Make-a-wish

[trainman8119]

If you get a chance, check out this story at ABC7:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=l...&id=5366283

This details the story of a blind boy who had the opportunity, through Make-a-Wish,

to be an engineer for a day. This went down on the Milwaukee West Line on Tuesday,

with engineer Tom Baldwin at the controls. Tommy is a great guy, and has helped

another blind child in the Elgin area. I could not think of another engineer Metra has

who would have been a better choice for this particluar assignment.

The story is great, and I wish there were more of them. When I first saw this yesterday

I noted that engine 401 was the engine being used. I could not figure this out at first, since

401 is assigned to the BNSF. It occurred to me that this engine was another Make-a-wish

project, as it is the engine dedicated to Ollie Tibbles, a child who had cancer and wanted to "be a train". He was honored with the 401.

In all of the chaos we have transit wise these days, it is nice to know that things like this

do happen once in a while. There are many of people out there who take kids under their

wing from time to time, giving them ins and outs of how things work. I had that "glory" when

I was in my teens with the CTA giving me the royal treatment for a couple of days doing

a school project. The agencies may be cash strapped, but there are real positives out there

once in a while.

[Busjack]

I saw 401 Ollie Tibbles on Milw N train 2606 about 7 p.m. tonight (in Northbrook). Since it looked connected to a regular Milw trainset (a couple of 8500s, a couple of 7400s, and a 7200) it looks like 401 might be up here for a while.