Digging out and digging in at HVRM 12-18-10

Some Additions were added by Tom

Hi -     The 20" of snow reported at North Judson from the snowfall this past week, including a lot of lake effect snow, greeted members at the museum today.  Fortunately today's weather was sunny with temps getting up to 25 degrees by the afternoon.   Bing Risley had his Bobcat out and did a great job of cleaning up the parking lot at the depot and plowing the road and parking spots at the Shop.  Cory Bennett used the Payloader to tackle the snow on the road and parking around the museum office and display car area.   Meanwhile, Bob Jachim shovelled out a path on the platform into the depot while John DeGan worked on taking care of the snow out behind the Erie shed.  When I showed up, I took a crack at making the Jachim path into the depot wider, and spreading salt on some ice patches.   Bob Jachim was delievering Christmas baskets to needy familys from the American Legion. Over 100 baskets were made up, so many thanks to Bob for his volunteering.   The inside woodpile for the stove in the Shop had shrunk to next to nothing, so someone went outside and dug out wood from the pile buried under the snow.  The snow never did melt in the cold inside the Shop and each piece fed into the wood stove all day, sizzled momentarily as the snow quickly melted.    Mike Koehler was finishing up his second day of work on LIRR passenger coach # 2937.  Fred Boyer was helping out on this and later Andy Hershman showed up to start in on some welding under the windows of the 2937.   Judy Boyer, Loretta Kosloske and Margrett Cook worked in the Gift Shop in the depot.   Joe Kingsbury/Elmer Mannen started in on applying primer to the B end of CSS flat car # 18010.   Lunch consisted of hot beef sandwiches, stuffed peppers, chili soup, and pumpkin bread for desert.   Mike Healey, John DeGan and Tom Travis removed additional snow from the depot platform after lunch.   After chow, I went down and took over for Mike on grinding the window frames on the north side of LIRR 2937 to remove old paint.  Got a few windows done before the grinder seized up on me.  Meanwhile, Fred was grinding off Andy's weld beads on the south side of the car.   Jason Annen reported that the IHB had turned down our request for the donation of one of their last two NW2's.  Both 8811 and 8814 will have to be scrapped so that the Harbor can receive stimulus monies for new Genset units.  A sad end to the IHB's long history with the EMD NW2 units.   John LaOrange and Cory, with an assist from Tom Travis, worked on the engine of the Payloader. Earlier in the morning hours, the west shop had some rearranging taken care of. The REA trailer was repositioned further to the east, lots of pallet loads were moved to the north side of the shop and Steve's woodshop was reorganized. This effort was to provide a warm place to work on equipment during the winter season. Payloader fuel/oil filters changed, crankcase oil changed/replaced, air filter blown out.  The valve oil cover was leaking oil on the block, so it was decided to take it off and put a new gasket on. Many accessory items needed to be removed first to get the cover to clear the valves, some heat was needed on 2 bolts and with some muscle from Cory they were removed slowly. John cleaned the head with cleaner, while Cory scrapped off the old cork gasket and cleaned the inside of the cover. Gasket material was applied and cover reinstalled quickly. With only one Salamander heater working, temp in the west shop was up to 50 degrees, making it comfortable. Joe said that up on the CSS flat it felt nice, with some ceiling fans to blow the warm air down it will make a difference at ground level.   Well folks, northwest Indiana got hit hard by snow this week.  Besides the 20 inches at North Judson, other totals I heard included 25" at La Porte and 33" at Wanatah.   The forecast is for some additional snow this coming Monday, supposedly anywhere from 4 to 8 inches.  Looks like we will have a White Christmas for sure!     Have a great Holiday everyone!     Les/Tom

FW: Winter shows up at HVRM 12-4-2010

Just a note, volunteers are needed to help work on the CSS flat car to convert it into
another open air car. Contact Joe Kingsbury for more info.

Hello!   Well, winter finally decided to drop in on northwest Indiana.  Beginning late Friday night and continuing into Saturday morning, about 4 inches of snow was dumped on the area which included North Judson.  This made for snow packed roads and I arrived about 25 minutes late for the Board meeting.   A number of things were discussed including a presentation, with subsequent approval, of next seasons train schedule.   John LaOrange successfully fired up Whitcomb # 27.  Then John with Doug Kosloske and John DeGan, pulled out B&LE caboose # 1989 from the caboose storage track and went out to the east end.  They brought Santa Claus in to North Judson at 12:30 p.m. and he detrained and then rode in a horse drawn carriage over to town for its parade.   Fred Boyer and Joe Baker spent their morning duct taping the balance of the windows on LIRR # 2937 so that when the car is spray painted, no paint will seep into the cars interior.   Loretta Kosloske, Judy Boyer and Pat DeGan manned the gift shop all day.     It was decided to move equipment around and the train crew did the switching, pulling out LIRR 2937 and moving CSS flat car # 18010 back into the West Annex of the Shop, respotting the Long Island coach on track 2 in the old Shop building in front of the flat car and setting GE # 11 in front of the coach in the east shop annex.   Cory used the Payloader to move the old timber decking that had been removed from the CSS flat car last week, to a spot back out behind the Shop.  Eventually this wood will be used as new decking on NKP flat car # 2733.   Lunch consisted of tuna salad and crackers, chicken soup, hamburgers and deserts.   I spent time working on the arch window on coach 899.    In the afternoon, Joe Kingsbury started in on cleaning the loose rust off of CSS 18010.   Steve Newland started notching the stringers for the lower steps of Grasselli Tower.     Have a good week everyone.  Enjoy winter!   Les

HVRM 11-27-10; The Good, the Bad and the (not so) ugly!

Greetings Black Friday survivors!     Temps today in North Judson topped out at about 34 degrees, but it really wasn't that ugly as the sun shone most of the day.   Usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a light day attendance wise, and this day was no different.  Still, activity continued with those members present.        Rolled in about 9:00 and found Loretta Kosloske and Bob Jachim setting up the Christmas tree in the depot.   Went down to the Shop and managed to finally get the wood stove fired up.  Suprised no one had started it earlier.    Headed over to coach 899 and started in on trying to get the arch window on the northwest end of the car out.  This window had a small hole put in it earlier this year, and I decided to try to fix it up for the winter.  Finally managed to get the frame out with the broken window still attached which was good, and headed over to the Shop to work further on it.   A crew had Whitcomb # 27 fired up and when I asked Doug Kosloske, he said that they were going to pull the South Shore flat off the turntable lead siding and move it into the Shop to start on its conversion into an open car for passengers.   Cory Bennett got the Payloader running and he, Mark Knebel and John LaOrange headed down to the Erie to pull out some more bad ties and replace them.  The bad news was that Cory showed up some time later and when I asked him what had happened he said that the ties were frozen in place and couldn't be budged.  So much for trackwork until next spring!   The crew got CSS # 18010 spotted on track 1 of the Shop and started on removing the uneven deck from the car.  Joe Kingsbury handled the torch, cutting off balky bolts and Bill Dauber, Elmer, Bing and Doug started in getting the planks off of the car.   Chris Zardt showed up and I talked to him for just a few minutes.  Apparently Chris now works for the Strasburg and right now is involved in repairs to their ex-Canadian National 0-6-0 # 7312 and also working on the 1472 day inspection on ex-Great Western 2-10-0 # 90.   Stopped for lunch which consisted of hot grilled ham and cheese sandwiches or home made sausages, home made potato salad and cake for desert.  Good eats!   After lunch, Cory, John and Mark decided to tackle taking the signs off of the Model 40 that is parked out near SR 10/39.  We usually take these signs off of the little diesel for the winter to prevent them from deteriorating too much, but this year they are in bad shape and will need to be repainted before being put out again next year.   Loretta got the new train in operation around the depot Christmas tree.  A number of folks had a chance to operate the little 0-6-0 and its train using its radio control transmitter.   Steve Newland was working on cutting out stringers for the lower portion of the Grasselli Tower steps.  Bad news is that when he ordered the wood from Norwayne Lumber, he failed to take into consideration that the Tower now sits higher than it did when it was still in East Chicago.  So, he will need at least one more step.  Good news is that Bruce Fingerhut had told him that there some nice pieces of lumber in the old Hibbard building and Steve looked them over and decided that he could use them for the extra material needed.   CSS 18010 looked entirely different when the boys finished with it after lunch.  All the decking had been removed and the car needs to be scraped, primed and painted before a new deck is put on.  Should keep folks busy for a while.   I worked all afternoon on the arch window from 899 and finally was able to get the hard-as-a-rock dried putty cleaned out enough to accept a replacement window.  Although I was able to make a pattern, I couldn't find a suitable replacement.  So the bad news is that that job will have to carry over to next week.  I was able to find a temporary piece of wood that (mostly) filled up the now gaping cavity where the arch window once sat in the car!   Finally hit the road at 4:00 p.m.  Enjoy the week everyone!   Les

