Storage Track No. 2

Mark sent out a message of the work done Saturday 5/27/2017.

This will go along with pictures in the report.

There are a total of 949 railroad ties from the kitchen car east coupler to the spot where I left off last year working westward on the No.2, replacing ties.  Overall, No. 2 storage is a 1,000 tie siding.

 

There are 124 ties marked for replacement.

 

124 out of 949 is 13% being replaced.

 

Today, 65 were removed from the track.

 

Mark

 

 

Memorial Day 2017 work at Hoosier Valley

 

Greetings -

The first photo in this weeks report is actually from last Saturday and shows the progress made by Mark Knebel on the repainting of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.  At that time, Mark had scraped, primed and painted the roof of the caboose with a new coat of Morency Orange paint.  Mark has continued the work this past week in between rain showers, and also has one end of the car painted.

I started out today, swinging into Porter, Indiana to pick up the back panel of the model board that was at Dolton Tower.  Arrived at the museum just as Bjarne Henderson was bringing the lift over so that we could "clean up" the outside of the Pullman Troop Sleeper.  We used a process described on the Rail Preservation News website, which is too lengthy to get into in this report although it involved much elbow grease, linseed oil soap and linseed oil itself.  The second photo shows Bjarne at work on the car and the third shows Lars Henderson (up on the ladder) and Tom Rainford, working on one end of the car.  Finally, in the fourth shot, the finished work is shown.  In addition to those mentioned, Bob Albert and Kevin Kennedy also assisted in moving the heavy ramp up to the car, and then putting it back into place at the end.

We had two guest engineers this morning and ran both passenger trains to English Lake.  Steve Henrichs was engineer with John DeGan handling conductor duties.  Doug Kosloske handled the road flagging while Loretta Kosloske manned the depot and ticket window.

Lunch in our Nickel Plate Road camp car today came from the Blue Jay Restaurant in town and included fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Yum!

With the upcoming completion of Hoosier Valley table/meeting car #K-325, it was decided that it would be a good time to do some work on the storage track where K-325 and NKP camp (kitchen) car X58538 will be sitting.  Using GE # 11, the cars at the east end up to X58538, were pulled out and moved over to the south run around track.  The fifth photo shows the empty track and with a number of the old, rather rotten ties, already removed.  The string of cars pulled out can be seen over to the far right in the picture.  The 6th shot shows Cory Bennett operating the back hoe and pulling ties out.  The 7th photo shows Kevin Kennedy pulling spikes from one of the soon-to-be-removed ties while the 8th shot shows Tom Rainford removing some of the debris from a yanked tie.  Others working on the project included Mark and John LaOrange.  We started the work on the track after lunch and got barely half way.  Much to do next week!  Help always appreciated!

Bing Risley was cutting grass around the museum today.  A job that we have to continually do so that it doesn't get ahead of us!

Doug and Loretta had to leave after the second English Lake train departed at 2:00 p.m., so Tom Travis came in and handled the depot duties thereafter.  The 9th photo shows Tom behind the counter while member Tom Royce is off to the right in the shot.  

Finally, the last photo shows the arrival of the second train back in North Judson and passengers unloading from MKT open car # 13833 using the steps of Long Island passenger car # 2937 to detrain.  Museum personnel assisting in the unloading include Jake Denton (at left), Joe Kingsbury (black cap/plaid shirt), John DeGan (orange cap/yellow vest) and Rich Warner (blue cap/black shirt).  Another safe run completed!

Hope everyone has a safe, and enjoyable, Memorial Day weekend!

Les 

  

   

 

Day before Mom's Day at HVRM 5/13/17

 

Greetings -

Mother Nature brought us some gorgeous weather at the museum today!

Despite appearances in the first photo, David Cook is not looking for buried treasure, but checking Hoosier Valley's underground water meter.  Cory Bennett is on the phone with someone back in the depot asking them to run the water, while Bob Barcus supervises.   A suspected leak was apparently confirmed and attempts were made during the day to find it.  Not sure if they were successful or not.

Joe Baker and Brian continued the electrical work that was begun last week.  The second photo shows them at work while the third photo shows the results at the end of the day.  This is  the first light on this side of the museum.

Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose 75072 is due to be repainted but before that is done, Bob Albert tried to repair a leak in the roof of the car as shown in the 4th photo. 

