Dismal day, but progress, at HVRM 4/25/15

Greetings!

Good day to celebrate an Anniversary (mine) but a horrible weather day in North Judson!  Temps in the 40's with a steady rain all morning slacking off to a light rain in the afternoon.  Good day to sit around and "chew the fat", but work continued at HVRM despite the weather.

Big event of the day was the firing up of Erie S1 #310 to do some switching.  The crew of the Alco consisted of John LaOrange at the throttle with Bob Albert and Mark Knebel on the ground to handle the switching chores.  After firing up the old 1947 unit, it was backed up and coupled to the dead GE 95 tonner #11 and then the C&EI tool car #A-1054, both of which were pulled out of the Shop and John and Bob moved them across Mulberry Street next to the HVRM depot.  Joe Kingsbury had fired up ND&W Porter #5332 and after the 310 and consist was in the clear, Joe and Mark ran the unit out of the Shop and into the track on the north side of the building and into the clear.  John then pushed number 11 and the A-1054 back into the Shop, uncoupling the tool car at the far west end of the West Annex Shop track., then pulled the GE clear.  Joe and Bob then ran the Notre Dame unit east, cleared the switch and went back into the Shop (first two photos in the sequence below showing ND&W 5332 ready to back into the Shop and then entering the Shop door).

The crew later in the day did some additional switching, as can be seen in the photo below of the 310 shoving N&W hopper #40639 west toward the yard.

I managed to get a few things done at the museum in the rain, including planting some new plants in one of the flower beds.

Bob Barcus ran the gift shop today.

Finally, as you are aware, a contractor has been putting new ties in the line between English Lake and the museum.  The final photo shows some of the results of this effort near CR650W with the old ties (marked earlier in green by Mark) and a new tie.  Work goes on!

Despite the lousy weather today, it's supposed to slowly improve each day with temps near 70 by the end of the week.  Next Saturday kicks off our regularly scheduled passenger carrying trains.  Help of all kinds is needed, and APPRECIATED!  Please give it your consideration!

Have a great week!

Les

Month of April Almost Gone 4-18-2015

Greetings to Everyone,
 
April has come an almost gone so fast that I just have not been able to keep up with the report. Between
driving school bus all day long, feeling bad on spring break, trying to get a few things done on spring break
has just zapped me, but things are looking up now. A lot has been going on down at HVRM the past month.
 
First I want to report on the Easter trains April 4th. A full train of cabooses an passenger car, everything was
used on a great spring day. Over 671 paying passengers rode the train on 3 trips. It was a very busy day of
trying to accommodate all the families was trying at times. Many thanks to Loretta an Bob for the ticketing
end of trip. Making sure all tickets were ready and already punched, made it easy for attendants to get
the folks on the right cars. The Easter Rabbit did a fine job of handing out treats to the children. Lines
moved fast to get the folks loaded back on the train. Everyone who participated in helping out on the
trains is greatly appreciated for their service. All train operations went off good, the standby GE #11
was ready for any emergency. The Alco Erie 310 ran fine after a winters worth of repairs on countless
cold days in the shop. Many thanks to all shop people also. Future operations should be just as good.

Gift shop sales were very good for the day also.

 

Some other things happened over the month of April. A semi truck load of used ties was bought at

$25 a piece. The ties have been unloaded along the HVRM side of the staging area.

 

The tie replacement  program is progressing along. Many ties have been placed along the C&I right of way

all the way from north of the Kankakee bridge to IN 10 switch. Ties remain to be placed along the passing

siding in the future. The crew has been called away for an emergency job, but will be back as time permits.

The C&I line will be open on weekends for tourist train operations. Some equipment is on the passing siding

across from the depot at HVRM. During the last couple of Saturdays, the yellow UP motor car an trailer

have be put on the tracks to go out on the mainline an pick up used spikes for sorting later. This coming

Saturday will provide an opportunity to ride the motor car out on the mainline to retrieve spikes along the

row. Come on out an help out, but weather calls for rain.

 

Many thanks to Les Beckman for supplying the photos taken on 4-18-2015 around the museum. First picture is

Joe Baker replacing the troublesome yard light on the east end of the shop building with a brand new LED

light with 35,000 hours of service from it. Bing will clear a path along the south side of the shop buildings

to be able to get to the west shop door on the south side for replacement with an LED light. The old yard

lights are beginning to give out from years of use. Joe has made this a priority project, as it is not much fun

to be up at the top of man lift swaying in the breeze.

 

The next pictures are from replacing ties along the main line from the C&I switch to Grasselli tower. 19

ties were taken out, replaced with some remaining new ties an 4 ties from the new used ties. These ties

should last at least 30 years or more. Spiking the ties was also accomplished by the hard working tie crew.

