Springlike day at Hoosier Valley 1/21/17

 

Greetings!

Our amazingly spring like temps continued at HVRM today, with temps getting up to 65 degrees and sunshine most of the day.  Not bad for the middle of January!   We will take it...and hope that Old Man Winter isn't going to drop the boom on us in the near future!

Pizza was secured and furnished to the membership today for lunch.

Annual meeting day at the museum and, because of a scheduling conflict, we were not able to hold the meeting at the North Judson Library as we have been doing for quite a few years now.  So instead, we had the meeting on the new concrete floor of the  West Annex of the Shop Building.   The first photo shows the gathered membership with the Board members sitting at the table in the front.  From left to right we have Director Joe Kingsbury, President Cory Bennett, Vice President Doug Kosloske (who is reading the minutes from the previous membership meeting) and Director Bob Albert.  Three of the Board members were not present for various reasons.

We won't report here on the various goings on at the meeting except to say that the membership approved a negative operating budget for 2017.  The projected income covered the projected expenditures, but projected legal services brought the budget to the negative side.  The museum has adequate funds on hand, to cover this red ink.

One other thing I should mention is that Loretta Kosloske presented the proposed 2017 train schedule.  Most of this is the same as was done this past year and reflects again only being able to operate as far west as English Lake.

Because of the Annual meeting, activities were subdued but Joe Baker and helper were doing electrical work in C&EI work car # A-1054 including the installation of the first ceiling fan in the car.  Joe Kingsbury also continued working on one of the end ramps of the car after the meeting ended, as seen in the second photo.

On the way home on Bigler Road this afternoon, I spotted a string of 14 MQRX covered hopper cars sitting on the old C&O main line just to the east of milepost 219 and the CFS unloading area (third photo).  My guess is that these aren't cars of fertilizer but are instead, storage cars, as there was another much longer string of MQRX hoppers (and a few box cars) to the east of La Crosse on the ex-C&O main.  The current operator continues to secure income from the rail line!

Hope everyone enjoys the great weather and has a wonderful week.

Les   

Chilly 30 degree day at Hoosier Valley January 14, 2017

Greetings!

Mid-January and a cold day at HVRM.  Not quite as bad as some places around the country as an ice storm is hitting the plains and the midwest this weekend, after depositing heavy rains again in California.  The ice is supposed to hit central and southern Indiana but we will apparently be spared up here in the northern part of the state.

I finally managed to get over to North Judson today in time to attend the morning Board meeting.  Found out that the members had already been hard at work, fixing holes in the State Routes 10 and 39 crossing of museum trackage.   

Interesting Board meeting with a number of items brought up including a long discussion on future museum plans.  Next Satuday will be the Annual business meeting of the membership.  Because the Library room had been booked, we will hold the meeting in the West Annex of the Shop on the new concrete floor.  This part of the building is insulated and, with our large wood furnace providing heat, should provide a comfortable environment for the meeting.

I spent most of the morning going through various records in Secretary Mark Knebel's office, looking for a blue print of our steam locomotive; 2-8-4 # 2789.  Found a lot of papers, but unfortunately, not what I was looking for.

Due to the relatively light turnout, we secured fried chicken and home made potato salad from the Blue Jay restaurant for lunch.  YUM!

Members in attendance today included all of the Board members, Cory Bennett, Doug Kosloske, Bob Albert, Bob Barcus, John LaOrange, Mark Knebel and Joe Kingsbury.  Also guests Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy, Rich Warner, Loretta Kosloske, Tom Rainford and yours truly.

Others at the museum today included Bing Risley, Dan O'Barski and Tom Royce.

Tom Rainford told me that he and Jason Ciastko had spent about 5 hours cleaning out the old coal pieces and coal dust from ND&W Porter diesel # 5332 on January 7th.  A dirty job to say the least, but the Porter is now a lot cleaner! 

Joe Kingsbury is nearing completion on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  I've included some photos I took in the afternoon, before we broke and headed for home (some members live in central Indiana and wanted to try to beat the ice storm's arrival).  The first photo shows one end of the car and the second one shows the opposite end, with Joe down at the end doing some work. Joe is shown in the third photo with his sledge, working on the old sloped platform.

