Most rail museums have a roster listing locomotives and rolling stock. Very little information is available about other collection items,however. There may be more fans of architecture than rail buffs--so I'd like to know what architectural items have been preserved at rail museums (other than depots or complete structures). What orniments or building fragments have been preserved in those instances where a complete structure has been lost.

For example, IRM has a several nice sets of salvaged stonework, most of which are set in brick walls. It also has neon and other signs displayed, including a restored neon train sign from LaSalle Street Station. The limestone Liberty head sculpture from that depot is also at IRM. I believe the main gate at the B&O Museum was taken from Chicago's Grand Central trainshed. While many artifacts were salvaged from Chicago's passenger terminals, few seem to have made it to railway museums. Is that true elsewhere?

fred_ash@bankone.com

> Most rail museums have a roster listing
> locomotives and rolling stock. Very little
> information is available about other
> collection items,however. There may be more
> fans of architecture than rail buffs--so I'd
> like to know what architectural items have
> been preserved at rail museums (other than
> depots or complete structures). What
> orniments or building fragments have been
> preserved in those instances where a
> complete structure has been lost.

> For example, IRM has a several nice sets of
> salvaged stonework, most of which are set in
> brick walls. It also has neon and other
> signs displayed, including a restored neon
> train sign from LaSalle Street Station. The
> limestone Liberty head sculpture from that
> depot is also at IRM. I believe the main
> gate at the B&O Museum was taken from
> Chicago's Grand Central trainshed. While
> many artifacts were salvaged from Chicago's
> passenger terminals, few seem to have made
> it to railway museums. Is that true
> elsewhere?

I think it may have been here is where I saw it. But I saw an article once about some of the gargoyles, eagles and adornments on Pennsylvania Station got saved from the wreaker's ball and put on display in parks in several small towns on Long Island. The story was about someone was doing a restoration on an Eagle sculpture that had been tarnished by years of pollution and weathering.

> I think it may have been here is where I saw
> it. But I saw an article once about some of
> the gargoyles, eagles and adornments on
> Pennsylvania Station got saved from the
> wreaker's ball and put on display in parks
> in several small towns on Long Island.

There are a few of these eagles still around New York City. Two of them are out side the main entrance of the new (but much less attractive) Penn Station. With the latest remuddeling of Penn Station, many of the old archways and staircases were revealed and restored to their original beauty.
Bruce

trainhead@mymail.emcyber.com

See attached link for details and current location of the Penn Station (NY) eagles and othe artifacts from Penn Station and old Grand Central Terminal.

Penn Station and Grand Central Eagles

At National Capital Trolley Museum we have preserved and restored a 1907 streetcar switch tower from the plaza at Union Station in Washington, DC. The tower was removed from the plaza in the 1920s and was installed at several other street railway junctions in the city before being relegated to a children's playhouse in the Maryland suburbs after WWII.

The tower was restored in the mid-1990s. It is shown here in the background in the photo of Hague PCC car 1329.

Union Station Plaza (DC) Switch Tower

A little known bit... there are at least 4 tall (20 feet+) outdoor lamps from the old Penn Station displayed in the front yard of a house in Eatontown, NJ. Not is great shape, but still there.

Rob

rdavis@rypn.org

Let's see...

I have a lamp in my personal collection that family history claims was made from two stair ballisters from the old PRR station in Baltimore. One of my great-grandfathers was a cabinetmaker. He supposedly salvaged a couple of ballisters when they built the present Baltimore Penn Station and turned them into a lamp.

SCRM has a station sign from the original Rockton station, which was burned as a fire department exercise in the 1970s. We've got the sign mounted on our temporary Rockton depot.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. I'll probably remember something this weekend and then forget it again when I get back to a 'puter. :o)

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net

> Most rail museums have a roster listing
> locomotives and rolling stock. Very little
> information is available about other
> collection items,however.

I have the exact same problem researching steam pumps and other misc. steam equipment. I have the following so far; can anyone add more to the list?

1. Roaring Camp & Big Trees, Felton, CA: a Worthington duplex was a fire pump about the Shay "Dixiana"; understand it has seen be removed and dumped?

2. Georgetown Loop RR, Silver Plume, CO: a duplex fire pump on WSL Shay #12

3. Midwest Central RR, Mt Pleasant, IA: a duplex fire pump on WSL Shay #9

4. Southern Forest Museum & Research Center, Long Leaf, LA: >= 8 duplex pumps of various types; most documented and photographed

5. Camp Creek Antique Machinery &Threshing Association, Waverly, NE: >=3 steam pumps; additional details/photographs welcomed.

6. Clark's Trading Post, Lincoln, NH: three steam pumps, used as fire pumps on Heisler #4, Climax #6, and EB&L 2-4-2T #5; all documented and photographed.

7. Tod Engine Foundation, Youngstown, OH: a Worthington piston valve duplex and a Fairbanks Morse duplex; both documented and the Fairbanks Morse photographed

8. Sumpter Valley Rlwy, McEwen, OR: several pumps scattered around the museum grounds; could someone document and photograph these for me?

9. National Museum of Industrial History, Bethlehem, PA: a Cameron simplex

10. EBT Shops, Mount Union, PA: a Worthington duplex sump pump and a duplex hydrostatic pump of unknown make in the boiler house; shown on Chris Coleman's excellent EBT website.

11. Age of Steam RR Museum, Dallas, TX: two Worthington duplex fuel oil pumps from Union Station; operational using a stationary boiler; fully documented (thanks Paul!)

12. Texas Energy Museum, Beaumont: three pumps, one of which is in storage; fully documented.

13. Texas Transportation Museum, San Antonio, TX: a duplex pump dumped in the weeds; probably the fire pump from Comal Power 0-4-0T #1.

14. Heber Valley RR, Heber City, UT: seven steam pumps, two of them mounted as fire pumps on the tenders of the locomotives; all photographed and documented (thanks Doc!)

15. Mt. Rainier Scenic RR, Elbe, WA: >=5 steam pumps; all photographed and documented (thanks Brian!)

16. Puget Sound & Snoq., Snoqualmie, WA: two Worthington duplexes, operational.

17. Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, Durbin, WV: a Warren duplex being used as a fire pump aboard MFR Climax #3. May also have another Warren pump as a source of parts.

18. BC Forest Museum, Duncan, BC: fire pump on tender of Glornia & WRY 0-4-0 #25

19. Pump House Steam Museum, Kingston, ON: >=3 steam pumps (including pumping engines)

Steam Lizards

james1@pernet.net

> I have the exact same problem researching
> steam pumps and other misc. steam equipment.
> I have the following so far; can anyone add
> more to the list?

This never occurred to me. We've got one at SCRM squirreled away in a boxcar. Don't know its history but it was one of the things collected by the Charleston Chapter. Will ask about it this weekend.

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net

We have all sorts of items that TVRM has accumulated over the years. All of the furnishings of the depots came from area depots and we have some spare arched roof supports that were removed from the railroad depot at Athens, Tennessee. We also have the signs from the Southern Railway Terminal Station with the names and numbers of the trains that operated in and out of Chattanooga.

awalker2002@comcast.net