Re: Caboose 0579 *LINK*

Ted,
We're planning for this summer at this very time; there will be 0579 sessions for both the week of June 23rd and Aug 4th. During June we'll have a crew working on completing the interior, in August the primary focus will be to finish up the brake system. If we have some extra folks we'll also try to finish a lot of the external safety appliances. We also would like to start building the caboose trucks if we have the resources.
An important consideration this year is finding sources of money to help cover our materal costs. Obviously the current #1 goal of the Friends is to help fund the locomotive restorations; What good is a caboose if there's no railroad to run it on ? So we've taken steps to try to find other sources of money; we've applied for grants which if sucessful, would take us a long way to seeing this operational in 2004.
What makes me most happy about this project is to see a lot of support not only within our organization, but also throughout the entire NG community. As you know, we've been doing this work in Antonito; not the hot spot from a railfan point of view, but yet their are some special volunteers which have come back year after year to help. I can honestly say everybody who has worked with us in the past is certainly welcome to come back this year! And we'll always welcome somebody new.