The payoff for all the work we have to go through to restore the Museum's historic equipment is when we get to operate it for the public. After all my whining about inspecting the 308, 
it worked well and was enjoyed by a good crowd of visitors today. For technical reasons, there was no operation on the streetcar loop, but the mainline trains kept our visitors entertained.
Randy Allegrezza was my conductor, and Tom Disch was doing his line training. Sorry, I didn't get the usual crew pictures.
The Bellock Playground is not quite complete, but is accessible to the public and was being used a lot today. Ray Bellock deserves the credit for making this improvement possible.
The person who really got a big payoff today was Tim Peters. After several years of incredible effort on his part, the 1797 ran under its own power today for the first time in 55 years or so.As I was leaving, the car was being taken out on the mainline for more test trips. But everything seemed to be going very well.
This will be another great addition to our operating fleet. Look for it at the Trolley Pageant on July 7th!
I also happened to talk to Jeff Calendine. Word must have gotten around, because even more people have signed up for this year's Steam Dept. Benefit than last year. It's tomorrow, and my wife and I will again be there (or be square...). I really don't know if it's too late to sign up, but you can try! We can heartily recommend it.
