HVRM on Flag Day (Mintfest) 6-14-2014

Greetings to all on Flag Day.  Mint  Fest weekend in North Judson also.
The vendors are out on the main street in NJ and the plaza is full of food
vendors also. Music was going on in the afternoon Saturday along with
a beer tent. Lots of events both Saturday and Sunday around town.
 
Friday was a trip up to Chicago on the South Shore for an afternoon of listening
to the Blues bands at Grant park. Stayed for about 5 hours and took a rush hour
South Shore train back to Michigan City. A wonderful day in Chicago, exceptionally
clear blue skies, with out any smog in the air at all. As the train came on to the
Metra tracks at Kensington, the skyline was so beautiful. Just one of those days
you only get once in a great while. If I would of had more time, a trip up to the
Hancock building or Sears building would of gave great views of the Chicago
area. When I was a kid, the tallest building in Chicago was the Prudential building
on Randolph and Michigan, giving a spectacular view of the IC yards below and the
IC station to the south. Now it is all covered over and gone, progress marches on.
 
Early morning Saturday at HVRM, no board meeting was held due to Mint Fest
and board members absent. Will be next Saturday morning. Not a large crew at
the museum either. Lots going on the Fathers day weekend also. The train crew
was busy getting the train put together for the 10am departure. I helped Mark with
replacing a couple of security light that were not working. Getting the manlift
started took some time, has not moved in some time. A tire on the front was flat,
but had been replaced with another tire during the week sometime. One light
was easy, only putting a new bulb in, the other some problems. The wind had
ripped off the metal sheild and broke the bulb. When the socket came out, the
sheild fell off. Mark had to go hunt up another bulb and I got some washers to
secure the shield better. Fred assisted screwing in the screws and shield while
I held it for him. Mark found a hidden bulb and it was replaced. I returned the manlift
to the shop, backing it in. David had put the payloader in first, manlift last. Mark filled
the John Deere tractor with diesel fuel and put it away also. Les painted the
steel plates for the flat car and left them to dry. The little crossing guard shack's
door would not close on the bottom, after investigating it, the floor had come up,
rubbing on a couple of bolts. Les got some finishing nails and put them in
and got the floor lowered some and the door closed perfectly. Not many projects
were ongoing during the day, so it was sort of slow. Bob took some old paint and
tires to Knox for recycling. John worked in the tool car in between train runs, as
he was the engineer of GE 11 for the day. Les helped me move the tool car
doors away from the tool car, if I would want to start priming someday. Those
sliding doors were heavy, more than I could move by myself the week before.
Fred was in the tower applying a wood filler in the window sills. After sanding
them down, Fred put a coat of primer on them. Instead of replacing the wood sills,
Fred is trying this method. I received a notice from Matt during the week he has
received a blue print of what each lever in the tower was painted when in service.
So someday the levers will all be painted their correct color. Bob and Loretta manned
the gift shop today.
 
Sunday started off early for me, I was at Crown Point to ride with Les and Betty to
Illinois Railway museum to ride behind Frisco 1630. After breakfast with Les's
son's family in Thornton IL, for fathers day, we were off thru Chicago to Union.
Arriving about 11am, a notice on the admisssion booth no steam today due to
water issues. DARN....But  since not being at IRM for almost 10 years, a quite of
few changes have been made since. New buildings for railway equipment have
gone up on the newly purchased land in the last couple of years. A new freight
yard is being put in the south side of the museum. Most of the freight equipment
is now out in the field. A walk thru most of the barns was interesting. The steam
building had a number of engines in being worked on. The Frisco engine was
out side with a groupl working in the cab on pipes. As leaving, smoke was coming
out the stack, so a fire was built in the firebox to see if the water problems had
been fixed, too late to wait around to see if it would run or not. A interesting observation
on the drivers of the locomotive was that to correct the problem having been built
for Russia, 5 foot guage, much wider wheels were installed to make up for the
4 foot 81/2 inch guage. All the wheels were at least 6 inches or more across,
wider than the normal driver wheels. No slider wheels were in the middle
either, so the wider wheels must make up for curves in the railway. An interesting
fix for this problem of the engines not going to Russia. A nice ride on Chicago
North Shore cars to end of the line was made right in the railfan seat behind the
operator. IRM has a nicely maintained ROW and has been replacing wood poles
for the canterary line. Signals work nicely along the line. Many different styles
of signals are used on the line. A real nice dining restaurant has been built
in the last ten years for drinks an meals. IRM is expanding with a main street
of old buildings and maybe an old time villiage in years to come.
 
