Lazy days of summer not quite over at HVRM 9-24-11

Folks -   Well, the calendar told us the Autumn started this week.  But despite a forecast of rain and possible storms and maybe even hail, we got a sunny day in the mid-60's at HVRM today!   Tom Travis brought down a wood stove and managed to talk a few of "the boys" into giving him a hand unloading it.  Tom says its now in the center aisle of the original Shop building.   I got to Hoosier Valley at 9:00 a.m., too late to help Tom unload the stove.  What could be interpreted as smart planning on my part was really just a case of being too lazy this morning to get an early start.  So upon arrival in North Judson, I unloaded some items for the NKP kitchen car.   It was good to see Bob Jachim up and around and cutting down weeds in one of the flower beds.  Bob had some minor surgery the week before last.   Plans to start on the Main Street road crossing rebuild, were apparently put on hold for the weekend.  A number of folks planning on working on the project, were not at the museum this day.  I had ideas to take a motor car out to Wade Tower and do some cleaning up around the structure, but again the C&I had covered hopper car parked on the main line between the La Crosse wye and Wade, so no way to get there.  Speaking of covered hoppers, the C&I had about 20 of them parked just east of Main Street on their old Cheapeake & Ohio line, apparently stored awaiting the fall harvest to come in to the elevators.  Some of the local farmers have just started harvesting corn.   Tom and I finally hooked up and since I had some plumbing items to unload at the old Erie Railroad storage building, Tom took the bull by the horns and started some cleaning up including emptying the overflowing garbage can.  We managed to make a good spot for the new plumbing arrival, and made the old items a heck of a lot neater!  Elmer Mannen had Metra (ex-ICRR) Highliner # 1502 open and we joined him to see what he was doing.  There is some desire to turn at least a portion of this car into extra seating for the kitchen car.  We left Elmer to his calculations and  then headed down to the old NKP wooden double sheathed tool car # X50110.  We managed to get into the car and look it over.  This car needs a lot of work, and there is a big question as to whether a restoration will ever be attempted.  I pointed out to Tom that, earlier in the year during a very heavy rainfall, the car remained dry except for a couple of holes in the side of the roof where the old tarp donated by Tom McKee and put on for protection, had finally just rotted away.  After we were done, it was time for coffee and doughnuts!   The 11:00 train departed on time, with some riders.  The recertification of engineers continued for those who could not be at the museum last Saturday.  The train was made up of B&LE caboose 1989, EJ&E handicap car (transfer caboose) 184, the MKT open flat car 13833, LIRR coach 2937 and EL bay window caboose C345, with EL Alco 310 pushing out and then pulling back to the museum.   Pat DeGan manned the gift shop in the depot with Loretta Kosloske selling tickets.  Loretta also was guest engineer, running the 310 after the 11:00 train returned.    At lunch, I put up the new flag on our pole since it now appeared that the rain forecast for the day, wasn't going to materialize.  Then after lunch, Tom decided that we should ride EJ&E # 184 on the 1:30 p.m. train and he pulled out two chairs (a directors chair for him and a folding chair for me) and we sat on the platform and enjoyed the beautiful early fall day.  A very nice ride.  The only other passengers rode in the Bessemer caboose.  Tom pointed out the brush that he had cut around milepost marker 217 on a recent Saturday.  A nice job.  