Please consider coming to the museum's  Annual Meeting next Saturday.  It will start at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.  Early weather reports call for a rather balmy day in the 50's!  Let's hope the weathermen have it right, but whether they end up being correct or not, the meeting will be held.  Your attendance would be welcomed!

Have a great week!

Les  

   

Hoosier Valley before the December 2016 snows - 12/10/16

 

Greetings -

Cold day at HVRM today with temps in the upper 20's, but a little bit of sunlight at times.  Supposed to be getting some good snowfall starting tonight through Sunday night, then again on Tuesday and still more (with frigid temps) for next weekend!  We shall see! 

Santa trains continued and photo 1 shows the second train of the day getting set to stop at Arlington Street in North Judson to pick up Santa and Mrs. Claus!  That's train conductor Steve Henrichs on the back platform of LIRR # 2937 and if you look closely, you might be able to see a little bit of Kevin Kennedy who was out flagging the various crossings to English Lake for the second and third trains of the day after Mark Knebel flagged for the first train.  Jason Ciastko and I were "Santa's helpers" for the three trains today.  By the way, please note that Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose # 1989 was NOT on the end of the train today after Jason and Mark had managed to get the old caboose stove fired up in the morning.  Unfortunately, the 1989's brakes froze up and couldn't be thawed so the "little red caboose" had to stay behind today!

John DeGan was engineer for the trains today, Steve Henrichs train conductor, Bob Albert assistant train conductor and Bud Tibbie as the conductor for the 2937.  Doug Kosloske and Jason assisted with passenger boarding at the North Judson depot.  

 

Sparky Byers and Rich Warner got the new caboose horns installed on ND&W Porter diesel # 5332 today and fired the diesel up, to check both the horn and the original Porter bell.  Sparky reported both worked fine.  The second photo shows the new horn up on the cab roof of the old Porter.

Another section of shelving was added against the north wall on the new concrete floor of the West Annex of the Shop building.  In photo 3, Dave Cook, John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Sparky check on the installation.

Finally, Joe Kingsbury continues to work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  Both side door work can be seen in the last photo.

Have a great week everyone!  Hope the snow doesn't turn out to be too bad out your way!

Les

A chill, but progress, at Hoosier Valley 12/3/16

 

Greetings!

Had a nice day last Tuesday (November 29th) with temps getting up into the mid-50's.  Decided to try to take advantage and head to the museum and work a bit on the 899.  Was greeted by the new concrete floor which had been poured the previous day over track 3 in the West Annex of the Shop (see photo 1).   Smooooth, to say the least!  But I knew this pristine condition wouldn't last long (see below).

Today was the first day for our Santa trains and December greeted us with more typical weather with temps not getting above the upper 30's and clouds all day!  I was elected to give Santa a hand before train departures from North Judson and was assisted on these three trains for the day by both Tom Rainford and Tom Travis.  While we were waiting for the first departure, Tom Rainford and I took off the glass covers over the N gauge model railroad of North Judson to rerail some freight cars that had tipped over and some others that were derailed.  That's done....until the next time!

A fellow from the Orange Empire Railway Museum apparently visited the museum this past summer and noted that we had a temporary metal plate over the wiring at the bottom of our "Right Turn Only" warning signal (photo 2).  The temporary plate in question is at the bottom of the signal and a close up is shown in the third photo.  The guy from O.E.R.M. said that he had the correct US&S plate for this part of the signal and last month, Mark Knebel received the plate.  I went over to the Shop and eventually found the correct size bolt for the top of the plate and after a bit of a struggle, managed to put it in place.  The 4th photo shows the correct plate installed!  Thank you for this great donation Mr. Palmieri!   BTW, when the weather warms back up a bit, I'll put a bit of black paint on the bolt head.

The three Santa trains today had the following crews:

Engineer all 3 trains:  Bjarne Henderson

Train conductor: Doug Kosloske (trains 1 and 3); Steve Henrichs (train 2)

LIRR coach # 2937 conductor all 3 trains:  Bud Tibbie

Assistant to 2937 conductor: Steve Henrichs (trains 1 and 3); Tom Rainford (train 2)

In the North Judson depot today were Bob Barcus, Loretta Kosloske and Tami Shaw.

