If you're being paid decent money to administrate a collection like this for over fifteen years, and you don't end up with a damned good working knowledge of your assets, you probably aren't doing it right--and probably won't be there that long.

If someone paid me a lot of money and imposed a lot of responsibility on me to run an aquarium or military equipment museum, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd get VERY versatile in my knowledge and enthusiasm about fish or tanks really quickly........

My personal impressions when I first encountered him at the beginning was that he had an adequate working knowledge of trains and the B&O Railroad, but was not going to be the type of guy that knew, for example, where all the remaining B&O E8s were, or could necessarily tell a UP Big Boy from a Challenger right off the bat, or knew that the Colorado RR Museum is in Golden or that the Illinois Railway Museum has the largest rolling stock collection in North America.

And that's all right. As I said, you learn the stuff as you go. They needed an administrator, not a railfan. Railfans get bbogged down in trivia, and fail to look at the big picture.

And I can say with quite good certainty that a lot--an AWFUL lot--of the people who either were turned off by his selection and/or parted ways with the Museum over various "philosophical differences" over the years really, truly did fit the old stereotype of the "railfan club" wanting to "play trains" or collect artifacts they think are cool, without looking at the larger picture. (Not that the Museum is perfect--there's something to the incredible number of "railfans" who should be supporting them but aren't, and that's another discussion for another time.)

Thanks Sandy. Really? My efforts with the GG-1 were no accident and had the backing of a number of wheels in the regional NRHS and preservation community, as well as the backing of the BoD of the URHSNJ, not to mention the then-current leadership of the B&O Museum. The management shakeup and change that came after it got there could not have been foreseen by those of us who devoted considerable time AND money, especially mine, to make it happen. You know, I did what I did on an Amtrak OBS salary, and I'll never do it again.

In hindsight, #4876 should have stayed in New Jersey, but there is no way any of us could have known that 25 years ago. It seemed like a good idea to a number of us to bring it to where it's moment of fame (or infamy) occurred. I think the lesson I learned from that effort is to leave major preservation efforts to the pros, or at least to those with deeper pockets. The days when a Bob Richardson could buy a beloved locomotive off a dead line and save it for posterity probably ended 50 years ago.

Paul, please don't take my short-form phrasing as an insult. As you and many others here can attest, the whole saga of how and why 4876 ended up at its present location is a saga no one would ever repeat again, and has so many twists and turns that it seems futile to rehash it all.

But, totally independent of you, let's look over the whole saga:

The B&O accepted a donation of a GG1 in the early 1980s. They "deaccessioned" it to Green Bay shortly after the donor died.

They then accepted, provisionally, the 4876. Then changes occurred.

Now the B&O Museum gets "bad publicity" every time (seemingly about every two months of late) some "urban explorer" or railfan with a camera "finds" this "ruin of old glory" dwelling out in their "back 40" and does yet another blogpost, FB post, forum post, or whatever (and even print articles have appeared) about how the Museum is "neglecting" this "national treasure."

I've been dealing back-channel with several parties for years about the daunting logistics of retrieving this loco for a different location. Suffice it to say that if it were as easy as CSX and/or NS or Amtrak donating a move over a distance instead of finding any and every excuse to refuse to touch it, that loco would most likely be elsewhere by now.

And, indeed, a post in this very thread is yet another example of this sore spot: out of all the projects and potential projects that the B&O Museum has to address, someone had to once again pick at that scab and bring up 4876.

You start to wonder why rail museums would ever listen to railfans or accept their donations..........

I'm glad that I didn't know this when I saved that big rolling mill engine, moved it twice and built a building/museum around it. Actually a few museum "professionals" did tell me at the time that it couldn't be done but I've always been rather stubborn.

But I do get your point. It is more difficult but not impossible.

Wilmington & Western Railraod's executive director had ZERO Railroading background when he was originally hired. He had owned his own business prior to with a background in construction.

