Weather respite at HVRM 2/21/15

Greetings one and all!

After frigid weather (below zero at times) this week and more in the forecast for the upcoming week, old Mother Nature gave us a break today at Hoosier Valley with temps approaching 40 degrees!  Thank you...thank you....thank you!  There was no museum report from last week as, right after the Board meeting, everyone hit the road.  There were white out conditions on the way home, and a number of accidents, but fortunately none involving HVRM folks.   

Arrived at the museum today a bit after 9:00 a.m. and talked to Doug and Loretta Kosloske in the depot.  Then over to the Shop, where things were humming!   Fred Boyer was on the green manlift, grinding rust off of the car sides of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  John DeGan was "relaxing" by laying on the cold concrete floor, where he was wire brushing and using the grinding wheel on one of the cars trucks (see photo #1 below).  Fred eventually determined that some steel patches needed to be welded to cover holes in the car side of A-1054.  Fred found a suitable piece of steel so enlisted Bob Albert to start cutting (second photo below).   John was called to do the welding job and I took over cleaning the cars truck.  Unfortunately, John found a bad part on the welder and had to run out to the local farm store in Knox for a replacement only to find out after returning that something blew in the welder, and repairs need to be made.  Next week!

We seem to always have visitors to the museum, even in the winter.  Shown below is a photo of Bob Jachim finishing up a talk on C&O 2-8-4 # 2789 and HVRM with a mother and her interested son.  Always glad to take the time to do these and Bob especially, is an expert.

Lunch at the museum is often mentioned in these reports, but I thought that today I'd include a couple of photos of our lunch car before the guys came in to eat.  NKP # X58538 started out as a box car and was converted by the Nickel Plate into a camp car.  As you can see, it's a bit crowded, which is the reason why we are restoring our C&EI tool car, which will be used for table space after it is finished.  Members are encouraged to spend a Saturday or two with us, and help us in our efforts.  Margrett Cook provided todays lunch.

After lunch, Steve Newland cut out one of the window inserts that the C&EI put on the A-1054 when it was in work train service.  We needed to cut out these old inserts as we prepare to put in new moveable windows.  Unfortunately, the photo of Steve's work didn't turn out.  Will try to get one next time.

Joe Kingsbury and Rich Warner continued their efforts in restoring the cut up wiring in our ND&W Porter diesel # 5332.  Hard to get a photo in the tight confines of the Porter's cab, but here is one of Rich doing his thing.  There was some hope that today, the wiring for the reverser on the unit had been figured out, and it was decided to test it.  John LaOrange brought up the 55 gallon drum of fuel and pumped some into the 5332's fuel tank, but although the diesel power plants then fired up, the unit just wouldn't move. Back to the drawing board!

John and Mark Knebel then opened the back door of the West Annex of the Shop and replenished the inside pile for the wood stove.

Also at the museum today were Dave Cook, Randall Downs, and others I probably missed.

Have a great week everyone.  And....STAY WARM!

Les  

Welding & Grinding Tool Car/ERIE 310 2-7-15

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Greetings,

 

After a snowy week in Northwest IN, it was a delightful day at North Judson, temps were in the lower

40's with a bright sunny sky. Snow was rapidly melting off the shops roofs an large chunks of snow

falling below. A record snow level of 15 inches plus fell Super Bowl Sunday. Cory had the back hoe

out pushing snow for a place to park an drive.

 

I arrived about 10am an went into the depot. Bob Barcus and Loretta were both working. Spent a

few minutes talking to Bob about his week. Had been a hard week on everyone.

 

Driving down to the shop, snow was melting fast in the bright sunshine. Entering the shop a couple

of projects were in progress. Doug an John DeGan had taken off a bent bar on the ERIE 310

and applied the torch to it to heat it up and bend it back in a straight. After twisting an turning the

steel rod, it was finally straight on the uncoupling rod to pull the pin. Just a cosmetic thing, but

made the steel look better.

 

Joe and Richard were at it again in the ND&W 5332 tracing wiring an replacing worn wire. The highlight

of the day was when the diesel engines were started in an attempt to trace an electrical problem.

The engines sounded great. Don't know if that helped or not. The shop door was opened to let

out exhaust. The wood stove had the shop at a nice temperature, an was actually getting a little

too hot.

