I'm sure many non-railfans would say that "rusty old steam engines nobody is ever going to use," (quoted directly from my wife) don't need to be preserved either, but I'm glad there are folks who think otherwise!Just because you're not into something is no license to "poo poo" other folks' desires to collect things! If life worked like that, Nelson Blount would have given up early on collecting those "rusty" machines at Steamtown...

Those old paper items that many folks don't understand collecting are an important part of what makes books, clinics and the presentation programs for railfan events, museum members days, and railroad retiree gatherings possible.

Unfortunately, by the time someone gets the mail, opens it, gives it to the right person, and it gets read, the auction will have ended.What should someone do if they can't afford to do this? And what if they learn later that the items are not needed?Isn't it appropriate to attempt to notify an organization that a particular item of interest is available? Assuming the proper contact name is not known by the individual wishing to notify an organization, it seems to me that coming to RYPN with the information makes sense since this is a central meeting place for those involved in preservation. Someone else might just know who to contact.Erich

One of my associates tipped off a very large and well known museum to the fact that there was an Alco 16-244 on eBay, after we had looked at it ourselves and seen that it was in excellent condition. They weren't interested, even though they have a locomotive that it would be historically correct for. I guess they were satisfied with just having the unit's shell.

I think it is always a good idea to alert a Museum of an artifact. That is how we first learned about the body and trucks for DCTS 1540, a 1945 PCC from Washington, DC, and the Iowa Terminal sweeper. On the other hand, be careful of your expectations when the Museum involved a) shows no interest in the item, or b) can't act quick enough to help. This is a case where you really need to know someone at the right level to make a quick decision. Fortunately for use, our collection and focus are narrow enough that the curator has a handle on what we "need" to fill in gaps.Wesley

The response of Brother Paulson highlights, indirectly, one of the major differences between smaller museums and larger ones.Approach Big Well-Known Museum with a bargain proposal: "Well, we need to run this past the curatorial department to decide whether it fits our collections parameters and needs, then we need to have the mechanical department investigate the condition and outline the options for preservation and/or restoration and/or operation, then we have to inventory where to file said item. That said, there's no funding for acquisitions in our budget, so even if we decide it's worth pursuing, we'd have to start a fund-raising campaign, and technically we can't actually raise such funds ourselves, so....."Approach small museum with same proposal: "HOW much? Hell, I'll take the first one, here's my own personal check.......... Hey, John, wanna chip in on getting it down here?" "HOW much? Here, go get another one!" "Wait a minute, where are we gonna put these d#*m things?" "My backyard if we have to!!"The latter is a fanciful version of about what happened when the Baltimore Streetcar Museum visited SEPTA. <:-)As we all know, there are pros and cons to both extremes. The former grants a much greater sense of security and durability (no one expects to see the dismantling of the RR Museum of Pa. or the TVRM) and prevents rash, "faddish" thinking; the latter is responsive to opportunity and "gets things done," but can also produce the dreaded "McMuseum" syndrome.