Well, own something that was once a part of Amtrak, specifically part of Acela:

https://media.amtrak.com/2018/10/people ... ollection/

http://www.peopleup.org/collections/amtrak

The bags being kinda expensive aside, have any groups in here done similar things in order to fund raise for their group? Re-purpose something no longer used and sell it to make money?

We could wire brush and gold paint used spikes and sell them in the gift shop !

I've got pieces of #4449 and #700 that I bought in the gift shop in Portland. Small pieces of the old boiler tubes. They were like $10 or $15 each I think?

Every taxpayer owns a piece of AMTRAK. I'd like to own more of it and less new highways....

Municipal Railway of San Francisco sells cable car gongs and pieces of replaced cable as souvenirs and NYC MTA sells signs and other odds and ends. CTA and T also sell signs.

Interesting that CTA sells signs themselves as my understanding was surplus/old signs went to the Illinois Railway Museum. IRM picked some to keep but others are available for purchase: http://www4.irm.org/irmsigns/
Use the links in the blue bar to see the signs IRM has for sale.

Ah - I see. CTA is selling what looks like new "reproduction type signs' in different materials that are station signs while IRM is selling CTA signs of all kinds that were used on the system.
http://www.ctagifts.com/page/cta-station-signs

DC Metro also has a store that sells system maps, station maps and station sign magnets.

A little rich for my blood! $385. for a backpack!

I've got pieces of the General that were removed by the L&N back in the 1960s when it underwent its most recent rebuild (tubes and other stuff). I also have hardware that is documented as having come off a Western and Atlantic Railroad coach and pre-Civil War iron rail documented as having come from Kennesaw, Georgia. Haven't decided what to eventually do with them-got them from a collection in St. Louis many years ago. Also have a letter from David Fant (one of the last engineers to run the General-back in the 1880s) and a handwritten note to the collector from Wilbur Kurtz (Conductor Fuller's son-in-law) regarding the schedules of the express trains on April 12, 1862).

I might buy a backpack if it had some documentation as to Amtrak being the source of the material. Otherwise, I'll just buy signs/maps from one of the transit agencies.

Most fun I had with buying an antique was buying a complete BC Electric head sign from the museum in Vancouver during a Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums conference. The sign was sitting on top of a display case with a very small card in the case indicating that it was for sale. Bought it for $50 Canadian and carried it out under my arm to the bus! Not bad for the complete unit.