NWI CHAPTER
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
February 2026 from
Jerry Pyfer

NWI January Meeting
The NWI Chapter January 2026 meeting was a great success. Opening the show and introducing the program, I remarked, “If you told me we would be enjoying the annual photographic work of John Dziobko years after his demise”, I would have doubted it.

Erik included a shot of the stacks and stacks of little yellow Kodak slide boxes he had received, just for 1980-81. I wondered if I would be around to see all of John’s work. The selected slides shared included steam, diesel, electric, passenger and freight as well as a few interesting roster shots of locomotives and rolling stock.

We conducted a raffle to benefit the chapter, thank you for generously supporting our NWI Chapter.

The in-person attendance was 28 guests while the Zoom audience was 22 at the peak.

As members and subscribers renewed for 2026, we picked up a few new folks and rejoined some who had drifted away.

Frank Schmitt donated two reams of 11x17 copy paper for the NWL. This unexpected gift will fulfill eight months of newsletter inside pages. Thank you Frank.

Zoom Etiquette Reminders
I try to remember to remind the in-person audience to mute their cell phones before the program begins. A ringing telephone can disrupt the meeting and shows disrespect to the presenter.

During the last Zoom meeting, there were a few that need to be mindful of their presence on Zoom. We ask that you turn off your video feed on your end. Movement on your part will appear on the screen.

We opened the audio for your questions during the program, when the audio is on, we can hear you or any background noises. Hearing someone eat, or slurp soup or a beverage can be very annoying. Please mute your audio unless you have a question or an answer for a question presented.

We would also ask that if you watch the Zoom on your cell phone and you have to leave the meeting, please don’t try to rejoin the meeting already in progress. When you do, your request pops up on the big screen for all to see. You might as well have the telephone ringing during the meeting.

NWI Board of Directors’ Meeting
The NWI Chapter discussed four main topics of interest:

1 - The Holiday Party: While everyone thoroughly enjoyed the party, the chapter ended up paying $457.40 over receipts. While the chapter can help subsidize such an event, $450 is too much for our budget to absorb. To bring the party back for 2026, we need to rethink the expenses. While the $28 price was fairly reasonable, especially for the dinner we enjoyed, I have a feeling going over $30 is too much to expect.

2 - The Budget: The chapter ended 2025 with $1,958.91 in the checking account. The Savings Account came in around $6,000.

3 - Oregon Depot Museum Group: We received a request to support restoring the Silver View dome-observation car. The support will come as a recommendation to the NRHS to honor the group’s request with a Heritage Grant.

4 - 2026 Train Show: The chapter will host a display area during the March 21-22 . If you are interested in helping out, let me know very soon.

5 - NWI Historian: If you had previously noticed, the chapter historian position has gone vacant for a while. Director Todd Aspling has offered to take the position. Thank you Todd.

Discussion was held about the possibility of moving the chapter’s Annual Business Meeting from November to April. This would eliminate bad winter weather from cancelling the meeting. Our chapter by-laws state the Annual Meeting must be held the weekend of Thanksgiving, thus a change to the by-law would become necessary.

The month of April does signal the end of the season of chapter regular meetings into the summer. April would also be better for chapter status reporting. The renewals are over and the

treasurer’s report would be more accurate. This could also include changing the terms of office for the subsequent nominations and election.

Let us know your feelings about the proposed change.

Meeting Adjourned.

NWI-NRHS Dues renewal Season
The NWI Chapter dues renewal season is in full swing. Our second notice renewal form is enclosed within this issue. Dues will remain the same for both the NWI ($25.00) and the NRHS National dues ($50.00).

Send your NWI portion dues renewal to: NWI-NRHS Dues, P.O. Box 5632, Rockford, Illinois 61125-5632

Should your label indicate you are past-due and you did indeed renew, contact me to clear up any misunderstanding.

Special Thank You
I would like to say thank you to subscriber Frank Schmitt for a generous donation of $50.00 to the NWI Chapter.

NWI-NRHS member Darrell Windle made a $25.00 donation above his dues as well. NWI-NRHS member Steve Mueller donated $75 above his renewal.

Whose consist could this be?
The January installment of the consist contest featured the EMD SDP40. This EMD unit was a branch off the SD40 line. The SDP (Special Duty Passenger) received gearing to achieve passenger train speeds and fitted with a steam boiler at the rear of the unit causing the flat squared off back end.

While the original SD40 line sold 1,268 locomotives, the SDP40 only counted 20 of the model. The Great Northern bought 6 units in 1966 and the NdeM of Mexico bought 14 units over two orders.

If you said, without looking it up, the Great Northern, give yourself 2-points, the Burlington Northern through the merger will get you 1-point, NdeM give yourself 2-points.

BN 323 was temporarily renumbered into the 1776 as one of three units painted to honor the Bicentennial. The BN 1776 brought the Freedom Train to Rockford and later retrieved it back to Flag Center. The 4449 steam locomotive was operated light without the train while on the Rockford branch.

The GN 325 was donated to the Minnesota Railway Museum which had the former BN paint exchanged for the simplified GN orange and green color scheme in 2023. The 325 is one of the locomotives hauling excursion trains during the tourist season.

Railfanning is…
Railfanning is teaching the 4-year old granddaughter, that it is a freight car, not a cargo car. She watches too much Thomas the Tank Engine with their English slant.

USPS Problem…The NWI Chapter maintains a very accurate listing for the mailing list. From time to time, we receive returned newsletters with a vague claim the item could not be delivered as addressed. The last two months we have received three items that I know are accurately addressed. We have been mailing these addresses for years without a problem. I can and did approach a window clerk showing them the postal problem, but they cannot do much about the issues in Philadelphia or Eldridge, Iowa.

As such, if your NWL becomes very late, it may have been returned to us. When this happens, I will remail the item after thoroughly checking the address with our roster and at times with you, in order to verify the information on the label.

For more information about the Chapter, see Meetings and Join.