Bob Jachim, Dave Cook, Cory Bennett, John LaOrange, Mark Kniebel an myself at least not falling down.

Bing Ringsley and Corky manned the skid loader bringing in new ties an taking away rotten ties. Bing

cleaned up the edge of the row picking up bits an pieces of broken ties. Cleaned up nicely. Cory and

Richard Warner worked on the UP tamper machine. Some sort of air leak in a rubber hose.

 

Bob Albert is putting on the hand throw for the derailer that he had fixed by a Amish welder. He did a really

nice job on fixing all the cracks. Bob reinstalled the hand throw during the day.

 

Les Beckman worked on replacing some wood on the coal bin at the watchmans shanty. Over the winter

the wood has rotted due to water damage.

 

Some visitors were touring the shops an exhibits during the day. By 3pm the shop was closed up an locked.

 

It was not a real busy day at HVRM. Come on out an help pick up spikes with the motorcar this coming

Saturday.

 

Tom Travis

 
 
 

---

Sunny spring day at Hoosier Valley 3/28/15

Greetings -

Temps stayed in 30's all day although the sun made it seem better.

Kind of a slow day at the museum as we prepare to run first trains for the season next Saturday with the special Easter Egg trains.

The three trains are all sold out although nice weather might permit us to sell seats in the open cars.  Time will tell!

Erie Alco # 310 was fired up to switch cars around and set up the train consist we will be using for the specials next Saturday.

The S1 will also be at the head end for the trains.

Cory Bennett ran the Payloader and with help from Dave Cook, loaded five of our old telephone poles onto a trailer.  The poles

were purchased by a private individual for use on his property.  The poles had been sitting in our storage yard for some time and

its good to move them, and make a few bucks for the museum. 

Members Bud Tribbie and Kevin Kennedy helped me dig out the main rods for the Porter steam engine and move them to a better

spot at the museum.

Bud told me about a GM&O signal head from Dwight, Illinois that might be available as a trade.

Joe Kingsbury worked on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332.  Joe says that the FRA regulations on the locomotives air tanks

are discouraging.  There are four of these tanks on the unit.

The company that is going to be doing tie work on the track between the museum and English Lake have been spreading the ties

out along the right-of-way.  Actual work won't begin until after the special trains are run next Saturday.

Had a number of visitors at the museum today.

Apparently there was an air problem with the Purdue crane and it was not used to unload NKP gondola # 45622 as had been planned.

Will have to do it another day.

Enjoy the coming week everyone.  Weather is supposed to become more spring like with temps moving into the 50's and 60's.

Les

   

Ties, Ballast, Spikes, All Ready For Tie Replacement Soon 3-21-15

Greetings to all,
 
Hope everyone is enjoying some spring type weather. Yes it will snow near Chicago tomorrow, but won't last
long with 60's coming Wednesday. Another busy week for driving school bus, up to close to 40 hours a week
for the past 3 months, but that will slack off soon an be able to get some projects done around the house.
A very welcome guest showed up Monday afternoon, Jeff & Cathy Jacobs from Bath Maine for an evening of
dinner an long time catch up news. They are on cross country trip in a Winnebago camper an visiting sights
of interest, from Florida to California. Jeff & Cathy wanted to tour Kentucky and the southern states before
returning to Maine in a couple of weeks. Jeff was able to glimpse the ballast cleaning Tuesday an movement
of equipment to the passing siding in preparation for rail equipment coming in for tie replacement soon.
 
Arriving late to North Judson on Saturday was viewing the ballast cleaning operation. This project has
gone on all week an estimates of 700 tons of ballast has been cleaned an piled up along the rail line. Some
slight setbacks early in the week, the payloader's waterpump broke a shaft an took 24 hours to replace,
Many helped all week, Cory Bennitt, John LaOrange, Joe Kingsbury, Dave Cook, Bing Ringsley, Corky,
Richard Warner, Bob Jachim,may of missed some, but a lot of ballast was cleaned for tie replacement
project an for future projects. Fines (dirt, small stones, etc) what the machine extracted an piled along
the C&I ROW, will be removed by Troike Farms for use in some projects. It makes good base for roads,
filling in potholes etc. Thanks very much to all for a intense work week. Ballast cleaning concluded
Saturday afternoon and next week the machine will be removed. Special thanks to Mark Kniebel
for the endless time an effort of walking the 6 miles marking ties an calculating exactly where ties
are needed.. Years of effort have gone into this project, along with the help of the City of North Judson,
countless delays, mountains of paperwork involved, Government issues, it has finally come to
this point. WELL DONE to everyone involved.
 
