Heartlands Train Club News

Recent article on steam locomotive 1023 in the Pittsburg Morning Sun:    (Link)

News from February meeting:

    1023 Steam Locomotive Display Track: The display track has been completed at Carona for the 1023. Members of the SKOL track crew installed the ties and rails and have tamped and lined the track. Ballast has been delivered and applied by Freddy Van’s Construction. We have also applied rock to the area where the trailer hauling the locomotive will run when it is delivered to Carona. Several tree limbs in the way were removed by Erwin Tree Service. We are now ready at Carona for the delivery of the tender and locomotive.

Alan and Reed are still cataloging and scanning slides, Alan says he has scanned over 18,000 from the Tribbey collection alone. He will need more metal slide boxes soon; we are looking into acquiring some.

The 2012 preliminary train ride schedule has been submitted to WATCO for approval.  Once the schedule is approved, the dates and locations of the public rides will be posted on the website.  Three motorcar rides are in the planning stages in the next few months.  Once those are firmed up they will be posted on the website.

We are having three Safety Training Sessions this spring for anyone wanting to help out on the train rides. You must attend one of these classes to be eligible to be a car attendant. The rides are our main source of income so please come out and help with this fun activity. Two of the sessions will be at Carona and start at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday March 10th and Saturday March 31st. One class will be held in Wichita by Jim McKeel and will be on Saturday March 31st starting at 1:00 p.m. at the KO railroad headquarters building.

Heartlands member Jeff Cooney of Gainesville, Texas has volunteered to restore at no cost to the club the Pyle National headlight and tender light off the 1023. Jeff is an excellent craftsman on his restorations and has done several things we have around the museum grounds including the Frisco train order in front of the Boston depot, the wig-wag signal from Baxter Springs, the sign boards on the Carona depot and the Western Union and Railway Express signs. Jeff also restored and had on display for several years the wooden Frisco hand pump car we had in the museum building. On a motion from Nick Meyer and seconded by Rudy Titsworth it was unanimously voted to accept Jeff’s gracious offer.

John Chambers attended a meeting of the Miners Memorial Museum in Franklin, Kansas in which it was discussed how area organizations can be involved in the 2013 visit of the Smithsonian traveling history display called “The Way We Worked”. The display will be at Franklin for 60 days in May and June of 2013 and they are planning on around 300 people a day to tour the museum. During this year they want to have area groups to put up displays for one month on the subject of working in a particular field such as railroading. John has agreed to setup a small display of some of our material in June or July with a program at Carona in conjunction on one Saturday afternoon. If anyone is interested in helping with this worthy project contact John Chambers for more information.

Reminder: 2012 dues are due January 2012 and are $20.00 for individuals and $30.00 for families and can be mailed to this address: Heart of the Heartlands, Inc. P.O Box 211, Scammon, KS 66773.