Christmas come early this year

Frank writes...

Saturday was my first day out at IRM since last September. I think the last time I went this long without a visit to Union was when I was 2 and we lived in New Jersey. The good news was, I didn't miss Christmastime at the museum! What in the 27th of April is going on here?!?

The other good news is that it could have been worse; as ridiculous as this was, forecasts were for anywhere from 3" to 8" of snow. What we ended up with was only 2-3" on cars and perhaps an inch on the roads because the ground was warm enough that the snow didn't start sticking to the pavement until the sun went down.

The reason for my visit was the annual operating safety meeting, which was edifying as usual, and the annual meeting of the membership in the evening. During the day I got to chat with some out-of-towners like Tom Hunter, Steve Iversen, and Rich Block. I also caught up on progress on several projects made over the winter. Bill and Tim showed me all of the progress on the 1754; Bill showed me through the Baldy; and I got to see some riveting work (in more ways than one!) that was done just last week on Michigan 28. Above is the Fox River Electric car, which the last time I saw it was in its thirty-year home back in the corner of the barn.

In the 306's old spot now sits the Cleveland PCC, shown here with its biggest fan. Jon Fenlaciki and Mike Stauber were hard at work sanding down the roof boards on the 65, out of view to the right in this shot, while the 'Liner crew was working on the interior of the A car.

In the evening I performed my civic duty and attended the annual meeting, which was led by Marcus Ruef since outgoing president Norm Krentel (now off the board due to term limits) had to be out of town. Our usual congratulations and condolences go out to Paul Cronin, who was reelected to a second term on the board, and to the Car Department's own Thomas Slater, who was elected to his first term. Thomas is currently the youngest member of the IRM board and the fact that we have directors whose ages span nearly 50 years speaks, I think, very positively of the organization. Congratulations also go to Marcus, who was afterwards elected president of the board, succeeding Norm.