Howdy!

My granddaughter Rowan was playing her last soccer game of the season, so the wife and I decided to go to Olympia Fields, Illinois to watch the action.  Thus, got an extremely late start for the museum, not getting there until well after lunch.  

One train was run; a late afternoon "Halloween Special" with departure at 4:00 p.m.  More on that in a few moments.

Bud Tibbie advised me that there had been some vandalism on EL Alco # 310.  Not serious, because it was found in time and the S-1 was used to pull N&W gondola # 45622 loaded with some stone out in the area of the Kankakee River bridge where it was shovelled out for use as ballast.  Not quite sure how this vandalism occurred as the Alco seems to have spent a lot of time in the Shop building recently.  Perhaps a visitor got into the unit when no museum member was around.  We need to improve our vigilance.

Since I knew I would be arriving late, my schedule for the day concentrated on just a few items of minor consequence.  Someone asked me the lens diameter of the old headlight we recently received from the Lake Shore Model Railroad Association, and I managed to get that measured (between 22 and 23 inches).  I also looked over the bell that that group had given us and found the number 76 stamped in two different places on the yoke (see photo 1).   This matches the number 76 that had previously been stamped into the top of the bell itself.  A couple of people have told me that this appears to be a Baldwin bell.  If that is true, then the idea that the bell might have been on an Illinois Central steamer numbered 76, might be suspect.  One of the folks told me that, if this IS in reality, a Baldwin bell, the ORIGINAL locomotive number the bell was assigned to by Baldwin appears on the bell shaft.  I measured the nuts holding this bell in place and the nut size is 1 and a half inches.  We have an nice wrench of that size in the museum collection, but I'm going to need help one day, to remove those nuts to look for that number.  Another project for the future!

I also managed to get a photograph of the diesel locomotive headlight that Art Chesna recently donated to the museum (see photo 2).  This headlight was on the second diesel locomotive delivered to the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad (better known at the Monon Railroad) back in 1942 from Electromotive (serial number 1598); a NW-2 model.  The Monon  eventually renumbered DS1 as their #11 and in 1969, sold the unit to Industrial Maintenance Service (IMS) who rebuilt it and sold it to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (EJ&E) as their number 447.  The headlight still carries this number in the number board!  The EJ&E sold the unit to BMAL, a broker, who sold it to Union Tank Car (UTC) where it was numbered 12347.  The unit was finally scrapped in 2015, a worn out warrior, but Art Chesna of UTC, managed to save one of the headlight off the unit.  His preservation work is outstanding, as you can see in the picture.

Bob Albert told me that he had put up some examples of train order hoops in Illinois Central display caboose # 9914 and when I went in there to look at those, I saw the nice job that Bob had done adding photos of the display of the crossing gate control box that was in the elevated watchman's shanty at 119th and Halsted Streets in Chicago.  That display is shown in the third photo. 

Finally, some of us were approached by conductor Bob Barcus to see if we could act as car hosts for the 4:00 train as we seemed to be short a few folks.  I agreed to help out in Long Island commuter car # 2937.  But then, shortly before departure, I was told that they had enough car hosts but I could ride if I wanted to.  I decided instead to flag the Mulberry Street crossing on both the museum track and the old Chesapeake & Ohio track that the Halloween Special would be riding over.  Also flagged for the 310 as it made its way back to the Shop.

John DeGan was engineer for the special run which used GE # 11, while Steve Henrichs was engineer and Doug Kosloske was conductor for the day with Alco 310.

Lots of other folks helping out including Loretta Kosloske, Jason Ciastko, Cory Bennett, Joe and Louise Kingsury, Tom Rainford, Randall Downs, Mike Healy, Rich Warner, Bob Albert, and some others I'm sure I missed because of my late arrival at the museum.  My apologies to those folks.

Have a great week everyone!

Les 

 

Nice finish to the 3 day Pumpkin Train event at Hoosier Valley 10/22/16

Greetings!

Day started at just under 50 degrees and ended up in the low 60's with bright sunshine all day!   The third Saturday of pumpkin trains saw 612 riders with pumpkin sales today just a little over 300.  So the final 3 day (9 train) total was 1,973 riders.  We ran close to capacity!    Thanks to all who helped today, and on the other two Saturdays this month.