Short day/short report

Tom -   Got to the museum at 9.  Grandkids over today so had to leave after the meeting at 2:30.   John L., Cory, Mark K. and Dave C. worked on ties/spiking.   John D. and Joe K. used the lift to try to fix a burned out light on the north side of the West Annex of the Shop.  They were not successful.   Joe Baker and Fred B. worked on putting duct tape over the seals of the windows on the north side of LIRR 2937 so when eventually painted, paint will not come into the cars interior through those cracks.   Steve showed up to work on Grasselli, but no lift of course.   Judy B., Margrett C. and Pat D. manned the gift shop.   Loretta K. picked up Whoppers from Burger King for lunch (some kind of special deal) and furnished potato salad, macaroni salad and homemade chocolate cake for lunch.   Meeting went well.  CSS 18010 approved by membership for new open air car.   Over and out!   Les

Indian Summer comes to a screeching halt at HVRM 11-13-10

Greetings!   Temps in the 60's all week!  I managed to get the roof on 899 mostly wire bushed and scraped and then primed on Monday, except for two small sections.  Would this wonderful Indian Summer weather hold and allow me to finish it on 11/13?  Forecasts during the week called for a change with colder temps and some rain for Friday.  Then pushed back to late Friday night/early Saturday.  Finally, the cold front was supposed to come in late Saturday morning.  A chance!   Arrived a bit after 9 and grabbed the key for the lift and finally got the cantankerous machine fired up.  Took it down to the 899 and started to work.  A rain drop...or three.  But it held off!  And after an hours work, the deed was done!     Moved the lift back over to Grasselli Tower where Steve had arrived to work on the final section of railing for the upper floor landing.  He was on a tight schedule too, as he had to leave early to take one of his pets in to the vet for examination.   Joe Kingsbury was taking measurements and working out an estimate for converting one of the other flat cars at the museum into an open car.   Doug Kosloske and Bill Dauber took a diesel and went down to push the last 6 storage tank cars unto the interchange where they could be picked up later by a crew from the Chesapeake & Indiana.  After the old motor car was removed from the west end of the track in the West Annex of the shop, the train crew then pushed LIRR coach 2937 to the end of that track.  Fred Boyer then continued his work on the windows of the car.   Tom Travis was wire brushing rust off of the REA trailer and then priming those cleaned areas.  He and I broke for lunch at the Nickel and when we came out, found out that it had rained hard.  The temp had started its drop too.   Went past the tower, and saw that Steve had managed to get the railing finished on the upper landing before he had to leave.   Cory Bennett stopped by the West Annex and stated that the rain had stopped their trackwork.  He, John LaOrange and Mark Knebel had managed to spike and tamp 28 ties on the Erie Division before the rain hit.   Tom and I, with some help and encouragement from Randall Downs and Fred, managed to finally get the one side door of the REA trailer off.  The hinges on the two side doors had been rusted solid.  With the one door off, we managed to open the door about half way.  Eventually, these two doors will have to be rebuilt.   Temp was down to 44 degrees as I drove out of North Judson.  Even with the wind and rain and cold, a good day!   Les  Couple of items to add, on weekends the signals will be lighted and go off on Monday mornings. The trainorder board will turn on at 4pm every night.   Many thanks to Les for helping today on the REA door hinges. The hinge bolts may be bent is the reason the doors will not open easily, but soaking in WD-40 may prove me wrong. With the doors off, I will take them home to measure and rebuild, taking off the hardware. It will be easier to remount the doors and put the hardware back on.   My new scaffolding is working out very well, easy to assemble, easy to move and easy on the feet to stand on. It is certainly nicer to work inside the shop rather than out in the wind and rain.   Tom

Snow at HVRM 11-6-10 and a train chase!

Greetings!   Especially to you lovers of winter!  Got up this morning to find the ground and the car white.  Since neither are usually this color, I figured we must have had a light snowfall and going out to start the car confirmed it.    Managed to make it to the Board meeting by 8:00 a.m.  Interesting meeting.  Included in the discussion were the website for the museum; a report on the good passenger totals for October special runs; possibility of converting another flat car into an open car for the train; windows for Grasselli Tower; looking into moving the Monterey depot; expected finish date for LIRR coach 2937; checking in to possible future usage of a Metra car; future Santa, Valentine and Easter trains; extension of the North Judson depot platform and new stone unloading at the trail area site and at LaCrosse; along with other subjects.     After the meeting ended, Bob Jachim took a new wood frame for the replacement window on 899 to the car to measure it for a fit.  The snow had already mostly melted by this time.   A crew including Doug Kosloske, Mark Anderson and John DeGan were working on a brakeshoe on Alco 310.  Bill Byers, a surprise visitor, helped out on this project.  Good to see Bill at the museum and I showed him around a bit after lunch.  A young man who was a volunteer at Hesston showed up and Bill and he talked about some of the other volunteers at that organization.   Good sandwiches on Kaiser rolls, ravioli and split pea soup for lunch, with a couple of different deserts.   Mike Koehler finished sanding the Bondo on the north side of 2937 and then primed it while Fred Boyer and Joe Baker worked on the south side, grinding welds and removing the rubber gaskets around the windows.  Fred and Joe applied a plastic sheet below the windows on the south side to protect the already primed sides.  I joined in to help Fred and Joe later in the afternoon.   Pat DeGan and Margrett Cook manned the gift shop in the depot.   Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske worked on a tentative schedule for train rides for next year.   Rolled out of the museum at 4:00.  West of LaCrosse on the way home and far off in the distance, I noticed a string of covered hopper cars parked on the Chesapeake & Indiana's ex-C&O main line.  I then realized that there appeared to be a red diesel on the west end of the string.  "Could this possibly be a moving train?"  Cut down the next county road and headed north.  Finally made it past the string and yes, they were on the move!  A genuine train chase!  Hadn't done anything like that for a while.  And then I realized that the train chase was more like a snail chase, the train was moving that slow.  I estimated 5 m.p.h. if that fast!  Still, the slow pace had allowed me to catch up with the train.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera.  Dang!  The two units, chopped nose Geep # 2003 and ex-P&L chopped nose Geep # 8314 running in reverse, and the 45 mostly CSXT covered hoppers, would have made a great photo running into the lowering sun.  The very last hopper on the train was L&N 242294.  Rather surprising to see a Louisville & Nashville car still so lettered.   Have a great week everyone.  Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight as we go from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time!   Les

