The Monticello Railway Museum Board of Directors has recently de-accessioned three pieces of equipment that, due to limited capital, labor, and storage space, stand little opportunity for restoration at MRM. These cars are the following:

Ex. NKP PRO #356, a 1924 Pullman product with a 15' RPO section.

Ex. NYC 8828, a double door baggage car with two axle trucks and clerestory roof, build date not available in our roster. (Though I'm sure someone on here will know what it is.)

Ex CTA articulated carset #53, built in 1948, one of four built, last used in "Skokie Swift" service in Chicago.

All are in poor condition, with the baggage car being the worst off of the three.
All are available to like organizations, free of charge, where they will be preserved. The cost of moving the car/s will be the responsibility of the accepting organization. For further information and additional photos, please PM me.

Thanks for your interest!

Kent McClure
CMO
Monticello Railway Museum

Please help me to understand this. You had some equipment given to you. You are unable to do anything with the artifacts for lack of space/funds/ability/whatever.

You no longer want them and are offering to give them to another organization like yours; a 501(c)3. And if no other non-profit responds to your generosity, you are quite willing to get rid of them yourself, possibly by salvaging them, without allowing someone in the private sector (i.e. those of us who buy the things we preserve) the opportunity to restore and use them.

I hope I am reading that wrong. The companies that donated the items were not non-profits. It would not be a bad thing to see them preserved, regardless of who does it.

I would commend them for making such a generous offer to other nonprofits without the usual short-fuse time frame, also for the decision to deaccession what they don't need.

I saw no mention of salvaging or scrapping, so perhaps if nobody in the nonprofit world makes a serious offer in the nexy year or so, a private sale may be possible, depending on their board and counsel, and perhaps the donors.

There are many variables involved. No doubt more information will someday be forthcoming.

dave

According to ARM's Recommended Practices for Railroad Museums
http://www.railwaymuseums.org/recommended_practices.asp
they are doing the right thing by first offering the cars to other museums.

The Practices say this should be done "whenever possible", so sales to a for-profit organization are possible if no museum comes forward.

Al has it exactly right. Per our constitution and bylaws, we cannot just "sell" pieces of our collection we have dertermined to be excess, to a private firm or individual for personal use, until we have exhausted other avenues of disposal to like organizations. If we can find no other like organizations with any interest in them, then we can take further action to dispose of them, being either private sales, scrapping, etc.. It's our perference to see them saved as opposed to scrapped, so if they are still here with no interest on the part of the perservation community, we can then offer them up to others.

Kent

don't scrap them, too valuable, looks like their not that bad of shape, some elbow grease n stuff gets them shining.
The CTA car certainly of value.

Does anyone have a current status for these items? The CTA cars would look very good at the FOX VALLEY TROLLEY MUSEUM in South Elgin, Illinois. (If not already thought of by someone). I have no contacts there, but will call someone I know to see if they do.

Mr. Peters,

The current status is, all three pieces of equipment are still here. There have been a couple of inquiries regarding the NKP RPO, and one regarding the CTA set. But, nothing has been formalized, so all three are still available.

Kent McClure
MRM

Are the baggage and RPO/baggage cars still available?

That NKP RPO Baggage car I'm sure ran on all the famous trains. Includeing the "Blue Dart" and "Blue Arrow" between Cleveland and Saint Louis. Since I'm kind of a NKP fan, please let me know if you have any plans for the car. Thanks. I thought this car had been saved?

Isn't it great. Hold on to equipment until they fall down around their wheels and are not feasible to restore, THEN and ONLY THEN make them available to someone else.

Couldn't these decisions be made BEFORE the equipment completely disintegrates?

SS,

I see no evidence offered that any other offers to preserve or restore these pieces were ever made, let alone rejected. If Monticello hadn't held on to these cars, they wouldn't exist today, in all probability.

If another group--say, Fort Wayne or the ELDCPS--had ever made a reasonable offer for the NKP baggage car in the past, I'm sure the proposal would have been weighed appropriately.

For the record, almost EVERY rail museum or operation of any size has some stuff "rotting" in the "back 40"--even Strasburg, even Cass, even the California State RR Museum, even the Grand Canyon, even the EBT...........

Sandy's right - we all save what we can whether or not we need it because it will disappear RIGHT NOW otherwise. No point criticizing each other for that, but fair game is criticizing each other for refusing to offer what we don't need to good homes before it disappears over time and neglect. Dreams without means have killed more artifacts than have resulted in meaningful preservation.

dave

Over the years Irm has scraped 7 passenger cars and will probably scrap a wood/steel CNW early 1900's coach in the foreseeable future. Monticello is trying to save them by giving them away.

The NYC baggage is still available, but time is running out, as it has now been just four months shy of three years since this was initially posted. The NKP RPO is spoken for by the fine folks at HVRM at North Judson, Indiana, so it will be preserved. There has been some interest in the CTA set, but no firm offers yet. IRM does have interest in parting it out should no one step up to take the complete set for preservation.

If you have serious interest in the baggage car, drop me a note via pm, or contact us via our website: http://www.mrym.org/contact.html

Kent