After dropping Betty in Rockford IL, we headed home down I-39 to Rochelle
IL for a stop at the trainspotter viewing platform. Within 15 minutes 5 trains had
passed the platform. Quite a crowd was present on the platform, having picnics
and just enjoying the day. Next stop was Mendota IL, the CB&Q 2-8-2 4678 with
a Burlington caboose along side the BNSF tracks down town. A nice museum
located in the Amtrak building. A total of 6 Amtrak trains stop daily in Mendota,
quite a lot for such a small town. A nice place to spend some time watching
trains.
 
It was about 11pm when I got home from the round trip Sunday. So a big weekend
of railfanning for me. Many thanks to Les again for doing the driving to all those
wonderful places.
 
Everyone have a good week, hot weather and some rain forecast for the days
ahead. Corn and beans in Illinois growing good also.
 
Tom Travis 

 

 

Bridge plates

Gents -

 

Earlier this spring, Richard Vetter of R&IS delivered two custom reproduced bridge plates to HVRM.  Over a number of Saturdays, I have been priming and painting both sides of those two plates.  There has been some question as to what exactly, the bridge plates are for.  I have included a photo of the two plates (one in primer and the other in its finished coat of paint) as they sit back in the West Annex of our shop building.  I was at IRM in Union, Illinois this past Sunday, and took a photo of a TTX piggyback flatcar which shows a bridge plate in place.  Although that car is a 75' long car, while ours is a 50' car, the principle is the same.  Now that the two plates are painted, they will have to be mounted up on TTX 475037 one of these days.

 

On the other side of the plate at IRM, a non skid material was applied to the steel

to prevent trucks wheels from slipping if it was raining or snowing. Remember back

in the early years, semi trucks would have to back onto the flat car to pull out every

trailer, same way to load. push the trailer on to the car. Later on cranes would

do the work. Plenty of humps on the trailer car would make it hard to position

a trailer in the correct position. The drivers must of been pretty good at this

job and got use to the bumps.

 

When installed, these plates will have to be lifted by a payloader, as they are

quite heavy.  After installation, the plates will be in the upright position and be

locked in with a sliding bar into a round tube.

 

Hope that explains things.

 

Les

 

Saturday 7 June 2014

Greetings to all,
 
Saturday was a nice day at HVRM, but not much in the way of activity.
Actually 8 June is my Birthday and will be 65, WOW hard to imagine I have
made it that far. Many miles have passed over the last 20 some years
driving bus, and before that many places all over the world in the US Navy.
So what is the future, well just keep going and do what I want to. I heard
today that the oldest man in the United States died in NYC, 116 years old,
not that I will make it that far, but would be interesting. I now have the
power to buy train tickets on NICTD and METRA at half price, guess I will
be making a lot of trips to Chicago.
 
Upon arrival at the HVRN shops a crew was working on some picnic benches.
Cory, John, Dave, were beefing up 2 picnic benches that had some problems.
A complete rebuild of the frame with heavy duty screws made them just like new.
That little project took till about lunch.
 
Steve Hendrics was painting panels from Grasselli tower in the shop area. Noted
that paint on the outside of the tower is bubbling up  and not sticking, Has been
repainted a couple of times and same problem. Norwayne will be sending a
paint representative to look at the tower problem and maybe offer a solution. I
can't remember if the tower was stripped of the old paint or not, but the wood will
not accept this new paint on the market, no lead in it anymore.
 
The GE was the prime mover for the tourist train on all 3 trains. The Alco 310
was checked out last week and nothing was wrong with it. But was not used.
The Chicago group showed up early and had plenty of time to tour the museum
and shop area. Then the trip to La Crosse went off with out any problems. The
20th Century Railroad group departed soon after returning to the depot and
headed down to Monon for the Monon Connection and tour of Dale Wards
museum.
 
Matt showed up and worked on the semaphore signal near the Erie building.
As noted last week or so, it was not working correctly, but Matt thinks its the
rail joint insulators. Also noted a light bulb was out up on the top, so Matt went
up and halfway up the ladder started to sway, so he came back down and installed
a extension on the ladder buried in 2 feet of dirt, now it is fine to climb up and down.
Matt replaced the bulb in record time. Signal boxes need a good needlegunned
job and primed and repainted, getting a little rusty. The manlift will have to be
brought out to finish up the pole, but it has a flat tire at the present time, pumping
it up may be a solution with a slow leak, if not it will have to be taken off and repaired.
 
