National Train Day

National Train Day was May 7th, and this year is the first annual celebration of the holiday at the Utah State Railroad Museum (Ogden Union Station). The Golden Spike Chapter had a table, where we had memberships, 130th anniversary hats, and Gil Bennet prints of the 223 for sale. Union Pacific donated $1,000 to GSR&LHS, as well as the Union Station and the Promontory Chapter NRHS.

As part of the festivities, Union Pacific brought their Rio Grande heritage Unit (SD70ACe UP 1989) and Utah Central brought one of their brand new GP15 switchers. Lee Witten caught them coming in to the station:

In addition, Lee has provided a video of the actual event here:

Overall, the event was well recieved, and is planned again for next year.
You can see more pictures of the event at these places:
http://www.trainlife.com/albums/view/3070
http://www.trainlife.com/albums/view/3074
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewitten/sets/72157626561773933/
http://gallery.me.com/lewitten#100155&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Grafitti Removal-April 16th

For his Eagle project, a local Boy Scout and his troop removed grafitti from the equipment.

Lee Witten also made a video of their work:

Whatever they were using, it did a good job. No trace of the grafitti- and the body paint wasn't damaged at all. Thanks, Josh!

April 9th Worksession

Lots of riveting- this time with 1/4" rivets instead of the regular 1/2" ones. These mini rivets hold the flange around the top of the tank on.

Here, we see the crew selecting the next rivet to be used:

While the unfortunate soul who volunteered to handle the rivet gun prepares to enter the tender tank:

We finished the tank braces, which are made out of boiler tubes as were the originals. These will be riveted in place soon.

All pictures by Joshua Bernhard

April 2nd Worksession

Lee Witten made a video of the riveting done on the 223's tender on Saturday April 2nd: