For those considering taking the plunge and buying rail equipment, I recommend two things:

1) Spend time researching the market. Learn some detail about what skills and resources you'll need. Figure out what you can do yourself and what you'll need to pay for. FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU'LL KEEP IT. Then keep thinking about it before you buy. It's not a decision to make on the spur of the moment. While it's aimed towards the PV market, this article from AAPRCO is a good primer on things you'll need to consider when owning rail equipment: http://www.aaprco.com/ownership/AAPRCO_intro_v26.pdf

2) Hire a professional to inspect it before you buy. Even if you have experience working with rail equipment, having a second set of eyes go over a car before you close the deal can save you from numerous headaches / heartaches.

Found a photo of this particular caboose today on the internet:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1591583

The car remained on the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago for quite a while and also got KLS&C reporting marks. I assume the number 151 might have been the number of the caboose when in regular service, but not sure about that. I believe the caboose disappeared before the KLS&C went out of business, but it could have ended up on the later Western Michigan Railway, a Pioneer operation, for a time. I wonder if anyone might have an idea as to what line the caboose came from and also its ultimate disposition. Thanks!

Les

So true. I might buy some trolleys in the future, but I'm not married so obtaining permission from a significant other won't be an issue. My parents (who just celebrated their 50th anniversary) are private pilots and currently own a twin engine Cessna 414 (which we've had more than twenty years). They've also owned a number of other airplanes in the same period. We won't break even with the Cessna if we sell it. as we've upgraded the avionics continually. In our ownership, the airplane has been repainted twice, had two new interiors and three engine replacements. Purchase price was about $400k twenty years ago and that's about what it will sell for now. However, with the upgrades and maintenance, we've probably spent upwards of $500k there.

Then nearly twenty years ago, Dad decided that he wanted to build an experimental 3/4 scale P-51D Thunder Mustang. Being very active in the aviation community here, we know a lot of pilots who have experience with experimental aircraft, so Mom let him buy the kit-presuming that it would keep him occupied yet hopefully never fly. The assumption was (correctly as it turned out), that whatever money went into the project would be a loss. The kit alone was $200k and by the time that it was completed ten years later, we probably had another $300k in labor and equipment invested in it easily. The airplane "Swede's Steed III" was operational for five years and was written off last year west of Globe, Arizona when Dad was on a test flight after repairs. The engine suffered a total failure and he had to make an off airport landing with it. Only insurance on the plane was for liability, so it was a total hull loss. I figure that was at least a $500k write off for us-not that we'd have ever recovered our investment.

Dad and I loved that airplane and had plenty of good memories flying it. We only learned after the crash how much Mom hated that plane. She (for understandable reasons) did not like it-one reason being that of the 30 or so Thunder Mustangs completed, about half of them have been written off in operational accidents-most related to problems with the engine. Sadly, about three weeks after Dad's accident, a friend of ours was killed when his Thunder Mustang went down in Idaho after an engine failure.

Bottom line is that you need to know what you're getting into with private ownership of any item. As I intend to buy a private railcar in the future, I have been availing myself of railcar related seminars at the ATRRM conferences. In fact, one at this past year's conference was directly targeted at people looking to acquire railcars and the presenter was a contract Amtrak private car inspector. The key is to learn enough that you can coherently interact with professional inspectors and mechanics. The other essential is to have money and be willing to spend it where necessary.

How about donating your time and your money to the local railway museum? In that way, you get a tax deduction and the entire community is enriched and not just you and your immediate family/friends?

When you are done, you walk away knowing that the world is a better place with your investment of time.

That's why I do what I do and many others in our organization do the same. Money is something of a double edged sword-many museums do not have the proper financial controls that are necessary to attract larger donations.

As fiduciary officer of our museum, I have had to have occasional discussions with other members regarding understandable, but inappropriate use of museum funds. In one case, funds that should have been used for specific expenses that should have been budgeted (insurance premiums in this case) were used to pay student interns. It's part of shifting the mentality of the members to the fact that we have to operate as a business and that in some cases, worthwhile projects must wait until we can budget funds for them.