Tom said that after our arrival back at the museum, he was going to call it a day since his shoulder was bothering him.  l felt I should try to do something at least, and as we pulled past the Shop, I noticed that the red indicator board on the turnout had faded to an almost brown color.  Here is something I could do with the rest of this lazy day.  So, after deboarding I eventually wandered back to the Erie building and found a can of bright red paint, a brush and a paint stick.  Packed it all up and drove over to the Shop, walking to the west side of the Shop where the switch was located.  Waited for the 2:45 train to La Crosse to run through the switch before I started on the red portion of the target.  Apparently the train load was very light, because instead of taking all of the cars mentioned previously, the train was made up of only 310 and the B&LE caboose.  After they headed west, I opened the can, stirred the paint and with a bit of dilligent work, the two sides of the banner were soon finished.  Looked good!   Had to go around to the front of the Shop and decided to check those turnouts out there.  One looked okay.  Another didn't.  More paint!  Continued walking east, paint can and brush in hand.  Some indicators are green and yellow.  No paint for these.  Another turnout east of Mulberry Street.  Done!  Continued east, passing the Erie building and found a high switchstand throw necessitating walking back to the Erie building for scrapper, wire brush and most importantly, a ladder.  As I worked on this one, Bing Risley came up and we talked a bit.  Bing said  that he had just come back from giving Mark Knebel and John LaOrange a hand with track work out past State Route 10.  Finished that switchstand and continued walking east.  Bing asked about the ladder and I replied that the next switch throw was low and I would put the ladder back upon my return.  The next indicator soon bore a new coat of red.  There were a few more down on the east end near Main Street.  Red indicators?  The first two proved yellow and green, but what about the very last one?  The one that had recently had new switch ties put in and which is the very first turnout that the museum installed after the move to North Judson in the late 1980's?  As I walked over to the side, it looked green and yellow!  But no, not yellow, just a VERY faded red.  This turnout has a very high target; one I would need the ladder for.  A long walk back to the switch I had left the ladder by, and then an  even longer walk back to the Erie building after I was finished.  And that is a wood ladder that is very heavy.  I would also be at the east end of the museum with my car back at the west end at the Shop.  Decided since I would have to eventually walk back to the Shop anyway, I might as well do it now and then come back with the car, picking up the ladder on the way.  When I finally got back to the east end switch, with car and ladder, there was some scrapping and wire brushing before all four sections of the indicator was painted.  Steve Newland gave me a wave from his pickup as I worked.  By this time, I heard the 310 blowing for the crossings as it made its way back toward the depot.   Finished up.  Much better!  There were some of these targets that would need green paint too, but that was going to be for another day!    As I put the ladder back at the Erie building, I saw Mark and asked him how they had done on track work.  He said that the managed to get all of the ties that were put in last week, spiked down.  I don't believe that they had the compressor running, so these were probably put in the old-fashioned way; just driving them home!   Managed to get everything packed away and signed out at 5:00.  A lazy day had turned out quite well after all.   Have a good week everyone.  Enjoy the autumn weather.   Les

