My latest issue of TRAINS magazine came today and for the first time ever, they are getting involved with a restoration effort. They hope to solicit funds to put the goal over the top for #1309.

I'm sure they are impatient like the rest of us. It says that a single donor offered $100k as a match, not many of us can spare 1/100 of that. You can fault them for their mistakes (e.g., letting a known grifter work as a volunteer and scrap parts for a fraction of their replacement cost) but we all would like to see it finished.

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... st-baldwin

"With the appeal to readers still in its first month, more than $41,000 — including one donation of $25,000 — has been raised in the last 30 days, railroad officials report. That is enough to enable the railroad to purchase machined brasses that were lost to theft and became a major setback to the project at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad."

https://www.facebook.com/WMSRailroad/ph ... =3&theater
"A quick shot of a test fit for the last journal box for #1309. We picked the unit up near Altoona, PA yesterday at Lyons Industries and Diversified Rail is at work this morning. We will have a couple of videos out this week for the update. Thank you to all of our supporters who were able to re-launch the rebuild. — at Western Maryland Scenic Shop."

That's an innovative use of tie tongs!

Howard P.

HARDLY the "first time ever . . . getting involved with a restoration effort."

They have been giving $10,000 Preservation Grants annually for 20 years now.

The 2015 award even went towards this very locomotive.

Today's TRAINs Newswire had the results of the trial of the employee that stole key components of 1309 and sold them for scrap.

"The former employee pleaded guilty to one count of grand larceny in Mineral County, W.Va., circuit court and was sentenced on Jan. 10, 2020 to one to 10 years in prison suspended, according to court records. He was given 30 days of active incarceration with work release. His sentence includes full restitution in the sum of $251,000 and 100 hours of community service, but court observers say it is unlikely the railroad will receive any money from the person."

As the old expression goes, "you can't get blood out of a turnip." Our home was broken into over 45 years ago and part of the three juvenile's sentence was restitution to us. I'm still waiting.

Sometimes it works though, a friend of mine in grad school in Denver, a German national with an old Vanagon diesel, was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance and crumpled the back side of his van. Now, to me the van didn't look much worse than it already was, but he managed to get the DA to insist on restitution of around $100 a month. When he went back to Germany I deposited the money into his account, and when the person stopped sending checks the DA got on it right away and she repaid the whole $1000 within a year. I think it might have been tied to driving privileges and CO takes it seriously, but still, the moron who did this (what did he think, that no one would notice the driver boxes were missing?) should be able to come up with at least $100 a month for the rest of his miserable life.

Not to defend the lowlife piece of excrement one iota, but.......

...... the problem with this is a nasty "Catch-22" that's common throughout the criminal justice system.

The problem is that either he won't be able to get a decent job because of his criminal record and probation (look, even if he were the best damn machinist or craftsman in the world, would YOU hire him in your shop?), or his behavior is indicative of a chronic problem (drug use, mental illness, whatever) that will keep him from ever getting a decent job that will pay anywhere near enough to "live on," let alone make restitution. We see this not only in criminal restitution cases, but in alimony and child support cases nationwide. I mean, you could garnish his lottery winnings, but first he'd have to play AND WIN the lottery--and that might mean giving up the beer or cigarettes (or even food) to have enough money to even play the lottery.

I mean, maybe we could incarcerate him in a prison cell next to the WMSR shops and force him to work off his debt for the railroad...... or harvest his organs or something...... </SARCASM>

There's an old joke that the definition of a "conservative" is a "liberal" who got robbed or mugged.

But what about the salvage dealer who bought the stuff, isn't he/she/it liable too???

I've dug around looking for info on this guy, the scrap yard apparently tipped off the cops: https://www.wcbcradio.com/?archiv=arres ... arge-theft

"February 15th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

Allegany County Sheriff’s Deputies served an arrest warrant on 39 year old Scottie Nixon yesterday.

Nixon, a former employee of Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, has been charged with several theft related offenses, including the felony of Theft Scheme between $10,000 to $100,000.

