To make my earlier point a little clearer,

Don't stop collecting, Just don't think you HAVE to start a railroad museum with a caboose (or a mikado or an s-1 ...)

Just because you call it a 'Museum' doesn't mean your acting like one. Your basicly teaching school with old bit of history. Be careful how you do it, to many locomotives can be like to many lanterns is shown improperly.

I feel a solid start with out large rolling stock might be more important than a shaky start trying to save a chicken coop.....


Side note:
Over the last ten years I have watched a small museum start to build. Durning the first board meeting I ever sat in on, the complaint was voiced "why are we looking for land we don't even have equipment!" Almost ten years have passed and the group now has equipment and active restoration, but still no land and no place to allow public access.
While the group has been actively prusuing different sites, and I think will one day get the right one. I think about how much eaiser it all might be to line up the money and the work for projects if they had started with some sort of public facility (even temporary) first.

Main point- Get the important stuff taken care of first, the artifacts will come on their own....