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   


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 


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       


   


  


 One Of A Kind


Soo Line #2719 pulls excursion trains from Duluth to Two Harbors in Northeastern Minnesota. All day excursions behind 1923 Alco Pacifi c. Trains depart from the Lake Superior Railroad Museum at the Depot in downtown Duluth on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, August 10th


-September 9th , 2012. Rio Grande


A Last Look Back 1974-2010


By R. C. Farewell


Get It Before It’s Gone! T


his spectacular volume relives the





    


 For reservations call the


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8 JANUARY 2013 • RAILFAN.COM


past 36 years of Rio Grande’s presence with 280 pages and more than 400 color photos. Visit fabled Tennessee Pass, the storied Moff at, and sites like the Utah desert and Ruby Canyon. More than a dozen charts and maps that will bring the Rio Grande to life.


A last look back at the Rio Grande, a railroad never to be forgotten.


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THE MORNING OF DECEMBER 8, 2012, start- ed, like most others, with a review of email that came in over the past 24 hours. After tossing all the notices of Christmas bargains available that day, one of the remaining emails began in the straight-forward man- ner that always pleased my late aunt Eleanore, a business education teacher: “My name is Mary Schweigl and I am a volunteer with The After 26 Project. The Project’s mis- sion is to open a cafe and gift shop that will employ developmentally disabled and cogni- tively impaired individuals over the age of 26.” She quickly pointed out that she was writing a railroad publication — RAILFAN & RAILROAD — with this news because, “the building we are to have the cafe in was for- merly a train depot and we are renovating/preserving it. We are trying to stay true to the train theme and preserving as much as we can.”


The restoration of a train station. The opening of a restaurant. Freight trains rat- tling past from time to time (I looked the ad- dress up on MapQuest). Plus community service. I was on it. At Mary’s suggestion, I called Andrew MacDonald, a project board member and the group’s spokesperson. Here’s part of what he had to say:


“The inspiration for this project is the


Junction of Hope in Chesaning, Mich., an or- ganization with a similar mission. Our dis- cussions began in 2004. In 2007 we formed a Board of Directors and established a 501(c)3 organization. When the decision was made to open a restaurant, we considered a num- ber of properties that had once been restau- rants. We ultimately rejected that approach, feeling that if professionals had already failed at those locations, what chance did we have as amateurs to survive there? One of our board members, Dr. Dave Gaunt, urged us to consider the station instead. It lends it- self to being a success. It’s in the center of town. It overlooks Lake Cadillac, adjoins a park, and offers ample parking. And by restoring an historic building, we attracted the support and help of people interested in local history, as well as rail fans and local preservationists.”


The building is the ex-Ann Arbor Rail-


road’s Cadillac Depot, constructed in 1911. AMVETS Post 110 owns the building and oc- cupies the south side, once the baggage facil- ity. The After 26 Project occupies the north side, what was once the passenger station. While many of the building’s historical ele- ments remained, it required substantial


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