A howling wind but some small victories at Hoosier Valley 5/6/17

 

Greetings!

We had a strong wind today straight out of the north across a still very cold Lake Michigan.  Temps were only in the low to mid 50's all day, and with winds of 25 to 30 m.p.h., temps felt like it was in the 30's.  Still, we had our first regular day of operation with two guest engineers and our two regular trains at 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.  The temps kept regular passenger numbers down, but our S1 Alco # 310 performed flawlessly.  Engineer was Doug Kosloske with Mark Knebel and Bob Barcus handling conductor duties.  Tom Rainford was a car host.

Last week's museum report included a photo of our recently repainted Purdue University crane.  Mark continued his work on it this week, taping the lettering outline as shown in the first photo.  Although he had already used two coats of yellow paint for the lettering, later in the day he applied an additional coat, as can be seen in the second photo.  After the paint dries, he'll be able to remove the tape and then start on the lettering on the other side!  Museum work is an ongoing project!

I managed to climb up into the cab of the 2789 today and after working a bit on the window tracks at the top of the cab window openings, I decided that the screws were pretty much rusted in place.  I then tried the lower tracks and, as can be seen in the third photo, managed to remove one of those bolts pretty easily.  A small victory!  Unlike the top window tracks, these bottom ones are new and apparently were put in when the Kanawha's cab was repaired for the museum a number of years ago.   Either the top or bottom tracks have to be removed in order to get the new windows in, and right now, I am pretty sure it's going to be the bottom tracks.

Rich Warner handled road crossing duties today although Bob Jachim and I managed to protect the Mulberry Street crossing near the depot.

In the 4th shot, Joe Kingsbury is shown starting on the building of the steps for Hoosier Valley kitchen/meeting car # K-325.  The flat concrete floor is a good base to build these steps, exact measurements in relation to the car can be made, and work can done without weather worries.  After the steps for the car are complete, they will be moved over to the future location of the car, east of the North Judson depot.    

Joe Baker and helper Brian, are working on getting the electrical connections made for the future location of # K-325, and the "tunnel" under the tracks was put in today as can be seen in the fifth, sixth and seventh photos.  The 5th photo shows the tube for the electic at the car location, the 6th some work being done where the line runs between two museum structures and the 7th shows the Witch Ditch after it was loaded back on the companies trailer.

The 8th photo shows Cory Bennett (in the Payloader), John La Orange (background) and David Cook (at right), as they look for switch components from our stock.  The switch is to go on to the track that was recently swung around to get it lined up for the track going in to the West Annex of the Shop building.  The last photo shows two pieces that were eventually found and placed in the approximate location of that switch.

Have a great week everyone.  Spring temps will eventually get here....or so I've been told!

Les

      

Dreary, rainy day doesn't stop work at Hoosier Valley 4/29/17

Greetings!

Forecast today was for heavy rains at times all day and possible flooding.  But, although it was dreary all day and we did have both rain and drizzle at times, a surprising number of folks were at the museum.

When I arrived at about 9:00, there was no one at the Shop but were gathered instead in the depot where a discussion was going on about a possible solar panel installation where the museum track crosses Route 10/39.   

No rain at that time, so I talked Tom Rainford into giving me a hand with the speaker phone that Mark Knebel had given us to use in the tower. With Tom doing the work, the phone was installed (see photo number 1).

Last week, a second coat was put on C&EI tool car # A-1054 and Bjarne Henderson had arranged to have a new set of vinyl lettering made for the car.  The car, which is to be the future "table car/meeting room" for the museum, will be lettered HOOSIER VALLEY and given the number K-325, its old U.S. Army number when it was in service as a kitchen car.

Tom is shown in the second photo, putting the new vinyl K-325 on one of the car ends.  Meanwhile, Kevin Kennedy (at left in the 3rd photo with Bjarne) are seen checking to make sure that the vinyl letters are straight.  In the 4th shot, Bjarne is shown attaching another section of the lettering.

We stopped for lunch about this time.  Tami Shaw and Jason Ciastko had brought down home made chili and spicy ham and cheese sandwiches while Margrett Cook brought home made ice cream and brownies!  We eat good at Hoosier Valley!

John DeGan had cleaned up a short section of the side rods on Chesapeake & Ohio # 2789 and the results are shown in the fifth photo.  This is John's 4th attempt to clean up the rods on the 2-8-4 and make them look presentable.  Keep your fingers crossed!  I then asked John if he could take his angle grinder and try to clean up the upper window tracks in the cab of the Kanawha and the 6th shot shows John doing just that.  He also reported to me that these tracks appear to be in sections and bolted in.  Which is good news for the future window installation.

