“William B. Strong” coming through!

Hello everyone,

I was on my way back to the office this afternoon and was pulling up on this train – if you click on it and zoom in, you’ll see that the back is one large glass pane and you can see the passengers sitting in their seats:

It intrigued me because we rarely see passenger trains on this line…yes, Union Station in Kansas City is an Amtrak station, but down here it’s more commercial trains carrying “stuff” rather than people. I had to grab my camera and snap a picture!

I’m a train guy. I love trains around the Christmas tree, and if you talk to my mother she can confirm that as a child I had a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood in the living room of our house…that was full of trains. Yes, my parents must have loved me a lot; there’s probably no way that I would have allowed my son to occupy that much room on a “permanent” basis in the house. Not that I don’t want him to have everything, but it’s just a pretty big commitment to have 32 sq. ft. locked up in an area that might have guests, pets or even us!

The train car that you seen in the pic had the name “William B. Strong” on the side of it which must be for William Barstow Strong who served as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway from 1881 to 1889. I looked that up by the way 😉

So this is a shout out to any of my family members that are looking for a great gift for me on my birthday: I’d love to take a ride on this train. That’s it!

On a business note, we’ve got a fun-filled newsletter going out in just a few minutes with some more interesting Mission Repair info. Check your email in boxes shortly (yes, there are discounts inside)!

Take care, Ryan