Halloween Excursion to La Crosse IN 10-30-2010

Never a more perfect day and evening for an excursion to LC. Over 100 riders enjoyed
the train ride and the animal program at La Crosse. The kids were thrilled by all the
wonderful showing of animals, skunk, owl, bull frog, big dog. Don't worry the skunk
is as calm as a kitty cat. Train left at 4:15pm and arrived in LC still in daylight, but as
the time flew by, it was getting darker by the minute. The engine crew even spooked
a 6 point buck up and across the tracks, narrowly missing it by a foot with the locomotive.
Coming into North Judson all the railroad signals lighted up and looked ever so nice.
After disbarking the cabooses, the crowd dispersed and all that was left was the locomotive
shining its headlights down the track off the sides of the railroad cars and the signals.
Rarely is this event seen at HVRM. Lots of hard work put in by Loretta an Pat to put this
all together. All the train crew and the car hosts were much appreciated.
 
Now that the excursion season is over, its back to traditional grunt work at the museum.
Car 899 had the east end wire wheeled and primed yesterday. Track work continued on
the Erie main with the air compressor and tamping ballast where Mark had installed new
ties. Some new stone put down on the driveway to help fill up the pot holes. Matt
the signalman and the crane with man cage, replaced some bulbs in the signals on
the east end of the Erie. The Pennsy flat car was moved out to help pulled out the
C&O 2789 tender from the the locomotive. Tender was put down on the east end of the
yard. Grasseli's tower name is now back up on the stairs. Tower gets a little more paint
each week. 
 
Lunch was highlighted by a nice birthday cake for Les Beckman who is a young "70". Les's
mother turned 96 a week ago, way to go girl.
 
Elections are coming up in January, VP, Sec, Board member, sign up is in the kitchen car
to get your name on the ballot.
 
Board meeting is next Saturday morning, 8am in the depot. Have a good week, drive safe.

Rain, rain, go away!...at HVRM 10-23-10

Greetings!   Day dawned cloudy with a 70% chance of rain in the forecast.   Train crew pulled out one of the storage tank cars and put it on the interchange track.  Now down to an even 10 storage cars.   Craig Rohrer had reported earlier in the week that the Chesapeake & Indiana crew had brought in a TTX flatcar and two tank cars.  The TTX flat is the museums which had been loaned to the C&I for trackwork.  Turned out that the two tank cars that came in are actually C&I cars also, and not new storage cars.  Those two cars were put out on the C&I line near the museums "advertising" Model 40 alongside state route 10/39.   I opened up the 899 passenger car so that Bob Jachim could look at a damaged window.  I took off the moulding on a different window so Bob could measure that one, so he can make a replacement window.  Tom Travis had put coach green paint on a part of the lower portion of the 899 this past Thursday and I got a number of "thumbs up" for his work.  Thanks Tom!  Since rain was in the forecast, I decided not to even try to do any additional painting, closed the car up again and then volunteered as a car host for the three scheduled pumpkin trains.   The rain started lightly before the 11:00 train to English Lake left, but many folks remained out on the GTW transfer caboose platforms.  During the run out to the "pumpkin patch" located next to the Erie North Judson Trail, the rain picked up but it did not deter the 96 riders from picking out pumpkins.  During lunch, the rain really started coming down and by the time the 1:30 train to LaCrosse was ready to leave, there was a real downpour.  Still, 104 passengers made the trip to LaCrosse. Most stayed on the train during the wying of Alco 310 and on the way back to North Judson, the rain slowly let up.  By the time this train got to the "patch", the rain was almost non-existant.  During the layover between the second and third trains, the rain completely stopped and the sun actually peeked out.  The 4:30 train to English Lake was the best weather wise, and another 65 made this trip.  Loretta Kosloske ended up with only a few extra pumpkins.  A total of 265 riders; a great passenger carrying day for Hoosier Valley!   The rain put a damper on most other activities, but John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Mark Knebel did manage to get some new ties put in out on the old Erie line next to the Trail.   I am not sure if the weather permitted Steve Newland and Joe Baker to get any work done on Grasselli Tower.   Loretta, Bob Barcus, Andy Roeske, Margrett Cook, Pat DeGan and Judy Boyer ably managed ticket sales and the gift shop in the depot.  They were busy much of the day.  Train crew was rotated between John DeGan, Fred Boyer and Doug Kosloske, with each getting time in the engineers seat, as fireman and as conductor.  Mark Anderson served time as apprentice conductor.  Car hosting besides yours truly, included Joe and Louise Kingsbury, Bill Dauber, Tom McKee and Randall Downs.  Elmer Mannen provided crossings protection for the 11:00 run to English Lake while Mark Knebel did the honors for the 4:30 trip.   Good to see Chuck Ness at the museum today.  I probably missed mentioning a few folks.   Enjoy the coming week everyone.   Les

HVRM 16 October 2010

Yet another beautiful day in North Judson. Warm sun, nice breeze, good train ridership.
 
Thursday me and Les, worked on the D&RG 899 passenger car. Did more grinding on
the roof and completed the entire lenght of the car. Now ready for black paint on roof
and pullman green on the sides. I will be going down Thursday/Friday to work on
899 or REA trailer if weather is decent. Saturday I will not be avail to work.
 
First job was to put seats down in the GTW caboose. I had a change of plans, went to
Toto, WA9KRT's house for a crane to take down his old 2 meter EME array, get it on
the ground so he can rework it into 70 CM EME array. The crane took quick work of
lowering the boom, only one problem with a U bolt snagging on tower. K9MRI Joe from
Ft Wayne came over to watch also and retreive his prop pitch rotator that Don's son
rebuilt. Joe is off the air due to a failure of his boom is now a V shape, due to equipment
failure. After a nice lunch at Richards in Toto with everyone, it was back to North Judson.
 
Les had completed putting the brackets behind the seats to secure them from moving and
squeezing fingers. We now only have one inside coach seat to install and one outside
coach seat to reinstall on the platform. With only 2 more Saturdays of the Pumpkin trains
all the seats will be filled.  It got too close to train time so we cleaned up the cab
and headed to other projects.
 
Good train ridership, over 117 riders to La Crosse. Dave Cook had gone earlier in the
day to help the C&I move a grain train out of La Crosse to clear up the wye for the
tourist train to wye. Cory worked the ballast pile on the west side of the tracks to
smooth it down with the payloader. No work on the roof sealing on the east shop.
 
Grasseli tower got some sanding, filling nail holes and priming. Steve Newland and
helper.
 
Mike Kohler worked on the LIRR coach car sanding down bondo. Fred Boyer had
worked earlier in the day sanding.
 
Mark Kniebel loaded up 2 new ties and went down the Erie main and replaced 2
junk ties
 
I went down to the west shop and worked on wire wheeling the sides of the REA trailer
and did some paint priming. I found a ladder with flat steps and a platform at the top
to stand on, made work much easier on the feet. Last week I took the REA signs over
to a car painter friend, he suggested using Rustoleum spray paint on the areas  that
need repainting. I will start on the back sides first and paint them black with a couple
of coats of paint. The big diamond signs need the red repainted. The longer signs
will just have to be touched up with one shot paint. I will clear coat all the signs
when done. Remounting the signs will have a piece of thick rubber between the sign
and walls to prevent rusting on the walls.
 
