Fw: Cool spring continues at Hoosier Valley 4/14/18

 

Greetings -

We've been on the proverbial "yo-yo" this week with weather.  Days where the temps were in the 70's turning suddenly into the 50's.  Today temps in the 40's jumping up to around 60 only to fall off again in the afternoon.  And a light misty rain pretty much all day.

Board meeting today highlighted by Sarah Origer's presentation of the 2018 distribution check for HVRM's Endowment Fund of $2,931.00.  Also an interesting discussion thereafter concerning the efforts by the museum to work on a 5 year plan.  Amongst other discussions was the Board's decision not to bring an 0-4-0T to North Judson to celebrate the museums 30 year anniversary.

Meanwhile, Tom Rainford and Mark Knebel continued working on the cleanup of the area between the old tracks of the Erie Railroad wye.  The rain prevented any burning today.

Bob Gyurko started working on a new sound system for Long Island coach # 2937.  That's Bob in photo 1, preparing to begin the effort.  Didn't get down there later to get some better photos and see how he fared.

EL Alco # 310 went down to the interchange track to pull out a couple of the museums freight cars that were stored there.  After shoving them into the north storage track in the yard, the Alco is shown heading west toward the Shop with the Pennsylvania Railroad position light signal indicating a clear track (photo 2).  The signal for the next block is the New York Central signal shown in the 3rd shot.

Pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad were prepared by Charlene Gyurko for lunch.  Cookies for desert.  YUM!

In the afternoon, a work train was made up to trim some of the trees that were to close to the right-of-way between the museum and the Kankakee River bridge.  Train consisted of # 310, the Nickel Plate open car (NKP # 1946), EL caboose # C345 and NKP caboose # 471.  John DeGan was engineer and John LaOrange conductor.  Riding on NKP 1946 were (from left in photo 4) were Cory Bennett, Joe Kingsbury and Kevin Kennedy.  Also on the open car were conductor LaOrange and Tom Rainford.  

Meanwhile, Mark Knebel and I rode in EL # C345 and detrained in spots where cut branches needed to be removed.  That's Mark on the ground in the 5th photo and myself in photo # 6.

The seventh photo shows the cutting being done as seen from the ground.  Meanwhile, John DeGan started and stopped the Alco as directed, innumerable times.  That's John in the 8th shot keeping an eye on the progress of the work.

As we neared the Kankakee River bridge, the growth alongside the track was heavy and Tom Rainford assisted with branch removal on the ground, while Kevin Kennedy later brought the saw down to make cutting a bit easier.  The 9th shot shows cutting from the open car, Kevin is shown trimming branches in the 10th picture while Tom is working in the 11th photo, trying to remove some of the cuttings.

We finally finished the work and headed back to the museum.  The last shot shows John pushing the work train back toward track 3 next to the shop.  A good day!  Tiring, but good.

Thanks to Tom Rainford for the 4th, 6th and 9th photos for this museum report. 

Enjoy the upcoming week everyone!

Les

 

Wind wins out over snow at HVRM 3/24/18

Greetings -

Wicked March snowstorm roared into the Midwest but a very strong east wind kept all of it to the south and west of Hoosier Valley.  That was the good news.  The bad news is that the cold temps and the howling wind made things pretty miserable being outside at the museum today. 

Despite the weather, things did still manage to get done today.  Tom Rainford reported that a cracked joint bar and resulting track gap got repaired in the morning.

And a train crew including John Degan, Steve Henrichs and Doug Kosloske, used Alco # 310 to switch out equipment to make up the train for the East Egg Hunt scheduled for next Saturday.  In the photos below, the crew is bringing out the backup cars from Track 3 next to the Shop.  That's Bob Jachim flagging the Mulberry Street crossing in the second shot while Conductor Steve Henrichs is shown riding a caboose in the last photo as the train moves east past the North Judson depot.

