Short trip to Ohio and some items of railroad interest

Greetings -

Betty and I travelled to Cleveland this past weekend to catch a White Sox game against the Indians at Progressive Field.  The less said about that game, the better!  Did manage to see some interesting railroad items at times.  Including some Norfolk Southern and IC/CN action from a seat at a Steak and Shake outside of Goshen, Indiana and also passing a beautiful two track signal bridge with a bevy of signals on a rail line just south of Toledo, Ohio.  Also managed a few photos of items along the way as per the attached, which perhaps you may find of some interest.

The first three photos show the old diminutive Nickel Plate Road depot in Waterville, Ohio which was once used by the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western tourist railroad for their trains to Grand Rapids, Ohio.  Recently that group has retrenched to Grand Rapids itself, and no longer runs to Waterville.  Supposedly the depot is still owned by NS and is considered "unused".  Note that there is no entry into the building from the platform and passengers apparently had to enter through a door in the rear.  Would be a shame if the neat structure and its classic train order board were not eventually preserved.

The fourth photo shows a Norfolk and Western class CG steel cupola caboose lettered for the Wabash Railroad at Whitehouse, Ohio.  The old Wabash right-of-way through Whitehouse is now a bike trail but the town folks have installed a building roughly resembling the original depot next to the trail, with this N&W caboose on display near that structure.  Although the Wabash did buy some old wood cupola cabooses back in the 1930's from the N&W, this caboose (NW #518388) was never a genuine Wabash caboose.  Still, nice to see that the railroads heritage is still remembered in Whitehouse.

Finally, I photographed this old New York Central caboose many years ago on private property just off of U.S. 20 east of Angola, Indiana.  I thought that being outside, it would deteriorate rather quickly, but that has obviously not been the case.  The paint may not be quite the right shade, but overall, the caboose still looks pretty good.  Kudos to the private owner of this wooden classic. 

Les    

    

North Judson Mint Festival Weekend. 18/19 June 2016

Greetings to All,
 
Too start off it was one HOT weekend in NJ, but other parts of the country
was at extreme heat. I was not at HVRM Saturday, due to another commitment.

Seems to had some ballast stone taken some where on the Erie line Saturday.

 

Both days were North Judson Mint Festival, the type that burn your feet off on

the hot asphalt. I tend to stay off that hot surfaces now. Sunday dawned again
 hot an humid. When I arrived, the C&O 2789 was pulled outside for viewing,

GE #11 was on the house track outside the north side of the shop. EL 310 had

already performed two guest engineers duty in the morning. The tourist train,

was already made up, sitting at the depot with the coach A/C running to cool

the car down inside.

 

Both days count was over 120 riders. I was a car host on the MKT open air car,

along with Randall Downs an son Matt. Joe Kingsbury an Bib Tibbie. Conductor

Doug Koslosoke, enginners Bjarne Henderson, John LaOrange. Bob Albert performed

road crossing duties for both runs. Mark Knebel was off working on the Erie line.

Bob Barcus an Loretta Kosloske manned the depot gift shop. New members, Jason,

an his wife also assisted on the train an in the gift shop.

Railroad north of the Kankakee river still blocked with grain cars.

 

At the end of the operations, the tie tamper was switched to be able to get out

of the shop during the week, most likely for some tie tamping with fresh ballast

along the Erie line. Friday is a special run for the Big Train Operators Club holding

its convention in La Porte, (G scale). the club will arrive at 8:30am an train ride will

be at 10 am. Car hosts an volunteers for various places around the museum, Grasselli

tower, shop buildings etc. Come out an volunteer. Hope to see you this coming

weekend.

 

Finally the weather is more tolerable heat wise, but drink plenty of water.

 

Tom Travis

To Hot For A Shot at Hoosier Valley 6/11/16

Greetings -

Temps well into the 90's today which limited extracurricular activities at the museum.  I showed up a bit past 7:30 and passed out TEAM PORTER #6 caps to certain individuals.  These caps came courtesy of Sammy King in appreciation for help in moving 0-4-2T number 6 last year, from the museum to Colorado, where Sammy resides.

Board meeting with various items discussed.

