Green diamond and fixes at Hoosier Valley 5/28/16

Greetings!

Had some computer problems this week but my computer guru (my son), worked on it today, so hopefully things are now fixed.  May have missed some stuff this past week.  Computers are great, aren't they?

Nice day at North Judson today.  Some very light sprinkles at times, but temps in the 80's and sun most of the time.

There is apparently a problem with GE number 11, with oil getting into the water system.  First photo shows John La Orange and Cory Bennett working on the problem in the East Annex of the Shop but John told me at the end of the day that they haven't yet found the problem.  More work to be done!

Bud Tibbie secured a metal Illinois Central herald for display.  At about 64 inches wide and 41 inches tall, it was a bit overwhelming to put in the IC display caboose, so it was decided to add it to the wall display in the Shop.  Tom Travis and I managed to push the lift from the West Annex of the Shop, over to the East Annex.  The second photo shows Tom working on one of the screws with which we attached the herald.   The third photo shows it in place above the metal Rock Island and New York Central heralds.  The IC and NYC heralds were apparently on piggyback trailers, but the Rock herald is believed to have come off of a  steam locomotive tender.  We think that this display looks pretty good and appreciate Bud Tibbie's donation.

Lunch today came from the Wooden Nickel; chicken, biscuits, cole slaw and also a donated pasta salad.  Good stuff!

There was a problem when EL Alco # 310 tried to couple to Long Island coach #2937 in preparation for the first passenger run of the day, and the front coupler of S-1 had to be replaced using parts from the EMD Model 40.  The 4th photo show Cory Bennett (at left) and Doug Kosloske working on the coupler as Tom Rainford watches at right.  The repair was made and the 12:30 train left on time.

Good to see Randall Downs on the train today, as the car host on the Katy open air car.  Randall had hip surgery earlier this month and is making remarkable progress.

Doug Kosloske was engineer today with Steve Henrichs the conductor.

Recently, a window in the first floor of Grasselli Tower was broken, with all of the broken glass ending up outside of the tower.  Could have been wind from the inside or possibly a bird getting trapped inside an hitting the window with enough force to break it.  Whatever happened, Steve Newland is shown in the 5th photo, putting some plastic over the now open upper sash as a temporary measure until the window can be replaced.  Bob Albert came up with some photos of Grasselli when it was still back in East Chicago, including one from the 1920's showing a steam engine passing the tower.  These shots will eventually be displayed in the tower itself.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and have a great week.  Remember to fly the flag this upcoming Memorial Day and remember all those who have served.  God Bless America!

Les  

  

      

 

 

Great Day at HVRM Weather Wise 5-21-2016

Greetings to all,
 
Well it finally had to get nice today after some gloomy weather for the past three Saturdays.
Temps made it into the mid 70's under blue skies. Perfect weather for a couple of train rides.
Les took some photos of members around the museum today.
 
Photo 1 is Bob Barcus shooting a short video of HVRM operations
Photo 2 is guest engineer getting ready to couple GE # 11 up to B&LE caboose. Bjarne  Henderson
is on the platform as conductor for the day.
Photo 3 is of three long time members working on the EJ&E 184 caboose brake problems.
Kyle Flanigan at left, Todd Flanigan kneeling down near rail, John LaOrange on the ground
under the caboose.
 