During the week, 4500 ties, including switch ties, were brought in by semi truck, unloaded an stacked
along the C&I passing siding for the tie crew. Shortly rail equipment will be brought in an unloaded on
the street crossing and stored next to the shop building. Four day weeks, 10 hours a day, for however
amount of time it will take to replace ties, ballast, spike, tamp, level will be allotted. Work will start
at the English Lake end an work towards end of line at North Judson. Rail equipment will be stored
each night at the shop under watchful security. The rail line on weekends will be open for museum
operations of tourist trains.
 
Most of the shop activity was Joe Kingsbury an Richard Warner working on the ND&W 5332 diesel
tracing wiring in the cab. Fred Boyer and someone else painted primer on the outside of the tool
car.
 
After lunch, the HVRM general membership meeting was held in the depot waiting area. A large crowd
was in attendance. Reports were given an updates given on all projects. Big discussion was about the
crowd expected at the Easter trains on April 4th. All trains are maxed out with riders. Open air cars,
cabooses. handicap car will be used the train. Weather will play a big part on riders on the open
air cars, filling up the cabooses. Trains will run in all type of weather,  no exceptions. A new policy
for future excursions in iffy weather periods will be in use for the Christmas trains for 2015.
Riders an workers are expected to dress accordingly for the weather. First come, first serve is
the policy. It will be a very very busy day for HVRM workers. Please come out an help if possible.
 
Remember safety is paramount around the museum equipment. Everyone needs to be extra vigilant
to riders on the train, loading an unloading at the depot an Easter egg location. Visit the HVRM
website for further information on ride times an events for the upcoming season. Guest engineers
and throttle time will be a big draw during the summer season.
 
Please be safe on the roads and watch those railroad crossings, always expect a train at any time.
Stop, look & listen if need be. Too many large accidents that were avoidable with a call on the
railroad crossing posts could of prevented some, along with loss of life, wrecks costing millions of
dollars to Amtrak and host railroads. Watch out for school busses also, in the last 2 weeks, two
wrecks with a head on near Hebron IN, killing 2 people in the pickup truck. One drunk driver at
3:30pm in the afternoon in La Porte IN ran a stop sign, hitting a rear dual tire, shaking up a lot
of kids being transported home from school. Put a school bus out of operation for a couple of
days. The driver was booked into LP County jail, charged with a number of offenses and WILL
spend time in jail plus a large fine eventually, plus court costs an a lawyer, be smart, don't
drive drunk.
 
Tom Travis La Porte IN

---

No pie day (3-14-15) at HVRM!

 

Greetings!

The Pie (Pi) day observance at Hoosier Valley today was marked by temps in the 50's, sunshine all day, and much activity!  We'll settle for that!

Managed to make it to the museum in time for the morning Board meeting.  The ladies from the Starke County Community Foundation gave the Board a report on the museums Endowment Fund.  Along with a nice check for the 2015 distribution.  Worth considering a donation to the Fund for sure.

One of the things reported on at the Board meeting by Joe Kingsbury was the fact the the ND&W Porter diesel, after Joe and Rich Warner had worked on the wiring, had been successfully moved slightly forward and backwards with the throttle.  Progress continues!  Joe also reported that both the headlights on ND&W #5332 are now operational (see first photo for the recent installation).

Also reported was that the new ties for track repair would be coming in this week.  A contractor is performing this work.  As part of the museum contribution. we will supply ballast and to make sure that we have a supply of good ballast, a machine has been rented that will sort out our rock pile to remove dirt, "fines", and give good rock to the contractors.  

It was noted during the meeting, that one of the boards for the walkway from the parking lot across the track to the depot, was missing.  This board was replaced during the day.  Not sure whether Bob Albert or Bob Jachim, did the work, but excellent work.

More info on Board activities will be found in the upcoming museum newsletter.  Lots of interesting things going on.  And also, a membership meeting coming up next Saturday.   

Steve Henrichs used his grinder to wire brush levers 1 through 6 in Grasselli Tower, removing 100 years of flaking paint (see second photo).  Hard to see in the photos, but the cleaned levers look really good.  Nice job Steve!  Also took measurements for leg supports for the old sink which he will re-install in the near future.  And there are a lot more levers to be taken care of!

John LaOrange fired up Alco # 310 and went down a pulled out the Purdue crane and gondola NKP # 45622 and moved them over to the rock pile near Main Street so that they will be ready when the fore mentioned rock sorter arrives this coming week.  The gon will be used for the storage of the "fines" until they can be moved to a suitable place on the property for fill.  Dave Cook worked on getting our Chevy dump truck back in operation after it had been sitting all winter.  The dump truck will be used to move the good ballast over to the location where the contractor is installing the new ties.

