N E W S R E L E A S E
From the Emery Rail Heritage Trust

The first grants from the newly created EMERY RAIL HERITAGE TRUST, established by the late John H. Emery, have been announced. John was a long time Chicago resident, and was an avid rail enthusiast who loved to ride trains around the world, and wanted to help preserve rail equipment and infrastructure that will allow future generations to share his experiences during what he considered the “Golden Age” of railroads, from 1920 – 1960.

Twenty five applications were received requesting in excess of $800,000; eleven matching grants were awarded totalling $162,500.

Grants were approved for the following organizations/projects:

• Bay Area Electric Railroad Association, $15,000 for repair and maintenance of their former Sacramento Northern railroad infrastructure.
• Engine 557 Restoration Company, $10,000 for restoration of Alaska Railroad steam locomotive 557.
• Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, $10,000 for upgrades and restoration to four of their passenger cars.
• Mid Continent Railway Museum, $10,000 toward a new boiler for Chicago & North Western locomotive 1385.
• New England Electric Railway Historical Society, $20,000 for restoration of three North Shore Line cars including the only remaining dining car, number 415. John was a big North Shore Line enthusiast and rode it regularly.
• New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Historical Society, $25,000 to help with completion of work to restore Santa Fe locomotive 2926.
• North Carolina Transportation Museum Foundation, $38,400 for restoration of former New Haven railroad Pullman PINE TREE, STATE, a six double-bedroom sleeper buffet lounge car to meet AMTRAK operational standards. John frequently rode on this car during High Iron Travel excursions and occasionally accompanied the car when it was being moved from point to point for excursions.
• Washington DC NRHS Chapter, $4,000 for interior upgrades to their Pullman car DOVER HARBOR.
• Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, $10,000 for upgrades to former Southern Railway Pullman built heavyweight Dining Car 3158.
• The Northwest Railway Museum, $10,000 for restoration of former Northern Pacific locomotive 924
• White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation (Nevada Northern), $10,000 for upgrades and maintenance of their passenger cars.

In addition to these matching grants, each of the three advisory committee members are allowed to make $1,000 donations to any charity of their choosing under the terms of the Trust. The members chose to give an additional $1,000 to the North Carolina Transportation Museum and the Washington DC NRHS Chapter for the projects identified above, and $500 to both the New York Museum of Transportation and the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum for track work projects.

Applications for the next round of grants will be due not later than July 1, 2016. Check for details at http://www.emeryrailheritagetrust.com.

This is a perfect example of doing the right thing at the wrong time. Money is being spent of crumbling physical equipment and we do not yet have the information ( Our only link to history that can Las forever) properly stored preserved, and backed up in multiple copies.

Everyone on this site should write that trust and beg them to stop spending money on physical equipment for one year and ask that they endeavor to correct the information preservation problem.

If we loose anymore info, due to improper storage, no duplication and resulting loss to water, fire, natural disaster, one tiny hungry mouse. Loosing any of the information will be a much bigger loss than forgoing the temporary repair of any of the existing aging equipment.

One dedicated year and we could correct every collection and insure its safety and future accessibility. We need to back up our paper collections, now!

The Dinosaurs are gone, but if we had DNA we could rebuild them. Don't let the DNA rust away with the inevitable rusting away of the equipment, save it and you can always build a new . Write the .orgs, the .org above here, and pressure them to save the information first.

Remember ALCO (its gone forever, into a bonfire), that is our biggest mistake, but there are many others.

Think people. The equipment is temporary, the information is the last connection, when its gone that is forever.

Thanks to the .org above for their efforts on behalf of their creator, but those efforts can do exponentially more permanent good if directed with more critical thought.

I would like to publically thank the Emery Rail Heritage Trust for choosing the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum as a beneficiary of their generosity. We will be using their gift to begin grading work on our mainline extension, which will (ultimately) extend our track another mile - giving us a 3.5 mile railroad.

I for one am delighted to see a new major source of funding for worthwhile restoration efforts and wish them well as they continue to administer the trust according to Mr. Emery's wishes.

-Ed Lecuyer
(Volunteer, WW&F Railway)

Information is inherent in physical objects as well as in descriptions in imagery and words recorded on media.

Want to preserve paper? Find a funder interested in underwriting library and archival projects. If I recall TRAINS underwrote a library project a few years ago.

In the meantime it is great that there is a growing list of private foundations like Emery and Dailey interested in railway equipment preservation.

Wesley

When I say paper and info, just think Blueprints.

