps Mark?) giving the disconnected push car as coat of blue paint is shown.  Once removed, visitors may wonder why some pieces of Hoosier Valley's ballast were given bright blue paint!

Supposed to be 90 degrees this upcoming week.  Stay cool as best you can. 

Les

Hot, hot and moving about....at Hoosier Valley 7/18/15

Greetings!

Temps in the mid-90's at North Judson today.  Got to the museum in time for the regular bi-monthly membership/business meeting.  After the meeting, I found some dark green paint and started painting the trim on the Mulberry Street watchman's crossing shanty.  Sweat pouring off!

Tom Travis reported that long time member Harold Russell had passed away.  Harold had once worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

After the meeting, I found a can of dark green paint and started painting the trim on the Mulber  

We had at least two Guest Engineers this morning.  Doug Kosloske was engineer for the passenger trains today, with Bob Albert as conductor.  LIRR passenger coach 2937 still out of service due to air conditioning problems so train consisted of NKP bay window caboose #471, MKT open air car, EJ&E transfer caboose #184 and B&LE cupola caboose #1989.   

Bob Jachim provided crossing protection at the Mulberry Street crossing today while Tom Travis travelled out in his van to provide protection for the trains at Arlington Street, CR500 South, CR400 South, English Lake Road, Toto Road and CR650 West.

They decided to move the recently sold Porter 0-4-2T steam engine # 6 over to the loading area which necessitated switching cars around.  Also being moved over to the loading area was privately owned Plymouth diesel #1881.  Some photos of the moves are included.  Interlake Steel GE diesel #11 was used for  this operation with John LaOrange at the throttle and Cory Bennett and Tom Rainford on the ground.

Steve Newland recently applied new oil based primer to a patch on the south side of Grasselli Tower and today he put a coat of light green paint over that primer.  This side of Grasselli had experienced a lot of paint peeling and hopefully this new primer will solve that problem.

Stay safe everyone.  Enjoy the summer weather.

Les   

A hot and muggy day at HVRM 6/13/15

Greetings!

Managed to make it down for most of the Board meeting at Hoosier Valley yesterday.  Sunny all day with temps well into the upper 80's and

high humidity.  Good day to make one sweat!

There were a number of guest engineers running GE Interlake Steel number 11 this morning.  Steve Henrichs asked me to flag Arlington Street

and CR500W on the last of these runs so he wouldn't have to get off of the caboose to flag each of those crossings, and I obliged.  This was

a definite non-sweat job, but I forgot my ear protection.  The horn on the back of B&LE caboose #1989 is LOUD!

Back at the museum after these runs, Steve, who was conductor for the day, is shown in the first photo making sure that the brake valve on

EJ&E caboose #184 was operating correctly (it was!) and then is shown in the second photo just a bit later putting the air hoses on the EJ&E

and B&LE cabooses together after the regular passenger train was coupled to the Bessemer caboose.  Yes, that is Steve in the second photo,

even though his face is hidden!  John DeGan was engineer for the day on both the guest engineer runs and the regular passenger trains.

I went up to Grasselli Tower and painted white numbers on the five levers that Steve had painted earlier.  Steve thought that the levers looked

okay without the white painted numbers, and he may be right.  I told him that if he didn't like the numbers in white, he could paint over them with

the red, blue and green paint.  Results are in the third photo.

Fred Boyer continued his work on the exterior of the C&EI tool car using the green man lift  to get up to the top of the car as you can see in the

fourth photo.  Fred has done a heck of a lot of work on C&EI #A-1054.

Finally, in the last photo, new member Ryan Osmolski is shown cleaning up the B&O steam whistle that was on the Notre Dame & Western

Porter diesel.  Looking better already!

Other members were working on HVRM track, Bing Risley was cutting grass, Bob Barcus was in the gift shop, Loretta Kosloslke was the

ticket agent for the day while Bob Jachim provided crossing protection for trains at Mulberry Street.

Stay cool this week!

Les