What's lost is found at HVRM 9-22-12

Hello!   According to the calendar, Fall began today and with it, our very first taste of fall weather.  Temp topped out at about 60 degrees, and the cloudy, rainy conditions cleared up mid-morning with sun on and off all day thereafter.   On Thursday of this week, I had gone to Hoosier Valley to work on passenger car # 899.  My plan was to use the Manlift when working on the windows.  Unfortunately, although it fired right up, and the lift and steering worked, it wouldn't move!  I saw Steve Henrichs who had been using it, and he showed me the lever underneath that controls the ancient lifts movement.  Next time I should have no trouble.   Steve, Joe Baker and Steve Newland were working on Grasselli Tower again.  We had a number of Boy Scouts and families at the museum today, and a number of them visited the tower.   Crews were being tested today, so I won't even try to advise who was assigned to the various runs.  All three of the runs seemed well patronized, although it was a bit hard to tell as the cool weather meant that the open cars on all of the runs were not used.   Joe Baker had expressed a desire to have the "X" RR crossing sign in front of Grasselli replaced.  This sign has been there for so many years that the yellow paint had faded to an off-white color.  Joe said that since Grasselli was looking better all of the time, the RR crossing sign should also look good.  Turns out that Matt Lasayko had found a RR crossing sign in the Signal Department storage box car last week and it was in excellent condition.  So I measured the 4 openings of the sign currently in place and also the sign Matt had found and discovered that the spacings for the bolt holes were exactly the same!  So spent the morning taking down the old sign and putting up the new one.  Had some help from Bob Jachim, Steve Newland and Joe.  The one leg of the sign had twisted rather violently through the years and getting the new sign hund was a real challenge, but it eventually got done.   The gandy dancer crew of Mark Knebel, John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Cory Bennett was out replacing ties again on the old Erie.  A number of covered hoppers came in this week for storage on museum trackage.  Mark says they will be here for somewhere between 30 and 45 days.   Good to see Pat DeGan at the museum today.  Others there included Loretta Kosloske, Bob Barcus, Judy Boyer, Louise Kingsbury and Margrett Cook.   The boy scout troops provided food for folks today.   After lunch, I did some scrounging for parts in the junk piles and then went looking for tools in the Shop.  Spent quite a while looking with no success.  Then I spotted what looked like a gong type bell sitting collecting dust on a shelf.  Many years ago, member Ted Fitzgerald spent a lot of time fixing up weed burner # 161 that the EJ&E had donated to the museum.  Ted did a very nice job.  Some time after that, when I was up in the cab of the unit, I noticed that the gong style bell was only held on by a nut and washer.  I was worried that someone could climb up to the cab when no museum members were present, and steal the bell, so I removed it for safekeeping.  Unfortunately, the next spring, I forgot about putting it back, and eventually it faded from my memory.  The years passed and when I remembered I had removed the bell, I forgot where I had put it.  Could this gong type bell be the one from weed burner # 161?  I trudged down there.  At first, the clapper on the wall would not strike the bell.  Must not be the same one.  And then I noticed laying on the floor under where the bell sat, a washer.  The outline of the old washer was visible on this bell, and guess what?  A perfect fit!  Some fiddling with the clapper and I got it to strike.  But the second pull shredded the old nylon rope!  So that had to be replaced.  But eventually, thanks to some manipulation, the bell was reattached, the rope was fixed and the bell now "gongs" once again! You never know just where your efforts at the museum are going to be directed each day!   Matt Lasayko did some work on the Erie double semaphore TTO signal.  Later in the day, Matt explained to me his plan to activate the Grasselli model board by throwing the levers in the tower in the correct order, a train can be shown moving (with the lights) across the Board.  This will apparently take some computer work too, but Matt is working on it.   Next week, the Erie-Lackawanna Historical Society will be holding their Annual Convention in nearby Valparaiso, Indiana.  As part of the festivities, a train ride to La Crosse is planned.  The museum will use EL Alco # 310 and EL caboose # C345 for that train.   Helped the boys take down the tent used by the Scouts and then headed for home about 4:30 p.m. after the last train of the day arrived back at HVRM.   Enjoy your Autumn everyone.  Hopefully we will have a good one weather-wise.   Les

Pix from 2010

Folks -   While searching for something else on the internet, I ran across this site by accident:   http://condrenrails.com/JDI/NC-2010/index-2.html   Lots of "family" type photos but enough railroad stuff to be interesting.  Depots; steam locomotives; cabooses; bridges, tunnels; ships; NKP; IC; Southern, etc.   Nothing important.  Nothing specific.  But perhaps interesting nevertheless. If the link doesn't work, my apologies.     Les     Les