Joe Kingsbury's efforts on the stairs for Hoosier Valley eating/meeting car # K-325 is shown in the fifth shot.  Coming along really well!

Last week's museum report showed Mark Knebel working on the lettering of the museum's Purdue University crane.  This past week Mark went over and did the lettering on the other side and the results are shown in the 6th photo.  Looks great!

In addition to the work on the crane last week, Mark also found time to give our 50' PRR/TTX piggyback flat car a new coat of freight car red, as shown in photo number 7. 

Nice passenger turnout today and the 12:30 p.m. train is shown pushing west out of the depot in the 8th photo with Bob Jachim providing crossing protection on the ground while Steve Henrich's (at right on the B&LE caboose platform) keeps an eye on things.  John DeGan was engineer today while Bud Tibbie and others, collected tickets.  Kevin Kennedy protected the road crossings on the way to English Lake.

I spent some time up in Grasselli Tower trying to repair a strip of wood that had fallen out of the towers ancient door.  That effort is shown in the last 3 pix.  Still have to put some wood filler in the gaps, but it will do for now.

Have a great week folks!  Still warmer weather reportedly on the way.

Les

A howling wind but some small victories at Hoosier Valley 5/6/17

 

Greetings!

We had a strong wind today straight out of the north across a still very cold Lake Michigan.  Temps were only in the low to mid 50's all day, and with winds of 25 to 30 m.p.h., temps felt like it was in the 30's.  Still, we had our first regular day of operation with two guest engineers and our two regular trains at 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.  The temps kept regular passenger numbers down, but our S1 Alco # 310 performed flawlessly.  Engineer was Doug Kosloske with Mark Knebel and Bob Barcus handling conductor duties.  Tom Rainford was a car host.

Last week's museum report included a photo of our recently repainted Purdue University crane.  Mark continued his work on it this week, taping the lettering outline as shown in the first photo.  Although he had already used two coats of yellow paint for the lettering, later in the day he applied an additional coat, as can be seen in the second photo.  After the paint dries, he'll be able to remove the tape and then start on the lettering on the other side!  Museum work is an ongoing project!

I managed to climb up into the cab of the 2789 today and after working a bit on the window tracks at the top of the cab window openings, I decided that the screws were pretty much rusted in place.  I then tried the lower tracks and, as can be seen in the third photo, managed to remove one of those bolts pretty easily.  A small victory!  Unlike the top window tracks, these bottom ones are new and apparently were put in when the Kanawha's cab was repaired for the museum a number of years ago.   Either the top or bottom tracks have to be removed in order to get the new windows in, and right now, I am pretty sure it's going to be the bottom tracks.

Rich Warner handled road crossing duties today although Bob Jachim and I managed to protect the Mulberry Street crossing near the depot.

In the 4th shot, Joe Kingsbury is shown starting on the building of the steps for Hoosier Valley kitchen/meeting car # K-325.  The flat concrete floor is a good base to build these steps, exact measurements in relation to the car can be made, and work can done without weather worries.  After the steps for the car are complete, they will be moved over to the future location of the car, east of the North Judson depot.    

Joe Baker and helper Brian, are working on getting the electrical connections made for the future location of # K-325, and the "tunnel" under the tracks was put in today as can be seen in the fifth, sixth and seventh photos.  The 5th photo shows the tube for the electic at the car location, the 6th some work being done where the line runs between two museum structures and the 7th shows the Witch Ditch after it was loaded back on the companies trailer.

The 8th photo shows Cory Bennett (in the Payloader), John La Orange (background) and David Cook (at right), as they look for switch components from our stock.  The switch is to go on to the track that was recently swung around to get it lined up for the track going in to the West Annex of the Shop building.  The last photo shows two pieces that were eventually found and placed in the approximate location of that switch.

Have a great week everyone.  Spring temps will eventually get here....or so I've been told!

Les

      

Dreary, rainy day doesn't stop work at Hoosier Valley 4/29/17

Greetings!

Forecast today was for heavy rains at times all day and possible flooding.  But, although it was dreary all day and we did have both rain and drizzle at times, a surprising number of folks were at the museum.

When I arrived at about 9:00, there was no one at the Shop but were gathered instead in the depot where a discussion was going on about a possible solar panel installation where the museum track crosses Route 10/39.   

