Steam & Excursion > The Hesston Steam Museum

This past weekend I visited an operation that I have known about for years, but had never gotten around to visiting: the Hesston Steam Museum at Hesston, Indiana.  The museum is located about 20 minutes from Michigan City on the Indiana / Michigan border, and is home to three-foot, two-foot, 14 inch and 7 1/2 inch gauge equipment.

The largest locomotive on the property, three-foot gauge Shay #7, wasn't operating this weekend, but that little Czek built two-foot 0-4-0 saddle-tanker kinda grew on me.  I'm not small by any stretch of the imagination, so you can guess how cramped that cab was with me joining a crew of two!  How fortunate that little handheld Sony has a good wide angle lens.

In addition to the CSK 0-4-0ST, a 7 1/2 inch 4-6-0 and 14-inch 4-6-4 were under steam.  Weather was beautiful on Saturday and turnout was good, while the threat of storms (which fortunately bucked the forecast and came through before the trains started running) kept the numbers down from the day before on Sunday.  All in all, it was a good weekend and everyone looked to be having a great time.

The video is edited from around 2 hours and 40 minutes of raw footage shot during the course of the weekend.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Nice! It has been decades since I visited there. I'm pretty sure that both the two foot and 14" equipment was given to them by the late Elliot Donnely's wife. When Elliot passed away, she didn't want "all that train stuff" in the back yard of their Lake Forrest, IL estate, so she told the 1 1/2" Scale guys to pack-up and leave, and she then gave all the two foot and 14" gauge Wagner Hudson. Elliot really enjoyed that big Hudson, but as he got older and older he couldn't run it for too long, thus I usually got stuck running it for invited guests & visitors on Saturdays.

Nice to see other people enjoying Elliot's trains.

Great video. Looks like fun!

Hi Mary. Glad to finally meet you after several years following you here on T.O..
One minor correction ---  the 'CSK' should actually be 'CKD'. The CSK mis-naming originated with our late General Manager, infamous for mangling or mispronouncing names. He used it so much, most of the volunteers don't know the proper name. See attached photo of the builder's plate ---Ceskomoravska Kolben Danek. It was built in 1940, remained unfired until August 1987.
John Harbeck
Hesston Steam Museum

John Harbeck
Valparaiso, IN

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Thanks for another outstanding video, Mary.  Looks like a great place for steam fans to visit.  Wish I lived closer.

Thanks Mary for sharing the video and to HotWater for his story. Hesston is truly a treasure of steam and not just trains. As I recall, Labor Day is a big weekend for operations.

And in a truly amazing coincidence, one of the several projects I'm managing at the moment is the plans for the resurfacing of Indiana State Route 39 which is the access from either I-94 or I-80/90. Be warned the construction starts next spring!

New Buffalo MI to the north has a few good places to eat including The Stray Dog and Redamaks.

Posted from iPhone

Thank you for posing the video! Back in the late 70's there was a group that had antique fire trusks at the Hesston Museum. I went there several times for meets and it was always a good show. Steam locomotives steam fir eengines and antique fire trucks all at the same time!

Nice video,Mary.  I have a hat from the Stet and Query Central given to me by my uncle who worked many years at R R Donnely and knew Elliot. Too bad my uncle never took me to Elliot's house.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/16 21:16 by zoohogger.