Les worked on 899's vestibule door priming it.
 
Two pumpkin trains next weekend, and one more on the 30th, a twilight run. Should be
fun. Most are filled with pre resgistration tickets.
 
Have a safe week, drive carefully

FW: Thursday 10/14/10 at HVRM

Greetings!   Cool, windy day (low 60's).  Workers today:   Steve Newland - Grasselli Tower   Mark Knebel - Tie work   Tom Travis and Les Beckman - coach 899   Fred Boyer -  LIRR coach 2937

Super Day At HVRM, Record Crowds, Record Heat 10-09-10

Just a perfect day at HVRM. Temp in the high 80's, no clouds, no humidity, good day
for the pumpkin trains. Both trains were near capacity or sold out. Only change was
that pumpkins were at the North Judson train/trail park. Early switching of the tank
cars to the interchange track opened up the Erie line. After moving the tank car
a run to the highway crossing was made to make sure that the signal would work,
they did. So back to the waiting caboose train. Could of been a little close to train
time as the platforms were packed and people were everywhere. Don't have counts on
train riders or number of pumpkins sold at the park. No problems noted at the park
with unloading/loading. Riders quickly boarded and were off to English Lake, then returned
to the Erie line and was nice to see the train head on down the old Erie line. Some extra
mileage. I'm not sure if the crews got a chance to eat lunch, as I had already moved on to
my next project.
 
Arriving at 8AM, I went directly to the GTW caboose to work on the final seats inside
the car. As I had the lag bolts I needed to get it done, but of course miscounted and
still need more. Blocks of wood that were made last week was quickly attached to the
seat legs, holes drill for the floor, but I used screws, that will be changed to bolts later
when one person can go under the car and put the lock washer and nut on while the
person inside tightens the bolt. The remaining seat and double seat were put in
and the back cushions were attached to the seat frame, with the brackets behind the
cushions installed later. I swept the car, gathered up my tools and waited till the train
was at the platform to unload. It was a mad rush to get my stuff off the steps before
the riders boarded. Many happy riders were on the outside platform seats.
 
Tower work continued with filling nail holes, sanding, then painting more boards. Steve
had a helper today.
 
Dave and Cory worked on the east building roof installing the sealant till it got too hot
to work.
 
Les, on Thursday worked some more on the 899, getting another section primed.
Bob J was asked about the window, but was too busy with getting things ready to
look at it.
 
Mostly all the regulars, plus wives were car hosts for the trips. Dan Siple was spotted
in the depot with Dee buying tickets for the train, looks good.
 
I continued on the REA trailer after lunch, slow going around all the locomotive
parts all over the ground. I did get the last big REA diamond off the side of the
trailer. I stood on the ladder till my feet went to sleep, so that was it for the day.
Got a lot of grinding done, at my expense. I have a new scaffold that I will try out next
week. Side doors, hinges are rusted solid. Only way to get doors off is to drill out the
heads. Cory did help get the rear door up, so I could squeeze in if I needed too. Will
get a track jack next week to jack it up further. Got to get those springs hooked back
up.
 
Next week I will head over to a car painter and ask him how to restore the REA signs.
Paint is faded badly, but the surface is in good shape. Have all winter to work on
that project. Nothing special to do on the roof, but put the aluminum trailer paint on
to seal it up.
 
Beautiful working weather, won't last, snow will soon be on the ground. Have a good
week, be careful on the roads. Stop Look & Listen at all railroad tracks. A grain truck
driver was killed by a NS train in Starke county this past week after he did not stop to
check for trains. Will never know why he crossed in front of the train. Sad

10-05-2010 HVRM Extra Workday

Beautiful day at North Judson. Both me and Les arrived at the same time at the passenger
car. Took a while to get started. Les went to get the manlift, I got the electric cords
out and plugged in for the wire grinder. Took Les a while to get the manlift
started and running, finally coming up along the south side of the DRGW passenger car.
 
Work commenced and got into a routine of grinding an area, with Les priming that
area. Got over half the upper area of the car completed. When we quit for the day,
went down to the GTW caboose and  bolted seats to the floor. 2 seats remain to
be installed. The outside coach seat needs to be put back on the grating also.
Ran down to the shop and quickly made blocks for the seats that are too short
to reach the floor.
 
Jason and Josh were working on the GE and the LIRR passenger .
 
That the news from Here..............
 
Tom Travis HVRM North Judson IN

Cool Day at HVRM 8-2-10

Fall is in the air, litteraly. Up till last night, many farmers worked late to combine beans
or corn. Today was a day of rest for some. Rain curtailed their work. Cool conditions
most of the day and towards later part of afternoon, it started to rain again. Time to
call it quits for the day.
 
Start off with the bad news, 3 UTLX tank cars were switched out of the storage track
and put on the interchange.
 
I don't know if a board meeting was held or not, I arrived late and went to work immediately
on the GTW seats. I dumped every bucket, bag, carton of bolts and nuts to find what I
needed and could not find any lag bolts. So spent considerable time in trying to sort nuts and
bolts, then down to hardware store to buy what I needed. Stopped at Garys R's house
and spent too much time, so got back to caboose, it was 12:30pm. I got one seat back
on and the brackets to hold the back on. Started on the 2nd seat and did not make it,
train was leaving and I needed to get off. Locked up caboose and left for the shop area.
 
Back to the REA trailer. I started to remove the REA signs and did quite well on that, cept
when the grinding wheel wore out. Got all off except for one large REA diamond. It can
wait till Tuesday. Loaded them all in the van and will work on them at home. Did some
wire wheel grinding on the new rust. Want to get the side doors off and transport home
to build some new ones. Lots of hardware to remove on the outside of them. Quit finally
about 4:30pm.
 
Other activity, ridership on the 1:30pm train to La Crosse was good, over 60 plus.
At the station stop in LC, lots of people headed to the cabooses off the open air cars.
The wye must of been fouled, as Erie 310 pushed the train back to NJ. Crew was Elmer M,
Doug K, John LaO. Don't know who was conductor, as so many people were car hosts.
 
 
LIRR passenger was getting some attention by Mike K, doing bondo on the sides and
roof. Jason A, Steve N were also inside working on car. The GE was fired up and used
to push passenger car back into west shop, GE's engine sounds good.
 
Tuesday is a work day for me and Les at the museum, many projects to work on,
GTW seats, REA trailer sign, D&RGW 899 passenger car, repaint. Will bring generator
for power tools and maybe can progress faster. Will also bring 2 ladders so we can
put a plank along the side to work off of it. Unless the manlift is available.
 
Pumpkin trains are filling up with advance ticket sales, looks good.
 
Have a safe week everybody.
 
Tom HVRM Restoration

Fixing up D&RGW 899

Les has been working on his car getting it ready for paint. Has worked on the south side
a couple of day in the past 2 weeks. Wire brushing and some priming going on.
A window on the south side needs to be taken out and rebuilt and reinstalled sometime.
 
Tuesday of next week, OCT 5th I will be down all day working on various projects. No school.
October 21/22 will also be no school days. Will be gone the 23rd on bus charter to INDY.
 
Come on out to work on railway equipment.