I will be quite frank in stating that there are certain organizations that I will not currently consider giving either money to or items from my personal collection. That's not to say that they're not worthwhile institutions-they are very well regarded organizations. The reason that I will not currently consider giving is that they lack the appropriate institutional controls to insure that the money or items donated will be used for the intents for which they will be given.

I am working on moving my troop sleeper to my land. It's only a 30 mile trip by truck but it will be a nail biter the whole way. I am understandably nervous about transporting such a large car, but I have hired the gentleman who originally delivered it to it's current location. I am fortunate that it is only 53 feet long and it does not have trucks with it. The first car I intended to buy was a steel center cupola Caboose. Not only did my research find that it was way too tall to go by Road, it also would have incurred extra expense just to get the wheelsets moved. You basically have to get two flatbed trucks, one for the car and one for the wheelsets. The wheelsets averaged about 10,000 pounds each, and that means extra time and money to have a crane move those as well. Get the picture so far? Then there was the added expense that would have come from buying railroad ties, rail spikes, and gravel for ballast. Don't think that was the end of it. Now You have to find somebody to put the track together! I estimate with the Caboose being $8000 by itself, I probably would've invested approximately $20,000 to get it on my land and set up and that's conservative. Needless to say I scrapped that plan. My troop sleeper cost $6000 and the moving cost will be about 4K It can be done if you find the right situation. My advise is be patient. I will be converting my troop sleeper to a residence. This way if I do have to move I can take it with me. I am actually looking into having a custom set of axles installed so in the future it can be hauled around like a semi trailer. Of course it will have to be a wide load whenever it does move but that's not a big deal. Beyond the width of the car, the weight falls well within the legal limits of most semi trailers fully loaded.

Some videos made by the new owner of the CN sleeping car, Edmundston, that describe a few of the expenses he has encountered.

Part 1, (7/21/15): "They say the cheapest thing about buying the train car, is buying the train car."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heClykJrdWY

Part 2, (9/25/15): Restoration begins. "This is a big job isn't it??"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD0zDtEMcR8

You can read more about this preservation project here:
http://www.rapidotrains.com/blog/2015/0 ... prototype/

I've been annoyingly close to picking up a caboose a couple times - primarily as a hunting cabin on my land, with my wife's full encouragement. She loves the idea, and I'm the overly cautious one.

The problem is that I do enough equipment appraisals on the stuff that I've seen what happens to the surviving family (and the equipment) when the rail-passionate one passes on. It rarely comes out well unless the original owner donates/sells it in advance. I've seen some fantastic restoration jobs have to be sold at 'market value', which is a polite phrase for 'nowhere near what it actually cost to do it'. But not dealing with it while alive is a huge millstone for a family, estate, and sometimes a death sentence for the equipment as well, risking scrapping and fast disposal.

One thing I will remind those looking at this is that an appraisal values things like cars 'as is where is', not 'where it ought to be'. I had one equipment owner that was rather upset because 'do you have any idea how much this cost me to move it to the Museum for donation as a semi load and the crane time?' and calmed right down because the out-of-pocket documented direct cost he had was essentially an additional donation in addition to the equipment value in 'as is/where is' condition. And that was more than the equipment was worth.

You can love your trains and love your family, the real trick is to do both.

Great post perfectly summed up in one succinct sentence.

This applies to anyone with an interest that is not mainstream and which entails accumulating objects large and small. At a minimum, keep it all documented and organized such that there is enough information available to the person or persons who will be faced with the task of disposition when the time comes. This ensures the best probability of preservation and usefulness to others who share your passion and greatly relieves the burden on those who will also be grieving. The best approach, if you can not bear to part with the stuff while you are still living, is to include a disposition plan in your estate plan. Even if you are relatively young and healthy, having a plan in place will be a great comfort to those close to you in the event you are are suddenly incapacitated and/or die.

