On the recent thread on the Current Health of Railroad Museums, the subject question was brought up. On the whole, I think the resposes were pretty much in the negative. Well......recently on our Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society discussion website the subject of the color of Monon baggage carts was brought up. One of our members is a lady with long ties to the Monon. She brought up the fact that the color of the Monon carts was green AND, on occassion, when she was a kid her father would earn some extra money by tieing up a baggage wagon to the family car and towing it the 4 blocks to their home where he would paint it for the railroad! I guess the real railroads had a different idea as to "taking projects home."

Les

I can understand why! Lets say said cart were lost (one way or another) - If the Monon wanted another baggage cart, they simply had to call up the manufacturer and or contact their shops.

However, if a museum wants another Monon baggage cart, they will have a harder time obtaining one.

Tom Cornillie

Apparently the Monon, or at least the station agent trusted and verified. Some of the responses to the topic seemed to suggest that the idea was to simply hand out artifacts willy-nilly to anybody who claims to have a wire brush and a quart of paint at home.
No.
The question arose from the idea of engaging baby-boomers in preservation.
If trusted individuals, with verified expertise are allowed to work where it's most convenient for them, the workforce will be expanded, timelines will be shortened, and more projects will get done faster.
It's called 'good judgement'.
And it's working all over in business every day. People are taking work home and doing it there, with an increase in productivity claimed of up to 20%. Why not?

Except in the case of people who mean to do the work honestly, and put their integrity on the line. Then they suffer a heart attack die, and the artifact, which may have been dismantled for work, or it's value totally unknown by the surviving family members, gets dropped into a yard sale or estate clearance... You get the picture. Anecdotal case in point: At the close of LIRR steam, Brooklyn Dodger's catcher, Roy Campanella (#39) was given G5s #39's Keystone number plate as a tribute by the LIRR. Campanella had been paralyzed from a devastating automobile accident. Later, G5s #39 was preserved and given the plate of a sister loco, gone to scrap. Since "Campy's" death, several preservation groups have sought the plate, only to be told by the man's heirs, "We have no idea of what was done with it". Whose fault is that? Nobody's fault. Just a significant artifact, discarded by somebody without perspective, someplace, over time.

This has happened with whistles, horns, etc., ad nauseum. Artifacts should never be put in the position of winding up amongst personal property. Period.

I can come out easily on both sides of this issue. On one hand, I've regularly brought home pieces to repair or overhaul. As an example, I've been taking home the pneumatic clutch and brake operators on our American Crane to overhaul. I would take a couple home each week, overhaul them, and take them back and reinstall them the following weekend. (and hey, the quality of my work is pretty good. :-) )

But the Museum has certainly suffered losses that way too. We're still searching for some of the window frames for the Motorcar that were taken home by someone many years ago, and now no one is left who knows who. And it doesn't help that some of the people who should know have either died or aren't speaking terms with those of us trying to finish the work.

Greg

What needs to be said about this is how long a given is expected to be around.

The railroad could simply buy a new cart, but once it becomes part of a museum collection the item what ever it is, is going to last as long as possible.

I am not saying that you should not lend items for display or preservation work on them; the point I am making is that you should leve a paper or these days a computer trail about who has it and why and when it is going to come home.

I have heard of a case involving a locomotive builders plate where a museum piece went home to be "cleaned up" and stayed there.

The museum did not have any paperwork proving ownership and they lost the item forever.

Ted Miles

[quote="Richard Glueck"]

At the close of LIRR steam, Brooklyn Dodger's catcher, Roy Campanella (#39) was given G5s #39's Keystone number plate as a tribute by the LIRR. Campanella had been paralyzed from a devastating automobile accident. Later, G5s #39 was preserved and given the plate of a sister loco, gone to scrap.

quote]

I remember that happening. I believe that the Long Island #39 number plate was given to Campanella because he also was a model railroader and number 39 was "Campy's" uniform number he wore with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Les

Les, your memory is correct. Campanella's accident was a severe blow to the baseball lovers of NYC, whether you rooted for the Brooklyn Bums, or the Yankees. The railroad made the gesture to honor the man.

Bringing this around to the topic at hand, I want to point out that thought the gesture was well received by Campy and his family at the time, a steam locomotive plate got discarded by somebody who didn't see the value in the piece, other than the symbolic.

A follow up to the story is that the plate of G5s #38 was affixed to 39, and the locomotive was plinthed. After the locomotive was removed from the museum where it had been displayed, the #38 plate was removed "for preservation" and disappeared as well! The RMLI has cast a new replica of the #39 plate, but the genuine #38 Keystone has been lost or stolen.

As noted above, the paper trail is everything. But sometimes even that's not enough.

In the primeval days of the PM 1225 project, parts got stored and worked on under all kinds of circumstances, and it's a miracle we didn't lose more of the engine. (In the photo collection posted elsewhere, the numberboards that were remarked on got their masks stencilled on my dormitory-room floor. The headlight occasionally got used to illuminate other dorm rooms from the outside. But it never went missing.)

Farming out a piece to a volunteer should be no different from giving it to a contractor, one difference being that a business will give you a receipt. But you still have to be alert. A presumably-reputable guage rebuilder took a shine to the 1225's back-pressure gauge and elected to "repair" it by replacing it entirely with a modern part. The antique-auto world is full of horror stories of inept shops turning cars into basket cases, even selling the parts. A dedicated, competent volunteer could be more trustworthy than a dubious firm.