Respite at HVRM 7-21-12

Greetings!   After two days of decent weather (80's), temp climbed back to the low 90's today at Hoosier Valley, but the humidity was still low.  But hot and humid for the coming week!   Membership meeting this morning began at exactly 8:00.  Check upcoming newsletter for details.   We had a visitor from the Chicago Tribune newspaper today.  He operated EL Alco # 310 and also rode the 11:00 train.  Might we expect an upcoming article?   Loretta Kosloske pointed out that we hadn't pulled one of the baggage carts up on the depot platform this year so after the meeting, I went down and "dug out" one with a decent set of spoked wheels and rims from the future Hibbard motor car shed.  With the help of Joe Kingsbury, we pulled/pushed it up onto the platform.  I found the old suitcases and piled them on the bed of the cart.  This cart needs new wood and a paint job.  Volunteers?   Engine crew for the trains today was Elmer Mannen and Fred Boyer with Doug Kosloske the conductor.   Bill Dauber, Randall Downs and Joe were car hosts.  LIRR coach # 2937 still out of service.   Tim Wills sold tickets in the depot while Bob Barcus and Loretta handled the gift shop.   Work continues on Grasselli Tower and progress is really moving forward!  Steve Newland, Joe Baker and Steve Henrichs were painting the interior and exterior and working on the windows.   I went up to Norwayne Lumber and found that they had finished the four arch window replacements for coach 899 and also the one new seat window frame.  I'll get those primed and painted this week.    I managed to get down and take the old steel ACI plate off of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  Emptying this car is progressing.   The new steel siding is slowly going up on the museum office.  Cory Bennett, John LaOrange and Mark Knebel were working on it today.  The back wall is finished and about half of the south wall.   Matt Lasayko was working on signals.   Quite a few visitors today and train ridership seemed pretty good.   Hope everyone has a good week.     Les

May in March at HVRM 3-17-12

Greetings!   St. Patrick's Day.  And what a day weatherwise!  Our mild winter is going out with a warm spell that is breaking records.  This week we had three consecutive days of 80 degrees or above.  First March since they've been keeping records (over 140 years) with three 80 degree days.  Also on the brink of another record of consecutive days with 70 degrees or above.  It was 79 degrees today on our thermometer at 2:00 so a good chance that another 80 degree day was added to the 3 already recorded!  This is typical May weather, not March weather!      At the museum today, there was a lot going on.   Big project was the removal of dirt in the forms that have been put in place in the East Annex of the Shop.  A number of folks were working on this, shovelling stone and dirt into the payloader bucket which Cory then moved outside and dumped.   Mark Knebel was digging a post hole by the front wall of the Shop in preparation for the new light overhead crane being put up in this area.  This to help with moving filled barrels of oil around.       Other projects included Joe Baker putting some refinements on the electrical work he did a few weeks ago.   Joe Kingsbury put in some new wood patches in EJ&E # 184, the transfer (handicap accessible) caboose.   Bob Barcus, Margrett Cook and Judy Boyer manned the gift shop.   Fred Boyer and Randall Downs represented Hoosier Valley at the Nappanee train show today.    Lunch today included sandwiches, corned beef and cabbage (natch!), various other goodies and a nice white cake with green (of course!) frosting!   Bi-monthly membership meeting today, which I will not go into detail here (please check the newlsetter), but I will mention a couple of things.  First, a discussion was held about getting electricity to the Troop Sleeper.  Second, it was decided to put Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose 75072 in the spot currently occupied by the Long Island caboose so that the HVRM ladies can use the GTW caboose to sell items in the upcoming train season.  GTW 75072 is longer than the LIRR caboose, and first thought was to move the gravel patch that leads around the car over to NKP kitchen car.  But then Cory Bennett thought that there is enough room to extend that track a bit toward the depot, so that is probably what will be done. Finally, Dave Cook was appointed to head a committee to try to plan on finishing the work on Wade Tower in La Crosse.     I spent the morning doing some additional sanding on MDT refrigerator car 13385 and in the afternoon a took a stab at putting some new black paint on the "NEW 10-56" lettering.   Bob Albert and Steve Newland continued putting scrap in the dumpster.   I finally was able to check the N Gauge display layout of North Judson today and saw the Monon box car that Jon Oram recently added.   Lots of other folks at the museum today, most helping in the Shop with concrete preparation.  Others besides those already mentioned included John LaOrange, Bill Dauber, Bob Jachim, Tom Royce, Tom McKee, Rich Warner, Bing Risley, Kyle Flanigan and Andy Roeske.  I am sure I missed some.   Enjoy our early Spring!   Les