No rain at that time, so I talked Tom Rainford into giving me a hand with the speaker phone that Mark Knebel had given us to use in the tower. With Tom doing the work, the phone was installed (see photo number 1).

Last week, a second coat was put on C&EI tool car # A-1054 and Bjarne Henderson had arranged to have a new set of vinyl lettering made for the car.  The car, which is to be the future "table car/meeting room" for the museum, will be lettered HOOSIER VALLEY and given the number K-325, its old U.S. Army number when it was in service as a kitchen car.

Tom is shown in the second photo, putting the new vinyl K-325 on one of the car ends.  Meanwhile, Kevin Kennedy (at left in the 3rd photo with Bjarne) are seen checking to make sure that the vinyl letters are straight.  In the 4th shot, Bjarne is shown attaching another section of the lettering.

We stopped for lunch about this time.  Tami Shaw and Jason Ciastko had brought down home made chili and spicy ham and cheese sandwiches while Margrett Cook brought home made ice cream and brownies!  We eat good at Hoosier Valley!

John DeGan had cleaned up a short section of the side rods on Chesapeake & Ohio # 2789 and the results are shown in the fifth photo.  This is John's 4th attempt to clean up the rods on the 2-8-4 and make them look presentable.  Keep your fingers crossed!  I then asked John if he could take his angle grinder and try to clean up the upper window tracks in the cab of the Kanawha and the 6th shot shows John doing just that.  He also reported to me that these tracks appear to be in sections and bolted in.  Which is good news for the future window installation.

John LaOrange put water into some of GE #11's batteries.  A job that entailed a tight fit to get into the battery compartment under the cab of the 95-tonner.

In the meantime, work continued on the K-325 and after getting all the lettering for the museum name put in place, the afternoon was spent in getting the vinyl letters attached.  The 7th shot shows Bjarne straightening out a "tail" on the "H" in Hoosier while Tom removes the paper backing on the "I".   When I left after 4:00, only four of the letters needed to be completed.  Soon the car will be moved out, switching performed, and the car put into place next to the museums current "lunch car", NKP # X58538.

Finally, parked outside the number 1 track of the Shop, was the museum's Purdue University crane as shown in the last photo.  Mark Knebel had worked on new paint during the week with an assist from Bud Tibbie.   Not quite finished yet but looking good!

Much more rain is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow and into Monday.  Stay dry if possible!

Les     

 

Easter egg trains and great weather at HVRM 4/15/17

 

Greetings -

Got a call from the Indiana Harbor Belt on Friday, 4/14/17, that they would be willing to make a permanent loan of the model board from Dolton Tower to HVRM.  Recently Tom Rainford and I had gone to Dolton to pick up some items for Grasselli Tower from the decommissioning of Dolton and which we now have at Hoosier Valley.  So, I stopped by this morning and with quite a bit of help, managed to get the board loaded into my van.  When I made it to the museum, Bob Albert, Tom Rainford, Bud Tibbie and Kevin Kennedy, helped get the model board unloaded and put up in the Pullman Troop Sleeper, one of our display cars (see photo 1).

Today was the day for our Easter Egg trains, and what a beautiful day it turned out to be!   Temps got up into the low 80's, the sun shone most to the day and a stiff breeze kept it very comfortable!   The three trains were filled to capacity.  Steve Henrichs was engineer, John DeGan fireman, Doug Kosloske conductor with Bud Tibbie, Joe Kingsbury, Kevin Kennedy, Tom Rainford amongst those who did car host duties for the various trains.  GE end cab diesel #11 started out as motive power.

Mark Knebel and Bob Jachim handled road flagging work out at Indiana 10/39.   Loretta Koslosle and Bob Barcus manned the depot today, while Louise Kingsbury, her daughter and granddaughter assisted with the egg works. 

There was a problem with the air on Erie Lackawanna # 310 and the second photo shows Jason Ciatsko (on ground), Rich Warner (on running board) and John La Orange (on the opposite side of the Alco) working to get the problem fixed.  Good thing as number 11 had some problems with dirty valves on the second run of the day and 310 had to handle the back half of the egg trains.

