Ohio excursion line auctioned Oct. 15th?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:52 pm

Snipped verbatim from Trains.com Newswire:

Quote:

MINERVA, Ohio — An auctioneer will sell off the locomotives and cars of Minerva's Steam Railroad Museum tomorrow, the Canton (Ohio) Repository has reported. The museum operated diesel-powered excursions over two miles of Ohi-Rail Corp. track until rising costs shut the freight railroad down in 2006.

On the auction block are an Alco S2 and S4 diesel, passenger cars, a caboose, a baggage car, and machine shop equipment. However, Wheeling & Lake Erie 0-6-0 No. 3960 won't be included in the auction.

William Schnierle, the museum's vice president, said the train ran for three years, although the museum dates to the 1980s. He said more than 13,000 people rode the train during its years of operation. However, state-required insurance cost the nonprofit group $21,000 per year, a sum they were unable to pay.

"We have just been sitting idle, hoping the state would change its insurance requirement," said Emerson Roth, the museum's president. The museum building, he said, "will be for private use; it won't be a museum any longer."

The auction will take place at 4:30 tomorrow at 177 Curry St. in Minerva.

There were four privately-owned (out of Chicago) ex-NJ Transit E8's there at one time, moved there from Baltimore where they were used in MARC service for a spell before MARC went and got the ex-BN E-units. Anybody got ideas where those might be headed?

Rob Sundberg · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:16 pm

The E units are not part of the sale. IIRC they are privately owned, not sure who owns them. The group did have use of them at one time. See thread http://rypn.sunserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28189 for auction listing.

It would be interesting to know how much other groups need to pay for insurance, as this seems a petty amount in the scheme of things. To decide not to continue on with a non operating static museum and preservation of items and procureing other relics seems rather unnatural to me in the preservation world.

Rob Sundberg

Jack A. Siffert · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:11 pm **Posts:** 373

Auction is over. Jerry bought both Alco's, Both Coaches, The Wheeling Caboose and the Baggage car. The only things he didn't buy were the box car and the Conrail Caboose. The Pennsy cab did not go up for sale.

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:49 pm

Where did the speeders go?

cjvrr · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:22 am

Robert,

I placed a bid on one of the speeders a few days before the event, because I could not be present.

I guess I didn't get it, because I have not heard from the auctioneer. As soon as I hear something I will post it.

Chris

Richard W. · **Joined:** Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:27 pm **Posts:** 157

Auction is over. Jerry bought both Alco's, Both Coaches, The Wheeling Caboose and the Baggage car. The only things he didn't buy were the box car and the Conrail Caboose.

Who is Jerry?

Richard

SZuiderveen · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:54 am

Richard W. wrote:

Auction is over. Jerry bought both Alco's, Both Coaches, The Wheeling Caboose and the Baggage car. The only things he didn't buy were the box car and the Conrail Caboose.

Who is Jerry?

Richard

I am going to take a wild guess here and assume that "Jerry" is J.J. Jacobson, of Sugar Creek, OH.

Steve

Jack A. Siffert · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:11 pm **Posts:** 373

Sorry I guess I should have made it more apparent. Yes Jerry Jacobson. It was funny watching someone (who knows him) bid against him. 2 of the cars used to be Jerry's and this guy was bidding against him knew this as well. Then he got mad about losing the bid. Did he really think he was going to win? Or hurt Jerry by driving the price up? I'm not saying roll over and let him have them cheap but the odds are you are going to lose or pay more than you were willing to and still lose. So why get mad about it.

Rob Gardner · **Joined:** Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:50 pm **Posts:** 576

Jack,

All I can say is I wish I had been there to witness it! Any idea what the Alcos and cars went for?

Rob Gardner

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Jack A. Siffert wrote:

The only things he didn't buy were the box car and the Conrail Caboose.

Jack -

I didn't see a box car on the auction list, but maybe I missed it. I assume then that this was not an historic car.

Les

Jack A. Siffert · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:11 pm **Posts:** 373

Les, There was a box car there. Had C&O showing through on one end. Rough shape. Openings cut in the side,beat up , rotted floor etc, Went for $1050