the heirs are now in touch with knowledgeable, caring folks who are helping them out with this convoluted estate.

"Title to this equipment they have "inherited" is not clear, nor likely even valid".

I wish I had a dollar for everyone who thinks that a railroad locomotive has a title that establishes ownership.

Sigh. We've gone through this before. This from Wikipedia best puts it in perspective:

"In property law, a title is a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document, such as a deed, that serves as evidence of ownership."

When people refer to "title" in railroad equipment, they are referring to their ownership rights, not a document.

I know that, and you know that, but there are multitudes who do not. I could comfortably retire if my premise was fulfilled.

All you have to do is look to the past - when massive bankruptcies seriously questioned who the heck owned anything.... or when a bank claimed it first.

Equipment trust plates.

There are definitely times when physically riveting an ownership plate to something makes sense. We just had a situation in here where client lawyers were paid for a 'title search' on a locomotive. Came up empty. Surprise.

The purpose of a title search is not to find the title... it is to find any issues that cloud the title (ownership interest). Not much of an issue with the junk we normally deal with, but how do you KNOW that the seller actually owns the item you intend to buy; that it isn't pledged as collateral to a bank? Due diligence says you have to find out, or at least make a reasonable attempt. It appears from the linked article that both the STB and the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filing office file security interests on railroad equipment, so those would be the logical place to begin a search.

Article:
https://www.vedderprice.com/what-does-a ... 09-17-2010

So, here we are, four years later. What finally happened to the 849?

Looks like it ended up being sold to Western Rail Inc. and rebuilt. As of last year it was on Central Montana Rail.

https://www.facebook.com/WesternRailInc ... 366808856/

Another thread with a bit more on the unit's history:

http://www.altamontpress.com/discussion ... msg-179085

Glad to see a happy ending.

Maybe one day hopefully a very long time from now, Railway Preservation News can help get the word out that she's again in need of a home to preserve her for what presumably will be a permanent career the next time as a museum locomotive.

I wonder how many diesels in North America have followed a similar path. While not so unusual in some regions, I can't imagine the list is very long here for diesel locomotives that entered preservation, were sold out of preservation, and returned to a 2nd career on a freight railroad.

As a point of information regarding the selling of locomotives and the issuance of the title, there is an article in R&LHS RAILROAD HISTORY #213 titled "Selling the Diesel" that provides on page 71-72 a sequential listing of the steps involved in the locomotive sales process. The article was written by a former Sales Representative for a locomotive builder, and the list is an accurate presentation of the Standard Operating Procedure for locomotive sales in the manufacturers handbook for Sales personnel during the time period the GP30 was in production. Step #9 covers the issuance of a paper title, which EMD provided to the original buyer.

I doubt that the process has ever been documented in any other articles. The article also describes the various supporting functions within the Sales and Service Departments. The article was a shortened version of a 2006 PowerPoint lecture chronologically covering the dieselization of the US railroad industry.

PC

One of the issues I've seen crop up over and over - and documented on the STB filings as well, is simply a reference to equipment by the reporting marks. Not a serial number, frame number, or much of anything else that matters to financial institutions.

While the FRA is somewhat fussy about renumbering locomotives, I've run into more than a few suspicions that 'certain equipment' was simply restencilled and registered in UMLER and then pledged as security to a different entity. ABCX suddenly turns into RR1 and then into XYZX, and hey, it's the same car or locomotive. Usually car numbers aren't changed, but..

Frankly, the historian and railfan sites are invaluable; even rrpicturearchives.net does a pretty decent job of associating equipment back to previous reporting marks and numbers.

Case in point, Texas State Railroad's 2-8-2 has had a lifetime of getting it's identity radically changed, in the last 10 years it's been TSRR 400, Magma Arizona 7, and back to Tremont & Gulf 30. If that were privately owned and pledged...?