Although his name does not appear in a press release on the matter, Nixon is believed to be the man allegedly responsible for the theft of bronze and brass from Steam Engine 1309 and Office Car 204.

Railroad Executive Director John Garner tells WCBC that the alleged theft was uncovered after a tip from a local salvage yard."

Apparently the boxes were recovered, but according to this Trains article they were ruined by the manner in which they were removed, which is surprising to me that something that big could be bent: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... tal-stolen

"Earlier this month, Allegany County, Md., authorities charged former Western Maryland Scenic employee Scottie A. Nixon with stealing more than $14,000 worth of brass and bronze from the railroad's shop in Ridgeley, W.V.

It's not known if these components were recovered, because an inventory of stolen items has not been made public. Bensman said the crown brasses were original to the locomotive, built by Baldwin in 1949. Diversified made replacement hub liners.

Bensman said all the pieces will have to be re-made because a hydraulic press used to remove them from No. 1309 caused damage that rendered them useless. He said he had not estimated the cost of making replacements, but it will add to the $530,000 WMSR needs to raise to complete restoration of No. 1309."

"Hydraulic Press used" Wow, sounds like the guy had lots of unsupervised time to do his nefarious acts. Obviously didn't care what damage he was doing to the locomotive, or believed it would never run again--and I can't believe there was enough metal to make such an effort worthwhile.
It's hard enough to deal with wear & tear and corrosion and vandalism while on display, but this kind of thing is most disheartening. I'm glad they have managed to work beyond it, just as the SF2926 folks had to do when thieves stole some of their critical parts.
I know I'd sure like to wring the neck of the guy(s) who stole SP1727s whistle, tender headlight, bell ringer, and water glass. I'd probably be the one sent to prison for it though.

pay what you owe or got to jail for the full 10

Without having any specific bearing against this specific instance, this raises an interesting question.

I have seem specific instances where specific authorized volunteers were allowed access to a shop, library, or other property to do work "after hours" when "no one" else was around. We're talking night shift workers, introverts, whatever their excuse. In one case, it was a guy who did machine work in solitude almost like a "zen" project. Another was a railroader "on call."

I remember one time, decades ago, I drove past a site I was active with, saw the chain to the gate down, drove up to check it out, and found "Jake" bundled against the cold, working on the baggage car model railroad.......... at eleven at night...... at twenty degrees and no heat.
"Ummmmmmmm....... Jake?!?"
"Oh, hey, Sandy. I need to get this corner done before the open house."
"Ummmmmmmmm....... You OK? Can I get you anything? Coffee? Heater?"
"No, no, I should be done in about two hours. Thanks anyway!"
[me walks off shaking head]

I later conferred with officers of the group. The guy in question was well-trusted, had his own set of keys, signed/logged in and out, kept eccentric hours, and they knew where to find him if anything were missing. Further, the mentality was that "If nobody knows when he shows up or is on site, that means the thieves or vandals are in for a rude surprise, too." And this was years before cell phones. Whatever increased electric bill was written off as "security" on top of the security system already in place.

Could this guy have made off with tons of stuff? Well, yes and no. Of course, he could have engineered some grand "heist". But seeing, in this specific case, we were flabbergasted that his tiny Ford Festiva got HIM about, we were hardly worried about a bunch of scrap or memorabilia.........

Now, apparently THIS WMSR guy was "trusted"..................

When I was a teenager growing up in Illinois things were different. They may have been the same in other places? But if a dirtbag did somebody seriously wrong and it could mean a business or a person. There were often severe penalties for the deed. The courts may or may not of been involved. But if you got away without jail time you had better leave town permanently. Snitches/Narcs same treatment. If you were dumb enough to stick around you usually got paid back. You never know who really owns the business or who the person knows. That kind of punishment kept a lot of people honest. Not suggesting a "hit", but what goes around comes around. That can't be changed. It may look like deliberate restitution or it may come in a different form, but paybacks are paybacks. It applies to dirtbags and people who do not realize they are a dirtbag too. Regards, John.