But get signatures for everything departing and arriving on the property. The process begins with the accession of the piece. If you can't prove it was yours to begin with, it makes the piece harder to reclaim if need be. This was the case with an entire cross-compound air compressor that a former officer took home to fix, and then decided had been donated to him and not to the organization. (A spare, not one of the engine's originals. We've since acquired others, but it's still irritating not to have enough paperwork to merit sending in the cops.)

A certain minimum of these mistakes and thefts may be the unavoidable cost of returning an artifact to operation. It's part of the inevitable "consumption" of the original fabric. But be careful, anyway.

The problem is, most people don't have a clue as to what to write. Therefore, it is up to the museum / group to generate the paperwork.

I learned a long time ago when dealing with injection molds that everything is done on packing lists. If I send mold inserts out to the welder, I prepare a packing list with a brief description of every part. The welding shop signs it. At least I have the paper to show the insurance company if his shop burns down with my inserts inside. When the parts get picked up, we sign his packing list, which ends his responsibility for them.

So, before something goes home with someone, type up on letterhead a page that includes a description, the name and address of who is going to be responsible for it, the terms it is being given to him under (for repair, not as a gift!) Have him sign it. Then file it in a file you establish for just this purpose.

Few people in this world are ballsey enough to ignore their own signature, no matter how big a snit they're in, and that signature will also have weight with the executor of his estate, or the sheriff, if the need arises.

It seemed at the time that we first restored 1522 that I had half the engine in my basement refurbishing parts.
I had the headlight, builder's plates, class lights, smoke lights, bell ringer, whistle, cylinder cocks, several booster valves and God knows what else. I spent a lot of evenings working over all of this stuff and was happy to see that it all served us well for those years we operated. It's times like those that you realize that the parts didn't look nearly that big on the engine.

Museums have a track record on occasion of "misplacing" items as well. My step-father earned the Medal of Honor in WWII. Naturally, his personal collection of memoribelia command interest from several museums around the US. He decided to donate the bulk of his holdings which included original newspapers of all the key dates: VE, VJ, FDR Death, Pearl Harbor, etc. He also had Japanese swords uniforms and guns and several US weapons as well. He had a vintage Marine uniform that he wore in China in the 30s. Well, a nearby base started a Museum in his name and cajoled the donation of several unique and valuable pieces. When he and my mom went to see the final displays, much was missing only months later. No one had any explanation of the disappearance other than, "You must have only thought you gave it to us." My parents did not have donation receipts or ledgers with correlating IDs. It was unfortunate.

We as museums must be sure that our own grounds are safe repositories for items entrusted to our care. Is there any of us who haven't had that needed component of a multi-year restoration just "get up and walk away?"

Ok, we all agree that there needs to be a paper trail. So what goes on that paper?

I was just thinking that in our technologically rich world today, one policy that might work would be the requirement of a periodic photographic update of the home bound project. Also, a second policy might include a proposed schedule for completion. These two things may be a greater deterent than the drive out to the museum machine shop, but they seem like they could be implemented reasonably.

What other policies could be invoked to allow homework, assuming we could agree that there may be some plausible cases. What does "trust with verification" look like?

Of hand, I'd want to know the following:

1.) Items taken off premises- quantity, description, serial no.'s or other identifying characteristics.

2.) Terms of removal, purpose for removal, time of return, right of reasonable inspection, place to be taken, expected return date, notice requirements for delays in return and or

3.) Assignment of liability for loss/damage/destruction/theft or other perils (check with insurance carrier to see how coverage is extended), expectation of "due care".

After this question was raised, I thought about the questions. Perhaps a lawyer can discuss "bailments" and the application of the UCC as adopted to chattel. Certainly, if the item is significant or the practice is regular, you'll want to have an attorney review your agreement to ensure your rights are protected.

It has been a while since I have looked at some of my collections management books that I obtained some years ago. As I recall, there were sample forms for recording new items into the collection, loans (both in and out), etc. Most of these came from the AAM (American Association of Museums).

I was just looking at the AAM website and the books available, and I cannot remember off the top of my head if any of the books currently listed were the ones that I have. With the AAM books you have wade through the art and porcelain museum centric books; but, there are some good books out there.

AAM Bookstore books on Collections Stewardship

1) For any item coming into a collection there should be an initial receipt with donor(s) name(s), contact address, etc., description, statement of conditions (or restrictions) of acceptance/gift and a signature of both donor and Museum representative. Now days I might include a digital image print-out. The conditions or restrictions should be within the Museum's policies.

2) Then within many museums there are accession records showing the how of acquiring the items. If there is an ownership trail (provenance) of the object that would also be recorded and documented. Many museums' records will even have records reading "found on steps morning of ___", "left by anonymous donor" or "found in collection (date)" -- don't worry about it.

Then there are the registration records that record the description of the items by written description, photos, etc.

Some museums keep separate records and others combine accession and registration information.

3) If I was to loan an object out for exhibit or renovation, I would describe the object and maybe have digital images, name and address of were the object was going, expected duration of the loan, intent of the loan, signatures of both parties. Similar for loans into the Museum.