Good to see member Tom Travis at the museum today.  Tom, wife Maureen and daughter Brianne, stopped by and then planned on lunching at the Blue Jay later.

Visitor Kevin Norman visited and looked over the museum.  Kevin has made arrangements to record our S-1 Alco and our Purdue crane.  These recordings will be for model railroaders as sound on their models of the prototypes.

Bob Albert was putting up some prototype photos in both the depot and in our Illinois Central display caboose, IC number 9914.

Hopefully, this storm that just slipped by to our south, will be this winters last hurrah.  It is officially Spring after all!

Have a great week everyone!

Les  

   

Short report from Hoosier Valley 3/17/18

Greetings!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!  Cloudy day at the museum, but the light snow and/or freezing rain ended early in the morning.

The Long Island passenger coach was pulled from the Shop and started up to check the heat in preparation for its use in the Easter Egg Hunt trains scheduled for the last day of this month.  Operation of the car was satisfactory.  GE number 11 was used.

Erie-Lackawanna Alco # 310 had problems this morning, but Todd and Kyle Flanagan came over and got the unit running.  Apparently just needed to be warmed up.  Both units are currently blue-carded and available for operations.

In the first photo, Charlene Gyurko (at left) and Loretta Kosloske are shown working on the "goody bags" for the kiddies that will participate in the previously mentioned Easter Egg Hunt on March 31st. 

Lunch today came from the Route 10 Restaurant in North Judson.  Pretty good pizza!  Desert provided by Charlene who brought in cookies, and also by Joe Baker, who made some fabulous brownies, with green frosting no less!

Bi-monthly membership meeting was started by President Cory Bennett right at 1:00 p.m.  Some interesting discussions.  Loretta reported that of the 450 available seats for the three Easter Egg Hunt trains, a little over 380 had already been spoken for!  Looks like we will have a good start to the 2018 train season.  Check the upcoming newsletter for additional business meeting information.

Had a chance today to take a shot of the "back side" of the two cars we use for membership meetings and lunch.  The car on the left is Nickel Plate Road camp car number X58538.  This is where we cooked and ate for a number of years.  The car is currently being remodeled on the inside.  The newer addition is # K-325, a former U.S. Army kitchen car where we had lunch today and then the membership/business meeting.

Work continued on various projects in the West Annex of the Shop.  In the last photo, Bob Gyurko and Josh S. (at rear) are shown as they replenish the wood supply for the wood stove that keeps the West Annex warm on these cold days.  That's Joe Kingsbury "sneaking" out of the photo to the left, after he finished sweeping up ashes and other debris in the area.

Have a great week everyone!

Les

  

Fixing it up and cleaning it up at HVRM 3/10/18

Greetings!

Sunny all day but cool in the wind.  But spring is right around the corner!

Bob Jachim made coffee this morning, but reported later that two of the "new" coffee pots weren't working.  The old pot was put into use.

There was a Board meeting at the museum this morning.  Doug Kosloske read the minutes and took care of other jobs in the absence of Kevin Kennedy.  Some very Interesting discussions including Bob Barcus talking about a 5 year plan for Hoosier Valley.  More to come on this!  Also, guest Chris Costello of the Erie Business Car Society talked to the Board members about the Erie Railroad's President's car number 1.  Also mentioned was a saddle tank steam locomotive and the possibility of bringing it to HVRM to celebrate the museums 30th year.  No decisions made.  Loretta Kosloske gave a report on passenger train and guest engineer happenings.

Mark Knebel spent the morning using the Payloader to finish a job he started last Saturday; that is, cleaning up the area behind the original Shop building (note photo 1).   This is an area that is visible to train riders and was long filled with sections from cut trees saved for the wood furnace in the West Shop Annex.  The large pieces were moved over to the wood pile and Mark spent these past two Saturdays, cleaning up the wood debris.  A much better appearance for sure!

Joe Kingsbury continued working on ND&W diesel # 5332.