Meanwhile, Ross Robinson had made a Maquette (pattern) for the windows for the 2789 and sent it to me from the north country.  The third photo shows the maquette with the channels for the windows of the Kanawha viewable in the background.  I then checked them against the actual channels in the 2-8-4's windows and, as you can see in the fourth photo (engineers window) and the fifth photo (fireman's window), they fit quite nicely and move past each other with no problems.

Sparky Byers was trying to cut some of the rusted material out of the cab of ND&W Porter diesel # 5332, as can be seen in the 6th picture.

The 7th and 8th photos shows the scene at the park where the kids on the train search for eggs, bring them to the Easter Bunny for their "goodies" and some photos.

Finally, the next to last shot shows Bjarne Henderson (with the long pole) and Joe Kingsbury applying paint to the one side of C&EI tool car # A-1054 while in the last photo, the earlier results of their work are shown on the opposite side.

Lots of work today at the museum, to make the operation a terrific success!

Happy Easter to all!

Les

  

April 2017 days at HVRM 4/2 and 4/8

 

Greetings!

Last Sunday (April 2nd) I opened the depot for the Great Lake Rail Cars groups Annual Meeting (see photo 1).   Hoosier Valley received a nice donation from the group for the use of the depot.  As I was closing up Grasselli Tower after their meeting, a couple of other folks showed up; one couple from Etna Green, Indiana and the other from Wallace, Idaho!  Always good to talk to visitors to the museum! 

Today (Saturday, April 8th), we had a mostly sunny day at North Judson for the monthly Board meeting.  Tom Travis told me at the meeting that Malcolm McCarter had passed away.  Mac was a great guy who ran a railroad photography business from his home in Arizona.  We have some of his photos for sale at the museum and also have some on display.  Mac was also one of the founding fathers of the Illinois Railway Museum. 

After the meeting, Bud Tibbie and I managed to get the last seat off of the platform of Grand Trunk Western transfer caboose # 75072.  Not a fun job, but we got it done!

Steve Henrichs as engineer and Doug Kosloske as conductor, spent the day switching cars around as the museum gets ready for the Easter trains next Saturday.  GE # 11 was the road unit today.

Bob Barcus and Loretta Kosloske worked in the depot.

I had often stated that we should build an old style stop sign for the Watchman's street crossing shanty at Mulberry Street and Bob Jachim surprised me with his home made sign.  That's Bob in the second photo holding the sign in front of the shanty.   Well done Bob!  BTW, Bob also prepares the coffee pot in the Nickel Plate Road kitchen car each week.  The man is multi-talented!

John LaOrange found the right key and we were able to get one of the doors open on NKP baggage car # 344.  We looked for various items amongst the parts for 2789 that are in the car, but had absolutely no luck.

More ballast was put down for the new track out behind the West Annex of the Shop and then later, Cory Bennett got the Payloader out and shoved the track over a bit more . Tom Rainford and David Cook are shown in photos 3 and 4, directing Cory's efforts.

Meanwhile, Joe Baker and this helper Brian, put up a new outside light on the west wall of the Shop building.  The fifth photo shows some of their efforts.

Bob Albert and Steve Newland did some additional work on the roof of IC display caboose # 9914 in another effort to stops the leaks in the car.

Member Dennis McNeil showed up with some donations for the museum.  That's Dennis (in  the red jacket) with Bud in the 6th photo, after we had unloaded the railroad items from Dennis's vehicle.  Always good to get donated railroad items.  Thanks Dennis!

Bjarne Henderson somehow talked wife Cindy into coming down and helping him finish painting the roof of C&EI tool car # A-1054.  That's Bjarne and Cindy in the 7th photo up on the green lift as they prepare to paint the car.

Mark Knebel and Kevin Kennedy were out in the motor car inspecting track today.   In the eighth photo, Mark brings the car back toward the shop, while Kevin (off in the distance) is locking up the switch just west of Mulberry Street.

On the way home today, I noticed that the string of stored cars on CKIN stretched from 875W (just east of La Crosse) in a solid string all the way to the derail that was put on the track in the spring of 2016.  The only breaks in the string were at public road crossings and some private crossings.  The 9th photo was taken from 875W looking back east and the photo does not do justice to the amount of cars stored!   CKIN continues the status quo.

Have a great week everyone.  It seems as if Spring IS really here!

Les