John has been working on the burnt out tool car, taking out more steel and taking
the 2 doors off the tracks inside. Tried to move the doors, but were too heavy. If
the manlift was in service, it would be a good time to give the outside a coat of
primer paint. In fact a lot of equipment needs touch up painting where it has
not stuck on the metal. Les's coach needs some touch up, where on the south
side it has bubbled up and flaked off again. Never ending job of keeping things
looking good.
 
Mark was out on the CKIN main between North Judson and English Lake remarking
ties with green paint. The newsletter put out by Joe, says that most likely the
tie replacing project will not start till spring 2015. Mark also did some more pole
marking over on the wye properity. Also noted the abandoned house north
of Bings will soon be HVRM's and after all the paper work is complete we will
be able to take it down. A few things need to be done first, gas line will need
to be closed off at the pipe near the road and the electric line taken down
by NIPSCO. Not much is left inside, as when the last person to live in it, took
everything, toilets, tub, sink, cabinets etc. So not much will need to be done.
 
Cory brought out the pressure water washer to clean off some grease and dirt
off the tie tamper in the afternoon. Some minor issue were also taken care of.
Next weekend is Mint Festval weekend, train rides will be give both Saturday and
Sunday, so if anyone has time to help out, come on down. Volunteers are
needed everywhere at the museum.
 
I will be gone for a week to Norfolk VA for a week on the beach, so will
not be down on the 28th. Matt told me that he had taken a trip to Spencer NC
for the Streamliner weekend. Outstanding displays and record crowds visited
the museum. He said Clifton Forge VA, the C&O Historical group has a nice
museum to visit. Still in the planning stages is a possible visit to Roanoke VA, VMT.
 
Everyone have a good week, weather looks good around here. Come on out an
enjoy Fathers Day at HVRM.....
 
Tom Travis 

HOT HOT HOT at HVRM 5/31/14

Greetings!

Despite temps edging into the 90's today, we had another good day at Hoosier Valley.

I arrived a bit after 9:00 a.m. and found the train crew already hard at work.  Turns out

Alco #310 had a fuel supply problem so after some attempts were made for a fix, it was

finally decided to use GE #11 for the day.  Since EJ&E #184 had to be switched in to

the consist, and because the crew was running a bit behind, there was no time left to

pull C&O 2-8-4 #2789 out of the Shop building for outside inspection and photographs.

Engineer was John DeGan with John Kimsey as conductor.  Others in the crew included

Doug Kosloske, Joe Kingsbury, Bill Dauber, Randall Downs and possibly others.

I noticed Fred Boyer working up in Grasselli Tower, so I went up to see what he was

doing and found him cleaning the end sills on the two windows on the east side of the

tower over the stairs.  After cleaning, he was going  to apply a number of coats of a

product that will bond to the porous wood, fill in the cracks and end up with new solid

wood.  I took a couple of photos of Fred doing his thing!  Also, there is a photo of the

new brackets built by Steve Newland so that the steam radiators can be reinstalled in

the tower. 

When I was in the depot, I noticed only one of the New York Central Historical Society

2014 calendars was still on the counter and I asked Bob Barcus if we had sold all of

the others and he stated that yes, we had.  A very nice calendar!  

My main project for the day was to get the two bridge plates for TTX 475037 painted

and I'll try to include a photo of the two plates; one after painting and one still in primer.

I did also get the second one painted so the next time I'm at the museum I'll turn them

both over and finish the painting on the other side.

Lots of visitors came down and wandered around the shop today and after a futile search

for a "Wet Paint" sign, I finally made my own!

When I was looking for the paint for the bridge plates, I went down to the east end of the

museum property to ask Mark Knebel if we had any cans of it still around.  While there,

I got a quick photo of the "gandy dancers" in the process of installing a number of new

ties on the museums main line.  In the photo are Mark, Dave Cook, John LaOrange and,

in the cab of the backhoe, Cory Bennett.  Hard work on a hot day!  In the afternoon, the

crew took the tamper down and tamped around the installed ties.

Bjarne Henderson was repairing some peeling paint on the south side of the windows on

the Troop Sleeper and I've included a photo of Bjarne as Fred came by to check on his

progress.

