Spring finally SPRINGS!! at Hoosier Valley 4/16/16

 

Greetings!

Well, spring got here with a vengeance today.  Temps got into the low 80's(!) and we had sunshine all day.  Not everything was perfect though; I managed to break my reading glasses at the museum, so if this report has spelling errors, blame it on these back up Walgreen's cheapies!

The plan was to use the Lift to bring the locker up into Grasselli Tower's second floor through one of the unfinished windows.  When I arrived at the museum , the lift was down and Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were working on it.  This gave  me a chance to go over and plant a couple of iris's into one of the flower beds.  The other bed had the ties that were around it, moved and Bing was taking those old ties away.  More on that curious bit of info later.  The boys eventually got the Lift working again and then Steve Henrichs, Bud Tibbie, Kevin Kennedy and myself drove it over to the West Annex of the Shop and loaded it.  A fun job!  Drove back to the tower and got the LIft raised up to the second level and with Bud and Kevin inside and Steve and I on the lift itself, we managed to get the thing through  the window opening and onto the platform where an old wooden locker had once been.  I was too busy to take any photos of this actual work but here are a couple taken after the fact.  The first one shows the window opening that we used for the move. The second one shows Steve Henrichs standing in front of  the locker after it was moved into place.  About this time, Steve Newland arrived and he decided that, rather than putting a piece of plywood over the opening, he'd try to put a set of the window sashes that he had made previously into the opening and photo 3 shows his attempt.  Unfortunatlely he had measured these for one of the other window frames and thee were just a smidge too tight!  So, back to the drawing board and he and I then put a piece of plywood over the opening.  Now finished with the Lift, we turned it over to Joe Baker who was exchanging one of the old fluorescent parking lot lights with a new LED fixture, thus the removal of the old ties around the flower bed.  Bud went over and gave Joe a hand with this project.

Steve Henrichs touched up the paint on the locker and also painted the old table in the tower.

Joe Kingsbury continued work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.

Margett Cook made mostocolli for lunch with a salad and cake and ice cream for desert.

Meanwhile, the track gang decided to replace some additional ties in front of the depot and the fourth photo shows the gang later in the day . That's Mark Knebel with shovel in the foreground, with John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Dave Cook (left to right) in the background.  Kevin Kennedy also helped on this project.  Nine ties were installed, but some still have to be spiked down, a project to be finished another day.

Earlier in the day, GE number 11 was fired up to test for leaks.  The fifth photo shows John DeGan and Steve Newland having a discussion as the 11 sits outside the Shop.  In the sixth photo, Rich Warner checks the radiator just before the 11 is run back into the Shop.

Finally, it's no secret that HVRM is having problems with the current operator of the freight operation on the common carrier tracks and with the Town of North Judson itself.  For those who are members of the museum, Bob Barcus explained this on page 4 of the current (April) issue of the museum newsletter.  For those who aren't members, I've tried to make a photo of this last page and its shown in photo 7 of this report.

Keep your fingers crossed on this one.  There is the possibility that things will be a-changing at the museum. We hope not, but it could happen.

Les

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Slip sliding away to Hoosier Valley 4/9/16

Greetings!

Old Man Winter doesn't want to quit!  After a horrible weather day on Friday, woke up this morning to ice on the roadways.  Managed no more than 35 m.p.h. (mostly less than that) all the way to Starke County.  There was an 8:00 a.m. Board meeting, but needless to say, I arrived late!  Temps were in the low to mid 30's but a bright sun for most of the day, plus salt on the roads, finally managed to melt the slick conditions despite the bitter cold wind.

Spent a bit of time watching the gift shop in the depot as we had a light member turnout and Bob Barcus had to run to the bank to make some deposits.

Then went up to Grasselli Tower where I photographed the northwest corner (photo 1).  Steve Henrichs has his painted lockers ready to bring into the tower and through one of these windows is the way he wants to get it up to the second floor.  I talked to Cory Bennett in the afternoon about this and he didn't seem to know that this was the plan but said it probably could be done, providing the lockers fit through the window opening.  I measured and they do, providing they come in sideways.

I spent much of the morning, trying to get one of the levers in Grasselli pushed into the "back" position.  Finally managed to get it done, but it was a struggle.

