Apparently some [expletive deleted] NIMBY are opposing the boxcar that was recently saved from the NAUGY and there is going to be a zoning board appeal public meeting. Since it is a public meeting I thought I would post it here so maney of you can show your support 7pm Nov 9th at the Woodstock Town Hall meeting room B.

If I may, I'd advise that you be careful with what you say on sites like this where anyone can read it. Harsh words can be turned against you very easily.

where was the boxcar taken?

I get the emotional reaction with the circumstance.

The person who got it who goes by the name B&M boxcar kid was going to bring it in his back yard to restore it and made shure to get proper approveal from the town but apperentely a NIMBY neighbour has challenged the towns approveal of moveing the boxcar to his back yard.

It's on a piece of private property in Woodstock, CT... Which last I checked is mostly farms.

If its set on rails nothing permanent connected into the ground there should be no qualms.
Seems like no matter what you do someones panties get into a curl.

No first hand knowledge, but... most zoning ordinances include a prohibition on using a "railroad car" as a shed or outbuilding. It's a reaction to all the carbodies that were moved onto private land during the thirties and became everything from tractor sheds to actual houses. Thirty years later, many of these were derelict, but too substantial to be easily disposed of, so became continuing eyesores, year after year. We still have a few here in rural Illinois.

These folks should have checked with building and zoning before they spent the $$$ to move the car.

They did and got the go ahead. It is a neighbour who challenged the towns approveal.

Then hopefully the town will stand behind their ruling.

Hopefully the approval is in writing somewhere. Perhaps in the meeting minutes. I read of a guy in Michigan who contacted the city in which he lived and got the okay to bring a caboose in to his property. Nothing in writing though. And then he laid a short section of track. "Watcha doing neighbor?" led to a neighborhood meeting and a complaint and the pols suddenly counted votes and FORMALLY ruled against the caboose coming in! Nothing the guy could do.


Les

Well, there is another side to this...

Perhaps residential property ISN'T the place for a boxcar.

I'm pretty sure that, despite my love of railroading, I'd be unhappy if one of my neighbors parked a derelict out front and it resulted in a lower property value for my house.

It just occurred to me that this car came from the NAUGY? Isn't there a railway museum on that line... that appearantly didn't want it? So, they saved it from a museum.

Now, I'm really not going to question the collections policy, and I'll just assume the museum has good reason for de-accessioning it. But, a boxcar can't stay in a backyard forever... so, where does it go when these folks are done with it?

From what I understand - they had duplicates of this type in their collection - so that's why they let the young man have it.

Also from what I understand - once he finishes restoring it, he will donate it to a different railroad museum. So it was brought into his backyard - and will eventually depart his backyard as well.

What's a NAUGY? Contrary to popular belief not everybody knows the acronym for every railroad, museum and fan group out there.

Yes, Woodstock is about as rural a place as you will find in Connecticut. (Indeed, I don't think any railroad ever operated within the boundaries of the town.)

I wish him well and hope he can come to some agreement with the neighbor.

-Philip Marshall