 

Fred Boyer was busy grinding on the outside of the tool car. Dave Cook an Grandson were up on

the manlift working on grinding down the edges of the old ventilation openings and welding blanks

over the open holes. So this completes work on the vents, Doug has come up with an idea

for replacing the window openings with a wood frame glass window that will open in the summer.

Doug will make up a model to show how the wood frame an window will work. When its decided

to torch out a section of the windows, the size will be known or decided on. The frame will be built

when the inside is framed out with wood.  A number of people worked on grinding today, Steve Newland,

Les Beckman. Many thanks for working on the tool car.

 

Back to the ERIE 310, once the steel rod was fixed, it was decided that the drooping coupler had

to be fixed somehow. It ended up taking the big steel plate on the end of the diesel body off, to get

at the bolts holding the coupler in position. After using the torch to loosen up a couple of nuts,

the bottom plate was finally free an fell to the ground, and after that the coupler pin fell out an

the shaft itself easily was pushed out on the ground with a thud. John Degan did his torching work

of removing the old plate installed years ago. The old plate was used as a pattern for a new 3/8 inch

plate. In the meantime, Cory an John LaOrange took the bottom plate down to the hydraulic press to

bend the steel flat and after putting some heat to it, the steel plate finally was flat again. Over the years,

hard couplings wore the old plate down and bent the bottom plate, resulting in the drawbar to sag some.

After John DeGan welded in the new plate, Doug, Cory & John lifted the heavy coupler back into the

pocket. That was it for the day, time was 3:30pm. Tools were picked up, power to the welder was

turned off, light turned off. The only thing left is to reassemble the drawbar and put the steel plate

back on the front of the engine.

 

Next Saturday is Board meeting at 8am in the depot. Days are getting a little longer, lighter earlier

in the morning, soon to spring ahead next month to CDST. Spring is on the way, soon to turn to

outside activities, track work is top on the list, with new ties arriving next month for the replacement

program. New train times are being implement this year, along with guest engineer programs.

Come on out an volunteer soon.

 

Regards

 

Tom Travis

Jumping into February 2015 at HVRM! 1-31-2015

Greetings!

With a major snowstorm due into the area as we move into February, the weather was still nice at Hoosier Valley today.  And there

were a number of  things going on.

Tom Travis arrived at the museum today to find John LaOrange in the process of doing the COT&S on Erie Lackawanna Alco # 310.

Naturally Tom offered to give John a hand with all four of the brake valves.  The first 2 photos attached to this report, show some of

the work that went on in this effort.  This was a job that pretty much took all day.

I arrived shortly after Tom and went up to check on Steve Henrichs to see what he was doing in Grasselli Tower.  Soon ended up

going over to Hoppe's Hardware in town to get a piece of 1" pipe, that was 6" long.  It took a while to get that piece into its proper place.

Then Steve needed to turn the main pipe slightly and didn't have a pipe wrench big enough to do it, so walked over to the Shop building

where I found the one that Steve is using in the third photo.  This part of the effort is now finished.  Two more sections to go!

Bob Albert was working on repairs to one of our portable steel steps and the fourth photo shows him cutting a section of steel to make

a new angle piece for the repair work.

Dave Cooks grandson is shown in the last photo doing some grinding on C&EI tool car # A-1054 preparatory to welding a plate onto

the old ventilation windows.  In the meantime, Fred Boyer was cleaning rust side sections of the car.  I did some grinding on one of the

previously welded ventilation windows that Cory Bennett had done.

Joe Kingsbury continued his efforts in tracing the mangled wiring in ND&W Porter diesel #5332.

Doug Kosloske manned the gift shop in the depot today in the absence of Bob Barcus.  Loretta arrived after lunch, and took that job over.

Others at the museum today included Bob Jachim (who as usual, made the morning pot of coffee), Mark Knebel, Joe Baker, Dave Cook.

Margrett Cook provided lunch in the NKP kitchen car.

As usual, we had some visitors come by.  We are always open on Saturdays (except major holidays) and always enjoy having visitors

stop in and see us.

Have a good week and keep the snow shovels handy!  Winter is quite done with us yet!