John LaOrange put water into some of GE #11's batteries.  A job that entailed a tight fit to get into the battery compartment under the cab of the 95-tonner.

In the meantime, work continued on the K-325 and after getting all the lettering for the museum name put in place, the afternoon was spent in getting the vinyl letters attached.  The 7th shot shows Bjarne straightening out a "tail" on the "H" in Hoosier while Tom removes the paper backing on the "I".   When I left after 4:00, only four of the letters needed to be completed.  Soon the car will be moved out, switching performed, and the car put into place next to the museums current "lunch car", NKP # X58538.

Finally, parked outside the number 1 track of the Shop, was the museum's Purdue University crane as shown in the last photo.  Mark Knebel had worked on new paint during the week with an assist from Bud Tibbie.   Not quite finished yet but looking good!

Much more rain is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow and into Monday.  Stay dry if possible!

Les     

 

Easter egg trains and great weather at HVRM 4/15/17

 

Greetings -

Got a call from the Indiana Harbor Belt on Friday, 4/14/17, that they would be willing to make a permanent loan of the model board from Dolton Tower to HVRM.  Recently Tom Rainford and I had gone to Dolton to pick up some items for Grasselli Tower from the decommissioning of Dolton and which we now have at Hoosier Valley.  So, I stopped by this morning and with quite a bit of help, managed to get the board loaded into my van.  When I made it to the museum, Bob Albert, Tom Rainford, Bud Tibbie and Kevin Kennedy, helped get the model board unloaded and put up in the Pullman Troop Sleeper, one of our display cars (see photo 1).

Today was the day for our Easter Egg trains, and what a beautiful day it turned out to be!   Temps got up into the low 80's, the sun shone most to the day and a stiff breeze kept it very comfortable!   The three trains were filled to capacity.  Steve Henrichs was engineer, John DeGan fireman, Doug Kosloske conductor with Bud Tibbie, Joe Kingsbury, Kevin Kennedy, Tom Rainford amongst those who did car host duties for the various trains.  GE end cab diesel #11 started out as motive power.

Mark Knebel and Bob Jachim handled road flagging work out at Indiana 10/39.   Loretta Koslosle and Bob Barcus manned the depot today, while Louise Kingsbury, her daughter and granddaughter assisted with the egg works. 

There was a problem with the air on Erie Lackawanna # 310 and the second photo shows Jason Ciatsko (on ground), Rich Warner (on running board) and John La Orange (on the opposite side of the Alco) working to get the problem fixed.  Good thing as number 11 had some problems with dirty valves on the second run of the day and 310 had to handle the back half of the egg trains.

Meanwhile, Ross Robinson had made a Maquette (pattern) for the windows for the 2789 and sent it to me from the north country.  The third photo shows the maquette with the channels for the windows of the Kanawha viewable in the background.  I then checked them against the actual channels in the 2-8-4's windows and, as you can see in the fourth photo (engineers window) and the fifth photo (fireman's window), they fit quite nicely and move past each other with no problems.

Sparky Byers was trying to cut some of the rusted material out of the cab of ND&W Porter diesel # 5332, as can be seen in the 6th picture.

The 7th and 8th photos shows the scene at the park where the kids on the train search for eggs, bring them to the Easter Bunny for their "goodies" and some photos.

Finally, the next to last shot shows Bjarne Henderson (with the long pole) and Joe Kingsbury applying paint to the one side of C&EI tool car # A-1054 while in the last photo, the earlier results of their work are shown on the opposite side.

Lots of work today at the museum, to make the operation a terrific success!

Happy Easter to all!

Les

  

April 2017 days at HVRM 4/2 and 4/8

 

Greetings!

Last Sunday (April 2nd) I opened the depot for the Great Lake Rail Cars groups Annual Meeting (see photo 1).   Hoosier Valley received a nice donation from the group for the use of the depot.  As I was closing up Grasselli Tower after their meeting, a couple of other folks showed up; one couple from Etna Green, Indiana and the other from Wallace, Idaho!  Always good to talk to visitors to the museum! 

Today (Saturday, April 8th), we had a mostly sunny day at North Judson for the monthly Board meeting.  Tom Travis told me at the meeting that Malcolm McCarter had passed away.  Mac was a great guy who ran a railroad photography business from his home in Arizona.  We have some of his photos for sale at the museum and also have some on display.  Mac was also one of the founding fathers of the Illinois Railway Museum. 

