The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, located in Lenox, Massachusetts, echoes the sentiments of both the WW&F and Engine 557 Restoration Company in our gratitude for the incredible generosity of the John Emery Rail Heritage Trust. As any of those associated will rail preservation will tell you, donations in the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars oftentimes provide the ability to move a project from one phase to the next and provide inspiration to both volunteers and donors alike. While small donations are the lifeblood of the industry, they do not always manifest themselves in actual physical progress on a project. In other words, they may buy paint but not the painter or wheelsets but not the crane. The ability to purchase materials is critical but to donors or even the general public it does not elicit that type of "Wow...this project is moving along" response, thus making organizations like the Emery Trust all the more important.
The $9,000 received from the grant will be used to cosmetically restore the ends of New Haven 42 "Firestone", a Budd RDC1 built in 1953. The acquisition of NH42 represents a textbook execution of the standards for deaccession set forth by the HeritageRail Alliance. The Old Colony & Fall River Railroad Museum sought to downsize their larger artifacts, including artifacts, and offered the car to the BSRM free-of-charge and with its known operational history on the Berkshire Line and in accordance with its collection policy. Currently, a second Detroit Diesel 6-110 has been rebuilt and is awaiting bench testing, along with truck rebuilding to mitigate the missing spicer drive on one end. Once both projects are completed, the restoration of the original propulsion system will be complete. To date (and including the recent grant), $28,375 has been raised towards the goal of $42,000.
Brent Bette
Director/Manager of Special Projects
Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum
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