That old snake-in-the-grass at HVRM 9/17/11

Greetings!   After 3 days where the temps did not get up to 60 degrees, old Mother Nature told us today that summer ain't quite over yet as we had a beautiful sunny day with temps in the low 70's!  Hurrah!   Started out the day at 8:00 a.m. by attending the general membership bi-monthly business meeting.  A number of things discussed including the FRA inspection of GE # 11; Mid-America Railcar's proposal to bring passenger equipment to HVRM; the lease of Mike Koehler's Long Island commuter coach # 2937; the monetary results of NKP 2-8-4 # 765's visit earlier this year; tie replacement; the Erie Monterey depot, NKP RPO # 356 and various other items.  Too much to recap here.  I direct your attention to Mark Knebel's Secretary page in the upcoming museum newsletter for further info.   After the meeting, I had hoped to go out to Wade Tower and do some general cleanup, hopefully using a motorcar to make the trip.  Unfortunately. I was told that the C&I had four covered hoppers parked east of Wade which would prevent getting the putt-putt out there.  There doesn't seem to be any way to drive to the location.  Elmer Mannen did tell me that they had run out to the tower last week on the trip to La Crosse and decided that they could unload the folks from the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society who will be visiting Hoosier Valley and riding the train out to Wade at the beginning of October.   Tom Travis and I looked over Penn Central boxcar #153177, which Mark and Joe Baker had worked on during this last week as we prepare to eventually reletter it as Pennsylvania Railroad # 607627.  The car had one side almost completely primed with only the narrow ladder area to the roof not finished.  Tom decided to do some grinding to remove rust and flaking paint on the other side of the car, but was not able to get the manlift to start.  So he decided to go down and work on tie replacement on the east end of the museum, but put up our new flag before he left.  It is good to see the flag flying over the depot and museum.   Meanwhile, I searched for Steve Newland who told me the "secret" to starting the manlift and I was able to finally get it going.  Decided that since it was now running, I would remove the light rust and paint the remaining portion of that one side of the car, which I spent the morning doing.     Meanwhile, the passenger train schedule began with the museums engineers undergoing recertification during the operations.  Not sure of the passenger count for the day, but all three runs had a fair amount of people.  Randall Downs, Bill Dauber and Joe Kinsbury, were carhosts today.  John DeGan, Elmer, Doug Kosloske, Jason Annen and Fred Boyer were in the cab and some of the guys also acted as conductors.  I may have missed some of these guys.     I broke for lunch, in the NKP kitchen car.  Many goodies although I confined myself to soup and the smoked sausage/cabbage combo.  Good!   Margett Cook and Pat DeGan worked in the depot gift shop today while Loretta Kosloske sold tickets.   After lunch, I decided to head out to check on the tie replacement gang who started again replacing ties between SR 10 and CR 250W, near the old highway rest stop.  This is now the parking area for the Erie Monterey Trail.  Tom said he was glad I showed up as he was getting tired and decided to head back to work on the PC boxcar now that the manlift was going.  I took over for him, pushing the little railroad hand cart as Cory Bennett on the backhoe, Dave Cook and Mark, put in new ties under rail joints, replacing those that the Erie had put in years ago, all of which were in pretty horrible shape.  Mark pointed out to me a little brown and white banded snake that had slithered out from under one of the ties they were working on and which made its way into the crack of another tie a little further up the line.  Is that one of the poisonous ones that make Indiana their home?  Probably not, but I made sure I kept my eye on the little critter the whole time we were in the vicinity of that particular tie!   Mark pointed out an Erie tie that had a date nail of 57 (for 1957) and another one for 39.  I was able to dig out the 57 nail and gave it to Mark, but we left the other one in the tie, which was still in pretty remarkable condition for being put in by the Erie in 1939.  As Cory said, they must have made a good batch of creosote that year!  The quality of the wood, might have had something to do with it too.   Cory, Mark and Dave eventually ran out of replacement ties, and we then went back and put tie plates under as many of the replacements as we could.  Still have to spike them, but that is for another day!   After we picked up the tools and the hand cart and put it in Mark's pickup, I headed back to the museum where I found that Tom had cleaned a nice patch of the PC (PRR) boxcar.  We were both pretty tired by this time, so took a little break for water and cookies in the kitchen car.  Finally, we realized we had to get some paint on the cleaned area otherwise it would rust with the rain due to hit the area Sunday night.   Managed to get that done.  About this time, the train from La Crosse was heard coming in so we called it a day.    I'm pretty tired right now.  Lots of physical activity today.  Will be plenty sore tomorrow!   Hope everyone has a great week.  Enjoy what's left of summer!   Les

Foreign Visitors from "eh land" at HVRM 10 Sept 2011

Greetings to all foreign and domestic readers,
 
Wonderful day at HVRM, sun was somewhat hot, but clouds cooled it down quickly. HVRM had
two special visitors for Canada today, Ross and Gee Robinson stopped by for a quick visit and
dinner at the Wooden Nickel. Returning from a quick visit to Tipton IA, on way back to Ottawa
ONT, Ross stopped to exchange latest and greatest news from the Ottawa area. A very crowded
Nickel, due to a memorial motorcycle run, it was busy and smokey. Maureen and Brianne joined
us for dinner. All of us left full and feeling good after a wonderful meal.
 
I arrived somewhat late in the morning to the east end switch, where the "tie crew" was busy
at work. Cory, Mark, Dave, Seth, Doug were all trying to replace 4 ties and get the switch
points tight against the rail. After a lot of effort, time for a break down at the train loading
area for hot dogs and drinks. A quick trip down to the west side of town at Osinki's auction
to see what was for sale, Cory had his eye on a small disc, but bids did not meet the price
required for a sale, so back to work. After doing some more shimming with flat washers,
a working medium was acchieved throwing the points to a tight position. Then putting spikes
in the 4 ties installed earlier and getting the guage correct. Finally driving in the spikes, was a
slow process. Next week it shoud be easier to install an spike ties without so much extra work.
Seth reported only 57 ties in the main line need replacing, should be a piece of cake to do.
Come on out and help out, needed spike pullers, tie plate placers and handing out spikes.
 
