Historic Plaque Dedication - NYC M-497

[Anonymous]

AN OHIO HISTORICAL PLAQUE WILL BE DEDICATED MEMORIALIZING THE RUNS OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL M-497 JET TRAIN. AS WELL AS GATHERING IMPORTANT ENGINEERING DATA RELATIVE TO HIGH SPEED RAIL TRANSPORT, THE M-497 SET A U.S. SPEED RECORD WHICH STILL STANDS TODAY.

THE PLAQUE SITE, LOCATED ADJACENT TO THE AMTRAK STATION, BRYAN, OHIO,.WILL BE DEDICATED AT 11:00 AM ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14TH.

IF YOU KNOW OF ANY OTHER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE M-497, KINDLY ADVISE THEM OF THE DEDICATION.

I LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING MANY OF YOU THERE.

HANK MORRIS

[JoeKoh]

Hi Hank
November 14th 11:00 am?Matt grab Dad a pen and Paper were are going to Bryan. Please note the depot is off of Us 127(main Street) on the left after you go under the viaduct heading north.
stay safe
Joe and Matt

[Anonymous]

The weather was much better than previous days. Still the coolness warranted the use of a tent. If the ceremony had been held the day before, Don Wetzel (the engineer who "flew" the M-497) quipped that they would have had "the fastest tent on the railroad."
Channel 13 from Toledo showed up as did the local cable TV channel.
Articles appeared in the Toledo Blade and Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Toledo one was not as accurate as one would wish/expect and the Cleveland article was much better.
There were 35/40 people who arrived on a bus as well as many others who drove directly to Bryan. The plaque was erected in a very pleasant little park created to give it a scenic place to reside. It's just north of the Amtrak station in Bryan.

[JoeKoh]

Hank
It was a pleasure to meet you and mikeygaw.Did you notice the camera crew had to move because they tried to set up the camera too close to the tracks?
stay safe[:)]
Joe

I also have some pics from Bryan too.Some havent been developed yet.feel free to email me I'll put you on my list.[8D]

[Anonymous]

Thanks Joe. I would appreciate seeing your photos.
While I, too, have to get mine developed, different people got different angles and I was far off to the left. Any photos more centered will certainly look better than what I probably got.
We're still looking for a publisher.
The final offering will include the NYC's movie of the test, the two volumes of the engineering test reports, a PowerPoint presentation on the M-497, and other goodies too numberous to mention.
We will probably sell it as a DVD--period. There's so much room on one we can provide tons of data/documentation for the avid fan and future researchers.
Channel 13 (Toledo) and the local Bryan cable channel interviewed Don Wetzel and the local cable channel interviewed me, too.
I bribed each camera crew with a CD of the book requesting a tape in exchange. Now I have to wait to see if they're people of their word, or not.

[Anonymous]

There's been a lot of references to the Toledo Blade article on the dedication. There was one also in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Sadly, the Blade's article suffers from incorrect information. If you want an accurate look, check out the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Enter "jet train" into the search of either newspaper's Website and you'll get to their respective articles.
Coverage is always appreciated. However bad coverage is no blessing.

[JoeKoh]

sorry to say it hank but the blade has had that reputation for a long time.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

I posted an edited version of the Blade's article, fixing the errors in the NYC forum up on Railroad.net, if anyone is interested. The text of the Cleveland Plain Dealer's article should also be up there.

Hank

[Anonymous]

I have written a book with Don Wetzel, the person who designed and "flew" the M-497. Don and I are currently seeking a publisher.
It will be sold as a DVD rather than in print medium. This is to everyone's benefit except for those few persons that don't have DVD capabilities, yet.
The book will be a PDF file. In addition, the NYC movie about the M-497 experiment will be on the disk as well as copies of the two huge, phonebook-sized, engineering reports containing all the data gleaned from the experiment. This is stuff that has never been published--anywhere! The disk will, of course, contain the Adobe Acrobat Reader for those few people that haven't already downloaded this free piece of software.
We hope that a PowerPoint presentation will probably also be included. Produced by another gentleman, I haven't yet received his permission to use the PowerPoint presentation. Should we receive his blessing, we'll also provide a PowerPoint reader on the disk for those individuals that don't have any other way to view it.
So, the disk will be complete, in itself. The movie format will be usable on any Mac or PC (and your DVD player, of course) and the PDF format ensures the compatibility on Mac or PC as well. The only question might be the PowerPoint on a Mac. If the person has the Mac version of Microsoft's Office suite containing the PowerPoint software, then, again, compatibility will not be an issue.
Two rejections, so far. A third organization has expressed interest, but has not committed to publishing, as of today. This could still go either way. Therefore, I can't honestly provide availability information.
We have made every effort to obtain, and get permission to use, a large library of photographs that have never been published, anywhere. Photos of the construction phase. Shots inside the M-497. The original styling/design and the engineering drawings from the NYC are just some of the things we'll have.
If there's room on the DVD, I hope to have videos of the plaque dedication, too.

[JoeKoh]

Hank
I got those pics back from Bryan.please email me by clicking on the little envelope and i will send them too you.
thanks stay safe
Joe