Anyone have an update on the clean up effort around this locomotive?

glueck@maine.edu

> Anyone have an update on the clean up effort
> around this locomotive?

As it happens, I'm on my way there Saturday. Update to follow.


eledbetter@rypn.org

The Kiwanis have established a Web site to docment the work they are doing at Riverside. I will be trying to interview the coordinator, Bill Hodges, this coming week.

http://www.club-e-stores.com/caboose64_lynchburg.htm

Riverside trian restoration project
eledbetter@rypn.org

I sure hope someone has their insurance paid up if they really intend on allowing these young childeren to have anything to do with this restoration. Raising money, visiting the engine, and getting explanations on how it operates are great, but that's where the line needs to be drawn. Just check out the picture on the website of a group of kids using the tender slope sheet as a slide! A slide surrounded by sharp, jagged, rusted steel and I would assume a stoker screw at the bottom. Might as well just give them guns and knives to play with.

> The Kiwanis have established a Web site to
> docment the work they are doing at
> Riverside. I will be trying to interview the
> coordinator, Bill Hodges, this coming week.

>
> http://www.club-e-stores.com/caboose64_lynchburg.htm

Erik-
Contact me offline. I might have something to donate to help this group, IF the locomotive is secured.


Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Though what you are saying makes good sense in a world of suers, I have to go on record as a teacher and a railfan, as saying this effort is exactly what the locomotive and caboose need. The E School is bringing in kids at the age when they are capable of appreciating a positive effort. I viewed the locomotive and caboose back in 2001, and they were in dreadful shape. The Southern coach that was with them is actually gone now! Whatever you want to say about the kids working on site, I think it gives them a sense of history, of pride, and participation. They may not be too quick to throw a rock or spray paint on it's sides. Certainly the school's awareness raised the issue to higher levels. From the looks of the pictures, I'd say the cab was actually in better shape than some of the others I've been in!

An opinion too, if I may express it. This loco and caboose are situated in a shady, wet area of the park, and well out of sight. Any donations of parts and artifacts should probably be copies. Despite the good works of so many, as we all know, theft, vandalism and disgrace are still pervasive forces.

The teacher who raised this issue of restoring the Kanawha and caboose should be commended and recognized for her/his fine foresight and citizenship.



glueck@maine.edu

> Anyone have an update on the clean up effort
> around this locomotive?

I scanned the website and did not see any mention of local railfan/preservationist involvement. Did I miss something?

Is a local Kiwanis Club eating our cheese, doing what the railroad preservationist community ought to do?

Is caring for local exhibits, regardless of ownership, a national priority that should be included in some sort of favorable public policy initiative?

> I scanned the website and did not see any
> mention of local railfan/preservationist
> involvement. Did I miss something?

To my (fairly certain) knowledge there is no local railfan or railroad history organization of any meaningful kind in Lynchburg. Individual local railfan lobbyists/agitators/friends were instrumental in recruiting the Kiwanis to tackle this, and the Kiwanis have subsumed their efforts.

> Is a local Kiwanis Club eating our cheese,
> doing what the railroad preservationist
> community ought to do?

See above. In Lynchburg there was cheese with no railfans to eat it. What local railfan expertise their was is now part of this effort.

> Is caring for local exhibits, regardless of
> ownership, a national priority that should
> be included in some sort of favorable public
> policy initiative?

What kind of national public policy initiative are we talking about in this context? A free-standing mission statement and lobbying position that individual groups can use as they see fit? A new national umrella organization of some kind? A new mission statement or policy initiative for an existing organization like NRHS or R&LHS or ARM? Without a better understanding of the terms I find it hard to answer the question.


eledbetter@rypn.org

The Kiwanis project in Lynchburg is not atypical at all. There are an awful lot of displayed locomotives that have never been touched by the rail enthusiast community, despite most having been displayed for over 40 years. The only maintenance they have received is an occasional goofy paint job by well-meaning but uninformed groups like the Kiwanis, Boy Scouts, JayCees or corrections department trustees. Those that were hacked up by fly-by-night asbestos contractors were hacked because none of us were there to take off the necessary parts in advance so that it would be done right.

