I've been waiting for someone either closer to the operation or from there to post something about this, but I'm not going to let this go unremarked, because I'm proud to call this person a long-time friend who deserves the recognition.

Last week Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum announced that Pete Poremba had been named their new Executive Director. I've known Pete since he was in high school in the early 1980s and the Akron Railroad Club's Bulletin Editor at the time met and brought Pete into the club. While he would have eventually met Jerry Jacobson anyway (it's not like the railfan community is that large), I introduced him to Jerry about 1983 when Jerry had then-Jackson Iron & Steel 0-6-0 #3 (once again BLW #26 at Steamtown) at the Mad River museum in Bellevue, Ohio. Pete was one of Jerry's early hires when he started putting what became the Ohio Central System together, and eventually became one of Jerry's Road Foremen of Engines. In Jerry's final years, if he came to a railroad club meeting, Pete brought him. Few people (outside of Laura, Bill Goslin, John Corns and maybe one or two others) knew Jerry better or understand his vision for the Roundhouse museum more than Pete does. He was the consensus choice for Executive Director and I know most here wish him the best of luck in his new position.

One other thing. Today would have been Jerry's 78th birthday. Forty years ago today he celebrated his 38th birthday with a number of his long-time friends and helpers riding the Chessie Safety Express trip behind C&O 614 from Akron to Pittsburgh and back. Here's a link to a photo from that day by another longtime friend, Bob Farkas: http://refarkas.rrpicturearchives.net/s ... id=3446705

Congrats to him!

Quite an impressive operation there! Last I heard they were looking at adding a storage building along the size of the barns at IRM to protect more of the collection.

What necessitated former Director Noel Poirier's departure? Where did he end up going?