It will be interesting to see how this plays out. They say this is a "challenge grant", but they don't say how much money needs to be raised as part of the challenge. As a former treasurer of an equipment-operating NRHS Chapter I always questioned the value of these grants: say my group had to raise $125,000 (50%) of the grant to get it. If my group could easily raise $125,000 we wouldn't need grants in the first place.

I am surprised the museum cited a lack of money in the article as a reason for absence of steam operations for 11 years, plus no future steam operations on the near horizon. This group has spent b-i-g $$$ over the past 15 years performing like-new restorations on items that go largely unseen in the barns on the property, such as the fish car. Plus they appear to have spent considerable amounts of time and money tearing apart 1385 while working on two other steam engines they don't own over the same time.

The rumor on the street a decade ago was that 1385 was so worn that a new boiler was the best option for restoration. We may soon see if that is the case.

I hope MCRM gets back in the steam business soon. Until a decade ago MCRM was a rallying point for the hobby in the midwest, and we could use that again.

Chris.

This is, of course, entirely within the description of their purpose as a museum... while running choo-choos for the foamers may not be, although I'll grant you that having a source of income does help to keep the lights burning. I believe that several of the recent world class passenger car restorations were funded primarily from specific purpose grants, so that money would not have been available for the steam program no matter what.

I personally am glad that someone in railway preservation is working on something other than locomotives... sure wish some of the groups that offer rides had something worth riding in.