In the second photo, John La Orange is shown working on one of the trucks on Bessemer & Lake Erie caboose #1989.  He replaced two brake shoes.

Charlene Gyurko fixed a terrific lunch today; chili, corn bread and lime jello (with pineapple and cottage cheese).

After lunch, Mark and I went into his office to look at a diagram of the Chesapeake & Ohio lettering for the tender on Kanawha # 2789.  It appears that the letters in the diagram are the same size as the official C&O letters drawing.  

Bob Albert got one of the windows in Nickel Plate caboose # 471 replaced.

Recently, some driver apparently lost control of his car over on Arlington Street and took out the chain link fence alongside museum property, as per the 3rd photo.  Mark brought the Payloader over and we cleaned up this debris and took it over to the scrap pile.  We also then decided that we should clean up another pile in the middle of that section of property that also contained some chain link fence parts and in the 4th shot, Mark is pulling those fence pieces out of that particular debris.  This was also taken over to the museum's scrap pile.

Meanwhile Cory Bennett and Tom Rainford had been working on GE diesel # 11.  There was a section of pipe that was part of the cooling system and somehow it had ruptured, perhaps from ice being trapped inside the line.  In the fifth photo, Tom is shown trying to solder that narrow break closed.  Tested with water in the system later, it appears that the repair was holding.

Bob Gyurko got the electrical line on the south side of the old, original section of the Shop working and also installed a new light over there.  That is great news!  Thanks Bob!

At lunchtime, Bing Risley told me that he had come up with a nice concrete slab that he thought we might be able to use for the entrance to the lower lever of Grasselli Tower.  I looked at the slab, which measured 3' x 4' and thought that it would be much better that the concrete blocks we currently were "temporarily" using.  So, I took the blocks all apart, and piled them next to the tower, then Mark and I went over and got some stone and dumped it into the now vacant spot in front of the door.  I then smoothed the stone out as shown in the 6th picture.  The old removed concrete blocks can be seen just beyond the new pad of stone.

Finally, as long as I was over by Grasselli, I thought I'd grab a quick shot of the 3 head Erie searchlight signal that stands next to the tower.  In this last photo, you'll note that the bottom light (normally red) needs to be replaced.

Have a great week everyone!

Les    

       

 

Nasty weather at HVRM 2/3/18

 

Greetings -

Had a nasty cold last week so wasn't at Hoosier Valley on 1/27, but have ridden it out so was at the museum today.  Speaking of nasty, the weather was like that today.  A bit warmer than Friday, but the very strong winds made it feel COLD!

Saw Loretta Kosloske in the depot and she advised me that Steve Henrichs had been at HVRM on the 27th and worked up in Grasselli Tower.  I went up there and found out what Mr. Henrichs had been up to!  The first two shots show the trim added to various window frames.  Obviously Steve had pre-painted a few of these, but not all of them.   This window trim had originally not been completed so that the weights for the window sashes could be "tweaked".  Since the windows all seem to work okay, the trim needed to be finished.  Well done Steve!

Meanwhile, Bob Barcus was running off labels for the upcoming mailing of the newsletter.  After the labels came through the labeler and spilled all over the floor, Bob had to wrap them up into a roll so that Joe & Louise Kingsbury could send the newsletter out.  The third photo shows Bob at work.  Note the labels still on the floor waiting to be rolled up!  I think Bob said there was about 250 of these labels.  Another great job by Mr. Barcus!!!!

Walked back over to the Shop and found Bob Albert outside, grinding away on one of the windows of Nickel Plate Road bay window caboose # 471 (4th photo).  Bob has been doing the cars various windows as the museum prepares to eventually repaint the car some time this spring.  The wicked wind didn't make Bob's job any easier today!

Inside the heated West Annex of the Shop, found that Mark Knebel had painted the two roof walk hand grabs for Chicago and North Western boxcar # 284.  The results of one of those is shown in the fifth photo.

