For anyone who went out to look at Disney's "A Christmas Carol" train, "Lamberts Point" carried the markers on the train and the car served as a crew dorm and headquarters for some of the staff members.

Don C.

Atltoonaworks just updated their OCS page here it is:

http://www.altoonaworks.info/ocs.html

It's sad to see, NRHS Roanoke selling off their equipment. I'm glad I got pictures of GN 1148 "Devils Lake" & IC 3305 "Mardi Gras" while I did last year. Even being defacto member with NRHS Bluewater, we don't have as many passenger cars as we once did. Economics and club membership has an impact on the usage of the equipment.

Unless it originally went to WMSR after the auction (I seem to recall several did) and was sold to NYSW, then this is incorrect. The car that went to KRM came from NYSW's collection. Not sure why NS did not just pony up for their own previously owned stuff. They could have gotten it for less than they sold it for and not have had to spend big bucks on further renovation. With Roanoke selling 1827, that would have been 3 NS heritage cars back in the steam fleet.

Too bad we can't get back to the ex-Southern heavyweight era. Yes, I know they would at least need tightlock conversions and other renovations but, wow, wouldn't they look great? I wonder how Spencer is coming along with plans for restoring the couple they just got from B&ML...

Best,
Mike

Not a great view of it, but is that the combine you were talking about? It is probably hard to tell from that angle.http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/3425/765034.jpg

NS sold four cars to the WMSR:

CofG Combine 726
Southern Stainless Steel coaches 844 and 845
Norfolk and Western coach 540

The coaches that went to the NYS&W included:

Southern Stainless Steel Coaches 842 and 843

Western Maryland Scenic sold coach 845 to the KRM last year. Not trying to act like I know everything, just passing on info that I know. ;)

Martin

I'm not 100% sure NS could get the coaches back cheaper than what they sold for. Most of them are seeing regular use. The groups would need enough money to buy and restore replacements.

Why is it "sad"? We have not gotten rid of any equipment because of financial hardship. A few years ago the Chapter made a decision to focus its collection on regional equipment, primarilarly pre-1964 N&W and affiliates. (VMT is changing it's focus to a Virginia-oriented collection also) The collection is evolving. Over the past 15 or so years we've sold 4 passenger cars and aquired one passenger car, several steam-era freight cars, another caboose, and 3 more locomotives. There are a couple of possible aquisitions in the works also. The Roanoke Chapter is financially stable, involved in several projects, is again operating excursions, and contrary to the trend with NRHS nationally, has a growing membership.

Another way to look at the Roanoke Chapter's situation:

A few private preservationists I know personally are fond of saying of their "special" items "well, they don't eat much..."

Technically, that's not true.

We've already seen in another thread that the typical charge for empty track for a car or locomotive to sit on is anywhere from $300 a year (an exceedingly friendly rate--have YOU priced store-it-yourself camper parks and storage warehouses lately?!?) to, more typically, $500-1000 a year (to be expected for larger locomotives and cars and an active connection). If you own a facility with track that can hold your car/etc., your real estate taxes are likely to be along the same lines, unless you have a boxcar in the middle of nowhere ten miles from the nearest active track (I've seen several of these over the years). Put a roof over it? More cost or taxes. Fencing? Barbed wire? Guard dogs? Anti-graffiti paint? More expense.

And we haven't even touched depreciation--rust to be remedied, windows to be boarded up or de-fogged, repainting every ten years, COT&S, moving the car to keep the bearings good, feeding the dogs or the volunteer painters, etc.

Assuming, in the long term, a complete absence of a mainline excursion program or charter or "land cruise" that wants to lease your equipment, a typical PV can, and most likely will, eat up thousands of dollars in expenses annually just sitting there. Or, if it doesn't, it eventually becomes the next piece of Swiss cheese--the next PRR P70 cut up at Winslow Junction, the next Lion Gardner, the next PRR MP54 cut up at the RR Museum of Pa. or South Philly.......

There's a good reason why the Steam Locomotive Coroporation of America, Railroad Passenger Cars Inc., the Baltimore Chapter NRHS, Overland Rail Travel, and other such groups and NRHS chapters are no longer in the rail passenger car holding business. Unless you have a lot of excess money or opportunity for the cars to make money, they're effectively albatrosses--much like the definition of a boat being "a hole in the water into which you pitch money".............

Ah, that explains it. Thanks for the clarification. Somewhere I have a copy of the auction catalog with all of the dispositions and sales prices, but it's well buried.



As for the NS repurchasing their equipment, I was only referring to what has been up for sale recently... The two NYSW cars and the RNRH 1827 came to mind. Not sure what Roanoke got for 1827 (not particularly any of our business), but the two NYSW cars were advertised for about $38K - about or less than what they originally sold for at the auction. So, yes, they would have come out very well.