Re: the newspiece from Flimsies below. I don't know if the columnist is a rail enthusiast or not, but I think he wrote this well. Instead of the usual "Train buffs mourn damage at B&O Museum" theme, he makes it out to be a loss for all of Baltimore and the nation.

http://www.sunspot.net/news/weather/bal-to.kelly22feb22,0,2162738.column
ryarger@rypn.org

I
> don't know if the columnist is a rail
> enthusiast or not, but I think he wrote this
> well.

Jacques Kelly is a longtime student of railroading, though not exactly a card-carrying foamer railfan. He was a good friend of the late photographer Jim Gallagher, who immortalized the last days of B&O steam, and he has great sensitivity to industrial heritage of all kinds--foundries and ports and so on as well as railroads. He covers most exhibit openings and so on at the B&O Museum in his column, usually with the same very humane slant--focussing on the people and the meaning of it all for the city, not the stuff.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> Re: the newspiece from Flimsies below. I
> don't know if the columnist is a rail
> enthusiast or not, but I think he wrote this
> well.

Jacques Kelly is the weekly "nostalgia" columnist for the Sun, who writes in a somewhat doddering, fuddy-duddy "My, I'll tell you, back in MY day, etc." good-old-days style. He's also co-author (meaning caption-writer) for the book "Trackside Maryland: From Railyard to Main Line", written with the late Jim Gallagher, and a noted photo collector.

I can't speak for any card-carrying credentials (I don't think he's a Baltimore Chapter NRHS member), but he writes long and often about the good ol' days of the B&O (and occasionally the WM and Ma & Pa). His writings sometimes remind me of the curmudgeons that stopped photographing trains when diesels came about, or think railroad history ended on or before May 1, 1971.

lner4472@bcpl.net