Saturday, July 3, 2021

Happy Third of July

As we have done for most of the last 34 years, according to my calculations, we recreated the abandonment of the CA&E on July 3, 1957 at IRM and everybody was much more satisfied than on the original infamous date.  As often happens, I was too busy to get many good pictures, but I hope we might get some more submissions to fill in the gaps.  Regular service trains in the morning included the wood cars 309, 36, and 319 as seen here.  Andy Sunderland was the motorman, Frank was the conductor, and Nick DeRicco and I were trainmen.  Sorry, but no crew picture!  


We ran two full trips with a good crowd of passengers.


The 409 and 431 were also in mainline service, as seen below in an excellent reproduction of busy times at the Wheaton station, and the 460 was running shuttle service to Schmidt Siding for the IC Highliner operations.


Both the Decapod and the Shay were in service, as they will be all weekend.


Speaking of the Highliners, that seems to have been quite successful.  When I checked in about 1pm, there were people signed up until 5:30, and more customers were coming to the table.  So we had well over 60 people signed up.  But if you get there early, you too may be able to snag one of these coveted opportunities.    

1 comment:

James Fitzgerald said...

Thank you all for a great Saturday. Was not able to drive the highliners, but did donate $40 (all cash I had on me) got to ride in 319, 460, CTA 30, 749. Then even had a trolley bus running. Just a great day too be at the museum. Thank you to all the volunteers who help make it wonderful