Bad day to take Amtrak

I stopped by the Amtrak station to see how construction was going and noticed several suitcases on the platform. Then the owners came up the ramp and told me that the train had had an accident in Monon. Amtrak was arranging bus transportation for both those on the train and the five people waiting in Renssealer. (I tried to find out more from the Amtrak site, but there was nothing I could find. However, WLFI was on the case. The train hit a tractor pulling a tank of anhydrous ammonia.)

 The two ladies approaching in the distance had been walking on the track--they seem to have gone down to McKinley and bought something to drink at the Marathon station.

As for the construction, the roof seems to be complete, but there is much activity with the railings (see the left of the picture.) and with the windows.

Addendum: If there were people who missed connections to other trains in Chicago, they may experience life as a misconnect.

Reynolds, a new steel town?

While watching the news on WLFI, I saw an ad about a company called Magnetation opening an iron-ore pellet plant in Reynolds, Indiana. The web page for Magnetation says that they are a new company and that they mine the waste of old iron mines in northern Minnesota. (The Mesabi range was an incredibly rich source of iron in its day, and I recall visiting some of the huge mines when I was growing up in Minnesota.)

A press release from November says that the new plant will become operational in late 2014 or early 2015 and employ about 100 to 120 people. The cost of the plant is given as $300 to $350 million. Another press release from May 20 of this year said that the company had found financing for the venture.

If the raw material comes from Minnesota, it may be shipped through the Great Lakes to the the south end of Lake Michigan. If it then is transported by rail, it seems likely to be passing through Rensselaer on the CSX line. Reynolds also has the Topeka, Peoria, and Western Railroad running through it (the railroad coming through Kentland and Remington), but that railroad runs east-west and does not seem like a route that would be used to get the iron ore from Lake Michigan.

I do not understand why Reynolds is a good location for a plant like this. It seems to be far from both the source of raw material and the market for the finished product. If anyone knows more, I would like to hear it.

Building trades open house 2013

Last weekend the building trades class of RCHS had an open house for their school project, a house on West Vine Street.

When one goes through the front door, one enters a large room that has the kitchen, a dining area, and a living room area. I did not get a picture of this room because it was full of people--a lot of people came to the open house. It is similar to the large main room in the 2011 building trades house, though the kitchen area has its working surfaces and cabinets arranged a bit differently.

On the east end of the house are two bedrooms with a bathroom between them. The house has lots of electrical outlets and lots of closets. Most of the floors are carpeted.

 The east bathroom is ordinary.

 The garage is on the west end of the house and has a door into the west hallway.

 At the end of the west hallway is a utility room. It has hookups for a washing machine and dryer, and also a third toilet.

 The master bedroom is also on the west end. The bedroom itself looks like the east bedrooms, though it is larger. One thing I thought unusual was that the large closet for the master bedroom had two ceiling lights.

The master bathroom does not have the standard bathtub but rather a large shower area.

Here is the zillow listing on this house and here is the realtor listing.

The pool is open

The summer swim season is now underway at Brookside Park with the opening of the LaRue Pool a few minutes after noon. (I do not think the baby pool is open yet--it did not have any water this morning.) This year the pool has something new. I could not figure out what it was, so I had to ask. Without reading the answer below the picture, can you identify this new addition to the pool?

And the answer is that it is a chair that will allow a disabled person to be lowered into the pool. It is part of the city's conforming with ADA regulations.

Update: The water was warmer than I expected it to be. It helped that they filled the pool last week.

I am not sure what the status of Lake Banet Park will be this summer. The beach will not be staffed with lifeguards, though if you want to rent the facility, you can also rent guards. Employees have been told that they can swim at their own risk, but I doubt that the general public is welcome to do the same. 

Construction update 06-06-2013

The concrete pad for the Farm Credit Building seems to be in place. A couple of weeks ago the workers were still installing drainage.

 Dale's Steak and Chop Shop has almost finished enclosing coolers or freezers. It is located behind the bowling alley.

The old woodwork was replaced on the Steinke's and by now may be covered with vinyl siding.

 In addition to vinyl siding, the renovation is adding decorative stonework. This picture shows the back corner of the building.

 In April I wondered how the new garage at the Owen Parker house would blend with the rest of the building. It appears that it will blend very well judging from the roofing tiles.

 Someone who knows a lot about architecture told me a few years ago that the Owen Parker house was the most interesting bit of residential architecture in Rensselaer. Built in 1917, it has elements of Craftsman and Tudor Revival styles. I have no idea who Owen Parker was, but he must have been one of the prominent citizens a century ago.

Another bit of residential renovation that has caught my attention is on the corner of Jefferson and Jackson. It was built circa 1905 and has been gutted, taken down to the studs. When they started working on it, I wondered if they were going to demolish it completely. Here is what it looked like at the beginning of May.

 After a new roof, siding, new windows, a new front porch, and who knows what has been changed inside, this is what it currently looks like.

The other big construction project is work on the electrical substations near the power plant and on Melville. Work continues, but it does not lend itself to interesting pictures.