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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.

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.

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

Meet Tim Green. He’s the current Locomotive Engineer. Tim was a professional Auto Mechanic for many years as were his sons. Tim took it upon himself to make sure that Voiture 410’s Pride and Joy was Street Legal. This past Parade Season was a pretty huge success, which I’ll be talking about in other articles, but this article will focus on Tim and his accomplishments.

The Garage and Tim’s farm were not the only places that the locomotve was worked on. On the way home from the Racine Parade, the brakes failed. Due to Dave Lyons familiarity with driving the vehicle, he was able to goose it back to Post 21’s garage under its own power. Once there, Tim Green and his son Chris were able to effect repairs and make the Somers Parade (pretty much) on time. Chris was heard saying that “the Locomotive is going to be in the parade even if it’s on the back of a trailer!” Thankfully , Tim and his team made all of those problems a thing of the past.

The locomotive is now under a tarp back in Post 21’s garage, and Tim has the battery on a conditioner. He plans on bringing it back to his farm in April to get it ready for the 2024 Parade Season. We are also thinking of ways we can get her on the road for fundraising.

Any Ideas on that?

Current List of Events

• Event #, Date, Event, Driver, Co-Driver
• 1 | Jun 5, 2023 | Shakedown Cruise | Tim Green | Paul Ciarelli
• 2 | Jul 1, 2023 2023 | Twin Lakes Libertyfest Parade | Dave Lyons* | Paul Ciarelli
• 3 | Jul 2, 2023 2023 | Kenosha Civic Veterans Parade | Dave Lyons* | Paul Ciarelli
• 4 | Jul 4, 2023 2023 | Racine’s 87th Annual Parade | Dave Lyons* | Jon Lyons
• 5 | Jul 4, 2023 2023 | Village & Town of Somers, WI | Tim Green | Tom Visintainer
• 6 | Jul 9, 2023 | Bristol Progress Days Parade | Tim Green | Paul Ciarelli
• 7 | Aug 26, 2023 | Moose Lodge Fundraising Mission | Tim Green | Rich Bowker
• 8 | Sep 22, 2023 | Escort George Peter on his 100’th Birthday | Tim Green | Paul Ciarelli

Here’s the short list of Tim’s accomplishments.

List of Improvements by Tim Green and the Green Machine

1. Removal of:
   • 3 broken air horn / compressors and associated tanks & hoses
     • We figured about 150 lbs worth
   • 100’s of feet of wiring
   • A particularly evil Oil Filter that took over an hour to remove
   • Old Speakers an lights that we couldn’t get parts for
   • All Blue lights (We were originally told no blue by the police, but that was rescinded)
   • Oil tank used for smoke
   • Cabin Fans
   • Old Radio, CB, 8 Track Player, Cassette Player
2. Coolant Fan and Thermostat 
3. 50’ Feet of Wire Loom
4. Welded 3 Lug studs to the back of wheel Front Left and 3 new lug nuts
5. Antifreeze flush and New Antifreeze (-30)
6. New Headlight
7. Spark Plug wire set and plugs.
8. Rotor and Distributer Cap
9. New Fuel Pump & Filter
10. Complete rebuild of carburetor.
11. Air Filter
12. Oil Change with filter
13. Dome Light
14. Wash / Wax / Polished Brass (Brasso and Never Dull)
15. Fixed air shock line, Front Left (Currently 95 lbs.)
16. Cleaned and inspected brakes.
17. Grease all lube points.
18. Inspected Trunnions (There are spare parts in the box)
19. Backup alarm
20. Rewired all light switches.
21. Added a manual backup alarm
22. Battery Tender
23. Rear Air Shocks
24. Seal leaks in Oil Cover
25. Fuel Gage / fuel Inlet mechanism.
    • Dig out the old float mechanism and replace parts on it
26. Brake system overhaul including new shoes, and cylinders
27. Brake Master Cylinder Replacement
28. Touch up Paint
29. Clean old Seat Pads ( the old faux leather was pretty awful )

Notes from Tim:

1. The locomotive is made of 70-year-old wood!!!    Treat the locomotive as a piece of wood!
   • NO SMOKING
2. Do not drive faster than 65MPH
   • The Speedometer is not calibrated
     • 65MPH on the speedometer is 50MPH Clocked.  

Still needs to be done.

What’s Next

Tim still has some projects he’s working on

1. New Tires (The current tires have tread, but they are pretty dry rotted)
2. Tim’s son is making a cow catcher.
3. Front suspension, esp. Drivers side.
4. Emergency Brakes
5. Smoke System to replace the old dripping oil on the manifold trick

Tim is also helping designing and installing the electronic/electrical projects that were donated by my wife Linda and me.

• Fuse box – Tim ran all lights and electronics to individual fuses, which replaced the old bus bars.
• Cabin Fan – Fused and Installed by Tim
• Sound System with Kenwood head unit and custom built MP3 player
• Sound System version 2
  • The buttons will be re-located to the dashboard for improved accessibility and safety.
• Public Address System with sirens and whistle sounds
  • Purchased but not yet Installed
• Front and rear facing cameras with dashboard 7″ Screen.
  • Purchased but not yet Installed

By the way, compiling and typing all of this was exhausting. Tim’s doing of all that in the timeframe he had was an incredible achievement!

KAVV Treasurer Richard Bowker presented a check for $500.00 to the Nurses Training Grant Fund to Chef de Gare Jim Schmidt. This donation is in addition to the $160 collected at the KAVV’s annual fundraiser for the Training fund, and the Locomotive Operations Fund. As mentioned in the August Minutes, the locomotive was present at the Moose Lodge event for this purpose. Rich is also a Voiture 410 Voyageur!

Dual KAVV/V410 Voyageur members present Nurses Training Fund Donation to Chef de Gare Schmidt

The locomotive was placed at the entrance to the KAVV Fundraiser

This is the new Fundraising Sign purchased for this type of event.

We are pretty proud of our locomotive restoration, but the real story of the re-establishment of Kenosha County’s Voiture 410 is the restoration of the the Nurses Training Grant Program.

Recognizing the shortage of registered nurses, this program is designed to provide some financial assistance to registered nursing students from Kenosha County pursuing an associate or higher degree in a nursing school program.

Please consider donating to this cause to help some of Kenosha County’s Nurses by clicking or scanning the QR Code

If you are currently attending higher education in a Nursing School program, please contact us to see if you qualify..