WABASH CABOOSE ST CHARLES MO

DEAN LEVIN took this picture while in ST CHARLES, MO

Emailing: 9246.1244174471

 

Nippy but nice at HVRM 9/25/10

A cool low 60's day, with sun on and off all day.  All in all, a good weatherwise day at North Judson.   Apparently, the FRA inspector found some problems with some of the museums cabooses including no built dates on three of them.  These were added this morning.  Also, the inspector stated that the hand rails on GTW transfer caboose had to have at least 4 inches of clearance and three of the seats had to be moved forward slightly to accomplish this.  A 4th seat could not be moved without some special work so that seat was just removed.   Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were plugging holes on the south side roof of the East Annex to the Shop.  The north side roof had been finished a few weeks ago and apparently no longer leaks.  Cory reported that they are about half finished with the south side.   Unlocked the crossing watchmans shanty for visitor inspection.   Andy Hershman and Mitch Montgomery were working on GE # 11 in an effort to get the unit its blue card.  Lots of work done on it today and Andy and Mitch were still at it when I left the museum late in the afternoon.   Joe Kingsbury cut grass for a while.   I noticed that Mike Koehler had put bondo on the south side of LIRR 2937 when he was here last weekend.   Steve Newland was in the Shop, measing and cutting the missing boards for the north side of Grasselli Tower.  After eventually putting them into place, he then gave them a coat of primer.   I started out working again on the seats that need to be added to the interior of GTW 75072.  Went down to the Shop and, with the assistance of Steve Newland, managed to get a wood pattern made for the needed riser legs from the 4 x 4 blocks that we have on hand.  Cut and drilled three additonal wood risers and then broke for lunch.  Pizza, salad, soup and various deserts were served in the NKP kitchen car.  While eating, the 11:00 caboose train arrived back at the depot, so after lunch, I headed over to the GTW caboose to see what I could get done before the 1:30 departure for English Lake.  Ran a long extension cord out to the caboose and managed to get one leg down and the other two marked, and the wall marked for lag bolts.  Train time came too soon, so I disconnected the electric, returned the cord and then, since all my tools were still on the caboose, decided to ride the train to keep an eye on my stuff.  Nice group of folks on board and they enjoyed the ride, although the wind and cool temps finally drove some of them inside.  I heard later that we carried over 100 riders on the two trains.   After we returned to the museum and the crew put the cabooses away on the caboose track, I went hunting for the electric cord and started in on the seat once more.  Managed to get all three legs bolted down and the lab bolts put into the wall before leaving for the day.   Mark Knebel, John LaOrange and Dave Cook were doing some kind of track work on the east end in the afternoon.   Pat DeGan reported that the gift shop in the depot had a very busy day.   Others members at the museum today included Bob Jachim, Andy Roeske, Randall Downs, Bill Dauber, Loretta Kosloske, Margrett Cook, Judy Boyer and Jason Annen.  Engine crew was John DeGan and Doug Kosloske and the conductor for both runs was Fred Boyer.  I am sure I missed some folks.  Another senior moment!   It was a tiring, but worthwhile day.   Les

[MONONPIC-L] Dearborn 2

Here's an interesting shot taken at Dearborn Station in Chicago of a Monon train arriving in 1950.  Note the C&EI cab unit waiting to go outbound and the C&WI RS1 switching a string of cars.  Also note the dwarf semaphores up on the signal mast.

Dearborn

 

Here is an interesting photo taken at Dearborn Station in the late 40's or early 50's.  Note the Santa Fe steam engine switching.  Since the AT&SF was not one of the owners of the Chicago & Western Indiana and thus Dearborn, they did their own switching.  The C&WI switched for the Wabash, C&EI, Monon, GTW and Erie, its owners.  Note also the two sets of Monon passenger F's; probably one for the Louisville train and the other for the Indianapolis train.  Also of special interest are what appear to be Railway Express Agency trailers that appear right above the boiler of 0-8-0 # 825.  Do these look like they might be the same type of trailer that you are working on at HVRM?   Les

FW: Running on the C&WI

 

Tom -   Nice photo of a steam powered Monon train.  Wabash connection?  This is where the Wabash left the C&WI on its way west toward Landers Yard and beyond.   Les

FW: MRM Railroad Days at MRM Sept 2010

Gents -   Attached are a couple of photos of Southern Railway 2-8-0 # 401 at Monticello Railway Musuem on Saturday, 9-18-10.  Thanks to Don Crimmin for these photos.  I was at MRM today (Sunday, 9-19-10) and what follows is a quick report.   First of all, the 401 looks and sounds GREAT!  Betty and I rode in Brian Higgins IC business car # 7 that carried the markers on the steam train.  New wood panelling has been put in the rear compartment of that car and it looks wonderful.  And the seats remain as comfortable as I remember them.   We also rode Wabash caboose 2834 on the freight train which was pulled by the two CN FPA4's.  Lots of tank cars still stored on MRM tracks, so this run was limited as to its length.   I walked out to the shop to look around and then rode the "caboose hop" back to the Nelson's Crossing depot.  Power was the Milwaukee Road NW2 pulling the little IT wood transfer caboose.  Nice touch!   I managed to get a number of photos of the 2-8-0 during the day, and maybe one or two of them might even turn out!   Some surprises:   A gentleman had his 1-1/2" scale Mogul fired up and running on a table with rollers under the drivers!  So the engine never went anywhere!  A WONDERFUL idea.   It's been a while I guess, since I was last at MRM, because they have a two track covered train shed just to the east of the Nelson's Crossing depot.   But the MOST surprising thing there today, was the lady who was at the throttle of number 401 on some of her afternoon runs.  That was TERRIFIC!  She really could make the Consolidation talk!   All in all, a most wonderful way to spend a September afternoon!   Les

Cool, rain, sun, clouds at HVRM 9-18-10

Greetings!   Little bit of everything weatherwise today at Hoosier Valley.  In fact, the outdoor general membership bi-monthly meeting was cut off due to rain starting up!    Despite the generally gray day, I heard that we had about 100 riders, including 60 for the afternoon train to LaCrosse.  Andy Hershman and John LaOrange handled the chores in 310's cab, while Fred Boyer was conductor today.  A number of folks carhosted including Joe Kingsbury, Bill Dauber, Randall Downs, Loretta Kosloske, Mark Anderson and Mark Knebel.  I probably missed a few others on the crew.   Loretta and Margret Cook worked in the gift shop.   A neighbor on Lincoln Street on the north side of the museum had approached Mark requesting some help, if possible, in putting up a pole on his property for a new electrical service connection.  So, Cory Bennett and Dave Cook used the payloader to set the pole.  Got to keep good relations with our neighobors!   Mike Koehler was working on cleaning up his ex-Long Island RS-1 diesel and asked a couple of us if we wanted a "look see" in the cab.  Mike moved some stuff around after we entered and found a "present"; about a three foot long snake skin.  A few minutes later, Mike found another skin!  But no live snakes.  At least, not this time!  Later in the afternoon, Mike was busy working on the one vestibule end of LIRR coach 2937.   Steve Newland had finished painting the rest of the north side of Grasselli Tower this past week, so now both the north and east sides of Grasselli are in light green paint.  The rain forced Steve to abandon plans to continue painting on the south side of the tower so he was working inside the Shop on various replacement board that have to be fitted in to that side.   Joe and Louise Kingsbury had finished lettering the NKP 15797 boxcar this week.  Looks great!  So two of our boxcars have been done this year.   Jason Annen and Andy Roeske were making minor repairs on GE # 11 during the afternoon.  The 95-tonner was fired up and moved back and forth in the Shop.   The train crew told Tom Travis and I that they were going to have to pull GTW transfer caboose 75072 off of the rounhouse lead track on the north side of the shop building as the car was needed in the train.  Tom and I already had all our tools on the car but had to wait to start working on the interior seats.  We managed to start work after the 75072 was switched into the train and actually worked on the seats while the car was in motion and passengers were riding on the seats outside on the platform on the morning trip to EngIish Lake.  After retuning. we had to run to Hoppe's hardware for some bolts, then had to wait while the train was pulled down and the 310 ran around to get ready for the afternoon run to LaCrosse.  Still managed to get two seats bolted down to the floor after the membership meeting.  Tom then had to take off at 1:30 for an afternoon-evening schoolbus charter, but when the train returned and the cabooses were put away on the caboose track, I was finally able to get the two seats bolted into the side wall of the GTW.   A number of other folks were around the museum today doing various tasks.  I know that Bob Jachim showed a number of folks around the Shop.  And Andy Hershman's fiance helped in the gift shop.   Have a good week folks.   Les