I arrived early as it was membership meeting day, but due to lack of members to make a quorum
it was postponed till later. Everyone was scattered about the museum getting jobs started.
Mark Kniebel was out on the HVRM motorcar inspecting track from North Judson to English
Lake over the bridge up to the derail an then back to IN 10 an back on the passing track,
completing it just in time to do duty as road crossing guard for guest engineers.
Doug Koslovske an Bjarne Henderson were assembling the guest engineer train cutting
the open air car an Long Island coach out of the consist. John LaOrange an Cory Bennett
were working on the EJ&E caboose sticking brakes. Loretta Koslovske an Bob Barcus
were in the depot getting things ready for the day. Joe Kingsbury was in the shop doing
some touch up prime painting around the windows. Joe Baker got the electric manlift
out an moved it to a new LED he had installed too high up an lowered it some. Les
Beckman went over to Grasselli tower to work on the throw levers numbers.
I was standing by the depot platform an Bjarne asked if I wanted to ride out to English
Lake in the B&LE caboose on a guest engineer train. It was nice sitting up in the cupola
watching the scenery pass by an the rolling track on the short stretch of track.
I got back an had not really decided what to do, but lunch was ready about 11am.
So had hotdogs an Taco salad plate. During lunch I was asked if I wanted to do car host
duties, so I agreed. Was in the coach for both runs, had a total of 50 passengers on both
trips, better than the count from last week. Bob Jachim was out an about early at the
museum, making coffee, putting the flag up an opening up the depot an buildings.
Bing Ringsley an Corky were out an around the museum ground early also. John LaOrange
had worked on the Erie 310 an fixed the air problems from last week, forgot what the
fix was. Filled the radiator up to the top with water, as I don't think it will freeze again
for some time. Ross Robinson from  Ottawa Ontario, stopped by for a couple three days after
attending a conference in Fayette Ohio for a couple of days. Having checked out his trailer prior
to leaving, some unfortunate things happened, water lines began to leak an possibly
causing a fan motor on the space heater to go bad. So Ross was not able to take showers or
have heat at night. First night out temps were around 30 degrees an did not much warm up
for the entire trip. He did have plenty of blankets an jackets. Monday evening Ross
treated my family an Les & Betty Beckman to dinner at the Broadway Café in Valpo.
Tuesday Ross came down to North Judson to visit Toto an Baileys. Also gave him keys
to get into Grasselli tower an see the progress that has be done since his last visit. Also
went into the shop building to see ongoing projects an new concrete floors in the shop.
Ross left early Wednesday morning. I did not have much time spend with him, as driving
school bus kept me busy all day.
 
Cory got the John Deere 4020 running an out of the building an hooked up the sprayer
machine an must of sprayed grass in the wye area  to keep the grass down an bugs to
a minimum in the coming months Mowing with the brushhog will be done later in the
month, as the grass in lots does not look too bad yet.
 
In the mean time, John ran the Erie 310 down to the EJ&E caboose to move it to the shop
building so the brake valve could be taken off an blown out with compressed air to attempt
to clear what ever was blocking the line. Todd took off a couple of pipes an found them to
be full of dust or dirt or scale that may of been blocking air. So things were taken off an
the air compressor blew out crud that may of settled inside. The air switch inside the caboose
was taken out an capped off, as thought was it may of been malfunctioning. The brake parts
were put back on an things slowly started working again. The caboose was taken out on the
line an run back an forth applying an releasing the brakes, all seemed to be working again.
So next week the EJ&E will be back in the consist for tourist trains.
 
Bob Albert worked on the Illinois Central display caboose by fixing another leak in the roof.
A large cabinet was moved over from the shop building an put inside the caboose.
 
The inspection of the Monon SW-1 did happen Friday, noting lots of engine work may be
required to get it running again. Will have to wait for board meeting to discuss it.
 
The buildings were closed up shortly after the 2pm train ride an members left pretty
quick after that.
 
No idea when the membership meeting will be held. Notice will most likely sent out
by e-mail to members. Have a good week, temps are going to rise into the 80's by next
weekend with some rain during the week.
 
Tom Travis
 
 
           

North Judson Extends Agreement with Railroad Operator, Challenges Remain for Museum Trains

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 Greetings to all,

 

Let me start out that on Thursday evening at the North Judson town Hall had a special meeting  with HVRM on the

agreements with the Railroad CKIN. The following article explains what went on an the course of the

Town Council of North Judson. A good crowd was there for support. Did not end on a high note, as

the meeting was abruptly ended. I'm sure more will follow. 

North Judson Extends Agreement with Railroad Operator, Challenges Remain for Museum Trains
http://www.wkvi.com/2016/05/north-judson-extends-agreement-railroad-operator-challenges-remain-museum-trains/

 

Saturday was very cold an windy, but dry. Lots of rain the last couple of days has made

fields pretty muddy an stream at high water levels. During the last couple of weeks

the museum had a couple of weekday tourist trips with school children. A very good

turnout an all had a lot of fun. The Alco 310 an EJ&E caboose 184 had a brake

problem. The caboose was switched out of the train an GE #11 was substituted for power.

