Restoration of the building has begun. The new roof will go on as soon as the weather breaks.

Whitewater Valley Railroad Museum

Curator@WhitewaterValleyRR.org

That crane lift picture reminds me of a similar crane lift at SRM when we put the old gatehouse on a flatbed truck to move it to the new site.

I hope you have a place to display these photographs to the public to show how things evolved.

Oddly enough, right after I wrote (in my previous post) that Bob Z had headed your way, I got a letter from him saying he was working with ya'll again! Yes, I think he was there when the RR started.

--Malcolm

malcolmrcampbell@cs.com

Hmm. SCRM is on our fourth TEA grant. I can't recall what the ammounts of the first two were, they were under the old ISTEA program before it was renamed TEA21. The TEA21 grants we've gotten in '02 and '03 were both for $200K, the max allowed in SC. The first two grants were smaller, I think the first one was under $100K and the second was around $150K -- but don't quote me.

The first grant ('95?) essentially bought ties, IIRC. The second one ('96?) retimbered the railroad from Cathcart's (~MP 2.7) to the west end of Rion, excluding the 1600-foot Greenbrier Cut. The $200K '02 grant will rebuild the cut and tamp the main, plus rebuild the old quarry office building as our Rion Quarry depot. The '03 grant, which hasn't been released by the State yet, will repair USAF #1249 (a Cat-repowered BLH RS4TC with a toasted main genny) and do spot tie replacement and ballasting between MP 0.2 and Summit at MP 2.4. This track was rebuilt by volunteers back when money was still very short, so the ties that went in weren't a whole lot better than what came out and are now failing.

We also got a State grant from the Department of Archives & History for the Rion Quarry depot building. It's not very big compared to the TEA grants -- around $30K -- but that *is* government grant money, too.

So, we're already in the neigborhood of a $500K in government grant money now. We're working on the '04 TEA21 grant now, deciding what to put in it. Assuming we get it, that'll be another $200K. Three more grants like that will put us over a cumulative million.

The South Carolina Railroad Museum, Inc.
mconrad@msmgmt.com

> I hope you have a place to display these
> photographs to the public to show how things
> evolved.

A photo essay of the move and restoration will be located in the building. Exactly where has not been decided at this time.

> Oddly enough, right after I wrote (in my
> previous post) that Bob Z had headed your
> way, I got a letter from him saying he was
> working with ya'll again! Yes, I think he
> was there when the RR started.

> --Malcolm

Bob's been very active since his return. I believe he's been pushed back into conductor duties at least once already. Every time he talks about his stay down there in Georgia, I perk up to listen. He has quite a bit of knoledge to share. I am really glad he's back and I have a chance to work with him.

William


Whitewater Valley Railroad Museum

Curator@WhitewaterValleyRR.org