Chris Fussell, the "custodian" of two former Amtrak diesels, F40PH 231 and SDP40F 6976 (BNSF number, originally Amtrak 644), is reporting that the units' current home, the Nevada State RR Museum, wants them off the property. This after a stint in Ogden, Utah.

No official reason for the request has been given:



One speculation is that they are to leave because they are not state property of the NSRM.

Anyone interested in acquiring two Amtrak museum pieces, or at least giving them a home? (NOTE: This is not an official offer, only an effort to stay far ahead of potential scrappers.....)

UPDATE:

Discussion with Mr. Fussell indicates that, thankfully, this is NOT an emergency relocation situation or "eviction," but more on the order of "eventually you need to find a new place to live--start looking" notice from the landlord.

So, start thinking, either whether you can offer a good use/home or how to best save these locos.........

Sent you a PM....

Update #2:

Video from Mr. Fussell of him addressing the Friends of the Nevada Southern:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHL743WP1e0

Wow the museum should be ashamed of itself, I would love to know what the response was, if any.

A damning as that speech seems, we are so far hearing only one side of the story.

Seeing as a NSRM Director is also one of the moderators of this site, if they want to publicly respond on this issue I'm sure we'll see it here.

Agreed.

It would be nice to know both sides of the story. I think it is safe to think that this is a tragedy.

Every time I hear some neophyte going on about, "Someone should save ________," I tell them to check out the saga of this effort.
Like the rest of you, I hope for a happy ending for these locomotives. This is especially odd to me as they both run and have pulled trains. You'd think they would be considered an asset. That said, you never know about the both sides of the story, and I'd bet a lot of money that there are issues with this that i have no idea about.

Your mean this guy?:

By Hali Bernstein Saylor Boulder City Review
January 12, 2022 - 4:41 pm


The Nevada Division of Museums and History has selected historian Christopher MacMahon as the new director of the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City.

He replaces Randy Hees, who retired Sept. 30 and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas.

MacMahon will oversee the open-air museum, which preserves and displays railroad equipment of the Boulder Branch line that supported construction activities at the Hoover Dam in 1930s.

https://bouldercityreview.com/news/hist ... der%20City.

I hope I won't regret entering this "discussion" as I consider both Chris as well as the current and former museum directors as friends.

I admit I still don't know all the details, but I do know it was not the Friends of the Museum group or the Museum itself which is "evicting" the two diesels. The Nevada Lands Commission came to the museum to perform an audit subsequent to the appointment of the new director. The Lands commission is effectively the museum's landlord

As part of audit, the commission auditors determined that several leases or permits were invalid, including one for a local U-Haul franchisee (who was given 30 days to vacate) as well as the one for Dyna Rail. I can't verify this, but I've heard that Dyna Rail was given 3 years to vacate or make other arrangements.

There are several options available, but whether any are acceptable I can't say.

Greg

If correct, that would make it less personal but no less aggravating for all involved. That said, the youtube video makes it sound it wasn't that simple, given the whole thing about them being moved to a remote part of the yard once the museum couldn't use either for trains.

I've no desire or sufficient knowledge to try and dispute all the points in the video. The Friends president promised a response at the end of Chris' presentation, and I'll leave that to them to do. But as of this afternoon when I finished my mainline track inspection, the F40 was still parked adjacent to the shop building in reach of utilities and tools. The 6936 was parked on "B" track adjacent to the yard gate, and not in reach of utilities, but hardly remote.

To my knowledge the F40 has never been in operation on trains. I've never seen it running. The 6976 was used quite a bit last year when 844 wasn't available, but I believed it suffered a failure of some sort.

My mistake, I must have forgotten or missed the news about Randy's retirement.

In my defence, his profile here (which I looked at to confirm his position before posting) still lists his occupation as "Museum Director". Should have googled him instead. I can understand why he wouldn't pay much attention to this place if he's in the middle of retiring and moving halfway across the continent.

The plot has certainly thickened with this new information about audits and allegedly invalid lease agreements.