They had such a promising flurry of activity a few years ago.

To answer you question. There are many rail fans that live in Columbus OH and I'm one of them. Yes the ORM does not have steady hours but only on Sunday's from 1pm-5pm Memorial Day to Labor Day. While I'm not part of the group they do some work sessions that I have seen living in town and when they are open on Sundays you can walk around the museum and take a trolley ride. The rust rails would be common considering they are currently not running except for there Ghost Trolley that will be coming up soon. ORM from what I hear has a tough road ahead of them to turn the organization around. I wish them the best and hopefully they'll take the consultants advice they got a few years ago and turn it into a top trolley museum.

As far as 578 is concerned it was looked at by a party in the last 6 months that could have brought her back to life and it's not the OC. They had the funding or could have obtained the funding but the ORM board felt it was better for there group to leave as a static display as a calling card to the museum, which it has been since 1977, when she had her last fire in her. Emotional attachment to these items is a funny thing to get past sometimes for the better of the museum and the locomotive.

So I guess what you're sayiing is that it wasn't a case of the offer for the locomotive being insufficient, but rather that ORM just decided to keep the 4-6-2.

Les

Folks,

The Western Railway Museum faced this same kind of decision a few years ago and decided to stay with our roots in electric traction. The Board deassectioned three steam engines and several large diesels.

We do have two WP steam locos on static display.

The ORM has some gems in its collection and is one of the oldest preservation groups around. I hope they can fine the people and the money to get going on the weekends at least in the summer months. They deserve some success.

Ted Miles

I work a short distance from the ORM and swung by there in the spring. Franky it didn't look much different than last time I was there. I had spoke with members about three years ago at a train show in town and they said they were planning to extend the line and build a new car barn. There was no evidence of either. Mind you they did not have a booth there, we did - for a line over 300 miles away - and they stopped by our booth.

One change I noticed is that there Vulcan 0-4-0 saddletanker is no longer in Worthington. I had no idea where it had gone until my wife saw a sign on a freeway for a "Festival at the Depot". As it turns out there was a "conference center" in town that had a depot and a restored trolley car moved in along with a general railroad theme. We attended the festival which was a nice, well attended gated event with many vendors. And there on the premises was the 0-4-0 with a fresh coat of paint and an info plaque that it was on loan from the ORM. Well, the ORM was listed as a co-sponsor for the event. As I recall they had an _unmanned_ informational booth and that seemed to be the extent of their involvement.

They don't seem to have much interest in promoting themselves. If I wasn't a railfan I wouldn't even know they existed. I have not seen them at the big local railfan shows though several museums from elsewhere in the state were present such as the Northern Ohio Railway Museum. Go figure.

I heard rumors that Ohio Railway Museum was rather willing to let N&W 578 go under one condition, that was it remained in the state of Ohio. I am not sure if that is true or not, but I heard it from several different people. I haven't been up there in years, and the more I hear this group is on the verge of imploding any given day. It seems that since the Ohio Central pulled the plug on the public excursions that the museum has been trying to figure out what to do with itself, and how to generate revenue.

I would think that selling off certain parts of the collection to focus on another part of the collection to stablize it, and restore it would be a good thing. However I have known organizations to gather up as much stuff as possible, and just sit on it till it is too late. Then when they do try and sell some of it, it is not even worth scrap. I just hope that 578 does not end up like a pile of scrap.

Les,

To answer your question. I think it was more about the locomotive leaving there site then it was about the money. ORM does need funding from what I here and its a shame that selling the locomotive could have generated the revnue to build a pole building to rebuild trolley's in. I know when I built my pole building it was 25K for a 40X60 with 5 inch of reinforced cement which allows me to get any forklifts in out without any damage to the place. Plus it would have given them some needed space as they are land locked.

I also feel the group who would have owned the locomotive might have worked out a situation for them to do excursions again. So only the walls at the board meeting will know why and how it was decided.