Les

Lots of Inside Projects at HVRM 1-24-2015

Greetings,
 
Arrived late yesterday morning, as I slept in some. Getting up at 4:30am daily gets
to be old real fast. Busy days driving school bus during the week, an even afterschool.
 
As I drove up, noticed Mark Kniebel doing some track inspection on the C&I. Not much
activity outside, but plenty going on inside the shop building. Cory & Dave working on
the tool car removing rusted vents along the top side of the car. Using a torch to heat
up the rivets, then knock them off, grinding the metal on the car, putting steel over the
openings, welding them on, an Fred grinding the corners smooth. Intense work standing
on ladders, so the electric man-lift was brought around from the other side of the car.
The lift was used to inspect the roof, finding the corners of the roof rusted out. Joe will make
a replacement metal piece an weld them back on. Nice standing on a flat surface for a
change, makes getting to the roof easy.
 
Joe an Richard were working on the re-wiring project of the ND&W 5332. Lots of wires replaced,
but some are still a mystery.
 
 John an Sparky were working on the belt project inside the ERIE 310. Slow tedious work,
kneeling down, cold building, an hard to get bolts back into correct holes. Alignment still needs
to be done, so the belts are square. The new belts are nice looking an should last a long time.
 
Steve Hendrich was working in Grasselli tower, taking off some sort of metal switch behind
the big levers. Just slow tedious work getting at the bolts securing them. Has 7 or so boxes to
take off, knelling down, bent over, a very hard floor on the knees. Les Beckman assisted in
bolt removal. Temps inside the tower was in the 40's an lots of sun coming thru the windows.
Toilets walls have put up recently, but the door is still  off due to needed window work in the

corner. Lots of mud, but today is getting colder an snow is falling now.

 

Bob Barcus manned the gift shop for the entire day. No visitors today, but a constant stream

of workers coming inside to warm up.

 

Come on out to help inside the shop building, lots of tasks available, sweeping floors,

picking up debris, assisting workers. Learn a new task, welding, torching, metal work.

Grinding on the side of the car will get the rust off from the fire.

 

Have a good week everyone.

 

Tom Travis

Re: Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

Tom -

Thanks for the correction.  I meant to mention the work being done with the replacement belts on the

Erie 310, but just forgot to include it.  My bad!  Thanks also for mentioning Bob Albert and his work

with the scrap pile.

Les    

From: Thomas Travis <wa9ngo@hotmail.com>
To: Tom Mulvaney <kr4bd@aol.com>; Ross C Robinson <restorer@ncf.ca>; Les Beckman <midlandblb@sbcglobal.net>
Cc: HVRM BLOG <wa9ngo.trains@blogger.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2015 10:51 AM
Subject: Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

John LaOrange an Doug K worked on the ERIE 310 putting on new belts either the air
compressor unit or the generator. Don't know if they got all the new belts on or not,
 4 or 5 needed replacing.  
 
Bob Albert has been filling scrap metal dumpsters, first one is about ready to go, an
a couple more are needed for the rest of the scrap.
 
Tom
 
 

Howdy!

Annual Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum membership meeting today at the North Judson Library.  Despite the

event taking a big chunk out of the time during the middle of the day, things still got done at the museum.

Bright sunshine and temps up to 43 degrees, actually melted some of the snow cover.  Sure better than the

frigid temperatures we had earlier in the week.

An effort was made to burn some of the trees and brush that were removed last year during the cleaning of the

old Erie/New York Central wye right-of-way.  Lots of smoke!

Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner continued their efforts with tracing the wiring on Notre Dame & Western

Porter diesel # 5332. 

Fred Boyer put bondo on the patch that John DeGan welded onto the one end of C&EI tool car # A-1054 last

week.  Photo attached.  Fred also put the correct K4 classification onto C&O Kanawha # 2789.  The engine is

looking better, but still lots to do toward its cosmetic restoration.  As an example, a photo of the cab on the

2-8-4 is also included.

Steve Henrichs continued working on Grasselli Tower.

Annual meeting went well, including the election with all incumbents again re-elected.  The third photo shows

Louise Kingsbury and Judy Boyer checking the membership list and handing out ballots.

Hope everyone has a great week.  The days ARE getting longer, so hang in there!