Also, Bob Albert was cleaning out items from the inside of the orange (no longer yellow)

display caboose; IC # 9914.

Rich Warner did some welding on the John Deere tractor.  Rich has just recently returned

from Cheyenne, Wyoming where he got a tour of the Union Pacific and its efforts to restore

Big Boy 4-8-8-4 # 4014.

I did some miscellaneous fix-up items in the Shop and one thing I found was the key to the

locks on the IC double deck commuter cars.  I had wanted to put correct train numbers in

the number boards on IC #1529 ever since I had put train number 754 in the boards on IC

#1502, but couldn't gain access to the cab end of the 1529 because the sliding double doors

are quite unoperable!   Finding the key, allowed me to get a ladder out and unlock the end

door from the outside.  I managed to twist the dials and get number 757 put in the one number

board, but when I unlocked the cab, I found out that the middle number on that side of the

car won't turn and is stuck on zero (0).  I now have to find an IC (Metra) commuter train

number that has a zero as the middle number!  Got to find a timetable I guess!

Harold Lambirth and his family stopped by the museum in the afternoon.  Harold looks great

and tells me that he rapidly approaching his 90th birthday!

The heat drained me so I left for home a little after 3:00 p.m.  Have a great week folks!

Les  

 

Beauty is where you find it at the museum - May 22, 2014

Greetings to All,
 
Saturday 24th is the start of a wonderful weekend of many things, cookouts,
family get togethers, travel, but most of all it is Memorial Day Weekend. Parades
honoring our military fallen servicemen who have died. Graveyards are a sea
of red, white and blue US flags waving in the breeze. I stopped last night on the way
home from HVRM to visit the Union Mills cemetary where an old friend is now
buried and a WWII veterean, Alvin J Bishop, a Baltimore & Ohio railroader that
worked as an operator in the Wellsboro depot for years, using the handkey to
pass reports to other operators up an down the lines of the B&O and GTW.
Bish was a telegrapher operator in WWII for communications. I just can't believe he
has been gone since 1997, time passes so quickly now days. Take time to
enjoy life while we have it. God Bless all our servicemen serving the United States.
 
Many thanks to Les Beckman for the picture of the glads in the flower bed across
from the depot and newly repainted IC caboose an Troop sleeper. Thanks to who
ever cleaned up the flower bed of weeds, looks nice.
 
Driving in on IN 10 yesterday, the tie crew had started work at the IN 10 RR crossing.
So I stopped an joined in for a full day of doing mostly everything physically demanding
work, plain old grunt work.  Cory had just turned the air compressor around facing
west an planned on started putting spike in ties. The compressor refused to turn
over. Tinkering with everything electrical did no good. So manual spiking began.
A long day. All the remaining ties were inserted into the roadbed, spiked, and later
in the afternoon Cory brought down the tie tamper machine and tamped an leveled
the last of new ties. The air compressor's new starter went bad and taken back
to Napa to get another starter ordered, delievery around Wednesday. Crew was
Cory, John, Mark, Steve Hendrics and myself. Very sore this morning, but feel better
now.
 
Bob Albert and Steve Newland cut up scrap metal into smaller sizes. Last week
scrapping out two old newspaper machines, Steve found a total of almost 51 dollars
in change in the money box. Guess it was overlooked when taken out of service.
HVRM's gain.
 
Les cleaned up the plates for the TTX car and primed them to keep them from rusting.
 
EJ&E 184 brakes were dragging on the first run of the day, so it was set out
on the caboose tracks for evaluation. Cory let the brake link one spot and they
did not drag. The air cylinder extended an retracted correctly. Nothing was noted
really wrong.  Will be put back into train service next week.
 
Loretta said that the North Judson-San Pierre 3rd grade school kids had at
train ride on Friday and had a wonderful time. Looks like a yearly thing now.
 
Wooden Nickel pizza's were the main staple for lunch. Loretta provided just
picked lettuce from her garden that came up from last year. Was very popular
dish with everyone.
 
Bruce Emmons worked the gift shop yesterday. Looks goods and is progressing
nicely after his stomach surgery. Showed some pictures of his new house
in the Phillipines, windows were being installed.
 
Joe Baker was around doing odd jobs around the museum.
 
Earlier in the week at La Crosse a semi caught the top of the rail at the crossing
north of La Crosse on US 421, destroying a big section of rail. Les reported
on his way home Saturday it looked like temporary repairs have been made.
Hopefully the crossing will be replaced soon, as it is extremely rough to cross.
Any speed results in lots of bumps.
 
