Spring is here, spring is here...

...life is skittles and life is beer! Okay, so spring may be a couple of weeks away but nobody told Joel Ahrendt, who has gotten an early jump on annual inspections. He, Greg Kepka and "Doodlebug Dan" Mulvihill were working on getting North Shore 714 ready for service, and although I was only able to make it out to the museum briefly I spent some time helping with the easy parts of the inspection, namely checking windows, doors and seats. At left, Joel is seen on the roof of the 714 while Jeff Obarek offers pointers on how he might be able to get down.

Meanwhile, I spoke briefly with the executive director on a possible grant application for the CA&E cars, visited Barn 2 to see the impressive progress on the 451 and 319, and got a chance to examine an interesting relic that was brought into the shop. Seen below, it appears to be one of the original interior stained-glass windows out of the 321! These windows had been removed and sold around the time the car was acquired by IRM and were apparently spread to the four winds by various collectors and sellers over the years. The Jewetts were the only cars that featured this particular design, and the only Jewett whose windows aren't either currently installed or - in the case of the 318 - safely stored at IRM in the 321.

Update: Per a request in the comments, here's a photo of interior windows from the 318, now installed in the 321. The design is identical, but the colors look somewhat different. Not sure how significant that is.