Finally, work continues on Notre Dame & Western diesel # 5332.  Cory Bennett worked on the units windows earlier in the day and in the last photo, John DeGan is shown scrapping rust off of the inside of the Porter's cab while Joe can be seen in the background getting ready to vacuum up some paint chips.  I actually grabbed a screwdriver and removed some rust myself until the announcement came that the cold weather was going to end up causing an early quit for the day.  Never complain about an early quit!!!

Snow due in this weekend for the northwestern corner of Indiana.  We are running a bit of a snow deficit this year, but supposed to be made up in the next week.  We shall see.  Have a great week everyone!

Les

Great weather for December at Hoosier Valley 12/2/17

Greetings -

Sunny December day with temps in the mid-50's!  Great weather for the first day of Santa trains!

Alco 310 was the power for all 3 sold-out trains today.  Engineer was Steve Henrichs, conductor Doug Kosloske, student conductor Stephen Bulla, car host for two trains was Bud Tibbie and for the other train was Loretta Kosloske.  Mark Knebel did the morning track inspection using the motor car (photo 1) and then flagged the country road crossings for all 3 trains (Steve Henrichs is also in the photo as he had just thrown the Shop switch so that Mark could put the motor car away for the day).    I helped Santa a little bit and also provided Mulberry Street flagman protection, as did Bob Jachim and Bob Albert.

Loretta's decorated Christmas tree in the depot is shown in the second photo.  Loretta and Bob Barcus handled depot duties today. 

Mark continued to work on the lettering on the C&NW box car this week.

We also received a truck load of composite ties earlier this week, as seen in the 3rd photo.

A few extra members would be welcome the next two Saturdays to handle the Santa trains.  If you can make it, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!   Enjoy the unseasonable warm weather while it lasts!

Les   

     

  

January snow melt at Hoosier Vallery 1/15/18

Greetings -

After missing a month due to the Christmas holidays and frigid weather, I managed to make it to the museum today.  The temps have moderated into the 40's and the snow on the ground at North Judson, started to turn to slush!  Rain due in over the next couple of days, should get rid of what is left.

Chicago and North Western box car # 284 was parked on the museums main line near the museums depot.  Couldn't pass up the photo opportunity with the bright sun on the snow, and the result is seen in the first photo.

Made it to the Shop where I found Long Island passenger car # 2937 occupying one of the shop tracks.  The bolster pin needed to be greased, and the heavy jacks were in place getting ready to lift up one end of the 2937.  Cory Bennett is shown in the second shot making some adjustments, as John DeGan watches.  John LaOrange was manning the jack on the opposite side of the car and here he is at left in the 3rd photo with Steve Henrichs, as they get that jack moved slowly up to make contact with the car.  Once the actual lift was started, Steve (closest to the camera) in the fourth photo and John DeGan with his eye on the wood level placed on the back platform, watch to make sure the car stays on the level as it goes up.  The grease was applied later. 

Joe Kingsbury was working on the ND&W Porter diesel in the West Annex of the Shop building.

Also going on in the West Annex, Mark Knebel was painting roof walk sections of C&NW box car # 284 (5th pix).  I put the camera away, grabbed a paint brush and gave Mark a hand.  We ended up finishing two roof walk sections (see photo 6) before lunch.  With 3 sections that Mark did earlier, only 3 shorter sections need to be done before the walk is finished and can be put back up on the car roof.  A job that probably won't be done until this spring.

After lunch, the members started to gather in meeting car # K-325 for the Annual Membership Meeting.  The last photo shows Cory at the far end facing the camera, with Treasurer Bob Barcus seated to his left.  Too many folks to point out here, and more came in before the meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m.  Since there were no other nominations, the 4 incumbents up for re-election, were all voted back in.  Congrats!  Lots of interesting things were discussed.  Check the upcoming Newsletter for additional info.

Enjoy the "January Thaw"!

Les