Because everyone was tied up working the trains in various capacities, not much else going on today.  The only two photos are of the very end of the day with the train crew of Steve Henrichs (on the platform of number 11 in the first photo) and Bjarne Henderson (at the throttle of the G.E.) as they got set to couple onto C&O Kanawha # 2789 and push her back into the Shop.  The second photo shows just after the 2-8-4 was coupled, and just before the push was started. 

Next week is the Halloween train, departing the museum at 4:00 p.m. with very limited seating.

Have a great week folks!

Les    

Additional pumpkin train operation at HVRM 10-15-16

Greetings!

Museum personnel tied up again with the operation of our three pumpkin trains today, thus not much else going on at the museum.  From the train, I noticed that Joe Baker and his helper were doing some electrical work over at the Payloader shed.  More on this as I find out about it.

Mike Koehler was in from Omaha, Nebraska and was doing some work on this ex-Long Island RS-1 Alco # 467.  After the train schedule for the day was completed and everything put away for the day, I was able to get a few quick pictures of Mike and his efforts over by the Shop.  The first photo shows the blue light Mike had on the front of the Alco (he also had a blue flag out for protection).  The second shot shows his works after removing the bad floor of the unit.  And finally a photo of Mike himself as he was transferring some boxes into the RS-1.  Mike has a lot of work ahead of him, but the unit is in good hands.

Also, I heard that Art Chesna had dropped off the headlight from a CI&L/EJ&E/UTLX diesel locomotive.  John LaOrange and Cory Bennett helped Art unload the headlight and they put it into the Pullman Troop Sleeper for now.  Bob Barcus received the nicely done explanation plaques from Art.  Thanks to Art for this very nice donation. 

As for the trains, Bjarne Henderson was conductor for the day with Andy Hershmann the engineer.  Helpers today included Tami Shaw, Bob Barcus, Joe Kingsbury, Jim Vosberg, Tom Travis, Bud Tibbie, Mark Knebel, Margett Cook, Cory Bennett, Bing Risley, Steve Henrichs, Jason Ciastko, Bob Jachim, Randall Downs, Dave Cook, John LaOrange, Louise Kingsbury and yours truly.  Working these trains is hectic and it's hard to find out what is going on at the museum and who is doing what, so I may have missed some folks again.  Working these trains means a short time between the arrival back at North Judson of one train, and the loading of the next train.  There is a bit more time after the arrival of the first train of the day and the loading of the second train, but there is barely time to get some lunch at that time!  But all the efforts is worth it as we carried 689 folks on the three trains today!  Thanks to all who helped out.  One more Saturday for this operation, and we're looking for help then too!  Come out and give us a hand if you can. 

Have a good week!

Les   

Busy, busy day at HVRM 10/8/16

 Greetings!

Arrived at the museum at 8:15 to find much activity already going on.  This was the first of our Pumpkin Train Saturdays and our GE ton GE # 11 was busy adding the two "overflow" cabooses to the normal consist.  Members were pretty much involved in the operation of these trains which needed a car host for each of the cars, two folks in the depot ticket office in addition to the manning of the gift shop.  I managed to get the second floor of Grasselli Tower open and then checked for my assignment which was hosting folks in Erie Lackawanna bay window caboose # C345.  Tom Rainford was the car host in NKP bay window caboose # 471 while Bud Tibbie handled NKP flat car # 1946, one of our open air cars. 

We were busy all day and no time to take photos, although I did manage to get a shot (shown below) of a young couple from Highland which are rather typical of the family type folks that make these trains so popular.  Loretta Kosloske advised later that we had a total of 672 riders for the days three trains.  Quite a day!  Others who helped out today included Steve Henrichs (engineer), Bob Albert (conductor), Joe Kingsbury, Louise Kingsbury, Bob Barcus, Mark Knebel, John LaOrange, Dave Cook, Margrett Cook, Jason Ciastko, Tami Shaw, Bing Risley, Cory Bennett, Bob Jachim, Kevin Kennedy, Randall Downs, Joe Baker and Richard Warner.  Probably missed mentioning a few folks but it was a long, tiring day (I didn't leave HVRM until 5:00) and right now I have to admit that I'm pretty well beat!