Saturday morning early work on the EJ&E handicap caboose, but not exactly 100%

sure if the problem is fixed. The Friday group had tours an lunch first, then went on the

train ride with no problems.

 

Board meeting at 8am brought up the items of interest. This coming Friday Les Beckman,

and a group of individuals will go an inspect a 600 horsepower SW-1 over south of Calumet

Harbor, I think. A list of things will be inspected as to determine it is worthy to accept.

A NS inspector will also be in attendance to inspect the engine an see if it is capable to

travel on its own wheels to HVRM.

 

Work continues on the new lunch car with much more done inside the car. Windows

are installed an framed in. A new air conditioner will be installed in a window with

appropriate 220 volt requirements. Joe Baker has the electrical roughed in right now

an more to do for the lighting on the ceiling.

 

A discussion of options about the closure of the English Lake-Lacrosse line were discussed.

 

A couple of guest engineers were in attendance early an the passenger train ran on time

with a low turnout of rides due to cold an windy conditions.

 

The LIRR couch engine for the heating would not start easily. Checking the battery it was

found out that the battery charger is putting out about 40 plus volts an the big battery is

only 32 volts. Checking cells an it was found out it needed distilled water in most of the

cells. The battery is in an extremely tight place under the coach an can not be pulled out

on a sliding tray, so some improvising with a turkey baster was used to fill the cells.

 

Les Beckman did some minor work in Grasselli Tower in the afternoon.

 

Not much else was done on Saturday due to nasty conditions outside. Hopefully next

Saturday will be warmer an nicer.

 

Have a good week everyone.

 

Tom Travis

A real blue (and green and black and red and white) Saturday at Hoosier Valley on 4/30/16

Greetings!

Spring took a step back today at the museum with a high of 47 degrees and rain just about all day!  Good day to work inside, if you could do it!

Went back behind the Shop to look at the B&O color position light signal installed there to see how the brackets we got with the GM&O CPL signal head are attached.  Looks like the brackets we have will work! 

Steve Henrichs was painting levers in Grasselli Tower and the results at the end of the day are shown in the first photo.  Some levers painted blue, some green, some red, some black and even a white/black combination!  I counted 11 levers painted.  Well done Steve!

Speaking of painting, Mark Knebel painted one of the storage tanks orange earlier in the week.  Looks great, but raining too hard for me to get a decent photo.  Meanwhile, Mark cleaned out the train cars for an upcoming special trip for school kids this coming Friday.  Always looking for help on these special run days!

John LaOrange and Tom Rainford put rust inhibitor in the Erie S1 Alco.

The second photo shows Joe Baker taking some measurements for electrical work on C&EI tool car #A-1054.  Bud Tibbie helped him out with this project.

I noticed that someone had been fooling around with one of the train number boards on ex-Metra/ex-IC Highliner #1502.  One of the boards had a correct train number (754) showing, but the other number board was all screwed up.  I decided to correct it.  Simple project that turned out to be more involved than I had thought.  I first noticed that the chain and lock on the front platform end of 1502 was missing, meaning that anyone had access to the car.  The "jumbled" number board was in the motorman's (engineers) compartment, which WAS locked.  There is a special key for this and Mark told me that there were some of those keys hanging over his desk in his office.  Walked over, got them, tried them, none worked!  Put them back.  Talked to Mark again and he said there might be another key in the drawer in his desk.  Walked back over there, found said key, tried it, success!  Took a while to twist the number strips around, including a number of walks down to the ground, back up to the motorman's compartment, etc.  Finally got the second number board set up for train 754 as the third photo (taken from the platform of GTW transfer caboose #75072) will attest.  Locked the motorman's compartment up again.  Hopefully no one will fool around with these numbers in the foreseeable future!  Then started looking for a short chain and lock to secure #1502 again against unlawful entry.  Mark found a new lock to use, but then I had to find a suitable chain.  I searched a couple of buildings before I found a chain from the Shop that would work.  A bit of driving and more walking, all in the light rain that was falling all day, but the job finally got done!  So much for helping Steve Henrichs up in the tower with the lever painting!