After the meeting, I headed over to Grasselli Tower where I opened windows, turned on the fan and puttered about all day.   Hot, but out of the sun at least.  Steve Henrichs wanted me to put some photos up of Grasselli when it was still in East Chicago, Indiana.   Never got around to doing that, but the photos will eventually get put up.  One of them was very interesting; showed the tower in 1928 with a steam locomotive about to roll by.  What was interesting about that particular photo is that it showed three windows next to the second floor door, whereas Grasselli now has only two windows in that location.  From some blackened support 2 x 4's we found when the tower was apart during its move to North Judson, we know that there was a fire at one time.  Obviously it wasn't bad enough to lose the building, which was obviously repaired.  The three window arrangement was most likely replaced when the fire occurred and now we at least know that it happened some time after the 1928 photo.

Had a number of visitors during the day and between them and the heat, I never made it around the museum.  So not sure what else was going on.  I heard that John LaOrange continued his work on GE number 11.  And of course, we ran both trains with John Degan, Steve Henrichs and Bob Albert handling engineer/conductor duties with Tom Rainford and Randall Downs acting as car hosts.  There were also a couple of guest engineers in the morning.

Supposed to be a roller coaster temperature ride this week.  Enjoy, if you can, the summer temps that are coming in a little early!

Les

Photos from Hoosier Valley 6/4/16

Greetings to all,
 
Arrived late at the museum, as I was running behind. Les had arrived earlier and had done a few
things. I moved over to the depot for awhile an was talking to a friend from the Ham Radio community
who was going to take a ride on the train later. Doug came in an asked me to be the road crossing
guard, since Mark was on another job of mowing grass with the John Deere tractor. So at 12:30pm
the first train left the depot, flagged all the way to English Lake. Repeated same at 2:30pm.

Photo 1  -  Joe Baker installed this voltage meter this morning to check on the status of the battery in the B&LE caboose.

Photo 2  -  We were asked to furnish the type of paint used in painting our IC caboose.  We try to accommodate, but this photo shows the problem!

 

Cliff Deal from St Francisville LA sent me an e-mail that his group was restoring a 1972 IC caboose an wanted

a match for the Pumpkin color. They have been following our web site on the progress of restoring

our IC caboose. Alas Joe Kingsbury who keeps all the codes for the paint of the restored equipment

at HVRM came to the rescue an passing along the Sherwin Williams Brand of orange. Thanks much

Joe.

Photo 3  -  G.E. oil/water leak; still looking!, Cory was not at the museum to lead on the

search

Photo 4  -  Tom Rainford filling depressions in the ballast after recent tamping job done with our donated U.P. Tamper.

Les Beckman assisted earlier on this job.

 

Most of HVRM members were assisting with train operations. Bob Barcus an Lorretta Koslovske

were working inside the depot.

 

Not many tourist riders today. Randall Downs was on the open air car. Joe Kingsbury was on

the LIRR coach. Les left earlier as had things to do Saturday. I stuck around till about 4pm,

helped closing shop doors an then stayed for some conversation.

 

Board meeting Saturday morning at 8am. Next weekend is Mint Festival in North Judson with lots

of activities downtown.

 

As most of HVRM members received the news letter, on the back page is a letter from our

lawyer stating that INDOT supports HVRM an this should of not happened with CKIN.

 

The membership of HVRM stands resolute for a new, more responsible railroad operator,

in as much that the new operator shall assure the continued success of the museum's operation.

 

Going to be a very hot weekend, so drink plenty of water. Hope to see you at HVRM....

 

Tom Travis

Green diamond and fixes at Hoosier Valley 5/28/16

Greetings!

Had some computer problems this week but my computer guru (my son), worked on it today, so hopefully things are now fixed.  May have missed some stuff this past week.  Computers are great, aren't they?

Nice day at North Judson today.  Some very light sprinkles at times, but temps in the 80's and sun most of the time.

There is apparently a problem with GE number 11, with oil getting into the water system.  First photo shows John La Orange and Cory Bennett working on the problem in the East Annex of the Shop but John told me at the end of the day that they haven't yet found the problem.  More work to be done!

Bud Tibbie secured a metal Illinois Central herald for display.  At about 64 inches wide and 41 inches tall, it was a bit overwhelming to put in the IC display caboose, so it was decided to add it to the wall display in the Shop.  Tom Travis and I managed to push the lift from the West Annex of the Shop, over to the East Annex.  The second photo shows Tom working on one of the screws with which we attached the herald.   The third photo shows it in place above the metal Rock Island and New York Central heralds.  The IC and NYC heralds were apparently on piggyback trailers, but the Rock herald is believed to have come off of a  steam locomotive tender.  We think that this display looks pretty good and appreciate Bud Tibbie's donation.