Les

 

Bit of a January thaw at HVRM 1/17/15

John LaOrange an Doug K worked on the ERIE 310 putting on new belts either the air
compressor unit or the generator. Don't know if they got all the new belts on or not,
 4 or 5 needed replacing.  
 
Bob Albert has been filling scrap metal dumpsters, first one is about ready to go, an
a couple more are needed for the rest of the scrap.
 
Tom
 
 

Howdy!

Annual Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum membership meeting today at the North Judson Library.  Despite the

event taking a big chunk out of the time during the middle of the day, things still got done at the museum.

Bright sunshine and temps up to 43 degrees, actually melted some of the snow cover.  Sure better than the

frigid temperatures we had earlier in the week.

An effort was made to burn some of the trees and brush that were removed last year during the cleaning of the

old Erie/New York Central wye right-of-way.  Lots of smoke!

Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner continued their efforts with tracing the wiring on Notre Dame & Western

Porter diesel # 5332. 

Fred Boyer put bondo on the patch that John DeGan welded onto the one end of C&EI tool car # A-1054 last

week.  Photo attached.  Fred also put the correct K4 classification onto C&O Kanawha # 2789.  The engine is

looking better, but still lots to do toward its cosmetic restoration.  As an example, a photo of the cab on the

2-8-4 is also included.

Steve Henrichs continued working on Grasselli Tower.

Annual meeting went well, including the election with all incumbents again re-elected.  The third photo shows

Louise Kingsbury and Judy Boyer checking the membership list and handing out ballots.

Hope everyone has a great week.  The days ARE getting longer, so hang in there!

Les

 

Frigid start at HVRM on 1/10/15, but let's not that bit of Pain stop us!

 

Greetings!

These are the days that try men's souls!  Or at least their dedication!

Below zero this morning but I managed to roll out of bed, and head to the museum to try to

attend the Board meeting scheduled for 8:00 a.m.  On the days of these early meetings, I don't

bother with eating at home, but stop and pick up a breakfast sandwich and coffee in Hebron

at the Burger King there.  Surprise...the BK has been closed!  So...welcome to the New Year!

Arrived just after the meeting began.  Lots of procedural stuff, including discussion of the schedules

for the passenger train and guest engineer programs for 2015.

Wandered down to the Shop, where I found Cory Bennett welding on the interior of C&EI kitchen

car # A-1054.  John DeGan was working on a patch on one end of this car.  John stated he was

going to use some carriage bolts as "faux" rivets by removing the 4 edges on the head of the

bolts so that they would fit flush against the new piece he was going to weld in place.  I asked

him if he wanted me to grind off those edges and he said "sure!"  So, started in on that job.

Next to the A-1054, Joe Kingsbury and Rich Warner were trying to run down the wiring in the

ND&W Porter diesel.  Apparently, mice had done a job on the wiring and it is a horrendous puzzle

right now. Lots of tedious work.

Bob Albert was filling the newly arrived dumpster with items from our scrap pile.  The morning's

single digits and stiff breezes made this job not a lot of fun!  Steve Newland later helped with  Bob

with this effort.  

Lunch for todays "light" crew was pizza from the Wooden Nickel.  Great pizza! 

After lunch, Joe and Rich continued their work on the Porter while John cut the patch he was going

to weld into the C&EI car and then drilled holes for the rivets (photo attached).   After some effort,

we finally managed to get the carriage bolts through the holes in the patch and the corresponding

ones in the car body and I crawled under the car and tightened up the nuts.  Steve Newland cleaned

the end step and it was attached and then John welded on the patch (photo).

Although the temp climbed from the 3 below reading of the morning on up to the teens, it was still

cold.  Fortunately, the wood stove in the West Annex got the temp up to 60 degrees.  I've attached

a third photo of the thermometer that's in the original section of the shop and its reading at about

3 o'clock in the afternoon.  A bit of a difference, eh?

Cory and John LaOrange checked out the newly installed brakes on the Payloader.  They work!

Bob Barcus was in the gift shop while Doug and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot on passenger

train matters.

Others at the museum on this frigid day included Mark Knebel and Bob Jachim.

Well, we are now into the new year.  Come see us when you get the chance.  Members are always

invited to participate.  We'll do our best to keep you active!  Have a great week!

Les      

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