The first couple of years of the blog, my father would write "5, 10, 15 years ago" type posts with brief summaries of what had been going on in years past. Today seemed like a good day to do a "42 years ago" post because he reminded me that this is the 42nd anniversary of the first time the 309 ever ran at IRM. It was the spring of 1978, only three years after my father had joined Bob and Barb Rayunec in working on the car (as of 1975 the 309 was still an "illegal project" that was thought so far gone that nobody was supposed to be wasting their time on it). Norm Krentel headed up efforts to check out the car's electrical systems and its first run since leaving Wheaton was on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.
Of course it's come a long way since then - at the time the roof was far from done, the interior was still largely a burned-out shell, and it lacked some doors and windows. But it was a huge step forward in the restoration of the car. If you're interested in reading more about the long 33-year road the 309 took to restoration, click here.
I remember my first encounter with the 309 and meeting Randy. It was interesting to see the initial progress, at that time just the smoker section was coming together, and he had recently invented a device to flatten and reglue buckled veneers. I think it was around 1979 or so. So nice to see the progress since then on the West Suburban interurban fleet! I recall once a chat with him about this weird place in Ohio where all these CA&E cars ran around a mobile home park.... and I thought how odd and what if....
ReplyDeleteO. Anderson