HVRM Report for 9-11-10

After a beautiful week of nice weather, guess what, it rained all morning long here
in NW IN. Certainly a bummer for the town of North Judson that had big plans for
today for yard sales, etc. I did not go down to NJ till about 11AM since our activities
were outside today. Les made it down earlier and had wet shoes to prove it.
 
Les made busy work on the GTW caboose, making window frames and caulking the
cracks. One thing that the rain did prove, its not leaking in the caboose, as all the
window were dry, no leaks near the ceiling either. While Les worked on the windows,
I made busy work of dragging the 2 coach seats back into the GTW. Les made me aware
of another wall seat buried in the stuff along the south wall of the shop. I brought it over
and grabbed a couple of 4x4's for the legs to set on, these are the short leg seats. By then
we made a trip over to Metra 1502 to retrieve seats that were stored in side the car.
Took my van over and we loaded it up, just coming out, Ross Robinson showed up.
Ross is on way back from Iowa to Ottawa and stopped by for a visit. We loaded up and
went to lunch at the Wooden Nickel for some some catch up time. Returning to the GTW,
unloaded the van and put seats inside. Made a visit to the D&RGW coach to attempt to
remove a marker bracket from the end of the car. It was finally removed after about an
hour of drilling out screws and good old fashion pounding. Surprise, the brackets are made out
of brass. Ross will have new brackets made in the Renfrew foundry someday.
 
Another old friend and member also showed up today, Bruce Emmons, who looks good
and is doing well. Annabelle was out yard sale shopping, but everything was wet. Bruce came
over to pull some T-shirts of the hangers for the Griffith Rail weekend that HVRM has a booth,
so come out and help man the booth. Good to see Bruce and Annabelle.
 
Mark Kniebel has the final coat of paint on the NKP boxcar and Joe Kingsbury is doing a
great job of lettering it. Wonder what the next project will be. BTW, Mark painted the
kerosene tank aluminum  and it looks great.
 
Train ridership today was on the low side, most likely due to the rain this morning.
 
Bob Albert/Steve Newland worked on scrap pile and some boards for Grasseli tower.
 
2 tank cars were cut out after train rides for interchange.
 
Nothing else to report, have a good week everyone.

GTW caboose work

I did drive to North Judson today.  Spent about 4 and a half hours there.  Knebel had sprayed the finish coat of paint on the NKP boxcar that's over by the kitchen car.  Looks great!  Now Joe has to letter it I guess.  He and Bob Jachim were the only other ones at the museum.  Bob opened the troop car so I could get into Metra 1529.  Mark went down and sanded the rust off of the new storage tank that is going to be used for kerosene.  Then he painted it with aluminum paint.  Looks real good.   I checked out the inside dimensions for seats from the Metra cars.  We can put a row of side seats on one side (8 seats, maybe 10 if we can squeeze in a regular seat on the end).   Then 6 or 8 seats on the other side.  That will cover the 16 seats on the end platform.   I checked underneath the car and it is very close as to whether the bolts will go through the wood floor without hitting the first steel beam that runs the length of the car.  We can drill a test hole to see if it makes it.  Then bolting the other end to the side of the car would be easy.  But, we would have to put some wood blocks under those side seats to raise them up about 4 or 5 inches.  There is some great wood back by the wood furnace in the Shop if we want to go that way.  There are enough orange side seats upstairs in the 1529.  Or we could use the dark blue seats from the 1502 as an alternate.   I then started on the south side window.  You will recall that used the oak wood that you furnished to make the new frame for the north side window, but never did the south side window as the car has always been in the caboose train.  Had a hell of a time breaking that "temporary" chip wood frame that I put on the south side window, but was finally able to get it removed.   Went through the wood back by the furnace in the shop and found three pieces.  I just had enough to make a new frame.  It is put in and looks good.  I need to put a bit of wood putty in a couple of nail holes, then sand two small spots, caulk the edges and prime the frame and paint both frames orange.  This is the side window that Dauber complained about water pouring in.  This should solve most of that problem I hope.  Still need to check the roof over both windows for possible holes.  There may be some; maybe not.   Number of folks stopped by; most just gawking, but a few came over to look in the Shop.  I tried to stay busy but talked to a couple of them.  Finally put everything away and locked everything up (Mark was long gone by this time) and pulled out of there at about 4:15.    Les

FW: Touch of Autumn at HVRM 9-4-10

Howdy!   Well, although it's not yet quite Labor Day, the weather at North Judson today (low 70's with a brisk wind) gave us a hint of what is to come.  Quite a refreshing change from our summer of 90 degree temps!   Board of Directors meeting in the morning.  Special runs are planned for this October and the museum website will reflect those special operations.   Big story today was attendance on our trains.  Both the morning run to English Lake and the afternoon run to LaCrosse carried just over 100 riders (total was 206).  Utilization of all of the 5 cabooses and NKP open flat car # 1946 was necessary to handle the large crowd.  Because of the large amount of passengers, I ended up acting as car host on both runs.  We also had guest engineers today!   There was an electrical problem with EL Alco #310 in the morning, but Mitch Montgomery and Jason Annen troubleshot the problem and the morning run left only about 20 minutes late.    Work continued on GE # 11, and a 92 day inspection was planned for later in the day after work with # 310 was completed.   Steve Newland continued work on Grasselli Tower.   NKP boxcar # 15797 had its ends painted black earlier in the week.  Mark Knebel states that he hopes to have the roof and sides painted boxcar red this coming week.   Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day weekend everyone and have a great week!   Les

FW: Searching at HVRM 8-28-10

 

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Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:35:17 -0700
From: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Searching at HVRM 8-28-10
To: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net

