Last year several frequent contributors to RyPN Interchange discussed the INSIDE EMD plant tour slide and lecture program. This posting is provided as an update on the status of the program.For those not familiar with INSIDE EMD, it is a very comprehensive color slide tour of the now-demolished original EMD La Grange plant, seen as it was in the peak production years of the 1970s and early 1980s. It was assembled over a 25 year span with a lot of help from many of my friends who worked at EMD. It includes a historical overview, with a step-by-step sequential tour of the engine, generator, traction motor, electrical cabinet, underframe and carbody construction lines, the locomotive final assembly high bay area, and the painting and testing areas. INSIDE EMD is a very long presentation, typically around two hours and a half (with a 15-minute break in the middle). I provide live narration for the plant tour. Some groups have expressed concern about the length, but it is just not practical to chop out parts to make it shorter. The objective in putting together this unusual project was to provide thorough coverage of the subject, not to meet a randomly chosen time limitation. It is a very detailed program that is not likely to be repeated, and it requires an audience with knowledge of locomotives and considerable interest in this particular topic. A description of the program from a previous showing in 2004 is still available at the Amherst Railway Society website:http://www.amherstrail.org/Meeting04.05.htmlA number of changes in the program were made since last year. The program was recently converted to electronic presentation format, in order to allow the retirement and archive storage of the 35mm slides. This change has allowed the use of new DLP projectors with much greater light output than a conventional slide projector, and this provides a brighter and more colorful showing. It also allowed the electronic cleanup and color restoration of some faded slides so the program has a much more uniform brightness and color intensity. One additional benefit of the change was a considerable reduction in the amount of equipment that has to be transported to a showing (just the computer and the projector). I hope to continue offering this program to interested groups on a limited basis at least into late 2006, to the degree that available time, travel expense, and health considerations allow. We have found that its best use is generally in showings to annual meetings of railroad historical groups and to the staff and volunteers at museums, these events attract audiences with the greatest interest in the subject, and consequently make the best use of the travel and presentation time. The program recently received attention in the academic and corporate world, and presentations there have cut back somewhat on the time available for railroad groups. The requests for mid-week showings of the program consumed all the available vacation time quite early in the year during 2004 and 2005. Once the available vacation time during a year is used up we are usually limited to events on weekends, unless the location is within reasonable driving distance of Boston.This year there have been a string of presentations at “members-only” events, but it appears there may be several showings in October and November (in the Boston and New York City metro areas) for groups that accept “walk-in” visitors. If this subject is of interest to the participants in this forum, I can provide a posting announcing those events as their time approaches.I should perhaps add this note, that there are presently no plans for showings beyond the middle of 2006 as I will be changing jobs then, and there is no certainty that I will have the time available to continue this activity.Preston Cook