Father's Day Visit

For Father's Day this year I got to take a road trip, as we often do, and this time my wife and I wound up at IRM.  Surprise!  I got a chance to visit a couple of active projects that I usually don't get a chance to see when I'm working.  So here are some progress reports:

First is North Shore 757, in charge of Zach Ehlers.  The smoking compartment has been completely disassembled and is being restored.  Zach proudly showed us the new linoleum that's being installed.  The company that made the original pattern is still in business and was able to reproduce it for us.  It's an exact match to what's in the main compartment.

When gluing it down, it helps to have this professional-looking roller!  

And Zach took a break from other Car Dept. activities to do some more gluing.

Meanwhile, work continues in the Electroliner.  Ed has all the parts and tools stored in the C section, and explained what they're doing.

And he took us on a tour of the dining car, the B section.  

Meanwhile, in the A-1 section, Kevin Kolar and John Arroyo are continuing the complete rebuilding of the interior.  It's really going to look nice.

Several other of the car experts brought out the 18 again to check bearings and other mechanical parts.  We got to ride it around the wye, making my wife the first actual passenger on the 18 in Illinois, apart from working members.  This car should be very popular with the public.

Frank brought out his cylinder player to show the guys, something that dates back to the Wilson era. (Frank: this one actually dates to the Theodore Roosevelt era but the model debuted during the McKinley administration!)

So it was nice to spend some time on campus without having to do any actual work for a change!