Margrett Cook prepared an "Italian" lunch, including pasta and pizza.

After lunch, Cory Bennett and others, worked on the Tamper.

John DeGan spent the day working on cleaning up the mess that was between Track 1 and the south wall of the East Annex part of the Shop building.  By the end of the day, this area was greatly improved.  The fourth photo shows John and this much improved area.  For some time we had talked about getting this done, but Mr. DeGan actually DID it!  Well done John!

Had to take off a bit early this afternoon due to a family commitment.  Hopefully it stopped raining later in the day, but my guess is that it did not.  Some spring days are like that!

Have a good week folks!

Les    

 

 

 

 

Illinois donation and work at HVRM 4/23/16

Hi Folks -

HVRM member Bud Tibbie was a member of the Homewood Rail Committee when he lived in Illinois when that group secured the donation of an EMD rebuilt diesel and a wide vision caboose and put them on display near the Amtrak/Metra station there.  As part of that display, a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio color position light (CPL) signal was to be installed but that was never done.  Bud contacted the Mayor of Homewood and the committee and it was eventually decided to donate the signal head to Hoosier Valley.  This morning, Bud, Joe Gasiorek and myself, met Bill Wolfete (sp?) from the committee at the display in Homewood and we loaded the signal head into my car and took it to the museum today.  Here are some photos taken by Betty Beckman this morning showing the removal of the signal head.  That's Bill on the walkway of the diesel in photo one while Joe and I look on.  The second photo shows Bud taking the signal head out of the compartment in the diesel and the third photo shows Joe and I receiving it.  Once we got the signal head to the museum, Mark Knebel, Bob Albert, Bud and I put it into the museums signal storage car.

The rest of these photos show some activities at the museum today.  The fourth photo shows Bob getting set to put up a new photo in IC caboose # 9914.  The photo shows a Monon passenger train led by their F3 units at the deport in Monon, Indiana.  Bob recently put a new piece of rail on display in the caboose as shown in the fifth photo. 

Steve Newland was scraping old paint from Grasselli Tower today.

The ex-Union Pacific tamper (photo 6) was out today doing its thing.  After the stones were tamped, Tom Rainford is shown in photo 7 filling the holes made after the tamper finished its job.   Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy and myself, also assisted Tom on this effort.

To finish on a bummer note, the last photo shows a bit of graffiti that was apparently recently applied to our Purdue crane.  The police were notified and came out and took our complaint.  We will need to get this "criminal act" removed as soon as possible.

Finally, on the way home, I followed the museum line into La Crosse and noted a lot of covered hoppers apparently stored.  I counted about 200 similar looking gray painted cars, with CTIX (and other) reporting marks.  There were also a mixed bag of about 25 covered hoppers just to the east of downtown La Crosse.  All of  these cars were parked on the main line.

We are getting close to our initial passenger train operation in May. Any help will be appreciated.

Les

Spring finally SPRINGS!! at Hoosier Valley 4/16/16

 

Greetings!

Well, spring got here with a vengeance today.  Temps got into the low 80's(!) and we had sunshine all day.  Not everything was perfect though; I managed to break my reading glasses at the museum, so if this report has spelling errors, blame it on these back up Walgreen's cheapies!

The plan was to use the Lift to bring the locker up into Grasselli Tower's second floor through one of the unfinished windows.  When I arrived at the museum , the lift was down and Cory Bennett and Dave Cook were working on it.  This gave  me a chance to go over and plant a couple of iris's into one of the flower beds.  The other bed had the ties that were around it, moved and Bing was taking those old ties away.  More on that curious bit of info later.  The boys eventually got the Lift working again and then Steve Henrichs, Bud Tibbie, Kevin Kennedy and myself drove it over to the West Annex of the Shop and loaded it.  A fun job!  Drove back to the tower and got the LIft raised up to the second level and with Bud and Kevin inside and Steve and I on the lift itself, we managed to get the thing through  the window opening and onto the platform where an old wooden locker had once been.  I was too busy to take any photos of this actual work but here are a couple taken after the fact.  The first one shows the window opening that we used for the move. The second one shows Steve Henrichs standing in front of  the locker after it was moved into place.  About this time, Steve Newland arrived and he decided that, rather than putting a piece of plywood over the opening, he'd try to put a set of the window sashes that he had made previously into the opening and photo 3 shows his attempt.  Unfortunatlely he had measured these for one of the other window frames and thee were just a smidge too tight!  So, back to the drawing board and he and I then put a piece of plywood over the opening.  Now finished with the Lift, we turned it over to Joe Baker who was exchanging one of the old fluorescent parking lot lights with a new LED fixture, thus the removal of the old ties around the flower bed.  Bud went over and gave Joe a hand with this project.

