NOTHING was stolen from Bluewater NRHS. Period. The C&O gondola, GTW Bunk Car and Caboose were all acquired through a PAID transfer from SRI to Bluewater. The Caboose was restored with funding by a grant from the Krauss Foundation of N.C.; The Bunk Car by a Grant from the NRHS National and the efforts of a BSA Eagle Scout Candidate; former CMO Barney Gramling and myself, with funding from SteamSpecials/ HTP restored the C&O/ PM Gondola.

I would be MORE than HAPPY to present the contract that took place at the time of transaction for anyone else who wishes to throw wild accusations.

The fact that SRI has been able to restore all of these cars in less than eleven months, after they sat for many years in Saginaw, speaks to EXACTLY why this transfer was done by Bluewater NRHS and SRI. When AA #2838 arrived here, all of its windows were broken out, steel need to be replaced, all window frames had been improperly glued to the sides of the car so they couldn't move, and the interior was gutted. Our volunteers, led by Robert Marsh and Fred Stevens, spent thousands of hours directing others restoring this piece of Michigan Railroad History.

Both Bluewater NRHS and SRI have had a long standing relationship. I would hope this posters comments would not effect that. If their are members of Bluewater NRHS who are taking issue with this, I might suggest you talk to those who were in charge at the time (October 2007), and who brought forth the suggestion to take these cars because they were being moved out of the Saginaw Roundhouse. Or more importantly, if they wanted these saved or restored by Bluewater, they should have been out there over the last twenty years trying help Harold Frye and Bill Harman work on these cars --- both gentleman have had their hands full for many years trying to take care of the passenger car fleet alone with an ever dwindling group of people trying to help them do so.

It just blows my mind that someone would, in this day and age of scrapping of equipment left and right because of high steel prices and lack of maintenance and narrowing of collections, attack a group for actually TAKING CHARGE and restoring equipment.

Near as I can tell in the close to two years I've been here the rough break down is something like 45% rumor-mill, 45% ego-stroking, and 10% actually getting things that need to be done to keep things afloat and moving forward (little things like grant-writing, bill paying, track repair, car repair, loco repair, running trains, updating the website,....). Sadly, in my experience, that's pretty standard in both the Non-profit and tourist rail worlds.

The main difference is this; when rumors get started in the business world, they often lead to things like runs on banks, business disruption, etc., which leads to reprimands or the firing of the person that starts them. We don't have that luxury. And while you wish to ignore such things, in the blog-based world of the 21st Century, if you don't immediately answer this kind of thing (meant in harm or not), the rumor can and does do serious damage.

Case in point --- I/ we took some real hits this past April for being "too sensitive" and "you can't take a joke" for the "1225 moves to Grand Rapids" thing. I got the concept, and so did many others, as a joke. Unfortunately, several didn't --- and I spent the next week or so explaining to people who wanted to cancel Excursion tickets they had purchased and the staff of the railroad when ran over that someone meant this as a joke; and I'm sorry if it makes me sensitive, but the time wasted doing so tends to tork you off a bit. So several people think I'm a jerk because of my reaction, and jump on me and SRI, and that's fine --- just understand when we are less interested after that to post things we are doing, etc. so that we don't have to deal with those things as much in the future.

Again, to be fair, 90% of the people don't realize the kind of damage rumors can do, and you have to be careful because whether you may personally wish to cause severe bodily harm to the people who have nothing better to do than take away much needed (and in short supply) time to keep, say, a 1941-Lima Berkshire running in the 21st century, the reality is that you don't want your own personal feelings to reflect back on the place you work for. I take Matt at his word that an error happened; but again, I was getting emails and calls that indicated that SRI was "trying to destroy Bluewater," and "what kind of jerks are we," etc. Those things tend to chasten you against the idea of posting anything on a board or the net --- and as many know, I used to post quite a bit (especially on the Rail History portion). It was equally bad that everyone got on the guy even after he admitted the mistake and explained the situation --- that's not better guys, that's just shifting the situation.

Like any business, it takes a great deal of time, money and effort on the part of the employees (and in our case) volunteers to continue to make things go, doubly so in what is probably the toughest economy anyone has seen since the great depression. Time is in short supply for EVERYONE these days; and that includes all of us (volunteers and staff alike) at SRI. You'll find the same is true at the Huck, the Ford, and yes, ALL the railroads out there. Rumor-mill chasing just plain sucks.

Now, this over-paid Director who has nothing better to do then hassle raifans and ruin everyone's fun (remember the April Fools "joke"?) has to go help his CMO and volunteers install the last 190 of 1000 ties they have spent much of the year installing on the St. Charles Sub (with the help and permission of GLC --- who gives us opportunities other railroads would never think of, and we are eternally grateful for).