When we were working on CV 220, I explained the project to our local NRHS chapter as a chance for those interested to finally get to work on some of that rail hardware that they had been watching from trackside for so many years. While we did gain a solid core of three, most of the others said things like "Oh Jeez, I've got a model railroad to build, but let me know when you get it done, I want to take a picture".

Luckily, the Shelburne Museum (which owns and displays the engine) and the CV Railway gave us excellent support, because if we had relied on railfan support the project would have been dead before we started. The three of us remain good friends and the other two who still live up there are still working on the project, with Museum help.

Personally, I can't think of anything I'd rather do than improve the condition of a sad rusting locomotive like the one in Lynchburg. Perhaps after retirement in four years I can.

ryarger@rypn.org

If ever there were two TLC candidates, it was these two lieces of equipment.

Thanks, Bob, for your updates. Do you have photos of the projects you mention?

To my RYPN colleague Erik Ledbetter, I think that some policy should be considered that gives local railfan groups some imprimateur to take over custodial care of locally displayed historical pieces.

> To my RYPN colleague Erik Ledbetter, I think
> that some policy should be considered that
> gives local railfan groups some imprimateur
> to take over custodial care of locally
> displayed historical pieces.

OK, but I am still confused--who is the body issuing the prospective policy? Whom is it intended to govern?


eledbetter@rypn.org

> The Kiwanis project in Lynchburg is not
> atypical at all. There are an awful lot of
> displayed locomotives that have never been
> touched by the rail enthusiast community,
> despite most having been displayed for over
> 40 years. The only maintenance they have
> received is an occasional goofy paint job by
> well-meaning but uninformed groups like the
> Kiwanis, Boy Scouts, JayCees or corrections
> department trustees.

In this specific case I have learned that the group has retained Chris McBride, the skilled restoration supervisor at VMT, to supervise work on the locomotive. So, they do have qualified help. More details after I can get down there this weekend and talk to them and see things first hand.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> In this specific case I have learned that
> the group has retained Chris McBride, the
> skilled restoration supervisor at VMT, to
> supervise work on the locomotive. So, they
> do have qualified help. More details after I
> can get down there this weekend and talk to
> them and see things first hand.

Great. I look forward to an update. It will be most instructive. And, great timing on this piece of travel.

Did not Lynchburg once have a fairly active NRHS chapter and some passenger equipment in leased excursion service? Part of this story may be a "chapter" on what happened to the chapter, and why did it shrink to the point where the Kiwanians had to step up to the plate.

Also reminds me of the #153(?) story, a little 2-8-0 in Knoxville's Chilhowee Park. In the mid-80s, Old Smoky NRHS was busy doing other things. The City recruited Pete Claussen to lead an effort to protect, enhance, and help preserve the locomotive. It was Pete, a couple of architects and realtors, and a few other non railfans who handled the task.

You asked what group could issue a priority local heritage preservation policy? Take your pick!

> Did not Lynchburg once have a fairly active
> NRHS chapter and some passenger equipment in
> leased excursion service? Part of this story
> may be a "chapter" on what
> happened to the chapter, and why did it
> shrink to the point where the Kiwanians had
> to step up to the plate.

I'll be darned, yes they do, the Blue Ridge Chapter. To my knowledge they are not involved. I will try to pursue this line of inquiry.

> You asked what group could issue a priority
> local heritage preservation policy? Take
> your pick!

Well, I guess I look at it the other way around. I find it hard to frame a policy without some advance sense of who the issuing organization would be, its mission, its authority and scope of coverage, etc.


eledbetter@rypn.org

> Well, I guess I look at it the other way
> around. I find it hard to frame a policy
> without some advance sense of who the
> issuing organization would be, its mission,
> its authority and scope of coverage, etc.

Will Rogers supposedly said that watching Congress work is like watching someone make sausage. That could be transferred to policy development, at least most of the serious public policy debates I have been around.

When it comes to public policy creation and implementation, one man's READY AIM FIRE is another man's READY FIRE AIM. There sometimes are not 3 degrees of separation.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com