What are the true costs of railroad preservation? We have lots of discussion on the board about pieces that “need to be saved”. Some are in danger, but have no home, while others like the Electro liner (or Liberty Liner at ) Rockhill are available to a good home.

It appears the purchase price of the Liberty liner may be a steal at less than $100,000. But once you have it, just how much does it cost for transportation, restoration, indoor storage, and interpretive displays?

We hear about steam locomotive restorations on the list ranging from $300,000 to over one million dollars.

Our group has working budget to restore a early (1874) narrow gauge boxcar body. It’s a simple car, without airbrakes, using link and pin couplers, and with very light trucks. (of course the trucks are missing and need to be replicated) We figure it will be about $85,000 without the cost of transport to the site, or allowing for storage space. A wooden narrow gauge flatcar, mechanically complete, but needing complete rebuilding and all new wood recently cost our group about $16,000 for purchase, transport and restoration materials.

I understand that the Illinois railroad museum includes a per foot fee for indoor storage as part of the acquisition costs. Our group tries to include a restoration budget as part of the decision to accept a new piece.

Our group figures display panels at between $1000 and $2000 each. Most cars only need one. Indoor storage is over $20,000 per car, and may double that when fire sprinklers are needed.

Many of the restoration efforts including ours use volunteers, lowering the apparent cost, but what are the costs of volunteers?

How many groups prepare a budget before starting to restore something, or do you just ask your board for more money at each step.

I estimate, based on our recent experience at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, that the cost of high quality indoor storage, with adequate viewing aisles, is around $35,000 per 45'-50' trolley. This includes sprinklers but does not include site work that would be needed even if the same area were used for outdoor yard space. Indoor storage for larger railroad equipment would cost proportionally more. If display aisles were not required, then we could have added track space for 50% more cars in the same building.
Sprinklers can cost much more if an adequately sized city water supply is not available, as was the case at our location. The cost of the sprinkler installation was only about $50,000 for a 30 car building. However, the water connection costs us around $600 per month, not including the cost of water actually used.

I also estimate that a thorough restoration of a 45'-50' streetcar will have a cash cost of around $250-300,000, using a mix of paid and volunteer personnel, with some items, such as motors and wheel work, being done by outside contractors.

It is hard to put a cost down that will fit all cases. Since you mentioned it, IRM currently has a fee assessed for each car or piece of equipment. "Track space" is at $75 per foot and indoor "Barn Space" is at $150 per foot. These fees do not cover the full costs of each item, but rather subsidize the total investment needed by the Museum to cover infrastructure. In a way they help to gauge the level of interest and support of those proposing any acquisition. An imperfect system to be sure, but perhaps one way or one step to face total cost.

And the above is for fairly primitive roofed storage, not a display quality building with aisles, lighting, etc. In the Art Schwatrz reply the new building at PTM, which is a gem, comes up to almost $700 per foot.

Costs of acquiring, moving, and restoring a car also vary widely. For a steel freight car which was relatively complete, and with a mix of contractor and volunteer labor, we tallied the restoration expenses and came up with $56,000. That car is done now with the help of a corporate sponsor. Another recent proposed project for a 40 foot single sheathed car which is already on site came to $45,000 when carefully estimated.

The IRM Electroliner, which is an ongoing project, has well over $500,000 spent and perhaps another 100K to go with what repairs and restoration work we know.

As the complexity of a project increases, say from a short freight car, to a coach, to a self propelled unit (trolley car) to a diesel or steam locomotive, the costs increase almost exponentially, as well as the difficulty of assessing the exact condition and needed work. Often you need to be well into the work and have a project significantly dismantled before discovering a major item.

I think IRS values volunteer labor at $16 per hour but I believe that is undervalued and a core of volunteer labor is one of the most significant resources of any preservation effort. Not only are they willing to tackle any of the needed work, but in them often resides the lore and specialized knowledge which can be difficult or impossible to outsource from a contractor.

As part of any such project, you will also need to set the standards for the work you expect to accomplish, and the specifications for any outside work. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a cosmetic or display restoration if the piece will be stuffed and mounted in a hall.
If we choose that path vs. a restoration to operating condition, we strive mightily not to alter or discard any part of the artifact as it may be useful and necessary in a future interpretation or more complete restoration.

Not a simple answer, but surely an eye opener for most preservation efforts. And you should consider ongoing maintenance expenses. If an operating car or locomotive, that could be significant; and even if only a caboose sitting on the lawn at your entrance, even a good paint job will last only 5-7 years outdoors, with regular attention needed to the roof, windows, etc.

Bob Kutella

The real cost of railway preservation? Who really knows? Finding enough money to restore, old 99, because old Ted, was the engineer, has at lot of "emotional" appeal. The problem becomes, sooner or later Ted and the rest of us will be gone. So what happens to old 99, if we do save her? If the ground work is not in place, for long term plans, then old 99 will properly rust away. So when we think about preservation we have to think in terms of long term plans. Railway preservation is both a business and a responsability.

Hey guys. What we are doing is saving what we can, when we can. We are a underfunded group of local museum's, doing the best we can with what we have.

Art has pretty much nailed the restoration costs. We restored the late Johnstown Traction Co. 352 using a combination of TEA-21 funds and volunteer labor. We estimated the total project at $250,000, and that was not a complete rebuild.

Wesley