Hello;

My name is Ray Grabowski, Jr. and I am the newly elected president of the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. The "interchange" forum thread on loco 1700 was brought to my attention by Chris H. (thank you Chris!).

And thank you to Mr. Redden for your response and for your WAG photography -if you hadn't taken the pictures you did we would have nothing today! Everyone should re-read Mr. Redden's response once or twice again before continuing. Mr. Redden, should you ever make it to Lake Shore, please let me know ahead of time as I would love to meet you!

I do not know how to really start - I have written this two times previously only to trash it all. Maybe three times is a charm. Its 3:00 a.m. and I'm tired so pardon the mispelins and gramer. I am told I have a nasty humor and I think it has leaked out here... so get over it.

I will indulge my self here and given it... part of me wants to ask how anyone who does not know Lake Shore can say anything about Lake Shore good or bad. - but I need to avoid the mud-slinging as was noted. --too dirty for me! I do love though the 'strained internal relations' comment as well as the 'badly stagnated' one too. Wow! Are you secretly taping our board meetings? (smile/wink) Come on, what group of passionate people assembled in one place for one reason don't from time to time have internal struggles? (to paraphrase.. "when two or more are gathered in Lake Shore's name, you have 100 opposite ideas!" -this doesn't happen elsewhere?) The past is the past and we had lots of members who thought they ruled all creation.. tell me you are in a group where you don't have people like that!

Did I inherit a lot with my new job? YOU BET I DID! A fantastic railroad museum and an incredible core group of volunteers and a great history all of our own. Its Lake Shore's 50th anniversary and we are running with it. We might stumble, trip and fall once or twice but that's how you learn the right way to do it.

About our rolling stock - what did we sell? Aren't we allowed to sell the stuff we own? someone should have told us earlier - - But honestly, I'd like to know what people think we had and sold as I have gaps in my archive records (I double as the librarian, triple as the archivist, and whatever is next, am one of only two approved loco engineers) As best as I can tell, individual members used to own their own passenger cars, which were kept at the Lake Shore museum. These cars were open to the public who thought they were Lake Shore cars. Eventually, the owners moved them, sold them or traded them. Many times, these cars were left to Lake Shore after their owner passed away. And yes, we have sold things. We have a "collections policy" (or whatever its called) that spells out what we have, why we have it, etc. Do I have our entire rolling stock online (oops, I'm the webmaster too, I forgot) - no I don't. But you can stop in when we are open and get a free brochure that will help you out as you stroll through the grounds - or join as a member and volunteer to be the care-taker of this or that Pullman - a few need help.

Now about 1700. It is coming to North East. I told the Lake Shore board that five years ago when I first became an active member. Now it is happening - PERIOD. I don't have the time or the energy to worry about how or why it went to NY&LE. It did, we got screwed, the loco got messed up, now its time to fix it. AND WE WILL. Great object lesson - never trust a "handshake deal." E-mail me and I will bore you with all that past junk and floor you with all the new plans. And beware - read ALL the stuff on the web about 1700 and you will fall prey to propoganda of a few people who have been anti-Lake Shore for a long time ("forgotten diesel dinosaur" my aching foot!). 1700 will be at the museum in North East and we will start a cosmetic restoration this summer. Yes, the grills still exist, as do the 'holey' radiators and leaky manifolds and messed up brake rigging and.... Will it run? Now that's the million dollar question! Where's it going to go if it does run? THAT'S the question I don't want our insurance man to hear!!!!!!

Will I put anymore pictures on the web of the move? - Let's see, I took that picture Wednesday, posted in one place Thursday, and am covered in black and blue marks on Friday - I think I will hold off for a while!

So overall: We aint dead, we aint never were dead, we aint never plann'in on being dead anytime soon.

Stop by- summer is better, right now we're closed inside but the outside stuff is all there. (U25B, Little Joe, Pullmans everywhere, this and that)

Better yet, JOIN UP! Talking/writing ABOUT Lake Shore does not do anything but redistribute electrons on a bunch of people's computer screens. Members have a voice in what goes on.

All for now - did I tick anyone off, did I chase anyone away (yesss!), God forbid, did I make anyone think? Laugh at me if you want, verbally crucify me, praise me (I never said make fun of me!), or just ignore me, but don't unrate Lake Shore until you know it.

THANKS!

rayg

Ray Grabowski, Jr.
PRESIDENT, LSRHS
rayg01@velocity.net <---use it, its there!

Ray; Way to come out swing man. I love it. We've never met but I did
stop and visit your site on a trip back from Conneaut, Ohio a couple of
years ago. Your place in a word is Terrific!!. Some might say why do
they (lake shore chapter) have a "Little Joe" on display? They never ran
there. I say why not. The CNY chapter has a GG1 on display and they
of course never ran anywhere near Syracuse, NY. How about the DL&W
952 in St Louis? The important thing is that they are still with us. Forget
the nay sayers, keep pluggin away. The WAG 1700 will be a great addition to your fine collection even if it never runs again. On my next
trip through there I'll look you up. Keep the faith.

0-6-0

Thank you! Typing a response at 3:00 in the a.m. has its +'s and -'s!!!

Regarding the Little Joe, our collections polices and concepts say, among other things, that we focus on GE products... and the 802 JOE is a GE. Erie GE is but 8 miles west of here.

Thanks again!

rayg

Ray, Visited your museum a few months ago, and just want to say nice collection, keep up the good work. I like the GE motive power focus. The passenger car collection is impressive too.

Ray:

Really liked your response. What came through to me was the PASSION!
Man, you have it! Don't lose it. It is the one valuable thing no one can ever take away!

Good luck to you and to LSRHS.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Ray, Great response, hang in there and fight the good fight. You can make a difference. I've been in your shoes, having run a large NRHS Chapter with a good sized collection of operational equipment, and a trainload of politics. Just remember, murdering board members does make development and committee assignments a little tougher ............ :-)

Ray - there was word a while back that a certain Reading RS-3 located in Huntington, WV was moving to North East. Any truth to that, and/or is that still the case?

Ray,
Regardless of whatever the arrangements were in the past (past is the past) I'm glad to see that she (1700) will be taken care of even if it is farther from my home now! Sheesh! Moving her farther away makes it harder for me to model! Now I've got to convince the SO to let me travel that much farther from home! Passion! Kept in due bounds will help you lead the LSRHS on to bigger and better things!

Congrats!

Chas

P.S. Regarding the postings to the WAG Yahoo group, I respected the requests of not having too many "photographers" around and stayed away hoping for more pics available form those that were there legitimately. Please don't deny us that respected the wishes of many to stay clear of the crews. PLEASE post some more photos! Thanks!