If not springing, at least MOVING forward at HVRM 3-10-2012

Greetings -   A sunny day with a cool wind greeted us at North Judson today with temps moderating into the upper 50's by the afternoon.   After an early morning Board of Directors meeting, Bruce Fingerhut, Bob Jachim, Ryan Kertis and Tom Travis went over to the old Milk Station to try to finish the project.  Only the wall closest to the old Erie Railroad trackage remained standing and when I eventually joined them, they alreay had a good start in hammering out a row of bricks so that a short portion of this wall would remain in place after the upper portion was toppled over.  Bruce, Tom and I swung hammers and a small sledge, but even though almost an entire row of bricks was missing, the wall would not come down despite trying to push it over with long pieces of lumber.  Cory Bennett eventually showed up was the backhoe and pulled down one half of the wall.  We then continued removing  the row of bricks from the other half, finally breaking for lunch.  I am sure that my shoulders will be very sore tonight and tomorrow!  Cory and backhoe came back after lunch to finish the job.   Lunch consisted of chicken soup, stuffed cabbage, chicken breast "sliders", various other goodies and peach cobbler for desert.   John DeGan was cleaning up items in the Shop building.   Loretta Kosloske worked on preparing for the Easter Bunny special trains coming up on April 7th.   Rich Warner brought his Erie Tiplex down and adjusted clearances on the overhead G Gauge loop in the depot gift shop area.  Nice looking and nice sounding engine!   Speaking of "smaller" trains, I think I mentioned in an earlier report, that an old Lionel train had been donated to the museum by Bruce.  That was in error as the donation had actually been made by Jim Mennis.  Also, Jon Oram advised me that he had added a Monon boxcar to the N gauge display layout that is in the old Troop Sleeper.  I meant to check it out today, but never did get over there to do it.   Joe Kingsbury continued sanding and priming the outside of Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose C345 in the West Annex of the shop.  Joe, by the way, was apparently the successful bidder on the Lionel train mentioned above.   Bob Albert continued gathering up scrap to eventually sell.   Elmer Mannen and Dan Siple worked on a problem with the Whitcomb.   Tom and Cory joined John LaOrange and Dave Cook in the East Annex of the shop, putting down forms for the future pour of a 8 foot wide concrete pad on the north wall, with Mark Knebel cutting some of the 2 x 4's to the correct length with his chain saw.   Bing Risley and grandson were cleaning up brush and branches around the refrigerator car building.   I finally went down to MDT refrigerator car 13385 with some sandpaper.  This car was marked last year with a Built date, but I could never figure out why the car did not have a built date on it.  Finally dawned on me that perhaps the date was under the FA 6-64 marking where the car had been reweighed at that time.  So, with a bit of elbowgrease, I carefully sanded the FA 6-64 area and low and behold; their appeared the original markings NEW 10-56!   Other folks at the museum today included Doug Kosloske, Randall Downs, Margrett Cook and Tom Royce.  I may have missed some others.    Finally rolled out for home at 3:30 p.m.  Have a good week everyone and don't forget to "Spring Forward" tonight by turning your clocks ahead one hour!     Les

Many Hands Make Quick Work on Projects At HVRM Saturday 18 Feb 2012

Greetings,
 
Another sunny day in NW IN, cool, windy, no snow on the ground, very untypical for here in February, but March is
still around the corner with some weather surprises I'm sure.
 
Early morning activity was down at the old  milk shed demolition site. All of the contents that can be saved and sold is out of
the building, shelving was taken out an stored inside a boxcar, more than enough for our needs. The brick walls have be pushed
in and the rubble loaded into a dumpster for Richard Warner to use on some project. Most likely more dumpsters will be filled
before its all over. Included in this project was, Bob Albert, Steve Newland, Cory Bennett, John LaOrange, Bruce Fingerhut, Dave Cookl
Ryan Kertis, Doug Koslovske, and a couple of others. Two bonfires continued buring debris. lots of cleanup remains to be done.
 
After lunch, work continued on repainting the Erie caboose, lead by Joe Kingsbury, 3 members of a local boyscout troop continued
there sanding and prep work for painting. Caboose is moving right along and hopefully the painting will occur in the near future.
 