Fred Boyer was priming recently cleaned areas on C&EI work car # A-1054 (see third photo).

It was recently reported that Bob Albert was working on a set of metal steps.  Today, Bob took those steps down to the ICRR display caboose today and installed them in place to be ready when the displays are put into the car.  Check the 4th photo for the arrangement to make it easier for future visitors to access the caboose.

Finally, in reference to the installation of headlights into the Notre Dame Porter diesel, those headlights came from the Whitcomb 44 ton diesel, which is currently out of service.  I felt that this left the Whitcomb looking a bit "naked" so I found the old reflectors up on the storage shelves.  These reflectors had been sitting up there since the headlights had been changed on the Whitcomb a number of years ago to improve "lamp power".  After quite a bit of trial and error, I finally got them both installed back into the Whitcomb's hoods.  Photos show the "before" and "after" views.  I think there's an improvement.  Hopefully you might agree.

Loretta Kosloske and Bob Barcus ran the gift shop today.  Margrett Cook provided lunch, including liver and onions and/or tacos (mild or spicy).

Good to see the signals operating today as the Alco moved over the museum trackage.

Spring seems to finally be here, even if it's not quite "official" yet.  We had quite a few visitors show up today.  We can always use help at the museum.  Come out if you can!

Les

 

       

Minus 5 Degrees at HVRM Saturday February 28th 2015

 Greetings to all.
 
The north has been in a deep freeze for weeks now, getting tired of it all, especially around the
shop building. Too cold to work on much inside and snow is too deep to work outside. But in
the west shop restoration continues, slowly, but steady. Have had too many snow days with
2 hour delay, school closed, an early dismissals. I drove a bus load to St John IN three weeks ago
in a blowing blizzard, made it back to La Porte but almost three times the amount of time that
I normally make the drive. Just looking forward to spring in three weeks.
 
After catching up on errands early Saturday morning, I finally made it down to HVRM after 1 pm.
Stopped to talk to Bob Barcus in the depot for a while. Loretta was off doing a errand and returned
shortly after. Mark Kniebel was setting up the depot waiting area with tables an chairs for a planned
NARCOA meeting Sunday afternoon. This is their annual meeting for the season.
 
Made my way over to the shop area, walked into the west shop area, nice an warm with the wood
stove doing a great job of heating the inside. Need fans up on the ceiling to bring down all that warm
air that collects near the ceiling. A number of members working on clearing the east end of the
shop for possible pouring of concrete in the near future. Don't know how much was thrown away,
but with John LaOrange eyeing everything, I doubt much got tossed. Steve Newland told me that
on the north side of the building, items were frozen to the ground. Lots of big items need to be
removed yet, my small wood burning stove, a pallet of nails donated by Norwayne Lumber years
ago, a welder unit that has not been used. Maybe an auction of selected items could be put up for
sale. Don't know the details of how much concrete will be poured or if rail will be put in to the floor.
Bjarne Henderson, Bob Albert, were also working on the shop clean up. Noticed that the tool car
has been worked on in the last couple of weeks. Grinding paint on the north side was evident with
lots of paint dust everywhere. A side window was torched out for building frame for a new window.
Lots of work to be done yet. I did notice that a possible railroad marking under the new number
as MP, MISSOURI PACIFIC, a possible number was underneath, but could not make it out.
 
Joe Kingsbury and Richard Warner were working on the ND&W Porter engine tracing wiring. A very
slow process of trying to match up connectors. Nothing in writing can be found on how the
engine was wired. A long process ahead of them.
 
Hopefully March will pass quickly into warmer weather. The museums first train of the season is
April 4th. For more info go to HVRM's website. Easter train. Loretta has got a busy season of
trains and special events for the season. March is general membership meeting March 21st.
Board of directors meeting is March 14th.
 
FYI, ICBX has bought two F-7's from ERIE MINING an are being transported to Vermillion Railway
here in Indiana. So maybe the sweet chant of EMD 567 engines will be running soon. A couple of
pictures have appeared on RAILPICTURES.NET. Here is one of them.
 
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=520960&nseq=4

 

 Another picture of Lehigh Valley 128 has also showed up down at Spencer running in the snow
around the museum.
 
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=521063&nseq=58
 
 N&W  611 restoration is progressing nicely also. Down in Stearns KY, the steam locomotive is getting

needed attention also, and may be steamed up sometime this year.

 

Tom Travis HVRM La Porte IN
 

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