After the meeting, Bud Tibbie and I managed to get the last seat off of the platform of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.  Not a fun job, but we got it done!

Steve Henrichs as engineer and Doug Kosloske as conductor, spent the day switching cars around as the museum gets ready for the Easter trains next Saturday.  GE # 11 was the road unit today.

Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot.

I had often stated that we should build an old style stop sign for the Watchman's street crossing shanty at Mulberry Street and Bob Jachim surprised me with his home made sign.  That's Bob in the second photo holding the sign in front of the shanty.   Well done Bob!  BTW, Bob also prepares the coffee pot in the Nickel Plate Road kitchen car each week.  The man is multi-talented!

John LaOrange found the right key and we were able to get one of the doors open on NKP baggage car # 344.  We looked for various items amongst the parts for 2789 that are in the car, but had absolutely no luck.

More ballast was put down for the new track out behind the West Annex of the Shop and then later, Cory Bennett got the Payloader out and shoved the track over a bit more . Tom Rainford and David Cook are shown in photos 3 and 4, directing Cory's efforts.

Meanwhile, Joe Baker and this helper Brian, put up a new outside light on the west wall of the Shop building.  The fifth photo shows some of their efforts.

Bob Albert and Steve Newland did some additional work on the roof of IC display caboose # 9914 in another effort to stops the leaks in the car.

Member Dennis McNeil showed up with some donations for the museum.  That's Dennis (in  the red jacket) with Bud in the 6th photo, after we had unloaded the railroad items from Dennis's vehicle.  Always good to get donated railroad items.  Thanks Dennis!

Bjarne Henderson somehow talked wife Cindy into coming down and helping him finish painting the roof of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  That's Bjarne and Cindy in the 7th photo up on the green lift as they prepare to paint the car.

Mark Knebel and Kevin Kennedy were out in the motor car inspecting track today.   In the eighth photo, Mark brings the car back toward the shop, while Kevin (off in the distance) is locking up the switch just west of Mulberry Street.

On the way home today, I noticed that the string of stored cars on CKIN stretched from 875W (just east of La Crosse) in a solid string all the way to the derail that was put on the track in the spring of 2016.  The only breaks in the string were at public road crossings and some private crossings.  The 9th photo was taken from 875W looking back east and the photo does not do justice to the amount of cars stored!   CKIN continues the status quo.

Have a great week everyone.  It seems as if Spring IS really here!

Les

   

Nippy day at Hoosier Valley 3/18/17

 

Greetings!

A raw day weatherwise in North Judson today!  Cloudy all day with temps barely reaching the low 40's.  At least it was warm in the depot this afternoon for the museum's regular bi-monthly membership/business meeting.

Things going around the museum today included some switching using Erie Lackawanna # 310.  Unfortunately, it was discovered that the old Alco had an air leak and which needed to be looked after before the work could begin.  Photo one was taken from Grasselli Tower.  John DeGan had put out the blue flag shown at the bottom right corner of the photo and then went over to talk to members Tom Rainford and Bob Jachim while Doug Kosloske and John LaOrange started working on the unit.  Eventually the leak was fixed.  Later, the 310 pulled out equipment from the turntable lead track as shown in the second photo.

While this was going on, Cory Bennett and Dave Cook started working on putting down some additional ballast for the track that will eventually be put down behind the Shop building.  More on that a bit later.

Meanwhile, as can be seen in the third photo, Lars Henderson (at left) and Bjarne Henderson prepared to start in again on the cleaning of the roof of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  A messy, but very needed, procedure!

I spent the morning opening up Grasselli (from where I took the first photo in this report) and, when the CFL bulbs wouldn't go on for the second week in a row, I went over and got some replacements from our stock of incandescent bulbs over in the old Erie building.  The replaced bulbs are shown in the fourth photo.  Eventually, we can get some LED's to replace these incandescent's, but for now, this will work!  Later I took some measurements on Kanawha # 2789 for a future project.

After the hot dog and chili lunch served by Margrett Cook in the NKP lunch car, and after the meeting, I found Joe Kingsbury doing some additional work on the windows on the C&EI tool car (photo 5).

Loretta Kosloske, who had handling the depot business in the absence of Bob Barcus, who had automotive problems this morning, reported that Jason Ciastko and Tami were manning a booth at the Mishawaka train show for the museum.  