I noticed the backhoe tractor outside, so the transmission problems and engine has been repaired. Many long hours put in by
Cory, Dave and Rich to get this tractor ready for summer tie replacement in the museums main railroad line.
 
Erie and EJ&E cabooses got their center pins greased in quick order. again many helpful hands made this a quick job. John L,
Doug K, Cory B, Elmer M, Mark K, The air compressor was fired up and the big air jacks lifted the caboose easily and greasing
was done quickly.
 
Some work in the kitchen car has been done recently. Removal of a wall, opening up the area for more kitchen space and a new
serving table installed. The diesel car has not been worked on yet, but once we find the time, it will make an welcome addition
to the meeting/eating area.
 
Fred Boyer and Les Beckman installed a new handle and lock for the LIRR 2937,  provided by Jason Annen, now makes the
LIRR coach locked and secured.
 
Depot duties was held down by Loretta K, Bob Barcus and I saw Judy Boyer and Margrett Cook around the museum also.
 
Some visitors were at the museum grounds touring the displays and gift shop. If the weather is nice, people will get outside
to do some traveling.
 
Everyone have a good week, drive safe and remember Lent starts Wednesday, so eat those pancakes Tuesday.
 
Tom

Short day, short report HVRM 2-4-12

Greetings -   Arrived at Hoosier Valley today at 10 o'clock.  Gray day after some snow last night, but temps in 40's as our "mild" winter continues.   Signed in on the attendance sheet in the NKP kitchen car where I found the wall between the kitchen and eating areas removed by Bob Jachim and Joe Baker.  Looks different!   Started out in the depot, putting a single section of Lionel track with roadbed on the shelf behind the gift shop counter.  This shelf has two O scale donated Troop cars and I wanted to see if the O scale non-powered Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0 sitting in the back of a display case in the depot waiting room, would look good with those two cars.  Had a heck of a time raising the top of the display case, but finally managed to do it.  Put the 0-8-0 on the new section of track and I think that the combination looks terrific.  Those of you who see this new display, please let me know what you think.  I can always return the steamer to the display case.   About this time, I was asked by Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske if I could stick around the gift shop while they made a visit to the library in La Crosse to check the activities room there to see if it could be used as a backup to a proposed Picnic train to possibly be run during the upcoming passenger train season at HVRM.   Doug Kosloske stopped by the depot and told me that they had sent the valves for EL Alco #310 to Pittsburgh Air Brake for normal inspection and maintenance.   Bob and Loretta returned and I eventually went over to the kitchen car for a cup of java.  Upon return to the depot, I was delighted to see Harold Lambirth there with his family.  Harold was instrumental in securing our crane from Purdue University in 1992, shortly after it had been retired.  Harold started his career on the coal crew at Purdue about 1945, the same year that Orton built the crane for the university.   Had some other visitors today with some modest gift shop sales.  Also had one visitor join the museum.  Bob reports good internet sales of museum items.   Because of the time in the depot, I never did make it over to the Shop building so not sure what was going on there.  I did however, go over to the Milk Station where I found Bob Albert, Bruce Fingerhut, Fred Boyer, Steve Newland, John LaOrange and Ryan Kertis continuing with their efforts to clean out the building.  I spent time giving them a hand in loading the dumpster with junk and throwing burnable items onto the fire they had going.  Ryan reported that the roof of the structure continues to sink and it won't be long before it totally collapses.   I left the boys to their work, and headed for home at about 3:15.   Les