Greetings!   Warm, sunny day at Hoosier Valley today with temps in the mid to upper 80's.   Train crew (Andy Hershman, Fred Boyer, Mark Knebel, Bob Albert) started out switching the leased cars and spotting two UTLX cars on the interchange track for pickup this week by the C&I.  After those two leave, we will be down to a total of 19 leased tank cars, 17 Union Tank Car and two others.  I did hear that there may be another lease deal in the works, so something to hope for.   Loretta Kosloske asked me to clean the seats on the open flat car, but I could not find a water bucket in either the depot or Shop building.  Finally found one in the Erie building but by that time, John DeGan had cleaned the seats on the open car.  I did manage to wash down the seats on the platforms of GTW caboose #75072.   Loretta later reported we had a total of 98 riders for the two English Lake runs today.  She also said that a number of riders today reported that they had come to HVRM because of hearing one of those radio ads that the museum has purchased.  There were also some coupons turned in by riders from our newpaper advertisements.   Tom Travis continues his excellent restoration work on the REA semi-trailer.   Dave Cook, Cory Bennett, Bing Risley and Mark Knebel unloaded the bundled ties from the TTX (ex-PRR) flat car despite the bees that are nesting in the ties.   I spent the morning, trying to get into old 1910 passenger car #899 which had been pushed up against the rear of Metra (IC) commuter coach #1502.  The only way to get into 899 is through the end platform next to 1502 and the door on that end of the Metra car was locked!  Bob Jachim and I spent some time looking for the key in Mark's office, to no avail.  Finally got a key from Elmer Mannen but then found out that the lock on that end of the 1502 was screwed up (the lock on the other end of the car worked fine!)  John DeGan and I then tried the car mover, but could not get it in close enough to the passenger cars wheels.  Finally was able to get Cory to bring the Payloader down on his way to lunch and he was able to push the 899 two feet forward, which was enough to unable me to put a ladder onto the end and climb up and open the car.  Spent the afternoon cleaning some of the old junk out of the car.   After lunch, Cory was finally able to get the dump truck running and with Cory using the Payloader and Dave the dump truck, they moved quite a bit of ballast from the east side of Main Street over to the ballast piles on the west side of Main.  Meanwhile, Mark and Bing sorted ties.   Steve Newland and Fred Boyer continued painting the north side of Grasselli in light green paint, and it is probably now about 70% painted.   Jason Annen was working on GE #11.   Gift shop was manned by Pat DeGan, Margrett Cook, Judy Boyer and Loretta.   Others at the museum today included Elmer Mannen, Joe Kingsbury, Dan Siple, Andy Roeske, John Ross and a number of visitors.  I have probably omitted some people and I apologize for that.   Have a good week folks.   Les

FW: A gray day at HVRM 8-14-10

 

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Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:33:23 -0700
From: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net
Subject: A gray day at HVRM 8-14-10
To: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net

Hello!   Visitors at home tonight, so an abbreviated report on goings on at Hoosier Valley today.  Early morning rain and gray skies most of the day, kept temps within reason.   Fred, Steve and I continued our work plugging nail holes on  the north side of Grasselli Tower.   NKP boxcar 15797 has been mostly needlescaled and primed and now awaits cleanup of both car ends and then a finishing coat of paint.  Mark Knebel and John DeGan and probably a few others, accomplished this work this past week.   The windows have been installed in Interlake Steel GE 95 end cab diesel # 11 and the unit was busy today moving equipment around the museum.   EL Alco diesel 310 was on the point for both the 11:00 run to English Lake and the 1:30 run to LaCrosse with a total of about 90 riders for the two runs.    A crew loaded bundled ties into the 50' TTX (ex-PRR) flatcar in the morning and early afternoon and # 310 pulled the loaded flat back to the museum at the end of the day.   Have a great week.   Les

FW: Moving it around at HVRM 8/14/10

 

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Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:43:52 -0700
From: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Moving it around at HVRM 8/14/10
To: midlandblb@sbcglobal.net

Folks -   A hot day at North Judson, but a morning overcast kept the temps down from the predicted high of 93 degrees to a slightly more bearable 88.   Lots of movement at the museum today.  There were of course, the two caboose trains to English Lake.  First train had a number of riders in wheel chairs and the lift on EJ&E transfer caboose 184 got a good workout, but not sure of the passenger count.  There was a light passenger load on the second train.  Elmer Mannen and John DeGan shared engineer/fireman duties with Doug Kosloske the conductor.  Bill Dauber and Randall Downs were car hosts.   John LaOrange and Mark Knebel managed to get one of the Whitcomb's Cat diesels going and used the old center cab diesel to do quite a bit of switching during the day.  This included pulling out the 2789, setting N&W boxcar # 54880 over onto the display track and putting NKP boxcar # 15797 over by the kitchen car.  To get everything moved around and into the right place, quite a few moves had to be made by John and Mark.   In the meantime, Fred Boyer was going to bring the manlift from near the NKP kitchen car over to Grasselli Tower only to find one tire nearly flat.  He finally located an air tank in the Shop and brought it over and was able to fill the tire.  I then managed to steer the lift over to Grasselli without hitting anyones car or any railroad equipment (although it was close a few times!)  Fred and I then spent the morning putting wood putty into nail holes and nicks on the middle section of the north side of the Tower.  Ran out of the the wood filler just before we broke for lunch.   After lunch, Fred and I tried to get another big tub of wood putty but could only find small tubes at both Norwayne Lumber and Hoppe Hardware.  So we glued some flaking wood siding pieces on Grasselli back into place, sanded down the now dry wood filler and then gave a coat of white primer to what we had done.  In the meantime, Steve was working on the door to the second floor.   The N&W boxcar mentioned above was moved to the display track because of its fresh coat of boxcar red paint and a very nice job of lettering of the car by Joe Kingsbury.  NKP 15797 took its place as that car will now have rust removed, primer and a fresh coat of paint applied and then the Nickel Plate lettering put back on.   Matt Lasayko of the signal department was showing one of his friends the various signals at the museum.  Fred is going to check again with the IHB this week about the two head signal that the railroad had promised to us when we were working on getting Grasselli moved.   Jon Schmitt was spraying for weeds along the right of way at the museum site.   Doug Kosloske told me that we will definitely be having some type of a pumpkin train this year, but I saw nothing on the train schedule about it on the museums website, so not sure just what date that will actually take place.   Margrett Cook, Loretta Kosloske and Pat DeGan were working in the depot gift shop all day.   Other museum members on hand today included Bob Jachim, Tom Royce, Cory Bennett and Joe.  Probably missed a few others.  My apologies.    Have a good week!   Les

The GWILI's 1144 on it's last Public service in BR Black livery 23/07/2010

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9tJeO3X4t8&feature=email
 
PRAIRIE DOG CENTRAL IS GAINING STEAM
 
PDC is picking up steam and officials with the heritage railway are hoping it remains on track in 201. Nearly 10,000 visitors purchased tickets for the historic steam engine last year. That followed a 2008 season that saw
a huge surge in ridership, including 13,621 riders for 2 week period during a promotion featuring Thomas the Tank  Engine. Those totals are in stark contrast numbers prior to 2008 when annual ridership dipped as
low as 6,000.
 
The  recent turnaround coincided with a shift in the way it is marketed. Organizers began promoting it as unique
entertainment venue and offering special events such as murder mysteries and Halloween rides.The challenge
now is to keep that mementum going and ensure the organization remains on track for years to come.
 
For more info visit www.pdcrailway.com
 
Gimmicks are the answer, steam, special events, momentum.
 
 
CN RETIRED UNITS SOLD:
 
Indiana Boxcar Corp has purchased EJE SD18 616 and
EJE SD-M 804, 809, 811, 813 and 818. I guess SD-M's
are the SD9's Donny spoke about. Only 2 SD9's are
coming to the C&I, the rest to other IBC rail lines.
 
 

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Restoration 7-19-2010/CKIN NEWS

I reinstalled the rain awnings over the windows of the
GTW 75072. They were caulked and should not leak.
The wood frames need to be reevaluated. Need a better
system to hold the plexiglass in the frame.
 