Bud Tibbie invited me over to his house in North Judson  to see his newly acquired Milwaukee Road HO gauge S3 class Northern, number 265.  A beautiful engine to say the least.  And quite a layout that Bud has abuilding there. 

Was over at the West Annex of the Shop in the afternoon and found the work ongoing on Chicago & Eastern Illinois tool car #A-1054.  Here are some shots of the progress:

Photo 2 shows Joe Baker using one of our shop vacs to clean up some of the sawdust and dirt.

Photo 3 shows Joe Baker's "helper" Nick K. (sorry Nick, I already forgot your last name) finishing up some of the electrical work.

Photo 4 features Joe Kingsbury cutting one of the short supports, which are visible in the previous two photos.

Finally, in the 5th photo, the cage for the air conditioning unit is shown in one of the cars windows.  Some day we will be eating our summer lunches at the museum in cool comfort!

Mark Knebel was out cutting brush again today.

Sparky Byers and John LaOrange worked on GE diesel number 11.

More winter-like weather moving in tonight and into tomorrow.  Come on OId Man Winter....GIVE IT UP!

Les

  

       

 

Winter returns with a vengeance to Hoosier Valley 4/2/16

Greetings!

Old man winter decided to throw a red board (see photo 1) at Spring today at HVRM.  Temps in the low to mid 30's with a howling wind (gusts up to 50 m.p.h.) with snow squalls at times interspersed with sunshine.

Doug and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot and put away items from last Saturday's Easter trains.  The second photo shows Loretta up in the depots attic after Doug had handed her an Easter basket!

It had been decided to replace some of the bad ties in front of the depot, and the rest of the photos show the track gang at work.  The crew consisted of Dave Cook (medium gray hooded sweatshirt), Cory Bennett (red cap), Tom Rainford (dark cap), John La Orange (brown knit hat and tan hooded jacket) and Mark Knebel (light gray hooded sweatshirt).  Although the removal and placement of ties is now mechanical (our machine itself is interesting to operate), today we went back to spiking by hand.  Mark is in the last photo is shown with the spike maul in his hands, while Tom is in the background keeping the tie tight to the rail.  Mark did almost all the spiking of the seven ties before running out of steam.  Us old guys tried to give him some assistance with John La Orange putting in two spikes on the last tie and yours truly doing just one.  But Mark had to do the very last spike.  The wind was so bad that the railroad push cart (seen in the background in a couple of the photos), all of a sudden took off down the track and I had to go chase it before it ended up out on Main Street!

While we were doing track work, things were happening over in the Shop.  John DeGan tightened the screws on the engineers seat in S1 Alco # 310.  Sparky Byers replaced an oil line in GE diesel # 11.  Joe Kingsbury continued his work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  Bob Albert worked on the IC 9914 display caboose on which he finally had to close the door as the snow was blowing it too hard.  Margrett Cook made Sloppy Joes and other goodies for lunch.  And just for the record, the track crew wasn't the only work being done outside.  In the morning, Joe and Rich Warner worked on the air conditioning unit on the Long Island coach, # 2937.  Not a day for air conditioning, but Old Man Winter can't hold on forever!  Spring will win out in the end!

Have a great week everyone.

Les

        

Perfect Weather for Easter Trains 26 March 2016

Greetings to all.

 

Saturday dawn was nice, but cold, it did finally warmed up after the first run. I was assigned

as car host an enjoyed riding the EJ&E 184. Equipment for the train has been gone over for

any defects, an everything came up runnable. The KATY open air car was still out of service,

but mounted on the trucks once again. With over 450 eager riders on three trains was awaiting.

 

Engineers for the Easter train were John LaOrange, John DeGan, Conductor was Steve Hendricks

Many car hosts helped out with the cabooses an LIRR coach. Joe Kingsbury, Bud Tibble were in

full conductors uniforms an it made a nice touch to the visitors riding the coach. Randall was on

the open air car, Bob Albert was on a caboose,

 

The LIRR couch took some coaxing to get it started, but finally right before departure on the first

run it sprang to life. The heat was turned on an the coach warmed nicely for the folks inside.

On the cabooses the first run was on the chilly side, but the rest of the runs were nice an sunny

an warm.

 

Bob Barcus, Loretta Kosloske, Beth Lasayko all helped with ticketing an gift shop sales.

