B&M wood coach scrapped in Lunenburg, MA

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Fri May 22, 2009 2:54 am

tyrok1 wrote:

Dave wrote:

I don't know if it is generational or cultural or maybe both and more, but skills that were common even 30 years ago are growing rarer in a large segment of the population.

I think it's partially a combination of both. I've seen young and old baffled by simple house repairs, and when people find out I've "Oh my gosh" sanded wood floors or "It's so incredibly difficult" done drywall or "Don't you worry about getting electrocuted?" electrical repairs (or, believe it or not, "You've done that before?" *painting*), I find it kind of amusing.

THAT... is the product of a myth. As in mythology. As in shared beliefs which rule societies.

In this case, it's the myth of specialization. That it is best when everyone picks a niche and specializes inside it to the limits of human expertise, to where you "go where no man has gone before" and thus become an indispensable expert in this one thing. The value of specialization goes back to Adam Smith.

Where the myth goes wrong is the inference that you shouldn't also be a generalist. After all, in a world of specialists, you shouldn't poke around in someone else's specialty, wherein you are a rank amateur. You should hire him. So, perfectly smart people shun knowledge of drywall or electricity or diamond cuts or auto repair or wine.

They're not stupid, just inculcated into the myth.

Anyway there's a huge movement reversing this trend. There's the "Makers" - with their festival in a week: http://makerfaire.com/ There were 65,000 people at the last Maker Faire. And of course shows like Monster Garage and Mythbusters, which revel in the generalist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Viv88ZOFA

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

Indeed, Robert, if we really believe the ranks of those interested in railroad preservation are thinning then we should concentrate on breeding generalists with multiple skill sets. I'd rather have 5 versatile guys than 5 specialists who aren't sure of the other 10 tasks needed.

I dare say that some of the smaller steam operations are only under steam because a contingent of generalists continue to broaden their skill sets.

Rob

tyrok1 · **Joined:** Sat Dec 13, 2008 12:46 am **Posts:** 166

robertmacdowell wrote:

Anyway there's a huge movement reversing this trend. There's the "Makers" - with their festival in a week: http://makerfaire.com/

Good topic to bring up.

I dropped my subscriptions to an electronics magazine (that I got for years) and a robotics magazine a while back for exactly that reason - they're too specialized. That's about the time I switched over to Make Magazine (the ones that run the Maker Faire), and I've been a subscriber ever since. If you've never seen it, it may make for a rather encouraging read to find that there are still people out there who don't mind getting their hands dirty and building things. It's the kind of mindset I used to be able to find in the electronics magazines, and even more so in the old electronics hobbyist book-of-circuits-of-marginal-usefulness-that-if-you're-not-careful-building-could-probably-kill-you that I used to love hunting for in antique shops.

But, as Robert MacDowell said, it is getting more common.

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Sat May 23, 2009 12:10 am

The interesting thing is, these new "Makers" are a blank slate. They have little loyalty to traditional techniques. They do not possess the culture that has arisen among trade people over the centuries. They just want to make things. Hey, fresh minds, new ideas.

JR May · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:29 pm

Mike:
You still looking for trucks? If so, send me an email at jrmay@monmouth.com

J.R.

Mr. Ed · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:51 pm

So this car went (rotted) from a complete semi-covered car to the bare frame in a year? Or did someone begin to strip it for restoration?

Never ceases to amaze me that people think those cheap, crappy blue traps are the same as a climate controlled building! At least go for the better green tarps or top of the line silver ones. No, they aren't a climate controlled building either but they will last longer than the blue ones.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Alan Walker · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 11:22 pm

Dougvv wrote:

Quote:

This is bull S#%( a town can keep you from remodeling your house because of "Historic Value" but then they order the destruction of an irreplaceable historic coach

You need to understand the law. The "historic value" of a house has to be registered with either the National Historic Trust (I do not recall the correct name). It takes documentation to get it listed on the Historic Trust. It sometimes takes many years to get an item on the "Historic Register". Once it is, then it can not be distroyed or altered easily.

