Cheapest and easiest way, wait till a MOW or C&S crew is in the area. $50 dollar bills, pizza or beers for after work can go a long way and cut out the middle man.

If you go this route, resist the urge to document the event and / or post photos on the internet in order to protect the guilty (your new friends in the C&S dept.). Discretion would be the ruling concept here.

I have to agree. Pizza and beer money, or this winter, you might try hot coffee! I know it has worked for at least one fellow in obtaining a PRR style position light. The crew was told to dispose of the signal, and dispose they did.

By the way, have you thought about how you're going to get this thing home? It's a lot bigger than it looks. Won't fit in the back of your Corolla.

Not sure why you are confused. They said no. Easy and simple answer for them. I know know when a private individual comes to me requesting a traffic sign or signal (I am a county engineer), the answer is no. Now if you were affiliated with a non profit or museum you might get a different response. But even then many an organization has struggled to save 'stuff'.

You are asking them to use their time, equipment, manpower, etc to do something for you to add to your personal collection. Most businesses and railroad run bare bones. They have a very long list of maintenance and repair items that they need to address daily. It's a never ending battle to keep up. You are asking them to stop all that to get you an inactive out of service signal that would take substantial effort to remove. It's just not worth it to them. They won't receive any benefit from this. Even if you pay for it, they would easily charge you thousands to perform the work.

Personally I think you would be better off looking on eBay or other sites for a similar signal for your collection. Probably less costly and a lot less hassle.

Exactly what cjvrr said, but keep an eye on the old piece, and when you see signal maintainers removing it, ask them how they like their coffee and offer them a pizza for lunch. Seriously. You got a form rejection, which is, frankly, more than I thought you'd get.

We see this all the time, not just in railroading but in any corporation, politics, etc. I would suggest that the comic strip "Dilbert" was built around this.

The people at the top--those elected or appointed there, who may have never pulled a throttle, soldered a joint, written code, etc.--say something sounds like a good idea and express their support or command "make it so." The underlings in the field, the ones with hands-on experience and expertise, who will catch the flack or pay the price when (not if, when) something goes wrong, will adamantly tell you why you're trying to do the near-impossible, in no uncertain terms. Then the matter either quietly disappears, or the people on top redouble their efforts and accuse the underlings of not trying hard enough.

Sometimes it's caution. Amtrak top officials overruled a clearances official (looking to avoid problems) when they wanted a GG1 at Washington Union Terminal's centennial. It was an expensive and time-consuming operation, but they wanted it to happen, and it did. But other times, it's a big kick of reality. I watched technical experts wade through the massive logistical and technical problems with the implementation of Positive Train Control (which, if you think about it, is on par with equipping every automobile retroactively with a sat-nav screen and satellite radio) in a day-long forum between the AAR and the NTSB, then watched NTSB chair Deborah Hersman ignore all of that and conclude by, in effect, saying "not good enough--hurry up!" I really felt badly for those poor technicians and engineers trapped in the middle.

And, yes, the other approach works, too. Far too often, people starting at the top get rejected by a corporate legal team when the guys out of the local yard office can simple say "I'm not allowed to tell you to pull it out of the scrap pile out back two weeks from now, wink-wink, nudge-nudge....." or "Have someone at the switch tomorrow afternoon and we'll see if we have time to switch those cars to the other siding for you...." Pockets of "common sense" still surprisingly exist here and there.

Cameron,

PM me at your convenience.

Cameron, these folks have a railroad to run and I doubt that they have time to accommodate your request. I'm guessing that their management, C&S, and B&B folks are extremely busy every day maintaining assets that are necessary to the railroad's regular operations. Do you really think they can dedicate X number of employees for Y number of hours on your behalf? Especially if they're footing the bill? The folks who suggest that you should bide your time until someday the opportunity to unofficially obtain the signal arises are right. You need to be more pragmatic and accept that going through channels is unlikely to achieve your desired result, and you are likely to alienate the RR if you continue to badger them.

The signal may be derelict and obsolete and they probably don't "want" it, but it's not costing them anything to leave it right where it is. Have you offered to pay the labor costs they'll incur by removing the signal? X number of people at Y number of dollars per hour . . . You need to realize that there's a cost attached to your request that the railroad has no need or desire to incur.

Cameron,

I don’t think I would just walk in and ask somebody. The reception would be hard to predict, and it would always have the potential to be quite hostile. It would be possible that a person approached like that might give something away without any complications. But it would also be quite possible that the person you ask would feel that dealing with you be a job task that the person is not required by his employer to do. So why should they do extra work?

It might be best to approach somebody higher up by a well written letter and emphasize that you are part of that museum, and the signal will be displayed for the public, etc. And then maybe even make an offer to pay for it. The museum purpose might carry some weight in getting someone from the railroad to see it more as a contribution to a higher cause. They might just give you the signal and send someone out to take it down for you.

I'm glad you realize it will be "insanely expensive" to have the RR remove the signal. If you're connected with a museum, why not have the museum pursue this? The item would not be in your personal collection, but it would be preserved and I'd think an established museum might have a little more weight in this case than an individual would.

Vaguely related humor posted on DeviantArt:



http://gp38-2.deviantart.com/art/NORAC- ... 1427507072

(NOTE: "related photos" on side might be NSFW, depending on your filter options or whatnot.....)

Really. It's a LOT easier to do this sort of thing under the umbrella of a nonprofit museum. Because the government agency is "sort of" a nonprofit itself, there are rules for dispositioning equipment to private individuals, and those rules are a lot easier when a nonprofit is involved. Plus you're more sympathetic.

Nothing says the museum can't sell it to you after a cooling off period, typically 3 years, sometimes 1, sometimes 5, sometimes 0.

I would not necessarily conclude that it will be “insanely expensive” to cover the railroad’s cost of removing the signal. That may be generally true, it is also generally true that it will be “insanely difficult” to get a railroad to sell it.

I once bought a boxcar without trucks from C&NW. I made several phone calls and finally contacted a yardmaster who recalled a friend of mine who used to work there as a switchman.

The yardmaster sold me the car for one dollar and sent me a little contract stipulating that price. Then I removed the car without any help from C&NW. There was no insurance requirement and no liability release agreement.