This month´s cover ...

The cover photograph was taken inside the Crown Plaza Hotel at Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, in historic Union Station, which is listed in the US National Register of Historic Places. In 1853, four railroad companies that had served passengers with individual tenninals opened the first union station ever built. The majestic red brick and granite, recognized as one of the finest Romanesque Revival-styled structures in America, replaced the original building in 1888. Built at a cost of $1M, its Grand Hall is one of the finest public spaces in the Midwest. One of the most popular features of the hotel are the 26 original Pullman sleeper-car rooms. Resting on their original tracks, the thirteen cars each contain two rooms named and decorated for early 1900s personalities such as Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Cole Porter, and Jean Harlow. Each is furnished with a unique blend of traditional and contemporary decor depicting the life of its namesake. Throughout the hotel guests encounter statues representative of individuals photographed in the past at the station. The statues, totally white, are the work of a local sculptor. The Lillian Russell on our cover was next to the entrance to the 2003 Digital Avionics Systems Conference. Your Board of Governors held its spring meeting in the hotel, pausing only while 100-car freights rumbled overhead. (See page 41 for a symopsis.)