Put the object under a roof, save the historic information, then drag the object out and run it, run it into the ground if you like. That would be many times preferable to forgoing the necessary work on all the info, then loosing the chance to save the info. Just for the thrill of operating the equipment, that will be worn out again in a few years anyway.

We are all going to loose big pieces of our railroad preservation blueprints because of the selfish, short sightedness of: " as long as they help me its good" philosophy.

I'm grateful that any .org exists to help the historic railroad community, my point is the community is being selfish in asking for those extremely generous funds to go in the wrong places, given what time it is.

Just because some group has a need does not mean satisfying that need is the best option, there are other options, priorities. Just because they helped your project does not mean there was not a much more pressing, valuable, more necessary project that did not get funded.

Mr. Emory probably died not knowing what a sorry state our collections are in, on he would probably be chiming in here in support. Any man who left a large fortune for this thing we call historic railroad preservation would easily see the need to have the info taken care of before we started depreciating the equipment.

Is this a community of train riders or preservationists? We can be both, but choices have to be made. I say we are making the wrong choices.

I personally am very fond of a few of those grantee projects, I just think we are getting our priorities backwards. I'm done, take this wherever you want.

Thanks again to the Trust for their support of the restoration on Alaska Railroad #557 and the other projects. Without the support of the trust and many others, 557 would never progress beyond being a piece of cold iron in the shape of a locomotive.

Dick Morris
Secretary/Treasurer
Engine 557 Restoration Company

Loco12 - In my opinion, this thread celebrating the Trust's first group of grants isn't the place for you to air your concerns. I agree that the technical data is an important part of preserving the legacy of rail technology, and as you know, I have spent several hundred hours collecting the technical information related to the War Department S160s as part of our efforts. Paper versus iron is not an either/or situation.

A valid topic, but it should be discussed in a thread of its own.

NRHS, over the years, has issued many grants for archival purposes.

In order for this to happen, money has to be available and capable organizations have to apply for the grants to the right place but the Emery trust is not that place

From their website



"To help re-create and preserve, to the extent possible, the rail passenger travel experience as it was in the U. S. from approximately 1920 through 1960.

To preserve and restore to working order rolling stock and other working artifacts from the “Golden Age” of the U. S. rail passenger service.

The emphasis shall be on organizations that offer the general public an opportunity to ride historically significant equipment over historic rail lines. The Trust may, however, support organizations that would use modern equipment to restore passenger service over historic rails, or to build new rails on which to operate historic equipment in passenger service.

Trust funds may be used, if appropriate, to restore or rebuild ancillary facilities essential to the operation of, or extension of, a working passenger operation. Rebuilding a trestle or grade crossing or electrical facility would qualify. Restoring a historic depot to its original appearance should be considered only if it was to be used to support ticket sales, souvenir sales, or other functions directly related to passenger operations. I do not care to support cosmetic restoration of structures or equipment, no matter how historic, for static display only. Nor do I wish to donate toward buildings, or other structures unless they are to be part of, or used to support, a working demonstration passenger railroad.

I do not wish trust funds to be used in support of any organization whose principal function is lobbying for or promoting commercial or government-sponsored rail services".



Bob H

Mr. Emery clearly wanted his cash to fund the actual operation of passenger rail circa 1920 to 1950, with a direct emphasis on restoration and construction of right of way and rolling stock, and secondarily to restore and construct only essential facilities that directly support the above. I don't see why there is any problem with that? To use the money any other way would be at best unethical, and probably illegal.

To that end, I might apply for some of that. I have some projects in mind that would be right in line with what he wants...

The Dailey Foundation helped fund the purchase of a microfilm scanner for the NPRHA, we have been scanning Northern Pacific Ry. AFEs and putting them online, over 6000 so far.

nprha.org

-Hudson

I see two issues here:

1) A generic request is being made: "Save our paper documents". Which documents? Who has them? What condition are they in?

2) Did somebody with paper documents make a request to the foundation?
If not then we can't hold that against the foundation.
If a request was made and not given then that's because the foundation didn't want to support that project.

We should be glad for any support. I look forward to applying to the foundation next year.

The deadline for submitting grant applications for the 2016 grant program is July 1, 2016. Please visit our website at http://emeryrailheritagetrust.com/ to read about the grant, and to download the application along with instructions. Also posted on the website are the previous grants awarded to help guide groups as they prepare their grant application. We look forward to hearing from many groups for this years grants!

-Jim Fetchero

I know John lived in Chicago and was a regular on Bluewater excursions, but does anyone know where he went on any 1225 excursions or rode on the "Dover"?

Bob H