Lake Shore Live Steamers.com

Located at

Penitentiary Glen
8668 Kirtland-Chardon Rd
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

John Koontz, Edith Hacker, Greg Guy, Judy Oscker and Trish Koontz at the station working on the preparation work for the pumpkin carving by cleaning out the pumpkins. Judy and Trish remove the innards as John takes time to enjoy a coffee.

The women are smiling so they still must be having fun. The Park service provided us with three containers of pumpkins for our Whooloween Run which is a night run for this coming Friday and Saturday.

The pumpkins were bigger this year so we had just a little over 100 for a total in the three bins. Greg used a sawsall to cut the tops out of the pumpkins providing a keyway as he did.

Dave Hird joined us in cleaning out the innards of the pumpkins as the crew continues with the task at hand. At this end of the tables, Lew Fowler is watching Dave Cryor as he starts carving the pumpkin.

Roberta and Mike Uhrich joined us along with their grandaughter Nora for the carving as Lew watches them deciding on what to carve. Greg takes a break from carving as Dave and Trish continue on.

I had a conversation with Colin Howell, the son of Margaret and Chris Howell and he was wondering whether anyone was going to give him a knife to carve a pumpkin. When I went back to see how Colin was doing he said "Look at what they gave me, how am I supposed to carve a pumpkin with these?"

Marcel Uhrich, Paulette Howell, Mike and Jerry Bell were carving a pumpkin as Judson Elliott at the rear watches. Gradually the pumpkins started getting placed on the tie grade wall after they were carved with either a funny, humorous or grotesque face.

Between these two pictures there's 22 carved pumpkins on the wall which means we have a long way to go to get to over 100 carved pumpkins. About a half hour later another 11 of them were added to the wall, at least were making progress.

A view of the busy workers at the station which was a smaller crew than we usually have. Margaret Howell, Paulette and James Howell (holding Colin) and Mike in the foreground with Ron Malinowski, Jerry Bell and Valerie Bilchak behind him.

More pumpkins are added on the wall but it was on the cool side today and the crew cleaning out pumpkins had cold hands. Marcel Uhrich by his two kids, James and Claire alongside the work engine that has two gondola cars waiting to be loaded with pumpkins.

The sun is starting to set so we had to turn the lights on in the station as the shadows were deepening. More members and friends are showing up and its helping the workload.

Some more of the carved pumpkins as they were lined up on the wall waiting to be loaded in a train and taken to storage till the weekend run this Friday and Saturday night. The members and friends are busy as they keep carving.

Everyone's engrossed in the task at hand as masterpieces are trying to be created. The floor and the bench behind the table show that there are still a lot more pumpkins to be carved.

Valerie takes time out from carving her pumpkin to give us a smile. Ron Malinowski looks like a smile of apprehension but he seems to be enjoying it too.

Jerry Bell looks deep in thought as he continues the carving of his next masterpiece. More have joined in and it's a good sign, maybe we will make it carving them all tonight.

Mike Harkleroad started loading the train with the carved pumpkins in preparation to taking them to the storage barns. There's a lot of pumpkins to get down there and it's probably going to take several trips.

Darkness has settled in as the carving continues and there's more of a chill in the air. A view of the overall activity at the front of the station as more members have arrived.

This view from the other end of the station clearly shows that a lot of the pumpkins that were on the bench behind the tables are gone, so we are nearing our goal. There are probably less than a dozen pumpkins still to be carved, out of the more than 100 we had and so ends another work session.