Dave's Depots-Norfolk & Western Railway-Roanoke, Virginia

Business travels took me recently to Roanoke, Virginia. Of course, Roanoke was the corporate headquarters for the Norfolk & Western Railway. I stayed at the Hotel Roanoke, the hotel formerly owned by the N&W, across the street from the depot and shop complex. More on my visit to Roanoke later, but here are some shots of the depot....

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CSL Trailer in Chicago

While looking through old issues of First and Fastest on Julie Johnson's excellent CAERR.com site, I came across a list from 1986 of preserved CSL equipment. (Vol 3 #4, p. 35) A note at the bottom says: "Trailer #8051 is a lunchroom at 38th and Central Park in Chicago." That sounds interesting! Does anyone know anything more about this?One thing that bothers me is that maps show there isn't any intersection of 38th and Central...

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319 Report

In order to repaint the 319 interior, I need to fill in various cracks that have appeared in the original paint. And I don't want to sand it all down to bare wood. So acting on advice from Bob Kutella and Pete Galayda, I went to an auto supply store and bought some polyester glazing putty. This is somewhat similar to Bondo; it uses a cream...

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West LaGrange

Does this look familiar? On Thursday, B&G installed the ElectroMotive sign from the EMD plant in LaGrange on its new base alongside the connector track, as seen here. Since it faces northeast, a good picture will have to be taken early in the morning, just as the sun rises over the Hoffman barn. Maybe next week. Here's the back of...

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Trip Report - Gold Coast Railroad Museum - Miami, Florida

On the last day of our Florida Vacation, we spent the day in Miami, as we had a flight back to St. Louis that evening from Miami International Airport. Our first stop in Miami was the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. The Museum has its origins back to the late 1950s, when the founding members, working with the University of Miami, managed to acquire...

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Dave's Depots - Atlantic Coast Line - Naples, Florida

Vacation recently took Katy and I to Naples, Florida. Naples is located on the Gulf Coast of Floria, far south, approximately across the state from Miami. Naples is also known as a community that attracts a lot of retirees, in fact, my great uncle has lived there for about 20 years. We chose Naples due to its lack of over-commercialization....

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