 

Helping at the park on IN 10, where the egg hunt was held, Louise Kingsbury with daughter an grandkids

helped with passing out Easter treats an grandkids as the Easter rabbit. Loretta Kosloske came out to

make sure all went as planned.

 

Lots of folks enjoyed the ride an had a great time. Over 450 adults/kids were booked on 3 trains

an the pictures show. Final picture was the Easter rabbit waving to the departing train back

to the depot. 

 

May 7th will be the beginning of the regular tourist season. Many projects continue over in the

shop building. Joe an Bud are working on the tool car putting up walls. Go check it out

sometime. The GE 11 is most likely put back together an running after taking out the oil

cooler, having it repaired. It was no easy job, but Sparky, Tom, Richard worked very hard

unbolting the oil cooler, taking it out with a winch up thru a side panel. It was taken down

to Seymour IN, south of INDY to drop it at a repair shop, Richard also went down to pick

it up. I did not see it replaced, but went back in the same way it came out an must

of been successful. Hopefully nothing else will come up with GE 11 in the coming season.

Matt Lasayko also worked on the signal system during the day, fixing multiple problems

with semaphore an light signals. Thanks Matt

 

Many thanks to all who helped out behind the scenes for the success of the Easter train.

 

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter

 

Tom

Meetings and work at Hoosier Valley 3/19/16

Greetings!

A coolish day at HVRM today.  Not much sun and temps in the 40's.  The Board meeting, delayed from last week, was held at 8:00 this morning.  Then the regular bi-monthly Membership/Business meeting was held at 1:00 p.m.  Even with two meetings, we still managed to get things done today!

After the Board meeting, EL Alco #310 was fired up and a crew consisting of Doug Kosloske and Steve Henrichs came over to check out the equipment that is scheduled to be used next Saturday for the three Easter trains, which Loretta Kosloske advised, where virtually sold out! 

Dale Abbott was already hard at work repairing the center plate on the open car, MKT #13833.  The first photo shows Dale at work.  This was an all day job as Dale was still at it at 4:00 p.m. when I headed for home! 

The second photo shows Joe Baker working on another light fixture in the old Shop building.

Good to see Todd Flanigan at the museum today.

While the Erie Lackawanna Alco was being used today for the equipment check, another maintenance crew was hard at work on Interlake GE number 11.  Crew consisted of Rich Warner, Tom Rainford, John La Orange and Cory Bennett, with other members contributing at times during the day.

Tom Travis, Kevin Kennedy and I went down the rest stop area at State Route 10 and CR250W and cleaned up some downed branches and the third photo shows Tom carrying some of these branches over to a large pile.  We also grabbed a bag of trash for disposal over at the museum.

Bob Albert continued his work in Illinois Central display caboose #9914.  The next photo shows one of the recent conditions.  This is a Hiawatha emblem off of a Pullman car and is now in on of the display cabinets.  Bob is attempting to determine if marking on the back of this aluminum emblem might indicate that it might have been on a Pullman car named Lake Keechelus.  Time will tell!

Margett Cook had corned beef and cabbage for lunch for the HVRM crew today.

Mark Knebel has spent much of his time over the last six weeks or so, cutting brush along the right-of-way toward English Lake.  Today, he burned a couple of those resulting brush piles.  There are still quite a few though, left to be burned.

Joe Kingsbury and Bud Tibbie continued working in C&EI tool car #A-1054.  The fifth photo shows Bud at work.

Last week, a bad cold kept me at home and at that time, Steve Henrichs installed the new brick work on the second floor of Grasselli Tower.  His excellent handiwork is shown in the last two photos.

Enjoy the upcoming week everyone!  Spring officially arrives tomorrow and hopefully the weather will agree with the calendar!  Also, this is the spring break time of the year and different schools have their breaks at different times, but let's remember to use a bit of extra caution when driving in the upcoming days. 

Les

 

Cool day at HVRM 3/5/16

Hi!

Had some snow this week as winter continues to hang in.  Overcast all day today at Hoosier Valley with temps in the low 40's.

First photo shows Steve Henrichs building one of the forms for the new "brick" chimney in Grasselli Tower.  In the second photo, Steve is shown cutting some of the wall tongue and groove boards to make the first form fit.  By the end of the day, Steve had the forms all in place!

This third photo shows Joe Kingsbury getting set to nail one of the wall forms for C&EI tool car #A-1054 into place while Bud Tibbie holds the form in place.  Kevin Kennedy is in the background offering support. 

The air tank in the Shop building needed repair and in the fourth photo, Rich Warner is getting set to make the weld repair.  This photo was taken from the platform of ND&W Porter diesel number 5332 overlooking Rich's work as the air tank sat on the concrete floor of the West Annex of the Shop building.

In the fifth photo, Tom Rainford is show cutting a piece of steel.

Margrett Cook and Pat DeGan provided lunch today in the NKP kitchen car.

Fred Boyer was at the museum today saying his goodbyes as he and wife Judy are getting set to make their permanent move to a new home in Florida.  Good luck Fred and Judy!  Enjoy railroad preservation in the Sunshine State!

Finally, the FRA requires information on pedestrian crossings in addition to road crossings and the last two photos show Bob Albert and Tom Travis applying an info sign to the pedestrian crossing between the museums depot and the south parking lot.

Enjoy the week.  More spring like temps are supposedly on the horizon for this upcoming week!

 

Just a short add on, work continued on GE 11 today. Again I don't have an idea what

is happening, but again the crew filled the radiator with water, did some tweaking

on the engine an started it up, killing all the bugs in the building with white exhaust

an then moving it out side for more work. Rich Warner, Sparky, John LaOrange

an others I'm sure climbed all over the engine, including the hood area.

 

Mark Kniebel was heard out again on CKIN right of way clearing brush, a thankless,

noisy, job. Thanks Mark

 

Next Saturday is a board meeting in the depot at 8am. Easter train weekend is fast

approaching, check web site for availability of a seat.

 

Katy open air car still jacked up with truck rolled out. The welder will be back from a

motor cycle trip this week some time. Warmer weather is expected by next weekend.

 

Les  &  Tom

    

Up in the air at Hoosier Valley 2/27/16

Greetings -

After our blizzard this past mid-week with heavy snow and high winds, the day at HVRM was sunny, and with temps in the 40's, saw the melting of much snow and the making of a lot of slush!  One good thing about February, it's a short winter month! 

Rich Warner's new water tank for the cab of GE diesel #11 is shown in the first photo.

In the second photo, Fred Boyer is shown measuring the new end wall that Joe Kingsbury built for C&EI tool car # A-1054.  A tight fit, but Joe was eventually able to get the wall pounded into place.  The third photo shows Joe handing up some more 2 x 4's to Tom Travis in the A-1054 so Joe can start building the wall for the other end of the car.

Bud helped with framing  the other end of the tool car. The frame went in very smooth, not like the other end

where it had to be beat in with a BIG hammer.

Later in the day, Fred and I opened up Grasselli Tower and continued removing old paint from the levers.  They'll get done eventually!

Bob Albert continued his work on the displays in Illinois Central caboose # 9914. A conductor from the South

Shore freight side came down an donated 3 plastic crates of VHS train tapes, an cart full of reading material.

I did not get his name, sorry, but thanks for the GREAT donation.

Mark Knebel continued cutting brush and trees along the right-of-way toward English Lake. Drove by the piles

of trees on the way home, will be nice to pace the tourist train without your view blocked.

Bob Barcus manned the depot gift shop all day.

Good to see Andy Roeske at the museum today!

Katy flat car # 13833, converted by the museum into an open air car, had been jacked up (photo 4) to allow the bolster center plate to be repaired.  The slightly separated center plate (photo 5) needs to be welded back into place.  Unfortunately, the welder who was supposed to perform the repair was unable to make it to the museum today.  Will have to wait for another day to work on it.

Lunch was sausage pizza, fried chicken, rolls, coleslaw and potato wedges from the Wooden Nickel with Louise Kingsbury's homemade chocolate cup cakes for desert.

In the afternoon, Rich's water tank was tested for leaks.  The last photo shows Sparky Byers up on the cab of the GE, filling the tank.  The tank and system will need to be "tweaked".

Supposed to be near 60 degrees on Sunday, but some snow is due in next week.  Hang in there folks, spring is rumored to be right around the corner! Baseball Teams are manning up for spring training.

 

Remember the EASTER train an the big egg hunt.. Its filling up fast. Lets hope for good weather this year.

Check the HVRM web site for details.

Les