Sent to me as part of a personal email and offered up as grist for the mill with no further comment.

> As distressed as I am to see genuine B&O equipment scrapped, I will try to explain this as dispassionately as I possibly can. There are certain
> grim realities in the museum world that museum staff must confront on a daily basis.

> (1) Relations with the CSX railroad have plummeted.
>
> This scrapping situation was precipitated by CSX railroad demanding the
> museum equipment stored at their Baltimore yard by removed. Never mind the siding they sit onwas constructed by previous CSX management to house> these cars as a part of continuing corporate support for the museum in the first place. Current CSX management does not know this or does not care.
> The railroad used to haul museum equipment around for free in that same
> previously supportive spirit. Now the museum is just another paying
> customer, and no journal bearings allowed, either. Even as headquarters
> attitudes hardened, the local managers loved to be helpful, assisted by a
> steady stream of complementary B&OHS convention mugs and calendars. In an
> increasingly centralized and micromanaged organization, local CSX managers
> are watched too closely now for even midnight assistance.

> (2) Lack of space and resources
>
> There is not enough track on B&O Museum property to hold all the cars.
> Track and turnouts are very expensive to buy and install, otherwise there
> would be plenty of trackage out back. Building structures, fencing, and
> rents are all serious expenses that can be avoided only with serious risk.
>
> Our B&O museum is by no means alone. There was an active preservation
> group in Pittsburgh that stored their treasures at the old B&O downtown
> passenger and freight stations. When urban renewal loomed (if you can
> call a new city jail that), they were told to move their stuff. Some was,
> but others could not be moved without expensive lowboy trailers. No place
> to move to. No resources to pay the truckers. A lot of that equipment
> was scrapped.
>
> The late Chicago area steam excursion enthusiast Dick Jensen lost two
> steam locomotives (including the gold Burlington one) when the C&IW
> railroad evicted him before a roundhouse demolition. He did nothing in
> response, and the locomotives were scrapped, a lawful landlord
> prerogative. (He sued, won, but lost on appeal). Then in a grim replay
> ten years later, his GTW 4-6-0 5629 was evicted then scrapped when Metra
> demolished the Blue Island roundhouse. A very stubborn man, he got what
> he had coming, and we are all poorer for it. But don't let that distract
> us, the core issue was space, not stubbornness.

> (3) Acquisition is glorious, care and feeding is expensive.
>
> The B&O Museum had up until recently almost 300 pieces of equipment, and
> has resources to properly take care of 70. They'll probably tough it out
> and stretch those resources to cover almost 200. The remaining 100 have
> no hope of any serious curatorial attention, ever.
>
> Here is a safe non-B&O example. The worst such situation is the Seashore
> Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport. They have dozens, even hundreds of
> unrestored trolley in the weeds out back. Under tarps but that is little
> help. An oceanside northern location is the worst possible location for
> any outdoor museum, what with extremes of temperature, the fresh salt air,
> and hardy wood-loving pests. This museum is very hardheaded as well,
> outside groups have offered to buy, move and restore certain beloved
> trolleys but no dice, that would break up the collection.
>
> You can't use any old paint on railroad equipment, it needs outdoor grades
> of the finest paints. Very expensive and lots of it. Dupont Dulux,
> Dupont Duco is many dollars a can and it takes many of gallons to cover a
> locomotive. You can easily spend $5000 on a proper paint job, even with
> volunteer labor.
>
> (4) Time ravages all.
>
> There was a burst of preservation activity starting in the late 1970's
> continuing through the 1990's as the rail enthusiast community learned how
> to deal with railroads and scrappers, and brought some real resources to
> bear. Enthusiasm was great, and many pieces were restored or repainted
> with great effort. This baby boom generation of saved equipment has aged
> 10-25 years in the meantime since it last had any cosmetic attention.
>
> Another non-B&O example. In 1988 I remember seeing two former PRR E8's
> freshly restored on the Blue Mountain and Reading and took some glorious
> photos of them gleaming in the sun.. Last I heard, they had deteriorated
> so badly in 15 years, one was scrapped, and the other became a dentist's
> office down south. I had no idea these locomotives (and me too) had grown
> so old in the meantime.
>
> (5) Loss of Museum organizational memory.
>
> For whatever reason, the B&O Museum has had almost 100% staff turnover
> since 1997. Anything acquired earlier lost its champion, and the
> motivation to tell which stories with what equipment went along with it.
> A comprehensive display on tank car technology was envisioned with at
> least five various vintage tank cars to show progression. In the absence
> of the original inspiration, any succeeding museum management might well
> wonder why they have five tank cars, when one will do.
>
> Museum acquisitions are hard won. They took staff and volunteer time,
> the discomfort of travel, the headaches and expense of logistics, constant
> schmoozing and expediting, creative restoration on the cheap, generosity
> of donors, and the worry that something might ruin the whole venture. To
> new museum staff who was not involved and no one around to tell them,
> these cars are lumps of metal that can be sold for much-needed cash.
>
> If you want to see the effects of loss of organizational memory in our own
> lives, consider the cleaning out of a recently deceased loved one's home.
> Including our own, some day. Family members have no idea the love and
> resources that went into acquiring beloved and treasured objects. It will
> happen to all of us, will of no will (another issue entirely). Maybe it's
> a good thing we will be dead and thus absent.
>
> There was once a shortline operator in Louisiana who bought dozens of his
> favorite steam locomotives during dieselization, with the idea of
> operating his short line with them and running excursions. He died
> unexpectedly (1963) and the heirs only wanted the money, the estate was
> sold for scrap. Only a couple locomotives survived this carnage.
>
> I used to think when a museum acquired something, it was safe forever.
> Like the child's game of freeze tag. Touch all you can. Having been
> closely associated with several museum organizations, their financial
> realities have exposed my happy thought as a merely a comfortable
> illusion.
>
> Some equipment expires so others can live. And there is a payroll to
> meet.

