Good news! Fellow by the name of Rick Knutson was able to convince BNSF to donate two ex-CB&Q 40' steel box cars to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. Cars are on the move from Texas over BNSF thanks to their roller bearing trucks and the fact that the had been kept in good condition for the railroads engineering department. Cars are BN #951828 (ex-CB&Q # 62541) and BN # 951848 (ex-CB&Q # 63165). This info from the Ahead of the Torch website this morning.


Les

Here is a Rick Knutson‎ photo from AOTT, no mistaking its heritage (now if they could save some NP 50' billboard boxcars, those I remember from my early railfan period).

Per a post on Facebook today (2/17/2023) unfortunately BNSF #951828/CB&Q 62541 is being scrapped. Unknown status on #951848.

Robbie -

Thanks for the information. Too bad the folks in Duluth didn't look at the thread right here on RyPN entitled "Before you Scrap It, Post it to the Classifieds!" Don't recall seeing such a posting there.


Les

Les -- this may just be my experience, but in the preservation moves and occurrences I've been privy to/involved in (mostly among younger members of the preservation community), RYPN has been something to be avoided due to the drama and armchairing.

I'm posting this as an update for the historical record since this is the first Google result for the car number; I'm not involved in LSRM and, outside of frustration for the loss of another irreplaceable historic artifact (I'm not a Q guy, but there's never going to be more Q equipment than there is now...) and the potential for BNSF to question why a recent donation was immediately scrapped, I have no skin in this game.

I'd prefer if further discussion (if any) was limited to that of the car as that was my initial intention.

Fine.

Propose a viable, effective alternative.

This may be just MY experience, too, but I've found a lot of the "younger members of the preservation community" (or, more accurately, the rail-enthusiast community still needing to learn there IS a rail preservation community) have little breadth or depth of "immersion" into railfan and railroad-preservation networking--to the point where if it's not something they can pull up on their smartphone or through Reddit or social media, they're almost clueless.

The young may accuse the "old guard' of being insular, closed-minded, stuck in old ways of thinking, and suffering from "Not-Invented-Here Syndrome." But those using that criticism may sometimes need a bit of introspection themselves.

If someone is in contact with the museum, ask them to save the doors.

The doors are a standardized Pullman-Standard part, and there are other boxcars out there that need doors - and they are not easily replicated.

Also, RYPN has had a Classifies page for about 15 years: viewforum.php?f=2

And there are rarely any posts beyond the initial offering from sellers - or expression of interests from buyers. Check it out and tell your friends.

I tend to avoid any venues or discussions frequented by the younger community of fans, who get bored if they are not constantly pointlessly reinventing the wheel, what they have in mind seems to veer toward "adaptive reuse" rather than preservation, the latter of which must try their patience. One particular point of view this post alludes to that seems to predominate among younger fans is that if an organization does not have the resources to preserve/restore a particular piece right now, it should be cut up or the museum liquidated to museums that have those resources, a sort of "cull the herd" theory, I left a facebook group that claims to be "ahead of the torch" where that view predominates. Perhaps that is what happened to this boxcar(s).

Edit: grammar error.

It has been discussed before but a quality of the railfan community (which can in many cases come in contact or overlap with preservation groups) is a high number of people on the spectrum. Now that certainly shouldn’t be viewed as a hinderance, but a quality that I see come with it is a sort of perfectionist or idealist view of what should be saved, and how. Sometimes to an abnormally specific degree. Youth adds to that as well, and I’m not just talking about inexperience but literally being under the age of 14 or something.

But perhaps this fixation on perfection or idealism isn’t a bad thing, to an extent. Don’t strive for less than the best possible outcome, don’t cut corners, and have some hope that things can work out. Not to that level of the “I want a Milwaukee Road F7 to operate on the mainline” level but the level that hopes in due time, historic pieces can get the best care possible. They’ve seen it be possible too, so why couldn’t it work out for something else?

I don’t have to go on and on about the countless things that people thought would never happen just in the past 5 or so years: topics that at one point were extremely commonplace on this very forum, even some that were blacklisted. If you’re young and you’ve seen this all happen, then why can’t anything be possible?

This forum is so close to figuring it out....

I repeat:

Propose a viable, effective alternative.

Do you want "RyPN For Kids/Teen Zone"?

I'm hardly concerned with offending those with unrealistic or immature preservation proposals, a theme lampooned (among others) by a highly irreverent Facebook group literally named "tHeY sHoUlD rEsToRe It AnD rUn It oN tHe MaIn LiNe".

At the same time, we need to help the "old guard" museums that have been around for half a century or more attract the generations they hope to leave their museums to in the future. Otherwise, why are we even "preserving" this [stuff], aside from wanting to "play trains" for a while? If we can't attract them as active volunteers as long as they're stuck with kids, working three jobs, paying off student loan debt, trying in vain to save for retirement, etc., then at least make them CARE enough to come back if/when they ever do have the time and energy...........

One big hint for many of us:
Go search for information on your museum/operation on a "smartphone." If your website is not mobile-phone friendly, you will turn off a large portion of your potential audience. (The latest I heard was that 55 percent of the web's traffic is now being accessed by cellphone....)
And, yes, this website is one of the offenders in that regard.

Yet again, we see an interesting topic devolve into a series of comments on RYPN that are emblematic of a lot of why many of our age group doesn't bother to engage on the forum!

Speaking as a young preservationist who's worked in the steam shops of several organizations, fired engines at the same places and helped found yet another group, it's news to me that most young preservationists aren't involved in rail preservation networking. At all three of the organizations I volunteer at, there are plenty of younger volunteers just like myself, and pretty much all of us have contacts across the country at various other organizations, and those contacts aren't all people our own age. I'm not sure what your experiences are, but they're sure not the only ones people have had.

I don't know what the alternative to RYPN is, but we seem to be getting along alright without posting here very often. All I'm saying is that with some of the attitudes around here, it shouldn't be a wonder why a lot of us choose not to wade in most of the time.

JJF

The reverse is also true, as I refuse to use those things, I am not interested in providing Kroger with data on how long I lingered in the beer section, etc.

"Them newfangled diesel locos will never catch on!"

Internet in general is the diesel, the difference between internet at home on a computer and internet on a trackable phone is the difference between an EMD GP-7 and a Baldwin Centipede.