Lunch today came from the Wooden Nickel; chicken, biscuits, cole slaw and also a donated pasta salad.  Good stuff!

There was a problem when EL Alco # 310 tried to couple to Long Island coach #2937 in preparation for the first passenger run of the day, and the front coupler of S-1 had to be replaced using parts from the EMD Model 40.  The 4th photo show Cory Bennett (at left) and Doug Kosloske working on the coupler as Tom Rainford watches at right.  The repair was made and the 12:30 train left on time.

Good to see Randall Downs on the train today, as the car host on the Katy open air car.  Randall had hip surgery earlier this month and is making remarkable progress.

Doug Kosloske was engineer today with Steve Henrichs the conductor.

Recently, a window in the first floor of Grasselli Tower was broken, with all of the broken glass ending up outside of the tower.  Could have been wind from the inside or possibly a bird getting trapped inside an hitting the window with enough force to break it.  Whatever happened, Steve Newland is shown in the 5th photo, putting some plastic over the now open upper sash as a temporary measure until the window can be replaced.  Bob Albert came up with some photos of Grasselli when it was still back in East Chicago, including one from the 1920's showing a steam engine passing the tower.  These shots will eventually be displayed in the tower itself.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and have a great week.  Remember to fly the flag this upcoming Memorial Day and remember all those who have served.  God Bless America!

Les  

  

      

 

 

Great Day at HVRM Weather Wise 5-21-2016

Greetings to all,
 
Well it finally had to get nice today after some gloomy weather for the past three Saturdays.
Temps made it into the mid 70's under blue skies. Perfect weather for a couple of train rides.
Les took some photos of members around the museum today.
 
Photo 1 is Bob Barcus shooting a short video of HVRM operations
Photo 2 is guest engineer getting ready to couple GE # 11 up to B&LE caboose. Bjarne  Henderson
is on the platform as conductor for the day.
Photo 3 is of three long time members working on the EJ&E 184 caboose brake problems.
Kyle Flanigan at left, Todd Flanigan kneeling down near rail, John LaOrange on the ground
under the caboose.
 
I arrived early as it was membership meeting day, but due to lack of members to make a quorum
it was postponed till later. Everyone was scattered about the museum getting jobs started.
Mark Kniebel was out on the HVRM motorcar inspecting track from North Judson to English
Lake over the bridge up to the derail an then back to IN 10 an back on the passing track,
completing it just in time to do duty as road crossing guard for guest engineers.
Doug Koslovske an Bjarne Henderson were assembling the guest engineer train cutting
the open air car an Long Island coach out of the consist. John LaOrange an Cory Bennett
were working on the EJ&E caboose sticking brakes. Loretta Koslovske an Bob Barcus
were in the depot getting things ready for the day. Joe Kingsbury was in the shop doing
some touch up prime painting around the windows. Joe Baker got the electric manlift
out an moved it to a new LED he had installed too high up an lowered it some. Les
Beckman went over to Grasselli tower to work on the throw levers numbers.
I was standing by the depot platform an Bjarne asked if I wanted to ride out to English
Lake in the B&LE caboose on a guest engineer train. It was nice sitting up in the cupola
watching the scenery pass by an the rolling track on the short stretch of track.
I got back an had not really decided what to do, but lunch was ready about 11am.
So had hotdogs an Taco salad plate. During lunch I was asked if I wanted to do car host
duties, so I agreed. Was in the coach for both runs, had a total of 50 passengers on both
trips, better than the count from last week. Bob Jachim was out an about early at the
museum, making coffee, putting the flag up an opening up the depot an buildings.
Bing Ringsley an Corky were out an around the museum ground early also. John LaOrange
had worked on the Erie 310 an fixed the air problems from last week, forgot what the
fix was. Filled the radiator up to the top with water, as I don't think it will freeze again
for some time. Ross Robinson from  Ottawa Ontario, stopped by for a couple three days after
attending a conference in Fayette Ohio for a couple of days. Having checked out his trailer prior
to leaving, some unfortunate things happened, water lines began to leak an possibly
causing a fan motor on the space heater to go bad. So Ross was not able to take showers or
have heat at night. First night out temps were around 30 degrees an did not much warm up
for the entire trip. He did have plenty of blankets an jackets. Monday evening Ross
treated my family an Les & Betty Beckman to dinner at the Broadway Café in Valpo.
Tuesday Ross came down to North Judson to visit Toto an Baileys. Also gave him keys
to get into Grasselli tower an see the progress that has be done since his last visit. Also
went into the shop building to see ongoing projects an new concrete floors in the shop.
Ross left early Wednesday morning. I did not have much time spend with him, as driving
school bus kept me busy all day.
 