I very rarely post on this forum, but your post did show that the situation was well thought out. I assume the CSX position does not make for a good enviorment.

Any ideas on what equipemnt is going to be scrapped?

Good luck

Hello all,

Does anybody here know what was scrapped, or will be scrapped. Numbers and reporting marks would be most helpful.

Many thanks,
Tom Cornillie

From internal context in the posted letter it sounds like the equipment in Mt. Clare "A" yard. Everything else in the Mt. Clare area is on museum property already.

I will comment in passing that, in my opinion, the letter author's basic assessment that B&O in the past collected more than its present or forseeable future resources will allow it to care for is quite correct.

The GG1 is now on the museum property. There are no plans to restore it, but the museum did not want to see it scrapped. They are looking for a good home for it. The Vanderbilt tender is on its way to the Western Maryland Scenic.

I believe most of the remaining equipment consisted of hopper cars, covered and uncovered. I'll be at the museum again on Saturday, and will try to find out more.

The email seem to ramble on about a lot of things in the past that are not related to the B&O Museum in the slightest way. How museums (or organizations in general) act has evolved over the years and the B&O Museum of the 1950's was not the same as the B&O Museum of the 1990's and it is not the same today. Decisions have to be made, some tough and some easy. Hindsight is always 20/20 and there is always a steady stream of people saying what you should have done or what you ought to do. I am certain the museum has never been in the hands of managers who were trying to bring ill effects to the collection or museum. They have and are doing that best they can with what they have. I don't see other museums lining up to take cast off hopper cars to represent the development of freight cars or even for a basic display train. The bottom line is that all over the world there is great examples of railroad equipment and facilities rotting away and we are only able to do so much. Period.

As a former volunteer with the museum's car shop, but also as someone who has no official tie to the museum for the past 10 years, I took the letter as a fairly accurate and even-handed rumination on receent institutional history.

I didn't see in it any unfair criticism of either the past or current management, just a musing on trends and the causes behind the trends in the museum's evolution. Perhaps the letter reads differently to me beause I was a minor participant in some of the events described and I knew the people, and therefore am reading it with more context than is in the letter itself.

Anyhow, Tom is certainly right that our real attention should be on the present and the future.

With a modern car shop, with major artifacts that have always been outdoors now under cover, and with a more balanced program of activities that is more attractive to families (the museum's bread and butter) as well as all the things we historians love, I see a whole lot to like in the current directions they are moving in. And if prudent weeding of the collection is part of the plan, I suspect that its both overdue, and I am confident it will be responsibily handled. One may differ with specific decisions but the overall direction and philiosophy seem quite sound to me.

One man's opinion, nothing more.

Wow!

I understand the author of this gem’s need to remain anonymous, but this statement should be enshrined somewhere. Like at the top of every piece of paper that every museum group uses to write proposals to obtain more artifacts.

And to this I’ll add my own comment, although nowhere near as eloquent:

Just because YOU think something is neat doesn’t mean it is significant, or important enough to expend the resources to save.

As I type, the equipment in question is being cut up down in CSX's Mt. Clare "A" Yard.

If I was counting correctly, a total of seventeen cars were down there when scrapping commenced. The Museum and CSX did some swapping around to reclaim the "jewels" to be saved (yes, including the combines, GG1, etc. that were in "A" yard and visible from I-95) and position some redundant equipment for scrapping.

Eight of the cars had long been owned by another party; they had been traded in a deal to acquire the SW #1200 that now pulls the excursion runs. (Exactly why they needed another diesel is unclear to me--I tend to think they want to "consume" a non-artifact expendable locomotive, much as Steamtown uses its Canadian locos.) Those cars were five pressure-discharge covered hoppers donated by W.R. Grace when they took over the former Davison Chemical plant, where the five cars had been used as mobile storage. The pressure discharge equipment was long disfunctional; we (meaning me and associates of the owner) tried in vain to market the cars for any use whatsoever, even roller bearing salvage, to no avail. The three other covered hoppers, the Domino Sugar cars, were part of a fleet of five that had been donated to the B&O Museum. One was retained by the Museum, and one is now in the freight charter fleet at the Western Md. Scenic. The cars were built in 1964 and had just hit the 40-year mark for truck condemnation.

The other cars being scrapped are allegedly all duplicates of other equipment in the B&O collection, and had been raided for spares and other parts.

I have no qualms or regrets about the Museum scrapping this bunch of equipment. Scrap prices are too high not to, and I have personally done my damnest to get the word out that these pieces were available to any qualified preservationists. Some members of this forum got the details and photos from me. No one I know of could justify the now-considerable expense of shipping, even if we threw in a couple of rail-worthy flat cars capable of carrying them. Furthermore, all of those cars showed up for free from Chessie/CSX. In a few cases that I know of, CSX undertook enormous effort to get the pieces back onto live rail and able to roll to Baltimore. How much would people be complaining if CSX had simply let scrappers cut them up in the yards, storage sidings, etc.?

We are confronting similar problems with other pieces elsewhere. I'm working on trying to save a couple passenger cars that unfortunately will have to be trucked out of where they ended up--yep, the victim of another clandestine "midnight move" to make these cars "disappear".

Thank you for the details. That certainly cleared up some of this very thought provoking post.