Flagmen for the day included Mark Knebel (for county road crossings) and Bob Jachim, Tom Travis and Les Beckman (at Mulberry Steet).

Others assisted with the trains or in work .

Meanwhile Rich Warner, Sparky Byers and Jason Ciastko worked on ND&W Porter # 5332.

John LaOrange got GE diesel # 11 up and running.  John also worked on the putting up the first of the recently donated storage racks on the northwest corner of the new concrete pad section in the West Annex (photo 5).  That's Tom Travis watching.  A closer up view is shown in the sixth photo.  Some equipment has also been put back into this section.

The seventh photo shows one of the two new end doors recently installed in C&EI tool car # A1054 by Joe Kingsbury. 

Others assisted with the trains today or in various work around the museum.  Including Cory Bennett, Dave Cook, Margrett Cook, Louise Kingsbury, Joe Baker and others.  Margrett prepared a very nice chicken soup today for lunch and Louise furnished desert.

Have a good week everyone.  Supposed to get colder toward the end of next week.  Well, I guess it IS the winter season after all! 

Les

No Turkey hangover at Hoosier Valley on 11/26/16!

 

Greetings All!

Two days after Thanksgiving 2016 and the turkey and trimmings weren't enough to keep museum members from doing a good days work at the museum today.  The nice weather (40's) and even an occasional peak at the sun certainly didn't hurt matters!

Accomplishments included:

1.  Bob Barcus doing some work on the security cameras in the Shop.

2.  Loretta Kosloske putting Christmas decorations in the depot and around the area.  Loretta reported that the first two Santa Train days (12/3 and 12/10) are completely sold out!

3.  Bud Tibbie and yours truly got all but one of the seats off of the two platforms of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.

4.  Joe Kingsbury continued working on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  The first photo shows Tom Travis peeking in the hung door on one side of the car while the second photo shows Joe a bit later doing some grinding work.

5.  The museum decided to contract out the pouring of the balance of the concrete for track number 3 in the West Annex of the Shop.  The third photo shows Cory Bennett welding the flangeway iron on the track while his helper Tom Rainford watches the efforts.  This welding job was completed by the end of the day after which the concrete area next to the track was cleaned up for the upcoming pour which could occur this week!

6.  Bob Albert continued work in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914.  This car is rapidly filling up!

7.  There were some problems getting the Union Pacific tamper running and the 4th photo shows John La Orange giving Rich Warner (he of the bald head under the machine) as they tried to determine the problem.  Eventually, they got the tamper running and had it on the line to clear shop track space.

8.  I talked Tom Travis into giving me a hand in moving a number of the levers in Grasselli Tower back into place.  Certain levers if pulled forward, cannot be pushed back into place without going down to the lower floor and manipulating their movement.  Tom "jiggled" the levers up on the second floor so that I could locate them beneath the lever bed and then move the apparatus enough so that Tom could then push the levers back into place.  Mission accomplished!

9.  Toward the end of the day, Rich did some grinding on the cab roof of Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332 and then drilled holes in the new base (fifth photo) for what will eventually hold a new set of horns for the Porter.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Les 

     

  

Wicked wind from the west hits Hoosier Valley 11/19/16

 

Greetings -

Well, after an extremely mild fall this year, old man winter returned to northern Indiana with a vengeance today!  Temps topped out at about 39 degrees but a wicked wind made it feel like the low 20's!  Despite this, we had a good turnout at the museum.

John LaOrange did some sorting of items on the storage racks in the East Annex of the Shop.

The frigid wind failed  to deter Mark Knebel, Jason Ciastko and Kevin Kennedy from dragging the compressor out to the east end of the museum property to work on the track.  The first photo shows Jason and Mark with their pneumatic air hammers, digging down deep into the ballast as Kevin brings another shovel full of stones to add to some of the low spots.