After the train departure at 2:45pm, the GE locomotive was brought out for some final
adjustments prior to the FRA coming out and inspecting it on Friday next week. All looks
good.
 
The MDT reefer and short NKP open air car are now locacted on track 3 at the east end
shop, to get in with the manlift to do some TSP'ing on the MDT car. Cooler weather will
make it easier to work in. C&NW boxcar is on track 1 inside the east shop being worked
on. NKP bay window caboose is still in the west shop for repainting. PC boxcar is
located across from the kitchen car, ready for grinding and priming. DT&I #122 will be
coming to  HVRM in the near future from Mishawaka IN Wendt Cranes.
 
Train riders today was at moderate level.
 
Sept 17th, next saturday morning at 8am in the depot, is the general membership meeting.
Come on out, download for the NKP 765 event, proposal discussion for the Mid America Car
request, and other important items. Get there early, seating is limited.. Like to paint, plenty
of things to paint, grinding, tie replacing, mowing grass, cleaning out the Erie shed, cleaning
bathroom in shop area, picking up trash around the grounds. Lots of jobs to work at,
some easy, some more effort required.
 
Until next week, be careful driving, getting dark earlier. May all your signals be green....
 
Tom

Super Day at HVRM Weather Wise, Not So at Meeting

Folks -   Here is Tom Travis's museum report for August 27th.  I've added a few additional comments at the end.   Les --- On Sat, 8/27/11, Thomas Travis <wa9ngo@hotmail.com> wrote: Greetings to all,   It was a fine day at North Judson today. Started out cool for the most part and stayed in the mid-80's most of the day. Nice breeze for those working outside today. Perfect for making hay, which Richard Warner was doing all day, round bales and square bales. Weather on east coast is not looking good for all the rail fans and museums. Some of the prime tourist time is actually getting blasted by Hurricane Irene. Lets all hope the rail museums survive without much damage.   Arrived early for an anticipated special meeting, more of presentation by Ben Butterworth, President of Mid America Car. Let me cover happenings first.   The special trains during the week went off without any problems. One dinner train was well attended of dignitaries I believe of the local community. Marcia of the Wooden Nickel provided a wonderful dinner and plenty of food for all. As always, Marcia has the best broasted chicken in town.   Work in the east shop had a Mid America Car passenger car lifted up doing some work on a truck set. The massive lifts make lifting the car easy. Power from another dorm-baggage car was back fed (480 volts) to run the lifts, nice system. Ben has a good crew working for his company, knows their business.   Train crew did their expert job of running the tourist train today. John "Highball" DeGan was engineer, John LaOrange was co-engineer. Don't really know who was conductor. Seems all the trains had good attendence today. Bus load of Amish visitors showed for the 1:30 train, 50 or so rode to English lake and return.   The real working crew, tie replacers, were working down at the east end yard switch replacing two 16 foot switch ties. Cory on tractor, Mark on track, Tom, well stumbling around trying his darnest to fall down, managed to get two ties in with not much problem. The real test was getting the points to close tight. Finally Fred showed up and got us all in the right directions of fixing this small problem. Cory only made Fred take off 2 nuts, 2 or 3 times to finally get the bar that guages the points. Fred happy as ever, did what he was told and then Tom took off 2 big nuts and got the angled steel bar off to insert 1/2 inch washers to make the points fit tight. After reassembling that, throw the switch was tested. Well its sort of tight now, just stand back when pulling the switch lever, it springs real good and if it hits your midsection, you will have some pain for a couple of days. To get the switch locked, you might have to pull 3 or 4 times to get it. A nice 3 foot piece of pipe extension will help greatly. Actually it will be easier to throw once the outside rail to the switch is ground down some. It was a piece of bent rail to begin with and was never properly bent at the the points to give clearance. Either will have to stretch a long electrical cable, or use a generator, for power, I don't think the electrical cable will work for 1/4 mile. So it is back in service for the time being, till more tweaking can be done later.   