Besides a listing of all known Western Maryland locomotives and cars, this group has a plan acquire several diesels and a former WM two stall diesel shop.

http://www.westernmarylandsurvivors.com/wmsmain.htm

Neat site, but they forgot the other surviving ex-WM steam engine, Shay #6. Oh well, I like them even if they aren't real steamers. ;-)

Mike
Western Va RR Preservation Society

Mike, Be careful what you say, the geared locomotive nuts (and I use that term in a positive way...) may put a contract out on you!

They also forgot the other BL2 and slug in B'more.

Hi Gary,

My comment was purely tounge in cheek!
I wonder how many other readers have 2 year olds that can tell the difference between a Class B and a Class C. He prefers the later cast trucks as opposed to the arch bars as well! I often read to him from "Titan of the Timber" before bedtime, although he really enjoys learning about Rio Grande Southern Galloping Geese as well. His poor Mother says I have a clone.

Mike
TWVRPS

We did not forget either of the steam engines, or BL2 81. I made the decision that we would only post pictures on our web site and Yahoo Group that were the property, or copyrighted image, of a member our organizations.

With all of the obstacles that confront preservationists, the last thing I want to waste time on is a pi**ing contest with anyone over whose picture is being inappropriately displayed. I have seen it before on this forum.

Having said that, there are lists, compiled by myself, of every existing Western Maryland locomotive; steam plus first and second generation diesels. There is also a document on the Yahoo Group that keeps a week-to-week listing of Western Maryland Survivors in service on Class 1s.

If anyone would like to post their images, please feel free to upload them to WesternMarylandSurvivors@yahoogroups.com with an email to the moderator expressing your consent to display them. To have them included on the web site, email them, along with the aforementioned message of consent, to;

Gerald Altizer gerald_altizer@atlanticbb.net
Jeremy Cooper juggalo872@yahoo.com

Please keep in mind that we are only interested in items that are extant.

If you are aware of any Western Maryland artifacts, we would appreciate it very much to be informed of their location. We have piggyback trailers in Illinois and Maryland, a forty foot box car in downtown Sidney, Ohio and a maintenance truck in a Maryland junk yard.

I have heard rumors of WM passenger cars either in northeastern Indiana or southern Michigan. If you know about them, we would like to know also.

There is a Western MD M/W car displayed here in Gaithersburg, MD. Was a former troop train kitchen car.

Wesley

*

There are several reasons.

First, we are using our own money, not the governments...any government.

Second, we are not asking anybody to give us anything. Therefore, the need for non-profit status is non-existent. Everything we own has been, and continues to be, paid for by myself and the corporation.

We also intend to conduct a for-profit venture...actually, several parallel businesses.

The structure of an LLC was chosen to get us off the ground and establish ourselves. Once we have achieved our goals, we will change the internal structure to a form that accommodates our purposes plus protects us from the growing hoard of litigants that seem to crawl out from under rocks whenever ventures such as ours experience any measure of success.

I have watched , for decades, the rise and fall of groups with good intentions that, for one reason or another, never quite realized their goals. There are derelict locomotives and rolling stock all over the place that were given, for free, to everybody and anybody with a 501(c)3.

One of the mistakes made by some of these groups was to get a government body...any government body...involved.

Novel and interesting approach.

Although you don't need to get govt involved to have 501c3, you certainly sacrifice control and spend a lot of time making sure you meet the public support test.

Maybe we should all think outside the box once in a while.

Having worked for public sector, 501C3 nonprofits and private for profits, I like private for profits best. Most can't afford the elected-committee-of-the most-polular-members-competence-notwithstanding approach to making business decisions. Private individuals are the best - the buck stops someplace and no intraorganizational political interference in decision making. I'd rather one person suffer the consequences of his bad decision than a membership and the entire industry be called into question, and have no problem if he makes good decisions and prospers while making very interesting things happen.

Some boxes only need one side. What with the very wealthy getting more and more political and legal protection from that wealth being redistributed, how can we interest these individuals in industrial preservation? Major untapped resource here.

dave

It is the government who issues the 501(c)3 charter. The hoops they make you jump through sometimes eliminate options you would enjoy under other circumstances, plus there are some things you just can't do.

I will never subject or surrender control of my locomotives to any agency that can exercise control or impose "conditions" other than what I desire for them.

How many more Steamtowns are required to learn this lesson? One is sufficient for me.