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Wednesday July 22:
Morning Presentations
  
#1: John Westley and; #2: Ken Middleton in "Modeling the Cascadian"; #3: After
their presentation, John and Ken displayed a typical model consist of the GN
Cascadian (Seattle-Spokane).
 
#4: Gary Nelson in "A Young Willmar Division Train Man"; #5: Tyrone Johnson (and
Ed Erickson) in "Ice Harvesting for Refrigerator Cars".
Afternoon Presentations
  
#1: Steve Eckman in "GN Litigations"; #2: Norm Priebe in "GN
Memories, Twin Cities 1948-1960; #3: Norm's talk is well attended;
Evening Banquet
  
#1: Scott Tanner with his guest, Patricia McGuire (Patricia is the daughter of
O.J. McGillis, Manager of GN's Advertising and Publicity Dept in the 1930's);
#2: Father Dale armed with TWO cameras for capturing the evening's festivities;
#3: Don and Mary McGlothlin - Mary is our new National Convention Chairman
(Thank you, Mary!!)
   
#4 & #5: Having dinner with the GNRHS; #6: Pat Dean and Bob Ulberg; #7: Steve
Eckman explains the finer points of Ole and Lena ha-ha's.
Banquet Speaker
"James J. Hill Speaks to his Employees" Presented by Father Ken Pierre (JJ Hill
Impersonator).
Awards Presentation
    
#1: Gary Nelson presents BNSF's Steve Skoglund with an artist's proof of a
1979-1999 Alliance Mechanical portrait; #2: Ray Chappell presents a Rocky's
Award to Caroline Chinquist; #3: Cordell Newby receives a Rocky's Award; #4:
Jerry Barsness is honored with a Rocky's Award; #5: An Empire Builder Award goes
to Gary Nelson. CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU to all GNRHS award winners for
2015!
Raffle Prize drawing
#1: "No pictures, please! The drawing is about to begin." Steve Eckman fends off
the paparazzi as his assistant prepares to draw for the big prizes. Note: That
GN lantern to the right, donated by Steve himself, was the first prize taken by
a lucky lady ticket holder.
CONCLUSION: I personally really enjoyed this convention and I hope those who
attended did as well. There were a few minor glitches (there always are), but
the weather cooperated, we saw lots of interesting things and met a whole bunch
of great folks. THANK YOU to everyone in the Twin Cities area (and elsewhere)
who helped out with this convention! You put on a great show and we in the
membership appreciate it. See you next year in Spokane (September 2016).
This concludes my convention write up -- HOWEVER -- the next day, Jon and I
headed up to the Wisconsin and Great Northern Railroad near Spooner, Wisconsin.
Neither of us had ever visited there before, so continue reading if you'd like
to see what we found...
 
 
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