Now for the presentation of Ben's Mid America Car proposal to HVRM board. MAC would like to make the following equipment storage, usage and display proposal to HVRM. Several passenger cars of MAC's heritage fleet would be displayed on a new storage track at the east end of the properity. In addition MAC will provide cars that can be operated for  use at HVRM in regular or seasonal events. MAC requests that any routine maintence, HVRM will provide, i.e. brakeshoes, fuel, cleaning etc. A joint effort of MAC & HVRM to up date former C&O Chessie dome observation car for exclusive use by HVRM for 3-5 years,  with Amtrak certification eventually. In exchange of furnishing equipment for display and operation with HVRM's current equipment fleet, MAC would like use of HVRM's facilities to inspect, maintain and upgrade our running fleet of cars.   The full equipment storage and usage proposal can be viewed by everyone by asking Mark Knebel for a copy. Maybe it could be put on-line in a pdf so the different types of passenger cars can be displayed and the entire general overview proposal page.   This presentation was only an announcement. Board meeting on 3 Sept at 8am in the depot will discuss this further. A general membership meeting will be 17 September at 8am in the depot. Further discussion will be held.   This proposal will be viewed under a microscope. All questions, impacts on HVRM, MAC's intent to invest, and the extent of what to expect, will be conducted.   I encourage every member of HVRM to take a look at this proposal. Ask questions, make sure contract proposals are carefully written, leaving no idea along the way. This will have a lasting effect on HVRM for years to come. PROs/CONs????? Hard to say. Its all up to you. Make your vote count what you think is right to do with the museum's future.   Attend the meetings PLEASE!!!!!!!!   Have a safe week to come, enjoy the Labor Day weekend, drive safe, days are getting shorter by minutes each day, watch out for school busses on the roads after Labor Day.   Tom   Addendum -   The 2:45 train today ran all the way into La Crosse.  This is the first train to operate from the museum into La Crosse since the track was fixed by HVRM track crews after the 765 derailment on the Memorial Day weekend.  So certainly a red letter day for the museum!   I believe that Elmer Mannen and Doug Kosloske shared conductor duties on the trains today.  Joe Kingsbury provided the crossing protection that was necessary on the two earlier English Lake runs.   I spent the day finishing the painting of the watchman's crossing shanty.  I think it looks pretty good in its new coat of light green paint with dark green trim.  Comments welcome, pro or con.   I told Tom that the ex-Santa Fe Geep that the elevator at Malden uses for switching there, is apparently under repair at the Chesapeake & Indiana diesel repair area at La Crosse and that ex-C&O SD-18 # 7311 is currently up at Malden.  I am not sure if 7311 has been leased to the elevator for them to use while the Santa Fe unit is being repaired, or if it was just moved there for storage.   There had been some switching around of equipment.  NKP caboose # 471 is back in the West Annex of the Shop for painting.  And MDT refrigerator car # 13385 has been moved onto the tail of the turntable lead track.  Unfortunately, the car is now in a location where Tom and I will not be able to work on it due to junk around the car.   Pat DeGan and Judy Boyer seemed pretty busy in the gift shop today, which is always good to see.   Have a good week.   Les

Super Day at HVRM Weather Wise, Not So at Meeting

Greetings to all,
 
It was a fine day at North Judson today. Started out cool for the most part and stayed in
the mid-80's most of the day. Nice breeze for those working outside today. Perfect for making
hay, which Richard Warner was doing all day, round bales and square bales. Weather on
east coast is not looking good for all the rail fans and museums. Some of the prime tourist
time is actually getting blasted by Hurricane Irene. Lets all hope the rail museums survive
without much damage.
 
Arrived early for an anticipated special meeting, more of presentation by Ben Butterworth,
President of Mid America Car. Let me cover happenings first.
 
The special trains during the week went off without any problems. One dinner train
was well attended of dignitaries I believe of the local community. Marcia of the
Wooden Nickel provided a wonderful dinner and plenty of food for all. As always,
Marcia has the best broasted chicken in town.
 