I mentioned earlier that some ballast was put down behind the Shop, and the sixth photo shows that results of that effort.  The photo was taken from Arlington Avenue looking back toward the Shop building.  I believe that the plan is that the ballast shown will eventually be the switching lead into the third track in the West Annex of the Shop.  Still needed is additional ballast and various track materials including a switch.  

Finally, John LaOrange mentioned at the membership meeting today that the old "train building" which was made from the bodies of  two old 36' long Cudahy Refrigerator Line wooden refrigerator cars, needs to be looked at, and sooner rather than later.  The last two photos show the current condition of the building.  John had repaired the roof a few years ago, but nothing has ever been done to the original wood sides and the results of this lack of maintenance is now readily observable.

Have a great week everyone!

Les  

HVRM 3/11/17 Short Report

Fellow HVRM Members

Day started out clear & cold, 18 degrees. Snow due in after midnite Sunday/Monday.

Up to possibly 4 inches.

Good amount of people at the board meeting at 8am. Joe Kingsbury reported that

the outside is being prepped for paint. Kevin Kennedy & Bjarne Henderson were

working on the side of the new lunch car an roof area, noted in the picture.  

Kevin is on the man lift.

John LaOrange made a report that the reefer shed is falling apart an will need

residing soon. Outside reefer doors will fall out if opened. The sliding doors need

to be put back on track, as they are off an bottom is on the ground, causing doors

to bow. Either metal sheeting or other outside material is needed to cover the

sides.

Loretta reported the guest engineer program is down to 12 for the upcoming

season. Easter trains are fast approaching also, tickets are on sale. Mothers day

trains are on sale also.

Next Saturday at 1pm is a general membership meeting in the depot. Please attend

for update on rail road rides this summer.

Alan Jones & wife, from the Heart of Dixie museum showed for a tour of the

museum & facilities. Les Beckman & Bob Barcus conducted the tour Bill Houston

who is a very active member at HOD, is suffering from a brain tumor, an is unable to

write HOD's news letter. Get well soon Bill.

Cory B, John L, Doug & Loretta K, Bob A, Bob B, Bob J, David & Margret, David K, Bjarne H,

Joe K, Les B, Tom T, Tom R, an couple of others I missed rounded out the members present.

Margret made lunch for the crew, but 3/25, no lunch will be served in the kitchen car,

cept if pizza or chicken from Wooden Nickle is bought by someone.

Not much else going on. Have a safe week.

Tom Travis

Short museum report on a cold March 4, 2017

Greetings!

Cold sunny day with a brisk wind at Hoosier Valley today!  Temps were upper 30's to low 40's, but the wind made it seem much colder.

Had an informal meeting of about 15 members in the depot today to discuss the situation at the museum and talk about remedies.  A good session! 

Tom Rainford and I, went up to Dolton Tower this past Thursday and picked up a few items from the Indiana Harbor Belt for use up in Grasselli Tower.  The most important thing was the IHB donation of five timers!  The first two photos show one of those timers.  Eventually they will all be installed in Grasselli.   Incidentally, the yellow metal circles shown in the second photo were used by the railroad when certain of the 172 levers at Dolton were taken out of service.  Now all of these levers are "out of service" as Dolton will soon be no more.   We also picked up a large Chicago Operating Railroad Association (C.O.R.A.) map of the Chicago Terminal District (photo 3).  Tom did the work of unscrewing the map from the tower wall, while I held it in place.  I had the easier job!   There is also the possibility that the IHB may donate a switch to the museum in the near future.  We will have to go up and take it apart and bring it down to the museum.  Keep your fingers crossed on this one!  

Other work going on at the museum today included further work on the 2789's running gear by John DeGan.  John had to clean up the rods he had worked on two weeks ago, due to some light rust again showing up.  But John then waxed the rods to keep them clean for the future.

John LaOrange continued working on GE diesel number 11.

Cory Bennett, Bjarne Henderson and Joe Kingsbury got the green lift in place and looked over the roof of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  The roof will eventually be coated to keep it from leaking once it is moved back outside.  The air conditioner and two overhead fans have now been put in place in the interior of A-1054, as can be seen in the fourth photo.

Margrett Cook had chicken and mashed potatoes for lunch along with other goodies!

Bob Albert was working on IC display caboose # 9914.

Loretta Kosloske was working on the Easter Bunny train which will be our first train of the season in April.

Enjoy the upcoming week everyone!

Les