An interesting lesson has arisen in the wake of the quite-surprising sale of Reading 1187/Strasburg 4 by the Strasburg to the Age of Steam Museum.

In another post, Kelly Anderson states:



Now, we don't know who those other organizations were.
High on the list of possibilities would have been the Reading Railroad Museum/RCT&HS and the Friends of the RR Museum of Pa., the two likely "most deserving" homes. But we have no idea if they were proactive in this direction or not.
Other ideas: a private offer by Andrew Muller.

But the Strasburg Rail Road, as a privately held corporation with few shareholders, is under no obligation to report to the public in such a matter. We might implicitly "trust" them, but they were perfectly within their rights to, say, sell it to Disney or a casino, or to some well-heeled lottery winner.

The moral of this story:
If you have a "better" idea or proposal for an object of preservation, MAKE IT. Put your money (or a lot of people's) where your mouth is. BE PROACTIVE. You can even go to them and say "what would it take to make this desired goal happen?" The shrewdest, most astute dealmakers can convince the owner not only that their offer is the best available alternative, but somehow make the owner think it was HIS idea in the first place.....

It's entirely possible other parties just "sat around" waiting for the Strasburg to come to them. That approach probably cost them the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions.

And if you REALLY don't like the idea, do what Norfolk Southern did when Conrail and CSX cut a "secret" backroom merger deal: Throw more money on the table. (Don't have the money? Why haven't you been fundraising towards your goal already?)

That's how SRC got #90. IIRC, Huber approached Great Western in 1962 about her. They filed away the offer, and in 1967 contacted us to say they accepted it.

We approached the owner of #475 as well, but it didn't take five years.

This sums it up pretty well.

I could not agree more. I'm so tired of people complaining "Oh its a shame X is rusting away" or "They should really do something about X". If you really want these artifacts preserved, get off your armchair and donate money, volunteer, do SOMETHING instead of acting like railroads and museums have unlimited funds and aren't restoring your favorite engine out of spite.

Some of us have tried to do something and were told “get lost”. It’s a 2 way street.

But in general I agree. Money isn’t usually the issue... money is easy to get. It’s time that is of very limited supply.

< "The moral of this story:
< If you have a "better" idea or proposal for an object of preservation, MAKE IT. Put your money (or a lot of people's) where
< your mouth is. BE PROACTIVE."

Uh, well, isn't that exactly what happened here? Several people or groups all had good ideas, made their proposals for the same item at the same time, and all of those people or groups were proactive by offering their money at the same time.

Be happy that this locomotive will be safe. You, also, be safe.

John B.

I'm happy to know the locomotive is in good hands. Between the Camelback and 643, won't the roundhouse be at capacity if not already? Are there any plans to add onto it?

Who’s unhappy? The age of steam is a great place for any piece of railroading equipment!

Who knows.... one day maybe it can return for a season and operate some “specials” at Strasburg. This is good news for the locomotive, and it’s good news for Strasburg since they get some money they can put towards other projects. Win for everyone.

"Between the Camelback and 643, won't the roundhouse be at capacity if not already? Are there any plans to add onto it?"

Naw. Whenever we need more room inside the roundhouse to add some new acquisitions, we have found that it's a lot less expensive to just scrap a couple of our long-time display steam locos. Culling the herd keeps the collection "fresh." (Grinning)

Personally, I'd love to see the construction of an additional 26 to 30 stalls (in two stages), making a full-circle roundhouse except for two tracks left open for access. Think big. Be safe.

John B.

Perhaps I missed something, but I don't recall reading anything about the AoSR doing an operating restoration on the Reading 1187. I believe they just indicated they wanted it for display. It would be interesting to see it run. A unique piece for sure. But, they can't all be runners. :o)

/Kevin Madore

I said “someday” lol. I never thought I’d see a lot of things I’ve seen in the railroad preservation world!

I'm probably wrong, but I was under the impression that camelbacks are no longer legal to operate, because of crew safety problems with the engineer right over the main rods. That may only be for engines on the general system.

From another thread on this same locomotive -

Here's another little "Gedanken" experiment:

Now, please understand I'm making this up completely out of whole cloth.

In a short period of time, The DanubeWaltzBurg Railroad gets several offers for its Reading Camelback remains:

1) $25,000 from the Reading Railway Museum;
2) Tax write-off offer plus cash to do the restoration from the Friends of the State RR Museum.
3) $50K plus a request to pay the WaltzBurg shop to restore it to operation before the buyer's donation to Steamtown;
4) $100K from the Second Steamtown in another state;
5) $75K from some guy with a roundhouse with a Reading loco inside;
6) $200K from some casino that wants to hang it from the ceiling;
7) $100K from some guy with a big estate with track on it and a covered bridge to run it around during weddings and other events;
8) $250k from some rich lottery winner you know nothing about, to stuff and mount it on his farm;
9) $90K from Jay Leno.

Which offer should they take?

You forgot one:

10) $500k from the League or Moronic Voters to acquire it and have it melted down because it's unsafe.