Meanwhile, Joe Kingsbury and Tom Rainford continued working on C&EI tool car # A-1054.  The next three photos show their work in installing a new side door on the car.  That's Joe in the light jacket and Tom in the dark one.

Margrett Cook made both chili and chicken soup for lunch today.  The hot lunch was a welcome respite from the cold wind.

After lunch, we had the bi-monthly Membership meeting in the depot.  The current situation with the freight operator saw quite an interesting discussion.  Things continue in limbo. 

After the meeting, Bob Albert gave me a couple of framed maps of Grasselli Tower trackage both before the tower was put in place and then the original trackage with signals as of 1902.  We will eventually display these neat maps up in the tower.

Sparky Byers and Rich Warner worked on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332.  

One of the things that Tom Travis, Ross and Gee Robinson and yours truly did a number of years ago, was the restoration of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.  After the project was finished, Tom and I were asked to put some seats out on the end platforms for riders, which we did and the car was used on a number of museum trains, including the special trains at Hanna, Indiana.  Through the years, the caboose was used for other things and the platform seats deteriorated.  With two open air cars now in service, the seats were no longer needed and need to be removed.  Despite the cold weather, I managed to get the first seat off, as can be seen in the last photo.  Tom Rainford gave me a hand and we eventually managed to yank it off of the platform.  Hopefully the weather will moderate yet this fall, so that the rest of the seats can be removed.

Stay warm everyone.  The temps ARE supposed to moderate somewhat next week.

Les

Fw: Nice day in November; 11/5/16

 

Folks -

We are going through a stretch of mild November weather.  Rose to the upper 60's by the afternoon, with sunshine all day.  Can't beat it!

This day actually started on Friday, November 4th, when Tom Rainford and I went up to Metra's KYD Shop on the far south side of Chicago to pick up some seat and back cushions for our two Highliner passenger cars.  Since the last run of these cars occurred this past February 12th ending almost 45 years of use, we thought it would make sense to try to acquire some of these cushions for backup use for the two cars in our collection (numbers 1502 and 1529) as replacements won't be available in the future.  This morning, I found a spot on the upper level of the racks in the East Annex of the Shop and Tom and I stacked them up (see the first photo).   Also received from Metra on Friday from, were two ditch lights.  More on them in a few moments.

After a busy passenger train season, limited somewhat by our being unable to run west of English Lake, the museum took a break this week.  Since no passenger runs were scheduled, museum membership was a bit lighter than normal, but some of our work was resumed.  Included was the finish of the preparatory work for the soon coming concrete floor in the West Annex of the Shop.  The second photo shows Cory Bennett at the controls of the backhoe as John LaOrange, Dave Cook and Tom Rainford (left to right) watch Cory spread sand with the bucket.  This job was finished by the end of the day.  

Work continued on C&EI tool car #A-1054.  The third photo shows Kevin Kennedy at left and Joe Kingsbury at right while in the distance, Joe Baker (and his unseen assistant Ryan) work on an electrical installation at the end of the car.

Meanwhile, out at the east end of the museum grounds, Mark Knebel worked alone on tie installation as shown in the 4th photo.

Bob Albert installed some additional photos in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914.  We had some heavy rains in the area earlier this week and Bob reported that the 9914 showed no signs of any leakage, which is excellent news!

Margrett Cook went to Subway and brought back some sandwiches for lunch.

I mentioned earlier, that Metra has also given us a couple of Highliner ditch lights.  One of the lights on 1502 was busted and after lunch, Tom and I replaced the bad ditch light with the Metra replacement.  The results are shown in the 5th photo.  That's the old light on the ground with the newly installed light on the car.

Since I had to leave early due to another commitment, I decided to go up into Grasselli Tower and apply white paint to the numbers on levers 36, 40 and 49, which Steve Henrichs had painted prior to our October passenger runs.  Results for lever 36 is shown in the last photo.

Loretta Kosloske states that they are looking for someone to "man" the depot next Saturday since she, Bob Barcus and Tami Shaw will all be unavailable.  With no trains running, the duties will be light.

Weather is supposed to continue to be mild, so enjoy the week!  And don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Les