I had an idea to utilize the free workers on saturdays.
Mark has completed priming of the N&W boxcar and final
coat of red should be applied soon. The area could be
used to TSP a couple of pieces of equipment. MDT reefer, PRR flat car. A water supply is near, access with
the manlift if easy. I also thought the manlift could be
rigged with pipes overhead and tarp put on to keep
the platform cool. It might make working on the lift
less tiring from the sun.
 
On the way back home, I stopped off at Wellsboro.
A CKIN engine was at the elevator running, so I went
over to the diamonds to check and 2 CSX engines running light crossed over from 1 to 2 and then back
west to pick up the empty grain train. Donny and crew
was at the elevator waiting. A new siding will go in at
Wellsboro for tank car unloading. CN/CSX is going to put in an interchange track to run in on to Kirk
yard where a intermodal facility is going to be built.
At Thomaston interchange with NS, complete trains with NS diesels to remain at Thomaston till the grain train
is loaded and returned, so a NS crew will just have to
show up and ready the train and leave. CKIN has
acquired 2 xEJ&E SD-9's that will be arriving shortly
at Wellsboro. They need some work, as they have been
retired for about a year. A rebuild of the wood bridge
will happen sometime soon. Tie replacement will start soon also.

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HVRM Restoration Report 17 July 2010

Greetings to all. Warm day at North Judson, over 90. Clear sky for the most part. Some humidity, but not real
uncomfortable.
 
After breakfast at Fingerhut, meeting of the local hams,
with Jim Liedkey WA9JMU from New Mexico. Former resident of La Crosse IN, gave up the good life and moved to the land of rocks and cactus for front lawns.
 
1. Cory B was on buildings 1&2 at the gap fixing the leaks in the roof. Arrived at 6am, but by 10am had to stop due to heat. Cory has got a sealant for the overlapping seams of the tin sheets, but taking out the screws to put the sealant tape in between. Very difficult work on a slippery roof.
 
2. REA EXPRESS trailer had a message spray painted on
"Drink Blatz Beer" A popular beer years ago, very appropriate for that period. More grinding, more painting, progress was made. I did grind off one section
of the side REA signage. Am going to us some NU Finish
polish to see if it will shine up. Discovered that pop rivets were used, no bolts thru the wall.
 
3. Membership meeting at 12:30. Mark K has completed
grinding and priming N&W boxcar. A small area of the
final coat was put on, looked good.
 
4. GE Loco, Jason A gave a report that windows to be
installed on the 21st of July, 29th some electrical work,
blue card, horn tested, waiver to use the engine . Installation of new rods for couplers were being fabricated today. Oil needs to be changed, 2 barrels worth, filters, and some other things. ALCO prime
mover and generator are coming from Pontiac IL for spare parts. Engine to be stripped and the block left for
scrapping instead of hauling it all the way back to NJ.
 
5. Grasseli Tower. Some painting, 2 windows are out and being sent to be rebuilt. Steve is a one man operation, lets see if we can get a local carpenter to
help get the stairs done. I know of a couple who in 4 hours could complete a lot. Most charge resonable rates per hour. Some help with the payloader to move the
turntable equipment, to get at the south side and west
side to fix some areas not accesable by the manlift.
 
6. GTW 75072. Some problems still exist that were not
taken care of during its time in the shop. Just ran out of
time to fix it all. Last saturday an afternoon shower came up fairly quickly and rained buckets. The wheels
threw up water thru the grating, causing a problem.
Inside the water leaked in thru the window so bad that
the train had to be stopped and passengers transfered
to a enclosed caboose. I suggest that on inclement days, passenger are advised prior to loading that some
water will be thrown up thru the grates. RIDE AT YOUR
OWN RISK. Water coming in the window, some caulking
need to be done and replacing the rain awnings need
replacing. The GTW is not Titantic, it will not sink if a
little water is on the floor. Safety chains still need to be
installed, as a temporary fix is in place.
 
7. Starting August, only 2 trains a day, check web for
times. I believe if the train consist is not heavy, run only the B&LE and the open air car. If the EJ&E manlift
is needed it could be easily switched into the train or
another caboose added if needed. Undue wear on the
wheels is not needed. Changing cabooses in a rotation
would keep a even wear on all the equipment. During the month of August/September it would be nice to see
one or two pieces of freight equipment in the consist.
 
Mint harvesting is starting, saw a field being cut on IN39. Richard is cutting, raking, baling hay before it rains. Corn/beans are looking good, prices look good
too.
 
Have a good week, will be hot, drive safe. I will be traveling next 3 or 4 weeks, St Louis, Ottawa ONT, EH
you say, and Dallas TX.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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HVRM Restoration 7-10-2010

A nice day at HVRM. Had a passing rain cloud, dropped
some water. Saw one terrific lightning bolt to the north
as I was leaving.
 
Train ridership was good today. Over 100 riders today.
A birthday party was held in the N&W boxcar for a group
of kids. Lots of visitors looking at the shop area.
 
1. REA Express trailer. Continued to grind and prime areas around the lower portion of the trailer. Ground off
the screw heads to take off the electrical connections.
Just rusted and unusable. Will post some pictures on
restoration site.
 
2. Grasseli tower, work continues on scraping and painting sides of the tower.
 
3. East shop had Cory B on the roof caulking seams
and tightening screws. Quit early as it got very warm.
Options are being looked into sealing the leaking seams
and screw holes.
 
4. Andy Hershman brought in some Alco parts from Pontiac IL from a parted out Alco diesel that caught
fire.
 
5. Normal depot and kitchen car activities. NTR.
 
Have a good week and drive safe.
 
http://hoosiervalleyrestorationpage.blogspot.com
 

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HVRM 3 July 2010 Restoration Report

Greeting to all, Happy 4th of July to all. Going to be a
warm, humid day. Parade does not start till noon, but
it might be too hot already, so will just watch fireworks
from my driveway tonite.
 
Sort of low worker turnout, cept for the train crew.
 
1. Train ridership, 130 people, good turnout, a big
family reunion in Judson and all decided to ride the train.
 
2. Grasseli Tower, Steve worked on the stairs on the
tower, has to get the platforms square for the stringers
to fit properely. Fred did some sanding on the north side.
 
3. GTW 75072 window frame got completed by Les.
Caboose is back in service, so it was hard to get time
working on it. I put away all the leftover cans of paint,
boxes of bolts in the newly painted closet. Got rid
of some paint pans and trash. Bob J found Les's ratchet
wrench set he had lost in the Metra car, right where
the seat came out for the GTW. Now if I could only find
my big ratchet wrench.
 
4. Cory B with the payloader moved the REA Express
trailer to the west building inside, so I could start working on it. Got a nice big grinder wire wheel at
Hoppes Hardward and went to work. Works quickly
and take it right down to metal. Followed up with the
palm sander. Primer went on easy and fast. The two
side doors are shot and will have to be taken off and
rebuilt. Some rust holes, but nothing serious to fix.
The REA emblem and side name are ceramic fired.
I need to take them off and hopefully a buff will bring
them back to full lustre again. What luck that all the
signs are still on the trailer.
 
5. Bob A had a speeder out of the shed and running.
 
6. One tank car left during the week, the TTX 85 foot
flat car is being used by C&I for rail work.
 
Thats it for this week, Happy 4th to All
 
Tom

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