Hello everyone-
Had a visitor to our archives ask yesterday about whether or not lists of historic rail equipment exist out there, especially on the web. As I immediately began referrencing sources such as Surviving World Steam, steamlocomotiveinfo.com, various traction sites, and various railroad historical/ museum sites, it suddenly hit me ---- we truly do not, in any consistant format, have a state by state index, at least via the web, of historic rolling stock out there. Many museums have equipment rosters, many specific railroad historical societies list surviving equipment for THAT railroad, but say, if I wanted to know all the surviving passenger equipment in the State of Idaho, or what freight equipment survives in Montana, there is no such beast that I currently know of.
To me, this would be a very lengthy and detailed project to undertake, but one that is definitely needed. It should cover many bases, including existing "carcasses"/ wood sheds/ via restorable and non-restorable cars.

Am I missing something? Is someone else taking on a project like this?

TJ

This has come up for discussion once or twice in the past. It's a huge task that realistically, is beyond the means of any of the people who might be inclined to take it on. The discussion usually breaks down on who gets to "own" the database, and who's going to pay for it and how.

You also, like it or not, are getting into privacy and related issues. There are a lot of folks, and small museums, out there that really don't appreciate being told that they have some rare whatever from whatever railroad that they should restore and/or give/donate it to someone else that will "take better care of it". They also don't appreciate offers (that come across as thinly veiled demands) that they sell their property.

Most non-railfan folks also don't appreciate having their privacy invaded by railfans who collect sightings of their favorite road's remaining equipment the way bird watchers collect bird sightings.

While the majority of folks will probably use the information in such a database responsibly, there will a significant minority that won't.

TJ;

Some of it, in pieces; off the top of my head:

* Roger Kirkpatrick has maintained a nationwide captive caboose list for some time by state; available in book form.

* I have seen a list of rotary snowplows on the web

* Some folks maintain surviving rolling stock lists for a particular railroad

* I believe there is a streetcar database as well.

I continue to collect photographs and data for a "Surviving World Steam Rolling Stock" database. It would include rolling stock with steam power on board worldwide such as steam cranes, rotary snowplows, logging equipment such as loaders and skidders mounted on railcars, MOW equipment, and of course the WSL fire car. But, I don't think it would sell at all by itself; maybe in a combined database along with the locomotive/vehicle/boat/ship data.

The subject of a national rolling stock list comes up on this forum from time to time. It certainly is doable; but it will require a lot of effort. (Realize as one who does this work that it does not stop with adding the entry to the database; you would surprised how much equipment moves around, along with status changes.)

Once you are done; you have something that will be very useful, but not very marketable. And I have already seen someone purchase my steam vehicle CD-ROM; take the North American portion of it, and with a few more entries offer it for free on a website.

You are talking about someone taking thousands of hours to compile and maintain it, while recieving little in return. Unless you offer it for free; I wonder how much attention it really would recieve. Despite a positive review of the Surviving World Steam Project in the December Issue of Old Glory Magazine; I have recieved no new orders since a regular ordered a vehicle CD in December; only orders for updates. 2005 was the poorest year since the first full year for the project in 1999.

I think the biggest obstacle will never be technical; with the Internet, it is more doable than ever. The problem will always be the amount of effort involved in entering data and weeding out duplicates and scrapped entries. You could make it a "free for all" where anyone could come along and add new entries; but there will be probably so many duplicates and downright wrong information that the finished product will be useless.

Last time this came up; there was talk of maybe having the NRHS or some other foundation provide funding for the hardware and to compensate people a little for their time; but I don't think it ever went past the talking stage.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

I would think that the RPCA and AAPRACO membership rosters would give a decent idea of what varnish is out there.

TJ, have you been to the website that's run by Frank Hicks and Jeff Hakner? It's a list of all known preserved North American electric railway cars. You can do a search by state, type of car, museum/rr, builder, etc. etc. It's VERY useful when trying to find cars of a similar type or just a simple photo. Some entries even have histories. A great website and I'm sure many a man-hour has been put into it to get it to where it is!


It seems that there isn't ONE single source though. There's the electric cars roster, many caboose rosters, even some for old locomotives (Alcos, et al), but not a single website to cover them all. Maybe if we could get them all "linked" in some way... that'd be a start.

In the meantime, I've gotta get some updated info ready to send to Mr. Hicks!

Send it along anytime - I'm always glad to get updates and corrections! :-)

Thanks for the compliments on the PNAERC website. The raw data used in a project like this are pretty useless on their own, but Jeff Hakner has done an outstanding job of creating an interface which allows visitors to the site to run searches based not only by state, builder, or railway, but on practically every category listed - even air compressors! While gathering data may simply be time-consuming, creating an interface - one which allows people to effectively find the information they're looking for - would be a real challenge if a comprehensive list of some sort were to be contemplated.

Though there have been several noble attempts to accurately list preserved equipment other than locomotives and streetcars in the US, none has succeeded yet to my knowledge. With the internet, it would be easier, but still a daunting task.

In Canada, however, just such a listing is available as the Canadian Trackside Guide, published yearly by the Bytown Railway Society in Ottawa. Though I haven't actually seen it for some years, the publication has been around for at least 20 years, and lists just about everything that ever ran on rails up there, excluding common freight cars still in revenue service. This includes industrial locomotives, cabooses, work equipment and even some retired freight cars used as farmers sheds. You'd be surprised at some of the passenger equipment, once used in the lower-48.

http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/sales.htm