Steve Henrichs touched up the paint on the locker and also painted the old table in the tower.

Joe Kingsbury continued work on C&EI tool car # A-1054.

Margett Cook made mostocolli for lunch with a salad and cake and ice cream for desert.

Meanwhile, the track gang decided to replace some additional ties in front of the depot and the fourth photo shows the gang later in the day . That's Mark Knebel with shovel in the foreground, with John LaOrange, Cory Bennett and Dave Cook (left to right) in the background.  Kevin Kennedy also helped on this project.  Nine ties were installed, but some still have to be spiked down, a project to be finished another day.

Earlier in the day, GE number 11 was fired up to test for leaks.  The fifth photo shows John DeGan and Steve Newland having a discussion as the 11 sits outside the Shop.  In the sixth photo, Rich Warner checks the radiator just before the 11 is run back into the Shop.

Finally, it's no secret that HVRM is having problems with the current operator of the freight operation on the common carrier tracks and with the Town of North Judson itself.  For those who are members of the museum, Bob Barcus explained this on page 4 of the current (April) issue of the museum newsletter.  For those who aren't members, I've tried to make a photo of this last page and its shown in photo 7 of this report.

Keep your fingers crossed on this one.  There is the possibility that things will be a-changing at the museum. We hope not, but it could happen.

Les

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Slip sliding away to Hoosier Valley 4/9/16

Greetings!

Old Man Winter doesn't want to quit!  After a horrible weather day on Friday, woke up this morning to ice on the roadways.  Managed no more than 35 m.p.h. (mostly less than that) all the way to Starke County.  There was an 8:00 a.m. Board meeting, but needless to say, I arrived late!  Temps were in the low to mid 30's but a bright sun for most of the day, plus salt on the roads, finally managed to melt the slick conditions despite the bitter cold wind.

Spent a bit of time watching the gift shop in the depot as we had a light member turnout and Bob Barcus had to run to the bank to make some deposits.

Then went up to Grasselli Tower where I photographed the northwest corner (photo 1).  Steve Henrichs has his painted lockers ready to bring into the tower and through one of these windows is the way he wants to get it up to the second floor.  I talked to Cory Bennett in the afternoon about this and he didn't seem to know that this was the plan but said it probably could be done, providing the lockers fit through the window opening.  I measured and they do, providing they come in sideways.

I spent much of the morning, trying to get one of the levers in Grasselli pushed into the "back" position.  Finally managed to get it done, but it was a struggle.

Bud Tibbie invited me over to his house in North Judson  to see his newly acquired Milwaukee Road HO gauge S3 class Northern, number 265.  A beautiful engine to say the least.  And quite a layout that Bud has abuilding there. 

Was over at the West Annex of the Shop in the afternoon and found the work ongoing on Chicago & Eastern Illinois tool car #A-1054.  Here are some shots of the progress:

Photo 2 shows Joe Baker using one of our shop vacs to clean up some of the sawdust and dirt.

Photo 3 shows Joe Baker's "helper" Nick K. (sorry Nick, I already forgot your last name) finishing up some of the electrical work.

Photo 4 features Joe Kingsbury cutting one of the short supports, which are visible in the previous two photos.

Finally, in the 5th photo, the cage for the air conditioning unit is shown in one of the cars windows.  Some day we will be eating our summer lunches at the museum in cool comfort!

Mark Knebel was out cutting brush again today.

Sparky Byers and John LaOrange worked on GE diesel number 11.

More winter-like weather moving in tonight and into tomorrow.  Come on OId Man Winter....GIVE IT UP!

Les