The public officials responsible for taking down the protection are clueless idiots who lack the imagination of a common vandal. But I'm afraid they will discover that soon enough for themselves.

I'm afraid that the only way they will learn is for something to get wrecked or someone getting hurt!

This is probably the article FindersKeepers mentioned.

http://www.guelphtribune.ca/news/museum-going-big/

I get the impression from the story that "now that a good bit of the hard work is done, let's step in and take over"

Well what will happen now is that the same group of volunteers who have been working on the locomotive for the past 12 years, will now have to volunteer through the Museum, submit to background checks, and report to them whenever we want to work on the locomotive.

(There is still tons of stuff left to do!)

The plan all along was that once the restoration was done, the locomotive would fall under the jurisdiction of one City department or another. Part of the reason the locomotive fell into such bad shape back in the day, was after the original group fizzled out, no one was responsible.

So Guelph City Council hoped to solve that problem by clearly defining which department was supposed to be responsible for taking care of it.

Some documents I have from 2002 clearly state that the "Community Services Department [will] be responsible for maintenance of the CNR Locomotive 6167" and that "Guelph Museums be responsible for the interpretive program."

I guess even that has changed now so that the museum is responsible for both maintenance AND interpretation...

You might consider getting some images of other locomotives in parks with fencing and some with shelters over them, and sharing these with the "powers that be" to show them that fences are considered normal and needed by others who do this.

...And conversely, photos of other unprotected locomotives (say C&O 2-8-4 2707 when it was at the Cleveland Zoo) to show what happens when you leave protecting the piece up to the goodwill of the local citizenry.

Found a picture of C&O 2701 COVERED in kids that I've been passing around to the "powers".

I think this is something that people higher up are going to have to force them to do.

Down here in the states we have this wonderful little liability concept of attractive nuisance. Given that the number one cause of accidental death is slips-n-falls, I find it astounding that the local government is not requiring a fence around its “attractive nuisance” (please understand I’m not calling a steam loco a nuisance – I’m posting here right?). Has anyone dug through the local building code? I’ll bet the you’ll find that a fence is in fact required.

Thanks, that's some sexy lingo I can throw around to the higher ups, an "attractive nuisance"!

I have posted a second comment on the Mayor's blog.

http://mayorsblog.guelph.ca/2012/06/13/ ... l-of-fame/

This is news to me. No one mentioned a peep to me about this...

Thanks Richard.

Two year old news Joe. I seem to recall two representatives from your group coming down to St. Thomas from Guelph to accept the induction. It may have been one from your group and one from the city.
http://www.narhf.org