Safety First

"Safety First" is the essential principle for any type of railroad operation, and IRM takes it as seriously as any Class I railroad, if not more so.  Today was the Annual Meeting day, and therefore also the date for the rules review, annual safety meeting, rules test, and so on.  Here we see Harold Krewer, our Superintendent of Operations, during the rules review part of the program.

I suppose there's no point to going into detail about the festivities.  If you're involved in IRM operations, you should be there in person, and if you're not, it would probably be too much incomprehensible information.  However, if you are part of the operating crew and were unable to be there today, there's good news!  The rules review and safety meeting were videotaped by our technical department, and will be available on the members' website for your viewing pleasure.  If you watch the videos and send in an email following the secret instructions, you'll get credit for attending the safety meeting.

The Annual Meeting is proceeding even as I speak, and Frank is there and will be reporting on the results later.

Frank adds...

Indeed, the Annual Meeting went off more or less as planned. It took four ballots to elect two directors from a slate of nine candidates. Congratulations - and condolences - to Jason Maxwell and Tim Peters, who succeed term-limited outgoing board members Dave Diamond and Bob Olson. Jason is Assistant Curator of the Steam Department while Tim, of course, is our full-time volunteer wooden 'L' car restorer.

No offense to the candidates, nor board president Norm Krentel who managed the meeting, but one of the more interesting parts of the evening was a display set up in the corner of the room showing some views of the soon-to-be-built archive/model railroad/Pullman Library building planned for Main Street. This will be the first new-build structure on Main Street and will sit on the south side of the street immediately to the west of the existing Schroeder Mercantile Store. As seen above, it will include a "false front" implying several adjoining structures, generally similar in concept to the planned appearance of the Entrance Building which in the future will sit across the street from this structure.

Unfortunately I failed to get a picture of the floor plan. Oops! But the building will incorporate a large space for the Pullman Library, which will allow that enterprise to evacuate the old bank building at 1 North Main; a space for the model railroad display; several rooms for the archives of the Milwaukee Road Historical Association, which is providing financial support to build this structure; and also a small event space that can be used as a display gallery or meeting room. The steel for this building has already been ordered and groundbreaking is expected for sometime during 2018. Exciting times on Main Street, East Union!

Meanwhile, before the meeting I stopped by Barn 4 and viewed painting progress on the front end of our Veracruz open car, number 19. Someone (Tim?) has done a very nice job of sprucing up the front of the car, which was looking pretty tired. All it needs is a classic Chicago silver-with-black-outlining number under the headlight and it will be shipshape and Burnside fashion!

And this has nothing whatsoever to do with traction preservation but one of our volunteers brought a rather impressive O scale model in to the shop. So there, now you can say you've seen a GWR Autocoach on the blog.