Cory got the John Deere 4020 running an out of the building an hooked up the sprayer
machine an must of sprayed grass in the wye area  to keep the grass down an bugs to
a minimum in the coming months Mowing with the brushhog will be done later in the
month, as the grass in lots does not look too bad yet.
 
In the mean time, John ran the Erie 310 down to the EJ&E caboose to move it to the shop
building so the brake valve could be taken off an blown out with compressed air to attempt
to clear what ever was blocking the line. Todd took off a couple of pipes an found them to
be full of dust or dirt or scale that may of been blocking air. So things were taken off an
the air compressor blew out crud that may of settled inside. The air switch inside the caboose
was taken out an capped off, as thought was it may of been malfunctioning. The brake parts
were put back on an things slowly started working again. The caboose was taken out on the
line an run back an forth applying an releasing the brakes, all seemed to be working again.
So next week the EJ&E will be back in the consist for tourist trains.
 
Bob Albert worked on the Illinois Central display caboose by fixing another leak in the roof.
A large cabinet was moved over from the shop building an put inside the caboose.
 
The inspection of the Monon SW-1 did happen Friday, noting lots of engine work may be
required to get it running again. Will have to wait for board meeting to discuss it.
 
The buildings were closed up shortly after the 2pm train ride an members left pretty
quick after that.
 
No idea when the membership meeting will be held. Notice will most likely sent out
by e-mail to members. Have a good week, temps are going to rise into the 80's by next
weekend with some rain during the week.
 
Tom Travis
 
 
           

North Judson Extends Agreement with Railroad Operator, Challenges Remain for Museum Trains

---

---

 Greetings to all,

 

Let me start out that on Thursday evening at the North Judson town Hall had a special meeting  with HVRM on the

agreements with the Railroad CKIN. The following article explains what went on an the course of the

Town Council of North Judson. A good crowd was there for support. Did not end on a high note, as

the meeting was abruptly ended. I'm sure more will follow. 

North Judson Extends Agreement with Railroad Operator, Challenges Remain for Museum Trains
http://www.wkvi.com/2016/05/north-judson-extends-agreement-railroad-operator-challenges-remain-museum-trains/

 

Saturday was very cold an windy, but dry. Lots of rain the last couple of days has made

fields pretty muddy an stream at high water levels. During the last couple of weeks

the museum had a couple of weekday tourist trips with school children. A very good

turnout an all had a lot of fun. The Alco 310 an EJ&E caboose 184 had a brake

problem. The caboose was switched out of the train an GE #11 was substituted for power.

Saturday morning early work on the EJ&E handicap caboose, but not exactly 100%

sure if the problem is fixed. The Friday group had tours an lunch first, then went on the

train ride with no problems.

 

Board meeting at 8am brought up the items of interest. This coming Friday Les Beckman,

and a group of individuals will go an inspect a 600 horsepower SW-1 over south of Calumet

Harbor, I think. A list of things will be inspected as to determine it is worthy to accept.

A NS inspector will also be in attendance to inspect the engine an see if it is capable to

travel on its own wheels to HVRM.

 

Work continues on the new lunch car with much more done inside the car. Windows

are installed an framed in. A new air conditioner will be installed in a window with

appropriate 220 volt requirements. Joe Baker has the electrical roughed in right now

an more to do for the lighting on the ceiling.

 

A discussion of options about the closure of the English Lake-Lacrosse line were discussed.

 

A couple of guest engineers were in attendance early an the passenger train ran on time

with a low turnout of rides due to cold an windy conditions.

 

The LIRR couch engine for the heating would not start easily. Checking the battery it was

found out that the battery charger is putting out about 40 plus volts an the big battery is

only 32 volts. Checking cells an it was found out it needed distilled water in most of the

cells. The battery is in an extremely tight place under the coach an can not be pulled out

on a sliding tray, so some improvising with a turkey baster was used to fill the cells.

 

Les Beckman did some minor work in Grasselli Tower in the afternoon.

 

Not much else was done on Saturday due to nasty conditions outside. Hopefully next

Saturday will be warmer an nicer.

 

Have a good week everyone.

 

Tom Travis