Clearly it is good to operate priceless relics in a way that minimizes wear and tear, if you focus only on the hard assets. But in doing so are we ignoring that HOW those assets were used might be just as important as the assets themselves. Working machines to their limits was part of the how the work actually got done. If you baby the machines it is a pale and misleading recreation of historic reality. Museum "railroads" that make every move slowly and hesitantly are not a particularly realistic recreation of how railroading really was. Folks worked fast to get early quits, and so on. In my mind the interpretation of the (hard working and occasionally unsafe) culture is no less important that preserving the metal. In the end only people really matter. Which is not to say that inexperienced volunteers should risk their lives, only that we need to think about how we "preserve" and interprete some of the human aspects of railroad history.

jbwest@att.net

Picture from the WW&F Ry shop taken yesterday of #10's grates being re-installed. Gordon (standing in the inspection pit) wins the prize for "most-photographed" volunteer!



SJHussar@aol.com