Employee Appreciation

Employee appreciation is important.  Well-run companies always make sure that their employees know they are loved and appreciated.  For instance, as President and CEO of Hicks Car Works, I make it a point to often express my appreciation for the efforts of my loyal and hard-working employees Frank, David, and Al - -  although, come to think of it, what have any of you guys done for me lately?!?!?  But seriously....

The Union Pacific is a large and well-run company, and for the past few years they have been sponsoring UP Employee Appreciation outings at IRM.  This brings in a large crowd to the Museum and provides a lot of educational fun for everyone.  Here we see the UP excursion train coming in on Station 2, alongside a car almost a hundred years older.


The excursion train consists of three deluxe passenger cars and a Diesel on each end, to make shuttle movements much easier.  The train ran every hour westward to our interchange, out the old C&GU to some point short of Belvidere, and then back.  The excursion train is for UP employees only.


Meanwhile, IRM was running the steam-powered coach train with RPO, the 308 and 309, and the 1268 and 1797, as well as two streetcars.  The RPO demonstrated mail pickups throughout the day.  I was too busy to take many pictures, so I'm relying on staff photographer Chuck Amstein to send me a selection of interesting shots.  Everybody today seemed to be having a great time, except perhaps for dispatcher Jim West, who had a lot of unusual movements to handle -- so let's be sure to express our appreciation for his efforts!