Next week we get a chance to do this all over again!  Help is needed for various jobs.  Come out and give us a hand if you possibly can.  Your museum needs YOU! 

Les   

October comes in cool and wet at Hoosier Valley 10/1/16

Greetings -

Was raining like crazy this morning so got a late start to the museum.  Rain slacked off but occurred at intervals all during the day with temps only in the 60's.

Arrived in time to see the last guest engineer arrive back at the North Judson depot.  Motive power for it, and for the passenger trains later in the day, was the 95-ton G.E. Interlake Steel diesel, number 11.  Performed flawlessly all day!

One of the problems encountered this day was a brake problem on EJ&E # 184, our transfer caboose with the wheel chair lift.  It had to be left on the caboose track and was not part of todays consist.  More on this in a moment. 

Joe Baker was putting some preliminary electrical work in the Pullman Troop Sleeper so that a new outlet would be available for future cleanups (read vacuum cleaner) of the car.

I took some measurements of the seats on GTW transfer caboose number 75072, then spent the day flagging Mulberry Street during train movements.

Meanwhile, things were active in the Shop.  Some work was done on the track extension of track number 3 in the West Annex.  It was decided to replace the damaged exhaust stack on Erie Lackawanna ALCO # 310.  The first photo shows Cory Bennett (at left) and Dave Cook working on getting the new stack cut out of a piece of surplus pipe.  Meanwhile, EL 310 was fired up and, after the departure of the 12:30 p.m. train to English Lake, ran down and picked up the aforementioned EJ&E # 184 and brought it back into the shop.  The second, slightly blurry, photo was taken a bit later after the 184 had been spotted on Shop track 2 and shows Sparky Byers (near camera) and John LaOrange working on the brake problem.  Eventually the fix was performed successfully and the 184 was returned to the caboose track after the 2:00 passenger trains departure.

The third photo shows progress on C&EI tool car #A-1054 with Joe Baker at left and Joe Kingsbury standing at right.  The fourth photo is a close up of Joe Baker installing an electrical outlet in the car with Joe Kingsbury shown in photo 5 doing some carpentry work.

Finally, Steve Henrichs spent the day up in Grasselli Tower doing some painting.  The last photo shows the results of that work, with black Lever 36 and two blue levers 40 and 49 being added to those now finished.

Decent passenger counts for both English Lake trains.  John DeGan was engineer, Doug Kosloske conductor with Bud Tibbie, Randall Downs and Tom Rainford the car hosts for the day.

Loretta Kosloske was ticket agent in the depot with Bob Barcus manning the gift shop.

The rain is supposed to finally clear out of here with some nice 70 degree days forecast for next week.  Enjoy the early fall weather!

Les

 

The good turns to bad at Hoosier Valley 9/24/16

Greetings -

The day started out early with Tom Rainford, Mark Knebel, John LaOrange and yours truly, going up to the southeast side of Chicago.  Bud Tibbie had talked to the Lake Shore Model Railroad Association about donating an old steam locomotive bell and headlight to the museum, and this was the morning that the two items were going to be picked up.  The first photo shows the old kerosene lantern type headlight in the back of my van (please excuse my reflection in the headlight's glass lens) after I had gotten it to the museum.  The bell was transported in Mark Knebel's pickup truck.  The second photo shows (from left to right) Bob Albert, Tom and Mark as they work to get the bell out of Bing Risley's loader and the third shot shows Mark and Tom and Bob pushing it up the ramp into the Pullman Troop Sleeper for temporary display.  Mark and I then carried the bigger, but lighter, headlight into the Troop Sleeper.  Thanks much to Greg Kelley and the members of the Lake Shore Club for these fine donations!