Old man winter finally shows up at HVRM 1-14-12

Greetings!   After what has been a mild winter (in the 50's through the middle of this past week and less than 2" of snow), winter showed up on Thursday with in excess of 5" of snow throughout the Region.  There was a good snow cover at North Judson today and temps were barely above 20 degrees all day.  At least the sun was out at times.   Due to an errand, I was late arriving at the museum, not getting there until after 10:00.  Rich Warner was working on the switches on the G gauge layout that runs around the top of the gift shop area.  Judy Boyer and Loretta Kosloske were working in the depot.  I found a broom and swept the station platform, but couldn't find the shovel, so had to go over to the Erie building to locate one.  Did a bit of digging out at the ends of the platform.   Saw Joe Baker almost immediately thereafter and he reported that the north wall of the East Shop building annex had been cleaned of junk.  This is to accomodate the heavy metal shelving from the Milk Station that will eventually be put into this area, after concrete posts can be installed when some warmer temps show up.  I walked down to the Shop and had to admit that the guys did a great job.  Not sure who helped besides Joe, but saw John DeGan, Fred Boyer, Bob Albert, Cory Bennett, Steve Newland, Doug Kosloske and a few others in the area.   A good turnout today, considering the weather.  Mark Knebel picked up pizza's for lunch and the members scarfed them down.   After lunch, Bob, Steve and Ryan Kertis joined Bruce Fingerhut over at the Milk Station building, to continue with cleanup.  I decided to head over to the Shop where I found Fred working on removing the bolts from the benches and the wheelchair anchors in the EJ&E transfer caboose so I found a wrench and pitched in.  This is being done so a new rubberized floor can be put in the car.  This is the same type of floor that was put down in the B&LE caboose some time back, and it has held up very well.  After Fred and I finished, we went over to C&O 2789 and removed the right marker light bracket so that Fred could check to see if a similar bracket can be made for the left side.  Turns out that it would fit, so Fred took the bracket home as a pattern for a new one.  We then did a slow walk around the K-4 and noted some of the problems that need to be addressed in its cosmetic restoration.  Fred managed to locate the latch and we were able to get the door to the stoker motor open and take a look at it.  It was a long time ago that Bill Byers managed to get that motor running one day.     Don't forget that next Saturday is the Annual Meeting of the museum which will be held at the North Judson Public Library in the downstairs meeting room at 1:00 in the afternoon.  Hoosier Valley will hold their elections at that time.  Running for office:   For President:  Cory Bennett                          Les Beckman   For Treasurer:  Margrett Cook                          Bob Barcus   For Director (two to be elected): Joe Kingsbury                                                     Tom Travis                                                     Steve Newland                                                     John LaOrange   All members in good standing will be allowed to vote so please try to attend the meeting if at all possible.   Have a great week everyone.  Try to stay warm!   Les

Smokin' end to 2011 at HVRM on 12-31!

Greetings!   Our mild winter continued with temps in the 40's again today.  Arrived at the museum about 9:30 and noticed smoke coming out of the open door of the Shop.  Obviously, a diesel had been fired up!   Went in to the depot where I found Loretta Kosloske and Bob Barcus working on train planning 2012.  From the little I could hear, it sounds like an interesting schedule.  The diesel went past the depot and I eventually stuck my head out the door to see what was going on.  Turns out that the crew was using GE # 11 to do some switching.  Since I had never been in the 95-tonner when it was moving, I decided to take a walk down and see if I could catch a short ride in the cab.  Elmer Mannen was engineer with Fred Boyer as fireman and invited me aboard.  John DeGan and Doug Kosloske were working on the ground.  The crew had shoved the dead Alco into the passing siding and had pulled out the now finished Nickel Plate caboose # 471.  Bay window 471 really looks sharp in her new coat of red paint with NKP High Speed Service lettering in the light gray band across the top of the car.  The crew went into the caboose track and coupled on to Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose # C345, since she is the next project for the painting crew.  They pulled the EL hack out and put it on the main, then shoved everything back into the caboose track.  They then went and picked up Alco 310 and headed back toward the shop.  When they stopped short of Mulberry Street so that John could flag the crossing, I thanked Elmer and Fred and detrained the GE onto the depot platform.  I enjoyed the ride in the unit.   I noticed a bit later that the crew had put everthing away, so I assume that the C345 ended up back in the West Shop Annex for painting.   Decided to go down and see what, if anything, was going on with the cleanup of the old North Judson Milk Station.  Found Bruce Fingerhut, Bob Albert and Steve Newland hard at work.  They had a Bailey's truck partially loaded with boxes of good items for that store.  There was also a dumpster with stuff that was too far gone to save.  I pitched in.  Others helping included Fred (after his crew duties were finished), John LaOrange, Mark Knebel and Ryan Kertis.  A lot of the steel shelving which had been taken apart, was loaded and moved in both Mark and Ryan's pickup trucks and taken over for use later in the Shop.   After the truck was driven to Bailey's, we started in burning old cardboard boxes and other burnable "junk".  This fire really got going after a while, with lots of smoke at times.  Fortunately, the folks that live behind the old Milk Station are very tolerant of our efforts.  I think that they are glad that the old structure is eventually going to go.  As we neared the end of a very tiring day, one of the ladies that lives in one of the neighboring houses, even brought over a pitcher of hot sweet tea for Ryan, Bob, Bruce and myself.  A nice gesture to be sure.    Mark stopped by to tell us that the museum had been "buttoned up" so we stirred up the fire to try to get some of the unburned items at the bottom of the pile to the top.  But I was tired and decided to call it a day at about 4:15 p.m.   Hope that everyone has an enjoyable New Year!   Les