Mike Margrave is Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, which is devoted to the preservation, restoration and operation of private railroad cars (see AAPRCO.com ).

"I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska," Margrave says, "home of the Union Pacific. But Omaha was also served by the Missouri Pacific, Burlington, Rock Island, Chicago Great Western, Wabash, Milwaukee Road, and the Chicago & Northwestern. With so much to see all around me, my interest in railroads developed when I was young."

His interest in private cars expanded to ownership of a Union Pacific business car. Its history includes being used by Jimmy Carter whistle stopping from its open platform in the East in the 1976 presidential campaign and being chartered by Frank Sinatra for a trip from Los Angeles to Chicago for a New Year's Eve performance there. The Pullman sleeping car, now named Promontory Point, was rebuilt and has a nine-seat observation room or lounge, three bedrooms, dining room seating eight, kitchen and a crew room for two.

"Part of the fun of restoring the former Union Pacific 105 has been the search for things for the car," Margrave says of his five-year journey. Through the internet, he tracked down the original manufacturer of the bedding, obtained passageway and perimeter lights in the dining room and bedrooms, located fan collectors to replace fans in the dining and observation rooms; friends led him to others where he acquired excess Pullman chairs and carpeting, as well as photos reproduced of iconic moments like the meeting of the rails at Promontory, Utah.