Work in the east shop had a Mid America Car passenger car lifted up doing some work
on a truck set. The massive lifts make lifting the car easy. Power from another dorm-baggage
car was back fed (480 volts) to run the lifts, nice system. Ben has a good crew working for
his company, knows their business.
 
Train crew did their expert job of running the tourist train today. John "Highball" DeGan was
engineer, John LaOrange was co-engineer. Don't really know who was conductor. Seems
all the trains had good attendence today. Bus load of Amish visitors showed for the 1:30
train, 50 or so rode to English lake and return.
 
The real working crew, tie replacers, were working down at the east end yard switch
replacing two 16 foot switch ties. Cory on tractor, Mark on track, Tom, well stumbling around
trying his darnest to fall down, managed to get two ties in with not much problem. The real
test was getting the points to close tight. Finally Fred showed up and got us all in the right
directions of fixing this small problem. Cory only made Fred take off 2 nuts, 2 or 3 times to
finally get the bar that guages the points. Fred happy as ever, did what he was told and then
Tom took off 2 big nuts and got the angled steel bar off to insert 1/2 inch washers to
make the points fit tight. After reassembling that, throw the switch was tested. Well its
sort of tight now, just stand back when pulling the switch lever, it springs real good and if
it hits your midsection, you will have some pain for a couple of days. To get the switch
locked, you might have to pull 3 or 4 times to get it. A nice 3 foot piece of pipe extension
will help greatly. Actually it will be easier to throw once the outside rail to the
switch is ground down some. It was a piece of bent rail to begin with and was never properly
bent at the the points to give clearance. Either will have to stretch a long electrical cable,
or use a generator, for power, I don't think the electrical cable will work for 1/4 mile.
So it is back in service for the time being, till more tweaking can be done later.
 
Now for the presentation of Ben's Mid America Car proposal to HVRM board. MAC would like
to make the following equipment storage, usage and display proposal to HVRM. Several
passenger cars of MAC's heritage fleet would be displayed on a new storage track at the
east end of the properity. In addition MAC will provide cars that can be operated for  use
at HVRM in regular or seasonal events. MAC requests that any routine maintence, HVRM
will provide, i.e. brakeshoes, fuel, cleaning etc. A joint effort of MAC & HVRM to up date
former C&O Chessie dome observation car for exclusive use by HVRM for 3-5 years,  with
Amtrak certification eventually. In exchange of furnishing equipment for display and operation
with HVRM's current equipment fleet, MAC would like use of HVRM's facilities to inspect,
maintain and upgrade our running fleet of cars.
 
The full equipment storage and usage proposal can be viewed by everyone by asking
Mark Kniebel for a copy. Maybe it could be put on-line in a pdf so the different types
of passenger cars can be displayed and the entire general overview proposal page.
 
This presentation was only an announcement. Board meeting on 3 Sept at 8am in the
depot will discuss this further. A general membership meeting will be 17 September at
8am in the depot. Further discussion will be held.
 
This proposal will be viewed under a microscope. All questions, impacts on HVRM,
MAC's intent to invest, and the extent of what to expect, will be conducted.
 
I encourage every member of HVRM to take a look at this proposal. Ask questions, make sure
contract proposals are carefully written, leaving no idea along the way. This will have a
lasting effect on HVRM for years to come. PROs/CONs????? Hard to say. Its all up to you.
Make your vote count what you think is right to do with the museum's future.
 
Attend the meetings PLEASE!!!!!!!!
 
Have a safe week to come, enjoy the Labor Day weekend, drive safe, days are getting
shorter by minutes each day, watch out for school busses on the roads after Labor Day.
 
