Presented without commentary on the circumstances. And no more is needed, IMO.



There's SOME stuff that would be of interest to live-steamers, historians, collectors, and rail shop forces--but not much. No builder's plates, whistles, locomotive parts, full-sized rolling stock, or the like. I just don't want the good stuff to go to scavengers or scrappers.

https://www.grafeauction.com/event/wasa ... s-cheyenne

Looks like lots of good stuff especially for those involved in the amusement park scale steam. Hope for the creditors sake the stuff brings a decent amount.

Ross Rowland

I don't understand who'd be in charge of choosing an auctioneer... the creditors, bankruptcy judge, the janitor... whoever.... I'd think that someone would think "we need to find someone to list this stuff that has a small clue on what we're trying to sell, so we could recoup some of our losses", instead of an auction service that doesn't have the foggiest idea of what he's charged with selling.

Looks to me like they'd have at least brought someone in to explain what it is they are looking at as they were listing it. They know their way around a office and can identify a desk chair, but not tools or equipment in a machine/welding shop.

I guess it doesn't matter.....

Yeah, particularly when signals are listed as 'light poles' (lot 268).

If you want some comic relief in this, check out lot 285.

Oh my goodness, that is ironic!

This auction appears to be by Gulf Coast Bank. In 2020 John mortgaged all of the equity in his home, and all of his business assets in a loan that was never repaid. This appears to be the first step by the creditor in trying to recoup the owed amount.



If only he practiced what he preached.....

.

As someone with some experience in this:

Auctioneers are always a crap shoot. Every auction company out there develops specialized expertise--in real estate, cars, industrial equipment, antiques, store fixtures, etc. There are at least three auctioneers in the USA to my knowledge that specialize in toys, toy trains and model railroad stuff, with enough expertise to look at a random collection and recognize valuable Lionel and Marx and brass model boxes and tell it from Tyco junk, and one of them has specific expertise in railroadiana as well. In Britain there are three competing auctioneers who make railwayana and toy/model trains their specialty.
But if your stuff doesn't happen to live in southeastern Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Sheffield, York, Worcestershire, etc., then what? Unless you have an estate or bankruptcy that's likely to bring seven or eight figures, they're not going to fly out to Cheyenne or wherever or truck your stuff to their hall. And if they do, that'll cost you in their fees.

And honestly, aside from a live-steam loco, this is a junk auction. It doesn't matter if there's a working Alemite lubricator or Westinghouse cross-compound pumps or a set of flues for UP 3985 in there. Unless the RIGHT persons show up stalking the RIGHT pieces, there is stuff in here that is either being bought by the pound for scrap, and/or will be scavenged and will show up at Cheyenne's version of the weekly flea market that has everything from tools to kitchenware to ammo to bootleg sneakers to used DVDs. Ladders, desks, copier, etc. Or the desks and bookcases will end up in someone's used-car-lot office trailer or the like.

And auctioneering itself is a craft. They become experts in marketing, promotion, organization, and human psychology, if they're any good. The big names--Sotheby's Christie's, etc.--print heavy glossy catalogues that sell later on the used market as reference guides, and they have experts in art and antiques. That's why the fees at their auctions run into figures that may exceed your annual budget at the Podunk and Western RR.

I'm watching another auction by this auctioneer live, and like many such auctioneers the online/live auction is truly an auction, with bidding extended another 20 seconds if a last-second bid is received, not ended when a clock runs out. This is at times a legal requirement for some circumstances such as government liquidation and bankruptcy liquidation, and in the ones I'm watching it's working to run up prices, with lots of last-second bids. I just saw one lot of computer monitors go from $9 to $67.50 in the last few minutes.

And, of course, in all probability, any really nice "stuff" was squirreled away to offsite storage while stinky stuff was hitting the fan. I've seen restaurants plundered of their better equipment by the owners in rental trucks hauling them to storage or other restaurants on the final day of operation, before others with the keys had access to the stuff to steal themselves. (And that is why so many restaurants, even "landmark" ones, close with no warning, even to staff--they get robbed blind if they even hint it's coming up.)

Most of that is straight up junk.

Office bits? You're lucky to not throw it in the dumpster. Peanuts.
Scrap iron? Good solid base value of not much.
The forklift and trailer are already getting good bids. May be the high point.
Live steam stuff? The complete ones may get up a bit. There are a lot of what looks like unmachined castings and other garbage that won't mean much to anyone else.
The tracks? Might catch some good bids
The welders and such will go somewhere but not too far.
The hand tools and power tools, by the pound, most of it looks used up.
Are the rivets, staybolts, etc worth anything without traceable paperwork?
A few lots of taps, reamers, rollers.
Completely absent of large ironworking equipment, large lathes/mills, etc? Didn't they make and repair boilers and repair large steam?

In the end, I bet there is about 20-25k here, at most.

Also, wasn't there a railcar business at another site? Is all that stuff already gone or is there another auction or even several to come? How many locations did he have?

.

The Shoshoni Shop assets have been listed in a separate auction. https://www.grafeauction.com/event/wasatch-railroad-contractors-shoshoni

Includes "1955 GE 65-ton switcher diesel-electric locomotive, "Golden Gate 3""

Can anyone explain this particular boiler design of no tapered boiler course leading toward the steam dome? At first glance, it seems to be an attempt to eliminate/reduce the number of stay bolts going to the crown sheet.

https://www.grafeauction.com/media/cach ... 9ac21e.jpg

Perhaps A quasi Vanderbilt boiler/firebox design?

Here is another example….

https://www.grafeauction.com/media/cach ... fd6b74.jpg

My understanding is Wasatch built a new boiler with similar features for one of the 1/3 scale Overfair pacifics.

Lot #275 is an "Engine 557 Returning" poster that we had commissioned and sell for $100 rolled. The frame cost someone another couple of hundred dollars.

Would someone like to contact the Golden Gate RR Museum and ascertain that they have relinquished any claim to this 65-tonner?