Everyone have a nice weekend, drive safely out there this weekend.
Hope to see you next work session at HVRM.
 
Tom Travis

 

Caboose Identification - A long Shot

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34607&sid=375ca6e1a3ddf04adc5c95c95ac359e5
 
This is the lead into the IC Caboose from start to finish
 
Tom

Paint/no paint at HVRM on May 10, 2014

 

Greetings!

The complete story on the numbering an painting for the Illinois Central caboose

is on RYPN, intechange, Caboose Identification - A long shot.

 

Give good details on its progress and completion.

 

Arrived at the museum about 8:00 a.m. just after the Board of Director meeting had started.  I mentioned

that Richard Vetter of RISX had delivered two new bridge plates for TTX 475037, but otherwise I remained

quiet.  Doug Kosloske mentioned that both GE #11 and Alco #310 were available for passenger runs.

EL 310 was the motive power for the days train operations.

Tom Travis advised me earlier in the week of the big news that IC display caboose #9914 was moved

out of the Shop and over to the display track across from the depot.  The floor of the car still has to be

sanded down and treated and the interior displays still have to then be placed into the car, but this was

certainly a move in the right direction.  The car certainly looks great (see photo) and the museum members

who worked on it, should feel very proud of their efforts.

My plan for the day was to get the bridge plates for the TTX flatcar cleaned with lacquer thinner and

then painted.  I wasn't sure if I could get the top bridge plate off of the bottom one due to the weight, but

after I scrounged around the Shop and managed to find a couple of additional pallets, I was able to just

slide the top bridge plate over to the other pallets.  They cleaned up and I found some primer and painted

both of them.  My plan was to come back in the afternoon and try to get the two plates turned over if possible

and then clean and put primer on the other sides.  Never got to that point as the primer didn't completely

dry, probably due to the humidity.  The temp was in the mid-70's all day with sun most of the time.  Anyway,

that part of my plan will have to wait until the next day at the museum.

My other planned project for the day was to get a finish coat of light green paint on the lid of the coal bin

located next to the watchman's crossing shanty, and also on some spots of peeling paint on the shanty

itself.  Unfortunately, when I opened the can of paint, I found it looked like cottage cheese.  Apparently it

had froze over our tough winter.  One more plan scratched until Steve Newland can get a new can of the

paint from Sherwin-Williams.

Speaking of Steve, he had the brackets made for the re-installation of the cast iron radiators in Grasselli

Tower and was giving them a coating of primer.   

Other jobs going on at Hoosier Valley today included some work on the far end, although I never made

it down there to see exactly what was going on.  I know that Cory Bennett had the Backhoe pulled out and

was using it down there in the morning and that after lunch, they fired up the U.P. tamper in the afternoon

and it appeared to be over near the State Route 39 crossing.  Odds are that some kind of trackwork was

being done.

Passenger train had John LaOrange as engineer with Bob Albert, John Kimsey and Steve Henrichs as the

crew.  Randall Downs and Bill Dauber were the car hosts in the Katy open car and the LIRR coach.  The last

run of the day was to La Crosse, which normally has the diesel locomotive on the front end out of North Judson

and then turned on the wye at La Crosse to get to the other end of the train so that it is again on the front end

for the return trip.  Strange to see the Alco S-1 pushing the train from the museum, which is what is normally

only done for the shorter runs to English Lake.  Turns out that the C&I had some type of a problem with the wye

and therefore it was not available to the HVRM train crew to use.  Thus the push all the way to La Crosse!

In the afternoon, with my planned painting projects not available, I found a long piece of 3/4" outside diameter

pipe to see if it would go through the holes on the deck of TTX 475037 where the bridge plates will eventually

by installed.  Quickly found out that it wouldn't due to some rough material on the inside of these holes.  Did

some work on them, and finally got all four of these cleaned out enough on both ends so that I managed to

work the pipe through.  I've included a photo of these holes on one end of the flat car to exhibit what I am

talking about.

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 #765 was running on Norfolk Southern's old NKP line through Knox on Saturday

and a few HVRM museum members "snuck out" to go over to see it.  We also had a few visitors who stopped

by after they had photographed the Employees Special as it went through northern Indiana.  Memories of

the Berks visits to HVRM in 2009 and 2011!

Probably missed a few things going on today.  Sorry about that!  Hope everyone has a great week.

Les