GG-1 Story spun here.

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10019&hilit=washington+gg+union

I will neither confirm nor deny that the subject/example of my "rants" is PRR 4876. For now.

But here's an absolutely TRUE story from today, with only certain details obscured......

[I arrive at site. check in with others]
"Whadaya know? For the first time in weeks, I came down [the road to the site], and there WEREN'T at least three photographers trespassing all over [the items in question]!"
Fellow volunteer: ".................................. you missed the two busloads at nine this morning."
Me: "...... wait, WHAT?!?!?!?!"
him: "Two..... whole.... busloads. All school kids, all going shutter crazy."
Me: "Did we have any advance notice or warning?!?"
him: "Nope."
"Could we at least have thrown together an impromptu tour session? Told them what they were looking at, at least?"
"I was by myself. Before I could have called in anyone else, they were boarding to get out. They were obviously on the way to [tourist attraction up/down the road]."

I am not noted for overusing this well-known online acronym, but........... WTF?!?!?

Get off my lawn!

Jeez. Get over it. People have been fascinated with decay and ruins since like forever. They are memento moris -reminders of death, and the need to appreciate life.

This is a feature, not a bug. If some folks got their act together enough to make it clear enough to themselves and others that they were a legit museum (and not just in name), then having some rotting stuff on display might just be seen as an entirely positive thing. I see no reason why, given the space, you could not forklift a "chicken coop" as-is into the middle of your interpretive center to show:

A historic part of the collection
How equipment was reused after its service life
How it came to be preserved
How the passage of time has aged and affected these materials from the past

This would be an excellent example of Conservation, as opposed to our dominant treatment strategies of renovation or restoration.

More like, "Get the &#$%@ out of my closet before I call the police!"

If it were only walking on the lawn. At this point, it's somewhere between trespass and criminal trespass. At least two parties have departed the property in police custody. (Granted, you have to be walking out with cutters and a bag of copper wire or collectible parts, and not just a camera, before I would go to that extreme. But that's exactly how I caught one of them.)

The piece is in danger of being (I would say condemned to be) scrapped in large part because of a combination of past neglect/abandonment and the ravages of vandals/trespassers. Any corporate owner would have sent the scrappers months ago, seeing as the item's an "attractive nuisance" that draws trouble of just this ilk.

Think about this before you "rescue" that caboose or passenger car to some siding in town without a scheduled removal date........

So this is about two bus loads of children trespassing?

Sandy:
2647?

He said "school kids." But as it turned out, they were either late high school or college, according to the fellow volunteer. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's "old enough to know better." Worse yet, if these were indeed kids on a "school trip," there HAD to be chaperones or responsible adults on board...... now whose idea was it to stop and go photo-happy on railroad tracks?

And as emphasized in earlier posts, this is not one instance one day, but a repeated, continuous pattern. Also, new graffiti has shown up where it wasn't before.

ArtSchwartz: Will neither confirm nor deny, as with the suggestion of PRR 4876.

Let's drop the GG1 speculation. I was the one who "amplified Alex #4's comments, and as stated, "speculation". I'd rather talk about how vandalism could be reduced and "artistic interpretation" promoted.

So if it is not behind a fence it is okay to vandalize but if it is then it is not...? I can't be reading that right.

I would guess that the "outside the fence" comment is used ironically or cynically. In a perfect world, nobody would mess around with somebody else's "stuff" (as George Carlin would say) no matter where it was, and a really determined thief or vandal wouldn't be stopped by a fence, but to the casual jerk with idle hands that the Devil is looking at as tools, an unfenced locomotive or car is a major temptation.

What I meant was: if the piece is "outside the fence", and is hit, there is slightly less to complain about because there was one less layer of protection.

We've been in both situations, with some stuff outside fenced areas barely or not at all touched, and with a locked troop sleeper in a fenced, locked yard, gutted and totalled by an arson fire.

Howard P.

At the Western Railway Museum we welcome several photography class groups every year. These people buy tickets and have always treated equipment with respect. We have even occasionally moved cars for them so they can get a better shot.

In the broadcast industry we had a saying about publicity, "I don't care what you say as long as you get the call letters right." The same thing applies to photos taken at a museum.

fk

Even when the photos in question, by erroneous captions and/or selective composition/editing, make your "museum" look like Sanford & Son's junkyard? When your "work in progress" is labeled as "abandoned train"?

Again, not a hypothetical.

It can be a fine springboard for the solicitation of support - the more evocative the photography, the better it will likely perform.

dave

What might be benificial is a situation like the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. Do controlled tours of the unrestored "treasures" and promote the restoration you have done. See: http://www.neonmuseum.org/index.html

I paid good money for the "boneyard" tour myself two years ago, seems that with a confined area one could do something similar at a railroad museum. "Hey, this stuff looks aweful now, but look what we've been able restore over there".

Your junk, errr, priceless treasures awaiting restoration, will be photographed regardless, even if from outside a fence with a telephoto lense. Might as well embrace the beast if you're able. Get your message out there and maybe even make some money at the same time. The photographer might even put up the correct information.

Other option: Lambast the photographers, get your stuff photographed anyway under less controlled circumstances, fail to promote your "mission" and recieve no monetary reward.

Dave