Howard and the 309

This is quite interesting: the Trib has been putting many of its old photos on eBay, and here's one of Howard Odinius, the founder of IRM, inspecting the interior of the 309 in 1962.  Frank bought the original, and when we have it in our hands we'll update this a little.  For now, we have this scan. It's fun to compare this to a recent picture of the interior, at roughly the same place.

The car was backdated somewhat during restoration to the late 40's.  So the end walls and the ceiling trim pieces are now stained and varnished; these parts were painted in 1951.   Also the arm rests were painted black.  Otherwise the car is little changed.  The same scenery picture appears at the end of the car, although it is now a reproduction of the original.  And a lot of the car cards are the same, although they've been moved around.  I hadn't seen such a good picture of the cards at the end of service before.  Most of them look very familiar!