To Shiny Rails

A few of us are starting a new program at the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum. We’re calling it Parlor Car Chats. Kinda like fireside chats, these are virtual (online) get-togethers where a presenter has a favorite topic to talk about and maybe show photos/graphics/etc., railroad-related, of course, and folks can join from anywhere. The first one is scheduled for May 16th at 10am PDT. I’m the presenter and will be doing a virtual travelogue on the track segment from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, CA. The next one I’ll offer on May 30th at 10am PDT will be about the 150th Golden Spike anniversary.

Parlor Car Chat details.

I jumped in to help another railroad history organization build a website. Check it out: RMRHS.org

With about one 24-hour period to spare, I found out that the Center for Railroad Photography and Art was going to do its annual conference online this year and offer it for free to anyone that wanted to join. So I registered and “attended.” It was all day (well, 9-4ish in our time zone) and we saw seven presentations, six photo related and one art related. The conference kept my attention, and I joined as a member at the end of the day (along with about a dozen other folks). Attendance was above 400 all day (you could track how many were “on” the Webex conference constantly). We were told all the sessions would be on CPR&A’s YouTube channel eventually.

We took a cruise around the northern Mediterranean Sea then on to the Champagne region of France. And along the way we managed to see and ride a couple trains. We rode the Roma Express from the coast into Rome, and we road the overnight train from Venice to Paris and then a short hop by subway to Bailly-Romainvilliers which would be our quarters for the Champagne excursions. All the train photos are here. The whole trip starts here.

Upon arrival into Cripple Creek, we went directly to the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad for a 40-minute round trip out toward the gold mining areas and back. Live steam, coal fired! Had a great time in Cripple Creek, here’s the whole story. All the photos are here: Cripple Creek, and Victor.

Aunt Vickie joined Matteo, Nana, and Papa for a ride on the Royal Gorge Railroad. It was a nice, relaxing end to our day which include a trip to the Gator Farm! All the day’s photos are here.