My Mom was an unpaid lobbyist in the State of Georgia to help get a bill passed to "streamline" the approval process and the documentation. So here we have to get a building, structure, bridge, piece of rolling stock past the Georgia Trust (a lot faster than the National organization) and then the national organization knows that the Georgia Trust has a good system to verify applications and can go through National Trust's system without the same level of background checking.

Many buildings have been saved that way here.

Until something is put on the national register, you can do whatever you want to it and city and county regulations can alter the approval of storage of anything like railroad cars almost at will. Once they are on the register, then the local governments have a much harder time doing that.

The first step in preservation is to get time and that means getting items on a National Preservation list to prevent man-made destruction or alteration. Once on the preservation list, grants are more easily available for restoration (not meaning that they are easy).

Doug vV

Actually, neither the National Trust status or National Register of Historic Places status are total forms of protection. Chattanooga, Tennessee learned this the hard way. The National Trust affords the better protection of the two as any threat to a National Trust site is generally well communicated within the historic preservation community and public outcry raised. However, neither designation provides for significant penalties for alteration or removal of historic sites. The best form of protection (like it or not) is to get a site transferred to government ownership (National Military Parks as an example) or to transfer control of an item to a dedicated preservation group.

Hate to drag an old skeleton out of the closet, but the old Union Depot in Chattanooga was a registered historic site on the National Register of Historic Places. The head building dated to the 1880s and the remaining section of the Car Shed dated to 1858. The property was sold by the State of Georgia to the Stone Fort Land Company in the early 1970s with the knowledge (perhaps mutual understanding) that Stone Fort would demolish the property and develop the site for their commercial benefit. My understanding is that some groups approached the state, requesting that they work with a local group to permit the site to be preserved.

This is also a good lesson as to why it's good to maintain good relationships whenever possible. Unfortunately, there had been a long history of bad relationships between the City of Chattanooga, the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia and the State of Georgia going back at least as far as 1926. That bad relationship had only recently been refueled by the legal fight over the General and it seems that whomever in the State had the duty of disposing of the Union Depot may have held a grudge against the City. The last part of the paragraph is my observation, but the poor relations between the city, railroad and state are well documented by the historical record.

RCD · **Posted:** Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:25 pm

I would like still like to know why it was scrapped and who was responsible.

RCD · **Posted:** Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:35 pm

So has anyone contacted David Woodbury about this after he spent years restoring it why was his work just torn up?

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2606

Be careful with "village photo" Norton 360 is reporting 33 malware threats. That's the first time I ever got this from a Rypn hyperlink.

car57 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:00 pm

As far as i am aware its not David Woodburys car anyway, however we still would have liked the trucks for our project.
Mike
cheyenne

junior · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:36 am

David Woodbury's Car restoration was completed a few years back. He documented it completely, I believe on here, and another site. I know weather can be harsh, but I highly doubt harsh enough to take brand new wood down to that rotted mess shown in the destruction photos of this car.

Unless David had a second car floating around, this is not his.

Stephen Hussar · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2009 6:29 am

I don't think they're actual viruses...I've read it's some sort of script that Norton is reading as a virus. Villagephotos recently shut down to install new hardware...maybe their problems are not 100% solved.

Stephen

o anderson · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:07 pm

David Woodbury's words about the Lunenberg coach:

Quote:

OC&N coach in Lunenburg, MA. Lots of work ahead, but an easier job than mine.

From this:
http://www.rypn.org/rypn/articles/viewarticles.asp?filename=041114020350.txt

dwoodbury · **Posted:** Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:44 pm

As somebody pointed out much earlier in this thread, the Lunenburg coach wasn't mine. It's loss is even keener because it was a Laconia product rather than Pullman as mine is. You have to feel for the homeowner who had a car in his yard he didn't want and (frankly) did reduce the value of his property. There were parts from that car that were very much worth saving, such as at least one original seat and the door latches and hinges. Think there was an old caboose stove too. Hope someone got them who knows what they are.