Shay It Forward

Saturday was our observance in memory of Jim Wrinn, the editor of Trains magazine for many years and a fervent supporter of railway preservation in all its forms.  He was a particular fan of geared engines, and so our Shay was one of the centerpieces of the "Shay It Forward" program.  Instead of working, I brought my wife out for a deluxe luncheon on the Zephyr, and it was excellent, as you'll see.

The Shay was running Take the Throttle trips again, this time starting from the Depot St. crossing south into Yard 14.

The Zephyr was running regular service, but at noon the Ceres was open for a catered luncheon.  It's been a while since our culinary department has posted anything here, so prepare for a treat.

First, we have this delicious antipasto plate.  This would make a lunch in itself.  (Sorry, I skipped the initial rolls and butter.)

And the chicken salad was excellent.  (Lunch was BYOW, by the way...)  I forget what the vegetarian alternative was.

Service was very attentive.  The chocolate cake was to die for, as they say.

And here we even have some musical entertainment.  Actually, a quite good representation of what dinner in the diner would have been like.  What more could you want?

And we received these nice little pins as a memento:

Finally, Jim Wrinn's widow gave a nice speech about his life and work, and thanked us all for supporting the event.

We had a good time talking to several people that I don't often get to see, and meeting new friends, so this was a very satisfying event, and very well done.

Meanwhile, the 1630 was running the coach train, the 749 and 251 were in operation, the 3142 was providing streetcar service, and....

The 431 and 460 were staged in the morning at 50th Avenue, and later ran in Jefferson shuttle service.

You haven't seen the last of this roof.  I gotta keep tooting my own horn.

Back behind Barn 4, a few cars you don't usually see outside are being staged for the big parade.

And then we decided to pay a visit to the model railroad department.  Lots of railroad museums have model trains, in fact for many of them that's about the only thing that operates, but I really don't know of any that are quite as impressive as this.

Finally, although it was extremely hot, the Track Department guys were hard at work back of Barn 8 moving ties and rail and I don't know what.  It's amazing, they just never quit.