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Here are some pictures of our exhibit at the 2024 Expo! Everyone we met enjoyed it. We met and talked with lots of people who remembered the locomotive fondly. An automotive parts expert came by and pointed out some interesting about the locomotive, like part of the hardware to ring the bell is an alternator bracket for an 1960’s Chevy. We met Sandra Riese (née Singer) a nurse that Voiture helped through school in the 50’s. We met the granddaughter of “Wrecking Crew” Member Russ Gunderson. Miss Kenosha stopped by for a photo op. Lots and lots of children saw Engine V410 for the first time, and rang the bell, a lot! (my ears are still ringing even after wapping tape around the clapper). We had Sparky sit in the drivers seat. Lou Rugani stopped by and told us some old parade stories. We saw a lot of old friends and met some new ones. We even made a few dollars for the Nurses Fund. I think that is called a success! Here are some pictures to prove it!

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Tim Green is the 40et8, Voiture 410’s Locomotive Engineer. IMHO, If it weren’t for him, the locomotive would have sat in the garage for at least another 12 years collecting dust. There were even some members considering selling her off at one low point. Then came Tim.

Tim is one of those very rare guys that can seemingly fix anything. And that was a very good thing for Voiture 410, because there were doubts when we took 12 years of dust and junk off of her. For my part, it was a real treat working with him and watching him tackle one problem after another. I’ve only met a few guys like him in my life. I think of them as Leonard DaVinci’s. If I’m being honest, watching Tim work reminded me a lot of working on cars with my Dad (another Leonard DaVinci) whose wizardry helped me get a 65 Plymouth Fury that I bought for 50 bucks on the road.

As Voiture 410’s Locomotive Engineer, Tim not only got her running, he made the 86 year old vehicle safe to be on the road. There is another article below that gives an accounting of a lot (but not all) of the work he did.

Tim also had a lot of help from his son’s Tim and Chris who did the heavy lifting, and some of the wizardry they inherited from Dad. Chris’ son “CJ” was a big part of the team, always there to lend a hand. Tim’s wife Sue also made some important contributions.

While Voiture 410 is grateful for all the work he did, Tim’s most important community job is as the de facto leader of the Kenosha Area Vietnam Veterans Honor Guard (https://sewivets.org/kavv/). If your veteran loved ones have had military funeral honers in Kenosha County, there is a good chance Tim was behind the scenes helping coordinate it.

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Jon is our Aumonier/ Locomotive Coordinator. Jon’s father Dave, while not an official member of the 40/8, has been instrumental in getting the Locomotive back on the road. Jon’s Grandfather’s William was a VIP in the 40et8, both locally and nationally. Note his name on the side of the Locomotive! Jon’s responsibilities include coordinating the locomotives schedule and the “Wrecking Crew” the nickname given to the Locomotives Crew. He is also walking in Williams shoes by being one of our drivers.

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All polished up for the KACC Kenosha Expo next weekend. Tim Green and Paul Ciarelli removed the dust cover, kicked the tires and lit the fire. She’s ready for the 2024 season. If you would like the Locomotive at your event, please contact us!

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Michael Hellquist and I were searching through an old Trunk at Post 21, and we discovered our Charter, and a document listing our charter members. Both documents are sealed in a frame, so these pictures could be better. We’ll work on that. Sadly, they are going to have to go back in the trunk until we can take care of them properly as they are moldy, and they smell terrible.

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While searching through Post 21’s Newspaper Archives, I found an article showing when Voiture 410 received the Title and Keys for our locally famous Locomotive. According to the article the Locomotive was turned over on Thursday September 11, 1941. That would make her 82 years old as of the date of this article. Here’s to the next 82 years!

Kenosha Evening News Friday, September 12, 1941 The Caption reads:

KENOSHA VOITURE GETS NEW LOCOMOTIVE – The gift of the Nash-Kelvinator Corp. and other public-spirited individuals and organizations in Kenosha, the new volture locomotive for the Kenosha Forty and Eight Society was formally turned over to the chapter Thursday afternoon at the Nash plant. Above, R. A. DeVlleg, Nash-Kelvinator works manager, is presenting the certificate of title to Nick Raschke, retiring Chef de Gare. In the upper picture Mr. DeVlieg is with the nembers of the crew of the locomotive. They include Raschke, Jake Willems, Julius Roepke, Carl Gardner, Al Krahn, Ross Phelps and Dr. L E. Erling.

The pertinent part of the article reads as follows:

The chassis and motor were donated by Nash-Kelvinator, while a voluntary group of Legion and 40 et. 8 members helped with the assembling and finishing. A large number of other local firms donated various materials. The locomotive is built to the scale of the famous French locomotives of the World War. A box car will be added later.

Crew members are Jake Willems, Engineer; Carl Gardner, conductor; Julius Roepke, fireman; and Al Krahn brakeman. The locomotive will appear in the pre-convention parade to be held at Racine Saturday afternoon, and in the national 40 et 8 parade at Milwaukee Monday afternoon and evening.

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Our locomotive is making an appearance at the Kenosha Expo on Saturday March 9th, and Sunday March 10th. We are there at the invitation of Bill Zimmer of the Kenosha Garden Railroad Society, of which I am a member. Ol’ 410 will be parked next to their large G Scale layout sporting an upgraded audio system that I redesigned, a new backup/front facing camera system, and a new, very loud, PA system all of which Tim Green and I installed last week.

You can find out more about this Kenosha tradition here https://kenoshaexpo.com/

If you’re a geek and want information about the sound system, visit my GitHub here: https://github.com/lpcia/Parade-Player/tree/main. If you can use it, please consider donating to one of our causes.

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This past Monday, we had 13 people out of 21 Voyageur’s in attendance for our monthly promenade at Somers American Post 552. We were only missing Ron, Ken, and Donald who live out of town, Jon, Alex, Dennis, and Danny, who are convalescing, and only straggler. Well attended meetings are always better!

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This is a bit dated, but the Kenosha News wrote an article about our efforts dated June 23, 2023. Disclaimer: Sadly, Tim Green couldn’t make it to the interview at the last minute, and they got Chef de Gare Schmidt’s first name wrong!

Dave Lyons driving force in suggesting this news item to the KN was to honor his father. It was also Dave’s intention to garner interest in the project. In hindsight this makes sense to me as while we were driving in the Civic Veterans Parade, there were many voices yelling “Welcome Back”. Our Locomotive is something unique in Kenosha, and people have emotional ties to it.

In any case, the parades were successful this past year, and we are very much looking forward to the 2024 parade season

Here’s the link, complete with video: https://kenoshanews.com/news/local/historic-kenosha-parade-locomotive-restored-returning-after-12-years/article_702a13c2-112a-11ee-bc9e-3703c2787837.html