Tom   

Sane Day, Rain Day at HVRM 8-20-11

Greetings!   Arrived at North Judson about 8:45 a.m. to find Bob Jachim hard at work removing flowers and weeds (mostly weeds fortunately) from one of the plant display areas.  These areas, which are boxed in with old railroad ties, were set up some years ago around the wood telephone poles in the museums parking lot.  Museum visitors had a tendency to back in to these wooden poles at times and the idea behind the plant displays and the ties was to protect the poles and make them more visible.  The idea has been a great success.  Most of the plants were put in over a period of time by former member Cheri Schultz, who used both native flowers and plants and also domesticated plants.  Unfortunately, these areas have become overgrown and unsightly these past few years.  Bob's "weeding" was most welcome.  Bob and I also moved around some of the old ties that form the parking spots in the parking area so that we were able to get another automobile spot set up.   Bob Barcus singlehandedly manned the gift shop and ticket sales, as the ladies in the normal crew all were unable to be at HVRM this morning.   I dropped off a newly purchased can of light green paint which is to be used for Grasselli Tower and also for the Mulberry Street watchman's crossing shanty that I am painting.  Although there was rain in the forecast for this afternoon, I decided to do some painting on the shanty anyway.  I noticed that Bing Risley had put some additional crushed stone around the outside of the shanty this past week, which is much appreciated.   Fred Boyer was picking up old track material in front of the Shop building an taking it over to the track supply area.  Fred then grabbed a bunch of old concrete blocks and took them over to Grasselli and, after knocking excess mortar off of them, stacked them in front of the lower door to the Tower as temorary stairs.   The train crew had done some spotting of cars and moved MDT refrigerator car # 13385 over to track 1 in front of the Shop so that the second side of the car can eventually be scrubbed down to remove road grime.  Hopefully the garden hose will reach over to the car when that project is started up again.  In addition, Penn Central boxcar # 153177 had been moved over to the track near the NKP kitchen car.  Presumably, this means that a restoration is to be soon undertaken including repainting the car back to Pennsylvania Railroad # 607627.       Steve Newland had worked earlier in the week on the stairway that leads up to the second floor door of Grasselli, and was doing some additional work on the stairs today.   Joe Kingsbury spent the morning cutting grass in the future roundhouse site space.   Bill Maloney of the Blackhawk Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society was a visitor at Hoosier Valley today.  It was good to see Bill and talk to him.  He had not been at the museum for a number of years and Fred took the opportunity to give Bill a tour of Grasselli.  Blackhawk has supported various projects at the museum in the past, including signal restoration and installation and the move of Grasselli Tower from East Chicago to North Judson.   Train crews were very busy today.  In addition to the forementioned switching, the four Mid-America passenger cars had to be sorted so that the Mohave and Keystone Grille could be separated from the other two Mid-America cars in prepartion for their scheduled assignment on the 4:00 p.m. dinner train run.  Train crew today included John DeGan, Andy Hershman, Doug Kosloske, Joe Kingsbury, Elmer Mannen, Bill Dauber and Randall Downs.  The regular 11:00 train headed for English Lake.   A very light rain started late in the morning so I packed up and put paint cans and brushes away for the day.  Loretta Kosloske arrived about this time to help Bob Barcus in the depot.   No lunch today, so members were on their own.  After lunch, the rain started in a bit harder, so Fred and I decided to join Bill Maloney in B&LE caboose # 1989 on the 1:30 p.m. train.  A nice ride, but the rain continued to increase, the wind picked up drastically and eventually the riders on the Katy open air flat car were forced to take cover in Long Island commuter coach # 2937.  Many of the riders got a good soaking.  Fortunately, the temp was still about 80 degrees, so the riders were not upset.  As we approached North Judson on the return trip, I noticed that the three headed ex-Erie searchlight signal just to the west of the tower displayed green over red over red.  This signal had long been displaying three reds, and Matt Lasayko, our signal guy, had been working on it last week to see if he could figure out what the problem was.  As EL 310 went by the signal today, the top green changed correctly to red and it was great to see that this signal is now working correctly.  Of course, Matt had just recently fixed the top semaphore blade on the ex-Erie TTO signal that is just to the east of Mulberry Street, and seeing that signal blade drop down to red as the 310 passed was also wonderful.     After arriving back at  the depot, I had the opportunity to talk to Cory Bennett for a few moments.  He and Mark Knebel had just gotten back from the tie work project and Cory reported that the rain had caught them as they were spiking the last 3 ties in and rather than leave, they worked in the downpour and finished the project.  He reported that 25 ties were put in today and 25 more yesterday (Friday) and an additional 8 ties were also put in north of State Route 8 in La Crosse.   Perhaps because of the inclement weather, there were no riders for the 2:45 English Lake train.  As the passengers began arriving for the dinner train, the weather started to clear up.  The crew pushed the caboose train cars back and dropped the Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose on the main near the Shop, then went east and placed the other cabooses and LIRR 2937 into the caboose track.  Then another trip back west to got ready to pull the Mohave and Keystone Grille out from in front of the shop.  There is apparently a freon leak in the air conditioning system on one of these two cars and Jason Annen, Andy Roeske and Steve got out the tank of freon and charged the system.  Finally the train crew was able to couple the two passenger cars and the caboose together and pull them up to the depot for loading.  Included in the dinner crew were Joe and Louise Kingsbury, Loretta K., Bill D., Jason A., Andy R., in addition to the folks that were catering the event.  Doug K. was the conductor, with Elmer M., John DeG. and Jason Jordan in the cab of the EL Alco.  Departure was at 4:07 p.m., only slightly off the advertised.   With that, I did some minor gardening work and then headed for home after a very active and sane day at HVRM!   Les