Our late arrival back to North Judson was close to lunch and I heard that Margrett Cook had made ribs, but before I went over there, I opened up the upper level of Grasselli Tower.  On my way to the kitchen car, Doug Kosloske asked me if I could act as car host in Long Island coach 2937, so I got sidetracked from lunch.  Power for our 12:30 five car train was to be GE 95 ton diesel number 11, finally cleared for duty once again after a lengthy overhaul.  The two open cars were pretty well filled but there were only 6 folks in LIRR 2937.  We made the run to English Lake but on the way back, the 11 died.  The passengers, which included some adults and kids with special needs, took the delay pretty well, as we informed them that Alco # 310 was on the way to rescue us.  When the 310's headlight was spotted down the track, we requested that riders be seated during the coupling.  After that was done and the air checked, we started back toward the depot.  Unforturnately, a fire developed in the Alco's stack and carbon rained down on the roofs of the cars, and worse still, on the right-of-way.  The unit was shut down just east of CR 400W and heavy smoke soon appeared.  The passengers thought that the train was on fire, but were assured that it was some dry areas of the vegetation along the track, that had caught fire.  An evacuation from the NKP 1946, the first open car on the train was approved, and the fire was attacked with extinguishers.  After it was determined that the 310 was going to be inoperable for a time, it was decided to slowly evacuate the train.  Mark and Bob and Cory Bennett, drove up from the museum, while the North Judson Fire Department responded to the vegetation fires.  Some folks were driven back to the depot area, where they picked up their cars and took passengers back to North Judson.  Thanks very much to the crew that did such a good job in the evacuation. 

 

Eventually, number 310 was fired up and uncoupling number 11 from the train, slowly transported the G.E. back to the museum.  I took the fourth photo out of Grasselli's west window as the Alco crept past 2789 and the Shop.  The fifth shot shows the units crossing Mulberry Street after Mark has dropped off and prepares to walk back to the Shop switch.  As the 310 rolls by the tower, the damage to the unit stack is apparent in the sixth photo.  After the 2789 and the 11 were put into the Shop on track 1, the 310 made its way back out and brought the 5 car train back to the museum.

An eventful day to say the least!  Have a good week everyone.  Fall is now officially here and temps are supposed to cool off this week.

Les    

         

Drizzly day takes a turn to nice at Hoosier Valley 9/17/16

Greetings -

We had drizzle pretty much all night and into the morning but then the weather cleared up nicely.  Temps under partly sunny skies was upper 70's in the morning warming to the low 80's in the afternoon.  Over all, a nice September day!

Membership/business meeting at HVRM today.  Nicely attended.  Ageement between Town of North Judson and new operator apparently still not finalized.  There was a discussion of the Erie North Judson Trail and the relation between the trail folks and the museum.   A number of other items also brought up.  More info in the upcoming museum newsletter.

Three guest engineers this morning, with all of the operations over museum trackage only!  John DeGan was the engineer/instructor while Steve Henrichs was conductor.  Engine was old reliable Alco S-1 # 310.

Margett Cook provided lunch today; chicken and noodle casserole.  

Regular trains, again behind the 310, had Bob Albert as conductor with Steve acting as flagman out at the road crossings out of town.  I flagged Mulberry Street for both runs.  Station Agent Tami Shaw reported 55 riders for the 12:30 train while there were about 15 riders on  the 2:00 train.  Bob Barcus manned the gift shop today.   

Matt Lasayko was at the museum today checking the various signal cabinets and spraying hornet nests (see photo 1) where necessary.  Surprisingly, only about half of the cabinets had nests.  This time of the year, these nests are all over!  Be careful out there!

GE Interlake Steel diesel # 11 was fired up and run outside the Shop to verify that the water leakage issues had been fixed.  Apparently they have!  The second photo shows Sparky Byers (at left) and John La Orange (through door opening) sitting in the cab during the testing.

Tom Rainford reported that they had put ties down on the last third of Track number 3 in the West Annex of the Shop and were going to try to put the rail in place.  The third photo taken just after lunch, shows Tom tightening a bolt in the joint bar after the first rail was set in place.   Just before I left for home, I went back to look over progress and found that both rails had been spiked down (see photo 4).  Concrete is next!

There are days where only one or two visitors might come up and look at Grasselli Tower.  That was not the case today as visitors showed up on a regular basis. Some visitors might stay only a minute of two, but most of the ones today, stayed anywhere from 5 minutes on up to 15 minutes!  Good questions, of which there were a number today, increase visitation time.  The old tower is certainly an attraction, and a major HVRM asset.

Enjoy the upcoming week folks!

Les