Article in Philadelphia Inquirer about state museums selling surplus materials at an auction on Saturday, this includes RR Museum of PA.

link to auction: http://www.cordierauction.com/html/february_15.html

Thought somebody may be interested, lots of books but also misc RR items

And the auction isn't available online. It's 2014! They'd raise more money if more people had the opportunity to bid.

No photos, not online. Just bring your dogsled team and enjoy the weather. Somebody local is going to do well.

some pictures on this link.
I think they are using "liveauction" for on line bids and viewing.

http://www.cordierauction.com/html/phmc_items.html

Welcome to auctioneering.

This is COMPLETELY normal of "junk auctions" such as these. You're getting stuff cheap, but you're expected to BE THERE and COLLECT the damn stuff. The cost to package and ship the stuff, in some (many?) cases here, FAR outweighs the value of the stuff, let alone the profit realized by the auctioneer or consignee.

When you phone in to an auction house or bid online, they have or get enough information to leave you on the hook for the item should you win. Doing all that work, and setting up the website, takes time and money. It may be worth it for a fleet of antique cars, or surplus construction machinery or high-value paintings/artwork/stamps/etc. But not for a "junk" collection like this. Yes, there might be a few jewels here, but even looking through all the railroad stuff offered, I found only one or two I would even pay attention to if offered to me or our library for free. Over half the titles I saw were books we almost automatically hand off to a free-book giveaway program in our city or at another RR museum, in hopes of creating new railfans or rail modelers.

The auction houses with which I deal won't take phone or absentee bids unless you 1) visit in advance and inspect the item AND leave all the information, OR 2) you have been registered with them for a long time, have attended many auctions, and they have all your information in their database. And even then, they work on a case-by-case basis, usually with a minimum reserve bid for an item they know will go for hundreds or thousands, or a one-of-a-kind item that three people will fight over, not a box of books.

In fact, those same auction houses have gotten much choosier about what they sell, demanding lists up front before they take consignments. They have reportedly had to fill up a dumpster with stuff "abandoned" in the hall after selling, even as they combined lots when bids were too low to be worth selling. The one auctioneer I suspect would have only accepted about 10% of the stuff consigned to the auction at the top of this thread--and I know they used to sell excess from a couple rail museums, so......

As one antiques dealer I used to hang with used to joke, "What part of 'buy low, sell high' don't you understand?"

People donate stuff they think is unique, valuable, wonderful, and the museum has no real connection to it. So I take it one should not expect stacks of Pennsy number plates, builders plates, and steam locomotive headlights?

Can't decide on what to go for..

The Great Northern pencil sounds good.
Box of broken S gauge trains?

But the one that's interesting is "helicopter part"
Bet it's an engine for a Sikorksy?

Can anyone read what the crane plaque says?

Yes. It says "'North American White Whooping Crane', added to endangered species list, 1967. Protected by Louisiana Wildlife Commission".

Now that's a keeper. Good luck!

Preston,

In all seriousness, I couldn't make it all out, nor was I going to spend a lot of time on it, as I share most other posters opinions of the stuff going up, with one or two exceptions of interest to my "day job" on our family farm. However, from what I could make out, the plaque is for some class of Bucyrus-Erie Railroad Crane, so it is rail-related in that regards. I hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Kent

Rich, those aren't endangered in the Philippines or east of the equator....

Kent, thank you.

I scooted by the preview after work. These notes are intended to help. Kindly excuse my biases.

The auction location is very poorly marked – it’s in the rear show room of a modest office building at 1500 Paxton Street, (East Shore) Harrisburg. The Museum Commission would be better served had the auctioneer placed a few signs about.

As for train stuff, there are a few treasures, but not enough for this sole to invest the whole day waiting them out, especially with other train related auctions / items in the area.

The crane plates are a matched pair of Bucyrus-Erie builder’s plates, measuring roughly 12-14” by 9-10” cast iron. They are in good shape, decent looking, and painted gloss black.

The passenger sinks are also nice, stainless steel items.

The signal lights (RR-NC4897-4898) are misidentified. They are marker lights with mounting ears similar to standard markers. A manufacturer’s name is present on their base, but it’s hard to make out - not US&S, GRS, or Federal. They are not standard markers - Adlake, etc. We think they may be traction or ship related. Museum commission personnel on-hand welcomed the information / corrections for use moving forward.

Likewise, the item labeled engine light is believed to be a ship’s light. A lot of the items donated come from well meaning heirs, but the facts may be a little off.

The three signal brackets are mounting brackets for attaching roundels to a semaphore spectacle. I typically see better quality at Gaithersburg.

The HO brass engine and tender is a nice model of a Pennsy engine with elephant ear smoke deflectors – both ET are unpainted.

Books are in large lots. Again, there are a few items of interest, but there’s too much extra baggage per lot. The Museum Commission would be better served with smaller lots – lots of 3 to 5 items seem to work best. The magazines are old, old, old…

The LC&N Co embossers and Pennsy equipment plates are in good shape and kinda cool, if one collects that sort of thing. I also spied a small chunk of ancient T-rail in one of the odd lots, worthy of snagging. The BUDD plaque is real nice.

On a scale of 1-10, give this one an “a-a-ah”, definitely not as good as the last Museum Commission auction rail-related offerings.

There are some miner’s items of interest and two nice, non-railroad related coal stoves. And the complimentary cookies were excellent!

NOT auction related, but of local interest. Potholes have exposed trolley rail in Second Street just north of the Paxton street intersection. First those rails have been exposed at this location for many years. Mounting brackets for the old catenary are also seen beneath the old Central Valley overpass. Visitors to the area will also see Reading Lines in the overhead bridge just above the street. And finally, the REA facility once occupied the parking lot at the base of the bridge on the east side of the street. Lots of stuff to see in downtown Harrisburg…

Hope these notes have helped. Good hunting!

On a related topic (and if someone in the loop were to start a new topic, that would be welcome) - I was told there has been some Spring Cleaning going on at the Museum by way of <gasp> scrapping recently.

Is this true?

Are pieces being scrapped at the Museum on site in quantity? Box cars, MU's and even a steamer?

Curious if so, and then why and what.

Of course, the "why" likely will be the claim that the "stuff" rusted away beyond restoration.

Of particular note - what's the status of the Budd Silverliner(s)?

/Mitch