HVRM Saturday August 13, 2011

Greetings!   Arrived at the museum about 9:15 a.m. and was surprised to see 4 Mid-America passenger cars parked on the track on the north side of the Shop building.  I had heard reports that the Keystone Grill and Mohave were coming back, but didn't know about the coach and combine.  Interesting!    I signed in and then found Tom Travis already working on WCHX # 1114, the museums single dome tank car.  So I joined in as we attached missing lock washers and nuts to the bolts securing the wood running boards that circle the car.  Many of these bolts are located in hard to get to locations and a hot sun burning down on us, didn't help our efforts.  The weather report for the day called for storms to arrive in the afternoon, and we hoped for some clouds, but got nothing but bright blue skies all morning.   Bob Barcus and Pat DeGan manned a lighter-than-normal crew in the depot and gift shop.  Ticket sales for the day seemed to be doing okay for a hot summer day in August.   John DeGan and Fred Boyer switched between engineer and fireman in the cabo of EL Alco #310, Bob Albert was the conductor with Randall Downs, Bill Dauber and Chris Kosary rounded out the crew.  Elmer Mannen drew the job of driving out and flagging the various crossings when the train was pushing the consist outbound from the depot.   Steve Newland worked on putting additional primer on the railings of the Grasselli Tower staircase.  Steve had come down earlier in the week and started that part of the project.   Broke for lunch in the NKP kitchen car, which included barbequed ribs, sausage and noodles, various sandwiches, a watermelon/cantelope/grape fruit salad and a number of different deserts.   After lunch, Tom and I went back to the tank car to continue the last of the work on the bolts.  Then after finishing, we grabbed a paint can and brushes and started in on painting the crossing watchman's Mulberry Street shanty.  Again bright sun, and the small building only had two sides in the shade!  Bing Risley helped me shove the coal box away from the one side of the shanty so I could paint behind it.   In the meantime, the boys returned from putting ties in up near La Crosse.  Cory Bennett reported that 44 ties were tamped and 25 new ties installed.  He estimates that two more workdays should finish up the job.  Besides Cory, the tie crew consisted of Mark Knebel, John LaOrange, Dave Cook and I think Cory mentioned someone else, but I didn't catch who that other person was.   As Tom and I soldiered on in the sun (where are those clouds?), we got the usual comments about "it will start peeling next week" and "you missed a spot" and..., well, you get the idea.  The clouds finally arrived just after Tom left to take some scrap metal over to the scrap piles located behind the Shop building.  I walked down and put the can of light green paint back into the Shop then walked back to the shanty and grabbed the ladder and my paint brush and headed for the Erie building to clean up.  By the time I had finished, the sky was getting very ominous.  Signed out, and talked briefly with a couple of guys who had gotten permission to run their Milwaukee Road speeder over the museum trackage in North Judson.  I headed for home at 5:15 and wasn't more than two miles from the museum before the skies opened up!  Hope those guys in the motorcar didn't get too wet!      Have a good week everyone.  Schools are starting to go back, so be careful out there when driving.   Les