Hello-

I have increasingly found difficulty in trying to obtain paper records from the big guys, especially (in my case anway) CSX. Although we have been somewhat successful in preserving records pertaining to the PM (very little) C&O (Some) and CSX carferry operations here in Port Huron, I am now being told by CSX employees in the Port Huron Yard that CSX's lawyers demand that those records are burned, so that no one sues them in the future. I can understand this point with some employee records (accidents, etc), but who would sue them over carferry load manifests? Thankfully we were able to obtain documents of the last river carferry crossing, but otherwise we have been met with, well, COMPLETE DISDAIN.

Have others run into this corporate culture mentality, and in this age of mergers, maybe a national effort is needed to find safe places of storage for the records that railroad historians of the future may appreciate our efforts in saving now?

On another note those gentleman like Bob Richardson who grabbed records in the past from the countless depots are now dying off, and many of their widows are throwning these records away, in part because they don't know what they are. Many of us know these guys (and girls); maybe we need to make more of a concerted effort to make sure that these records are saved before its too late as well.

Picking myself out of the mud after falling off my high horse-

TJG


Port Huron Museum

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

> Hello-

sometimes you do get lucky! The Western Railway Museum has just taken into the Archives the lifelong collection of Dudley Thickins. He was an
employee of the Sacramento Northern and the Western Pacific Railraods.

He took thousands of photos while traveling on his railroad pass and he also traded photos with
many other rail fans. It will take a good while before we get through all of it, but we expect to find some treasures; perhaps some interiors of the 7 SN cars we have in the museum collection.

SN 1005 by the way, has a new steel frame welded/
revited into place. Frame repairs to both ends of the car are now complete. TM


ted_miles@NPS.gov

I have seen two instances of such management idiocy, the first being when the CV was sold to that awful outfit from Texas. Dumpster after dumpster was filled with old papers. The second was when the D&H Plattsburgh roundhouse burned. It was filled with old records and drawings taken from another location. All was destroyed by the fire and water. In both instances, there were papers dating to the 1840s, and very little was saved. That which was had to be done on the sly. In both cases, a management spokesman stated publicly that all important historic material had been removed prior to the destruction.



http://http://www.kansan.com/arch/2001spring/01_26_01/extra/bigbrutusfeature.html
bobyar2001@yahoo.com

Re: Historical Records of Contemporary RRs

I can't speak to the particular circumstances you mentioned nor can I say what CSX policies are regarding corporate records. But I do know from professional experience as a librarian that CSX is "negotiating" with more than one university and a rail historical group to donate historical records from their archives, whatever that might include. These "requests" have been pending for some years now, and who knows how personal relationships, political considerations, and alumni allegiances will come into play, as they so often do. However big the RRs were a short few years ago, they are bigger and so more bureaucratic and security-minded now.

I'll add a personal observation to your comment about suing RRs. Needless to say, we are a litigious society and lawyers circle us 24/7, like sharks in bloody waters. Miracle or curse, in the USA anyone can sue anyone else for any reason. And sometimes for no reason at all, just some foolish act committed while working for, or trespassing on, a railroad. Railroads have deep pockets now, and ordinary people on juries often hate them and are ignorant of them. RRs should not be blamed for extreme caution in protecting all of their records. A major corporation that I was employed with took extraordinary steps to destroy all records as soon as it was legally permissible to do so. (Enron recently went to an extreme policy.)

This sort of thing can breed cynics. But still you are quite right. Efforts to save the historical records are important. Consideration of the legal ramifications, however, may make it more likely that corporations would donate to institutions such as universities rather than will-o'-the-wisp railfan groups. (I think the N&W H.S. decided that it was most sensible to house N&W records at Virginia Tech; but, I am not too clear on the details of this case.)

PG


pgarwig@lycos.com