Last year, the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society participated in the American Express Members Project, and while we did not ultimately receive any funding from American Express, we did finish in the Top 50 projects.

This year, the Members Project has returned, and our goal is to finish in the Top 25. This year, the top 5 projects will each get a piece of $2.5 Million in funding. We have decided to focus on our new initiative, The Pullman Project, for this years competition.

The Pullman Project is an educational and interactive experience that will involve our passenger cars, and will serve to educate the public and youth on what it was like to be a Pullman Porter in the golden era of rail travel.

In an important change from last year, you do not have to be an AMEX cardholder to participate in this opening round of voting. Please help us by taking 10-15 minutes of your time to sign up and vote for our project. We are currently 400 votes behind the 25th ranked project, so please vote and spread the word to friends and family to sign up and vote as well.

The direct link to our project is http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/9KUUKT

Again, please take the 10-15 minutes to sign up at membersproject.com and nominate our project. It will not cost you anything but a few minutes, and you can help us raise funds for an important effort.

Thanks,
Michael Steinberg
Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society
http://www.eldcps.org

Is this instead of selling Pullman blankets and tickets on Private Car trips?
In a previous topic, I had offered to buy the minimum order quantity of blankets, I think it was 10.

No, we try to have as many leads and fund raising ideas going as we can. Behind the scenes we also have a lot of grant requests to people not normally associated with railroad preservation. The Pullman Project has attracted interest from these non traditional sources. So to add my voice to Mike's, please take the time and register and then vote for our project - once again it is the only railroad preservation related one on the AMEX Members Project list.

We have generated enough interest so we expect to place an order for the reproduction Pullman blankets in the next week or two. Those of you who said you were interested in buying 10 or more will be contacted shortly.

As for private car trips, we have a great one coming up. On October 18th we will be sponsoring a special fund raising trip in association with the Juniata Terminal Company from Philadelphia (with connecting service from New York and Newark) to Pittsburgh. Our transportation will be Pennsylvania Railroad business car number 120 and Juniata Terminal lounge Warrior Ridge. These cars will be placed on the rear of Amtrak's Pennsylvanian for the exclusive use of our group.

You will be on your own on Sunday, Oct. 19 for sightseeing and meals.

On Monday, Oct. 20, we will return, traveling over Horseshoe Curve during the mid-morning hours.

In order to allow our passengers maximum comfort and "platform time" on PRR 120, space for this trip will be extremely limited. Please visit the following link for more info and reservations:
http://www.eldcps.org/convention.html#oct18