The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum has one of the rare (only 11 were built) EMD Model 40 4-wheel locomotives. This locomotive was not in good shape when the museum received it and was considered to be a display item only. In fact, this past summer, the unit was painted and put out as a "sign board" directing people passing on Indiana State Route 10 to the museum. This fall however, one of our members thought that there might be a chance that he could get the old girl (built in 1942) running. He has thus far managed to fire up one of the locomotives Detroit Diesels and fixed other things on it. Although we had a book on the locomotive donated to us some time ago, Section 5 (Wiring information) is unfortunately missing. This is now critical as we attempt to find out what has deteriorated or was "cut off" by the previous owner and how it has to be repaired and/or replaced.We are trying to find out if anyone out there might have this missing EMD manual including Section 5. We would like to borrow it and make copies if possible. We would also consider buying the book if necessary.Any help would be appreciated.Les Beckman (HVRM/North Judson, Indiana)

Les,Contact me offline with an email address and I'll make a PDF of Section 5 for you. (I have the manual sitting next to me, but will have to go home this evening to scan it.)I should warn you though, Ch 5 is no where detailed enough for my liking. Fortunately, when we got our EMD Model 40 at Travel Town, it was basically in running condiditon. I had to rebuild both 6-71s, but all the electrical is basically original.Is yours the phase one or the phase two with the steps cut into the frame?Greg Ramseygreg@cscvrr.orgTravel Town Museum Foundation.

Greg,If you're involved at Travel Town, I think we'd all appreciate an update of recent progress there. I know there was a volunteer shakeup a couple of years ago, but there has also been a new shelter constructed and probably other work completed also. How about an illustrated news brief?

I would love to be able to provide brief of even an article on the happenings at Travel Town. Maybe over the holidays I might find the time.In the meantime, here are some milestones.The most obvious is the completion of the "Locomotive Pavilion" or more commonly referred to as the train shed. This approximately $2 million dollar building covers almost 300' of the East ends of tracks 5 through 8. It has been open the public for 1 to 2 years now. We've been moving equipment around a lot lately and all 4 tracks are currently chock full.The 3 SP narrow gauge cars were moved off live trackage and placed on panels inside the current museum building. The remaining Hawaiian NG cars (coach, combine and caboose) were panel tracked across the museum from the Southwest end to the Northeast end under the pavilion. They are still all in pretty sad shape, but at least they are out the rain and direct sunlight.Both the EMC Model 40 and the Baldwin RS 12 (CWR56) are operational and run regularly, though the Model 40 is currently suffering from some dying 5 year old batteries. New ones have been ordered. The batteries in the Baldwin were also replaced not long ago. Amazingly when we removed the old batteries, we discovered the old ones had been installed in 1976. Those batteries lasted well over 20 years.The ATSF M.177 Motorcar's engine runs. Both the main and exciter generators have had their field pieces re-wound and the missing pole pieces have been replaced. Both generators have been installed though we are still working on the brush rigging and final wiring.Track construction outside the fence line is continuing. We are currently building track Westward from the junction turnout back into the service yard. We also rebuilt many of the display & switching tracks inside the museum proper. We recently completely rebuilt the old 3' gage track (our current track 5 West) to standard gage. In concert with that project we also surfaced, lined and tamped track 7 West, a track that was rebuilt as a Eagle project many years ago, but never quite completed. All the tracks inside the Pavilion were either rebuilt by the current volunteers or rebuilt by a contractor subbed to the building contractor. The only completely un-rebuilt track now is Track 6 West, the track under the birthday party cars and the SP 3025 (which is the only steam engine at the museum that still needs to be freed up and moved around the museum.)The Southeast corner, which used to be fenced off and used for storage of track and other materials has been completely re-landscaped and was just recently opened with a number of new picnic and BBQ areas.Both the Lil' Nugget and the UP Diner are undergoing a lot of restoration work, though almost all is inside invisible to the casual visitor.Someone discovered a few years ago that all the steam engines were painted with lead paint. That created quite a scare in some circles, and the City rapidly had all the equipment not currently being restored "remediated". Unfortunately I don't think anyone is happy with the quality of paints used to repaint the equipment and they still need to re-letter a lot of the equipment, at least they have been painted.Obviously, there is lots of work to do, but we have a dedicated small core of volunteer leaders, and we've been very successful in leveraging their skills with the addition of High school student volunteers performing their community service requirements towards graduation. But we can always use more skilled volunteers. We are out working most Saturdays if you want to check us out.I know I've missed a ton of things that have happened, but I'm trying to do this off the cuff. If there is interest I'll try and get something better later.Greg

For a wierd little locomotive with low production, it sure has a lot of survivors.The one that made the 1972 TRAINS - the old "Big Bill" EMC40 that was owned by AMF and later Harley Davidson, is under a tarp and stored behind the Agricultural Museum in York, PA. According to the curator, it's painted Harley Davidson orange faded to an ugly pink.They had no idea what it was. AMF/Harley donated it to the museum and they stored it. I sent them the data and history on it, and the TRAINS article, so maybe it will get a little more respect. But if you're looking for 'parts swapping' between museums, I'll let you know that one is out there and they don't appear to have a particularly good plan for it.