Thanks Eden, that is good information. I have a friend that was a very generous and frequent contributor to anything involving the engine. They were approached a couple of years ago by one of the now former Executive Directors about realigning some of this donated money to a marketing budget for the museum because there was no other money for it. My friend said no to this, leaving the money as intended for the engine, but at least the question was asked.

This same person donated to the building fund and to date, has not been asked about realigning that money. There was a lot of dollars sent to a project that is no more and it seems nobody has been asked about using the money for something else....at least, I know my friend has not. I donated in blood and sweat and not dollars so I'm not the one to ask them about it.

Just curious-does the problem lie with the remaining Board members, or is it VMT management? I ask out of curiosity about how people at large can try to bring about necessary change.

Pardon my language, but it sounds to me like the same old shit. Egos and politics and control freaks.
I've seen it before. I avoided getting involved in the ego puffing and control things, had enough stuff on my plate at the time.
Doyle once told me there are more cold engines sitting around for those reasons rather than mechanical issues.

Some information that I obtained from reaching out to VMT

They lost me at 'the board has always been unanimous', which is bunk. We were on a layover in Crewe in 2017 and had a board member (can't remember who) tell me in the cab that he liked the engine to be at the museum since he thought it brought more people through the front door. The response you got sounds like a run-of-the-mill PR response.

Seeds that get planted but don't get water and other necessary nutrients die. Let's hope the seed continues to grow.

The normal 'failings' of largely 'volunteer' organizations. Individuals with little authority in their day to day lives get power drunk when they get a little authority within the volunteer organization. Not everyone knows how to use 'authority'.

But the main thing is, 611 isn't going to be retired

This is where things will get interesting. Since Harris resigned from the Board, IF 611 has a future on the Buckingham Branch do you really believe he'll play nice with whomever is involved, since he isn't involved anymore?

This could become a situation similar to what has developed on the East Broad Top where one guy, thinking he would be running the show owns a portion of land associated with the railroad, but since he isn't involved now can do whatever he wants and no one can do anything about it to stop him.

Harris could effectively charge VMT ransom to store their locomotive on his siding/land and charge a per diem on any tickets sold originating from his location. Otherwise, VMT would have to find somewhere else with the logistical resources to do what has already been done in the most ideal location.

Well, how an organization is run is very important.

I got lost in this thread.

Is Will Harris a VMT member with deep pockets, or someone in ownership at Buckingham Branch? Or both?

Wesley

I have seen another situation where a short-line employee/partner purchased the passenger rolling stock being used by the short line for occasional public excursions (as I recall, the passenger stock was already on the line where the short line took over operations, and the partner personally bought the cars and then a couple more elsewhere), then had a falling-out with the short line in question--firing, dismissal, involuntary buy-out, whatever.

This very quickly had the potential to escalate into a similar "hostage" situation, and as I recall at least one set of public excursions was indeed cancelled after the disagreement boiled up. Somehow, they did come to terms, however--as I understood it, the short line did add a couple cars acquired elsewhere to fulfill a couple trips, but as of now there's some detente going on--the original fleet is still on the line in question, and I think the terms are now "storage and maintenance in trade for occasional use for public events." (I know both parties, and I'm not going to stir up whatever went on.)

In the case of the Virginia situation, it's possible some (maybe costly) compromise can be reached for the greater good of the excursion program, the VMT, the BB RR, 611 or 614, whatever. But it could also escalate quickly.............. OR--and hear me out here--imagine someone manages to pull off a renewed seasonal program with 614, or borrowed 2716, 765, 2100, whatever, that cuts the VMT out of the equation completely............... I've seen worse "spite matches" in my day.................

He was on the board until last week and was the President of the museum at the time. He was involved with the museum for many years. He also personally funded most of the work needed last year to run out of Goshen and owned the property where the train would load and unload.

Wait, the President of VMT resigned? Sorry, I’m not familiar with all the people in this organization either so this is maybe a bigger deal than I thought.

This just in:

https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/06/27/virgin ... rs-resign/