This is certainly my experience! While not a piece of railroad equipment......I brought home a 1919 Wurlitzer theaer pipe organ. It took two 28' truck loads to get it home. My wife has explained that a form of Viking's funeral is in my future. Her plan is to toss my body onto the pipe organ and set the whole shebang ablaze as a funereal pyre! My fear is that she will not wait for my demise before setting her plan into action!
Keith

We've got a Wurlitzer theater pipe organ in the church I attend. Unfortunately, someone actually proceeded with your wife's idea, without a body, about 10 years ago. A very depressing sight; gutted the whole sanctuary. Arsonist started the fire by pouring gasoline over the organ console. Organ was owned by the Theater Organ Society of San Diego, who had it insured. Replaced it with a bigger and better one (4 manual/24 rank, Wurlitzer, parts from 2 organs, 1922 & 1926)

Finally got mine moved after 3 contractors.....

http://youtu.be/vK4NzN6Q6qI




Photo

A positive story is lawyer who purchased the Eureka & Pallisade 36" gauge 4-4-0.

He has taken his loco to both the D&S and C&TS railroads in Colorado and to the Nevada Statate Railroad Museums.

It might work out and there's lots of hurdles to pass but it can be done.

Doug vV

I recall an interview with Ward Kimball, the Disney animator, he had a steam engine "In his garage" so to speak, he had a building for it and a short track. Talking to his wife she never goes out to the engine as she was "afraid of it"...hmmm well... as it goes...

Anything large will suck to deal with. My grandfather died this past fall and had a sizable collection of... You know what? Let's just break down what I know was there.

2- D7 Bulldozers, cable blades of 1949 and 1951 vintage, both with new undercarriages that he had done at one point.
1- D4 Bulldozer
1- Crane truck, had a damaged clutch that limited mobility.
1- 941B crawl loader in the midst of a transmission overhaul.
1- Farmall(?) Tractor
1- Chevy Step van
1- 20ft Trailer
3- Nissan Pickups
4- Geo Trackers
Hundreds of tools, books and documents in the house.

Now that's just the stuff he had left by the time he died. For years he had slowly been selling off stuff so he could focus on a handful of machines that helped him maintain the property, specfically the 941B, one of the trackers, a pickup and the tractor, which he had constructed a logsplitter for. Over the years he's had a brockway dump truck, two D8 bulldozers and a bunch of other stuff that I've been unable to keep track of. Dear ole' dad was going to have it all cut up because at the time it had all been sitting with no guarantee of getting them operational in a good amount of time. I didn't have much of a hand in the pot, so I didn't bother until the scrapping came up and my younger brother Ryan went ballistic. (All of this was stuff that he had practiced his mechanical skills on. The D4 specifically was his project after him and my grandfather somehow got it for something to the tune of $500.). Inevitably all but one of the pickups, one of the trackers, the D4, tractor, 941B and the D7s went to the junk heap.

Within a week of my brother snapping on my father we had a buyer for the D7s from up in Maine. Got $6000 for the two of them (but I guess that wasn't good enough after Dad started yelling at me saying I should've never sold them for that price.). My involvement with everything abruptly ended when I found my father talking to one of his friends about how he found some buyers up in Maine for them and how he had got them running. I love my Dad, and he'd never said something that stupid to my knowledge, that set me off. Let's just say my language was colorful to say the least. I didn't set foot on the property after that and whenever it came up until everything was done I just told him that if he was so good at selling some old machines he could more than handle everything else. By the eleventh hour me, him and Ryan were all about ready to boil over into more physical methods of problem solving.

Since we don't have a property to clean out these days I can happily say that things have since cooled down. The D4, 941B and the tractor have been retained by us after the $15,000 expenditure in cleaning it all up. The 941B will get it's new transmission sometime in the near(ish) future, and Ryan was slowly finishing the mechanical work on the D4 and his tractor before the weather started to change this year.