Calling All Railroad Buffs – Glidden Railroad Days is Sunday

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Calling All Railroad Buffs – Glidden Railroad Days is Sunday

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All-aboard for Glidden Homestead’s railroad program this Sunday, July 14th, 2013 from noon to 4pm. Railroads played a key role in shaping the future of many Illinois communities, including DeKalb. To commemorate Joseph F. Glidden’s part in bringing the railroad through DeKalb in 1853, special programming will be offered July 14 and 28 at the Glidden Homestead. The programs are among others that will be held throughout the year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Glidden’s birth. Railroad enthusiasts, Bill Cummings of DeKalb, and Rich DeMink of Downers Grove, are featured presenters during the Glidden Railroad Days programming.

DeMink was employed in the freight rail industry for 27 years and the passenger rail industry (Amtrak) for five years. His career was in the costing and budgeting area and he retired in 2001 from Amtrak. Since then, he has enjoyed volunteering in the NPS/Amtrak Trails to Rails Program where as a volunteer docent he rode Amtrak trains such as the Empire Builder in the summer months. Now he is involved with the set up of another program on Amtrak’s SouthWest Chief. DeMink’s wife, Sarah Glidden DeMink, is the great-grand- niece of Joseph F. Glidden and a member of the museum’s board of directors.

Starting with a Lionel O gauge model train when he was very young, Cummings has been a rail road fan most of his life. His love of the Chicago and Northwestern stems from having been born in a CNW town (Neenah, WI) and having lived in three other CNW towns: Evanston, Mt. Prospect, and DeKalb. He is a collector of CNW memorabilia and CNW HO model trains. He is a member of the CNW Historical Society, the Illinois Railway Museum and the Blackhawk Model Railroad Club in Oregon, IL.

The schedule of activities also includes a display of an early 1900’s HO model steam train. July 14 and 28, at 1 and 2:30 p.m., a 30-minute video “Song of the Pioneer” will be shown. It covers the founding of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and its early development building westward from Chicago. The video was produced for the centennial of the CNW in 1948. “Railroad music” will be played by “Mike and the 3Ds” featuring Dave Kolars (guitar), Dale Ludewig (mandolin), Derek Gray (fiddle) and Mike Warfel (bass) on July 28.

The Homestead is the site where Joseph Glidden invented and manufactured “The Winner” barbed wire, for which he received a patent on Nov. 24, 1874. The house and barn built in the 1860s still stand on their original sites. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. Everyone is encouraged to visit the Glidden Homestead this season at 921 W. Lincoln Hwy., DeKalb, between Copy Service and Burger King. The Homestead is open for tours on Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and also the second and fourth Sundays each month through October, noon-4 p.m., with special events in November. Admission is $4 for ages 14 and older; under age 14, free. Members are admitted free, with a variety of membership levels available. Memberships play a key role in the not-for-profit organization’s preservation efforts. For more information, call (815) 756-7904 or visit www.gliddenhomestead.org.

For specific activities each day check the Calendar. Click here for complete details (pdf).