So we did what Bill would have done, played a long shot and lo and behold, NS said yes, they said, we will  be there on June 21, 2008. It must be said right here that this favorable answer came as a complete surprise to us all as frankly, we never expected it to come off. Vice Chairman and Chief Operating

Officer Stephen C. Tobias agreed to come to Bellevue and bring with him his Business Car train. Steve Tobias was here in 76 as Assistant Superintendent and is coming back as Railway Age's Railroader Of The Year, now running the safest railroad in North America and riding in style. Hot Dog! With this in place, we now had a drawing card to bring folks trackside. The finest train east of the Mississippi! We moved into high gear.

We invited every politician we could think of to include Ohio Governor Strickland and Retired Senator John Glenn. We invited over 50 total.  Most of them could not come but the Ohio State Senate sent the Museum a proclamation praising the Mad River and NKP RR Museum.  And now, in Washington, Columbus, Tiffin, Sandusky, Fremont and Norwalk, they all now know we are here, know we are open and vibrant after 32 years and know we are re-dedicated to being around for a long time in the future.

We needed music so the call went out to Steve Jeffris in Indianapolis, Indiana. He did not turn us down and then got roped into being the Master Of Ceremonies. Ruth Fuehring scheduled the annual Fuehring family reunion to coincide with the re dedication, thereby guaranteeing the nucleus of a crowd in the form of kin to Bill no matter what else happened. Ruth also sent out a lot of invitations to Friends of Bill. T Shirts were designed, ordered and received. Plans for train operation were fine tuned with NS. The BOD elected to waive the normal admission charge for the day and rely on the donation box for income. The City of Bellevue agreed to close Southwest St. and provide plenty of security. Publicity was arranged for. Programs etc. were printed. Food was ordered. Confusions were resolved. We were almost ready for the big day.   

Many hands make for light work the old saying goes and true it is at Mad River. The tents were put up, the gift shop was spruced up, the trash was picked up and the locomotives were moved up, up to the Southwest Street crossing that is. This last one requires a little explanation The France Stone Engine AKA THE