30 years later, it can be said by many that without his "hands on" leadership, determination and knwoledge of the construction industry, the railroad would not have survived the first major flood let alone the second one that essentially wiped the railroad off the map....that's not to mention all of the other "behind the scenes" hurdles he led them through BEFORE those two very public incidents.

Not everyone who knows railroading is business savvy. All of these operations and muesums are businesses. It's proven time and again that the general public pays the bills, not the railfans..the business needs to run accordingly and the person doing it needs to have the knowledge of running one....not just running trains.

The thought has occurred to me more than once in the past and near past that probably one of the best possibilities for a permanent home for #4876 (not without a good deal of landscaping and earth moving, plus a dump truck full of cash) would be at the Bowie Tower museum, beside the NEC. Actually my full thought on the subject would be it, displayed with an AEM-7, and maybe a PRR coach coupled to the G, and an Amfleet I coach (when the are retired), displayed with the Meatball. I couldn't think of a more fitting place along the corridor that is already a museum to do that.

Great minds think alike............. dammit, said too much already.

But if we can't get her from Baltimore to Bowie without trucking it..........

It is interesting how my comments have been misconstrued into desiring a "railfan" to be hired at the B&O Museum. I made no such statement.

Also I see this trend to bash people who identify as "railfans" as if they are the scourge and that our industry would be better off if they would just go away. Railfans run the gamut from those who go into spasms of foam whenever a train is within 50 miles to people such as John Barriger and the Crane Brothers. Railfans created these facilities in the first place. Without people having more than a profit generating interest in railroads there would be no museums and really the world wouldn't suffer greatly if there was no such thing as a railroad museum. We feed no one. We clothe no one. We provide nobody shelter. We don't even make much money. So unless there was some other factor involved (personal interest), it would not make any sense to do what we do.

This is very difficult so please bear with me....

I am.... A Railfan. There, I said it. OMG, that was liberating! I feel so much better now. Thank you for allowing me to express my true inner feelings.

Whew! Now, back to part-time railroading.....

Not so much about being a railfan as limiting your perspective to a very narrow, unrealistic, emotionally driven version of one. Those leaders you mention were practical and realistic businessmen who were also interested in railroads, and approached it realistically and practically - hence, their success and lasting legacy. Behavior now..... that's another thing - I think we all know of some railfans whose actions are either unsafe or present an image to the public - and we do need them for support - that doesn't do us credit or drives them away. Small events can be produced for railfans and hopefully cover their costs - big events to raise big funds need a broader appeal. "Normal" operations need to be even more attuned to bringing in people who think it will be a pleasant and entertaining way to spend some time - and woe to us all if that's what we fail to deliver FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE.

I think it's worth mentioning something else here. A somewhat easy misconception given the exorbitant compensation of many organizations "leaders". I don't think anyone's getting rich running railroad museums.

For example, average salaries for museum curators are generally around the entry level computer programmer job: https://www1.salary.com/PA/Museum-Curat ... alary.html

First, nobody is in preservation for the big money - there isn't any, unless you're talking about spending it. Second, the range of reaction within the industry and the hobby to the term "railfan" usually runs from neutral to hostile, without much enthusiasm on the happiness end of the scale. I will answer to that name if called it, but in a low key way. This has been going on all of my adult life. I remember mentioning the term around people I considered leaders in the avocation when I was a teen, and being told the preferred term even then was "enthusiast", as in the "Railroad Enthusiasts". I remember someone saying railfan "was the name of a magazine", as in don't call us that in polite company. There's always a few idiots who make it tough on the rest of us.

When I worked for Amtrak in DC it was OK to be a railfan. It didn't hurt that some key officials, like Graham Claytor and Cliff Black were among the Brethren. This was before 2001, but as long as I was being safe, I could pretty much wander around Washington Union Station with a camera and not be bothered, but then people knew I worked there. CSX in Baltimore was, and probably still is, an entirely different culture, pretty much openly hostile to fans as employees. There were some fans, quietly, among us, including a couple of officials, but day-to-day, keep it to yourself. That culture seemed to be unique to Baltimore. The guys in Cumberland were OK with co-workers who were fans.