This was passed along to me from a friend in Ontario, Canada
"Hello Everyone:
I returned to Tottenham this past weekend after a week away, to find
a scrapping program of surplus equipment dramatically in progress at
South Simcoe Railway.
Ex-CPR CLC H44 Locomotive No 17, acquired by SSR ten years ago as a
parts >>source to support sister No. 22, was scrapped during the past week. For me though, the most poignant is what’s happening now.
Away back in 1972, those of us who were busy pioneering the fledgling
Ontario Rail Association, negotiated the purchase of eight
heavyweight
‘First Class’ clerestory-roof coaches from Canadian Pacific. Built
in the 1920s and last used in Montreal commuter service, these cars were the backbone of Ontario Rail Association’s Credit Valley Railway
operations in the 1970s.
In August 1986 the ORA equipment was moved to Tottenham, and ORA
itself morphed into South Simcoe Railway, which operates the familiar
tourist railway operation between Tottenham and Beeton.
Not all the ex-CPR cars were required for SSR’s five-mile shuttles.
One of them – OVR car 561, originally CPR day parlour car 6751 (along
with sleeping car ‘Travers’) – was sent to the Cranbrook Railway Museum in 1989 to form part of the museum’s recreation of CPR’s Trans-Canada
Limited. Several others were stored indefinitely, and gradually deteriorated. It is those cars which apparently are being scrapped now.
The accompanying photos show the destruction of car 652 (built in
1929 as CPR Buffet-Parlor 6680), on 23 January 2006. Lined up behind 652 are 201 (built in 1928 as CPR First Class coach 976) and car 683 (built in 1926 as CPR Buffet Parlor 6666). In contrast, I offer two views of
car 652 in happier times. I have no idea how far the scrapping program
will go. A great many of us worked extremely hard over many years to create the nucleus of a railway preservation effort in southern Ontario. I
think the record shows that we were extremely successful in acquiring and restoring a credible representation of a CPR branchline train of the
mid-Twentieth Century, in operating this equipment on a number of memorable main line >excursions, and in managing the often-difficult transition to a heritage railway operation whose annual ridership peaked at well over 40,000 annual riders. In looking back over many hundreds of photos taken over a quarter century of ORA/SSR’s accomplishments, I recall with great fondness all the good folk who gave so much to make it all happen. What a family! There's no question that today’s South Simcoe Railway does not require all the equipment that’s been on the Tottenham property since 1986. Certainly we held the hope initially that one day the funds would be available to return at least some of the stored equipment to active service. That is evidently now not an option.
Heavyweight passenger rail cars are today a scarce commodity. When
they’re gone, they’re gone. I truly hope the current stewards of the
Ontario Rail legacy appreciate that. These cars have been surplus
for many years, ample time for SSR to seek expressions of interest – in
complete cars...or in hard-to-find spare parts -- from other
preservation
groups across North America. Whether or not this has happened, the
scrapping continues.
Sad times.

This brings up an interesting point. There are instances where a museum makes a later decision that might seriously affect its membership and/or donor. A case in point:

A number of years ago, another member of our museum and I worked to secure an old single dome tank car donated by a private company. At that time, we were advised that our museum could have a second tank car if we wanted it. We inspected the second tank car and because of its location in a constricted area, advised the company that we could not possibly get it out. The plant manager stated that then they would have someone come in and scrap the car the following week. The two of us put our heads together and then asked if they could leave the trucks, which we thought we COULD get out. The manager agreed. The following Saturday, we came back in to the plant. It was a cold day and the trucks were covered in grease, but somehow we managed to get the pair out and on our truck. Some years later, in an effort to raise money, the set of trucks were sold for scrap. The museum was perfectly in its right to do so, but needless to say, the two of us felt that our efforts were basically in vain. The two of us are still members here, but how many other instances of scrapping or selling an item, that members might have made an original effort to secure, have caused those members to leave the museum in disappointment and disgust?

Actually a rather important point it would seem. Recently a
NYC museum sold off a painting by a famous artist. The
buyer paid good money but the painting is now in a
private collection and no longer available for viewing
by the public.

It seems this sort of thing is common now and many
are asking about what happened to Uncle Bob's
collection that was donated? It was sold as the
institution believed they owned it and could do as
they please with it. Is this right?

Perhaps what needs to be done is for the object
donated, or in your case liberated, to have a
rider against it to protect your efforts and interest.

Most of the time, the donation is done to also receive a tax benefit. If anything other than TOTAL ownership is not given (a rider or restriction) the IRS does not consider it a gift. The only restriction that may work is a stipulation that it may not be sold, in which case a different charity becomes the owner. If the donor is concerned that an item may be sold or neglected, endowing for its maintenance is a must.

Ok it might be too late to save these cars, but I don't think or hope it's not too late to save needed and useable parts from these cars for use on still preservable equipment. I am currently out of the Country under contract in Japan. I have been trying to contact the South Simcoe Railway via phone and e-mail for some time now to inquire about saving parts, Purchasing parts off the equipment that are being scraped. I don't feel my list of needs are to out of the question even for a scrapper who doesn't want to take the time to painstakingly dismantle a car. The types of parts I'm talking about are big and hearty chunks of metal that could easily be separated from the cars and placed on a pallet for road freight. I need Truck, brake, coupler and hanger parts and am willing to pay. Now here I am an example of an individual who has a need and has the money and only wants to be able to provide the parts for current and future restoration and preservation projects and can't seem to make any contact. Does the South Simcoe want to sale any of the parts from these cars? Are we past that point? I've been trying to contact this organization to give them my money, if any one can help place me in contact with them I would be more than grateful. E-mail is the best for me as it's too difficult to play phone tag around the world. Would like to see the parts put to use and saved and the money I spend go to a worthy cause. Please any help on this topic would be appreciated. Location of needed parts would be Roanoke Virginia. Thank you a head of time for any help that might come my way.
Steve Smith
Currently, Yokosuka Japan.

I'll give you the contact info and a caveat too, don't waste this man's time. Figure out what you are willing to spend for a particular item and make your proposal straight up. Money may talk, idle chatter does not.
General manager's name is Eric Smith, his email is smith@steamtrain.com