From Georgia RR originally, to Southeastern Railway Museum.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,675587
ryarger@rypn.org

A bit of background. We owe TVRM a thank you for offering it to us after it was donated to them. It wasn't necessarily something they felt fit the long range collection goals of TVRM so they ask us if we were interested. Plan is to repaint it as it appeared as delivered by EMD. We hope that the unit will return to Atlanta sometime next months.

Randy Minter
Collection Manager - SRM



minterjr@mindspring.com

Hope ya'll enjoy that GP7!

> A bit of background. We owe TVRM a thank you
> for offering it to us after it was donated
> to them. It wasn't necessarily something
> they felt fit the long range collection
> goals of TVRM so they ask us if we were
> interested. Plan is to repaint it as it
> appeared as delivered by EMD. We hope that
> the unit will return to Atlanta sometime
> next months.

> Randy Minter
> Collection Manager - SRM


southern630@hotmail.com

> A bit of background. We owe TVRM a thank you
> for offering it to us after it was donated
> to them. It wasn't necessarily something
> they felt fit the long range collection
> goals of TVRM so they ask us if we were
> interested. Plan is to repaint it as it
> appeared as delivered by EMD. We hope that
> the unit will return to Atlanta sometime
> next months.

Sure is a shame that locomotive could not have gone somewhere it could be kept under cover and actually made use of, like the Georgia State Railroad museum in Savannah. It seems you guys already have more equipment than you can keep with the deterioration of and the money would have been better spent on preserving what you already have insted of buying a new toy. I know you do not have a loco of that type, but how many non-railfans (the people that pay all of our bills) will this loco bring in off of the street???
Not trying to poke, just an honest question.

roger69@hotmail.net

> Sure is a shame that locomotive could not
> have gone somewhere it could be kept under
> cover and actually made use of, like the
> Georgia State Railroad museum in Savannah.

The Savannah museum is undergoing growing pains in a slow and reasoned process right now. Acquisitions still must be trucked in. TVRR was kind enough to offer some surplus historically significant passenger cars which have been approved for acquisition, and some other interesting stuff is in the pipeline.

I wouldn't look for any large acquisitions until the work is done on the land and track just bought from NS, and the turntable repaired and running again. Even then, until there may be a rail conection back to the outside world, acquisitions won't be pursued without serious consideration.

Southeastern is more a railroad technology museum - Savannah an architectural and sociological museum. It follows that the collection at Southeastern must be larger and more diverse.

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

There has been much written in this forum about museum's having more pieces in their collections than they could ever hope to maintain. That is one reason why TVRM has decided to divest itself of several pieces of rolling stock. Instead of allowing these pieces to rot to the ground, we offered them to other organizations.

The Georgia Railroad diesel was a no brainer. The SRM was the ideal place for it to go. Once that exchange was worked out, TVRM was able to acquire a former NC&StL GP-7 which does fit into our Mission Statement.

The 3 pieces of passenger equipment are all of Central of Georgia origin and they will make a fine fit into the Savannah Roundhouse group.

TVRM will be continuing to sort through its collection in the coming months and may yet find more items for deaccession.

And Dave, the 349 will NOT be among them.

G. Mark

Look at our Revamped Website
aw90@comcast.net

It is good to see so many southeastern railroad museums beginning to actively integrate their strategic business models with equipment acquisition and preservation plans...or vice-versa. This will leave the region with stronger institutions that offer clearly defined and refined "products" to the public.

In today's economy, visits from railfans, many of them now greying, are not sufficient to support a museum. It is John Q. -- the mother or father with a child or two, or history enthusiasts, and other market segments -- that eventually will determine whether individual rail museums perish or flourish. The laws of basic economics -- supply and demand, customer satisfaction, and of the power of the marketplace -- cannot be repealed.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com

> Not trying to poke, just an honest question.
Roger... it's a fair question and one we weighed seriously when we were discussing the acquisition. Several things went into the decision. One was providing some local flavor to the collection so that more of our guests would see an obvious Georgia connection. A second was to have an available standby engine for the train ride while we do restoration work on other locomotives. Another is the long term potential for a longer train ride at the museum. A big one was keeping the collection fresh and interesting and given that a substantial portion of our attendance is repeat visitors, giving them something different to experience on occasion is an important part of our continued success.

Like Mark & the folks at TVRM, SRM is also reviewing it's collection and has already announced plans to deaccession 3 pieces. A fourth is being documented for discussion and others will possibly follow.

Between tuning the collection and increasing our covered storage areas, SRM has currently reached a point where about 1/3 of the rolling stock in the collection is under cover. We are actively working on plans for how to better preserve all the collection.

I hope you have a chance to visit SRM when you're in the area. I think you will see we're moving in the right direction and we welcome your help, input and opinions on how we can make the museum better.

Randy Pirkle
Administrator, SRM

admin@srmduluth.org

Well stated Randy. I'd also like to add that until the 1026 aquisition, all of our larger diesel locomotives were of Southern heritage. 1026 not only gives us a locomotive from the CSX/Seaboard side, but also our first first-generation road switcher. I'm as big a SR fan as anyone, but it is always nice to do anything to help balance the collection.

Andrew Durden
Assistant Manager-Locomotives
SERM

gapower97@yahoo.com

You folks have made tremendous progress in the last four years. I visited your museum in November, 1999, shortly after the move from the previous site, and again this past October.

The progress was impressive, especially the new building where so much memorabilia is displayed and intelligently interpreted. I only had two hours this time, but could easily have spent four. Hope to be back again in a year or two.

Congratulations on your new acquisition. As a rule, I'm not usually a first generation Geep fan, but your unit will be the only Georgia Railroad unit of that era preserved, and I look forward to seeing her on my next trip south.

Best of luck.

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

Once that exchange was worked out,
> TVRM was able to acquire a former NC&StL
> GP-7 which does fit into our Mission
> Statement.

Which NC GP-7?

> TVRM will be continuing to sort through its
> collection in the coming months and may yet
> find more items for deaccession.

What types of equipment?

Just curious.

Stuart




davenport6_1941@msn.com

> Which NC GP-7?

NC&StL #710

See it at TVRM
sfreer@tvrail.com

> And Dave, the 349 will NOT be among them.

Maybe she could visit, once she's operable! Definitely light enough to get on a trailer and galavant to other parts of "Central" territory.


Southeastern Railway Museum

gapower97@yahoo.com

> Maybe she could visit, once she's operable!
> Definitely light enough to get on a trailer
> and galavant to other parts of
> "Central" territory.

OK, so we get 223 up and running, you guys do CV 21, and with 349 we triple head from Chattanooga through Atlanta to Savannah with a rake of heavyweight Pullmans. Every weekend. With on board 5 course gourmet dinners. Live music.And the Hooters girls for car hosts.

Sounds like a cruise, doesn't it?

Hopefully, seriously, as the Savannah situation matures and reconnects with the outside world maybe we can produce the occasional "mountains to the sea" excursion with a destination at both ends. Make no small plans, like Brunel said.

dave



irondave@bellsouth.net