Had I known my seemingly innocuous response to Mr. Gears' initial verbal barrage on the Museum of Transportaiton would incite such a debate, I would not have entered the fray. Finally, however, someone has had the courage to name the basis for much of the anti-MOT sentiment - the DL&W 952 (as if there were any doubt!). Apparently this debate has become a vicious circle with no end in sight, so I think I'll put the truth out there for those who care to hear it and graciously exit the building. This is a long one, kids - better refill your coffee cup now.<p>A brief history of the Museum of Transportation is in order. The Museum was founded in 1944, long before most of the other railroad museums, and nurtured over nearly the next half-century by MoP physician Dr. John Roberts. Dr. Roberts had the uncanny and visionary ability to select the most significant pieces of railroad history to preserve during the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s - a period when most railroads wehre slicing and dicing with little thought to the fledgling railroad preservation movement. What most outsiders do not realize is that much of MOT's collection was literally saved - not just for posterity but also from the local scrapper. There were no waiting lists imbued with names like Steamtown for much of this equipment. Dr. Roberts, Wabash and Museum president Art Atkinson, and others here had the foresight to save these pieces, knowing full well that the complete story of the technological advances and social history so intertwined with the railroads could not be told with merely a local collecting focus. Had they collected artifacts only from the MoP, the Rock, the Q, the Wabash, the Terminal, and lother local roads, entire chapters of that story would have been overlooked and likely forgotten altogether.<p>So, because we had the foresight all those decades ago to put together the most complete story of railroad history (outside, perhaps, of one of my favorite museums - Illinois Railway Museum), we should now be punished? In spite of having some of the best resources for restoration - excellent shop facilities, vast research library and archives, knowledgeable staff and volunteers - we're not worthy of our own collection? That "sour grape" mentality out there consistently overlooks the vital contribution MOT has made to the railway preservation movement. What if we had not saved many of those pieces? All any of us would have left would be erection drawings and photographs. And who wins if that collection, in the name of regional interpretation and nostalgia, is broken up? The value in such a collection is that it provides the visitor - whether a mother and her grade-school children, a railfan, or a serious researcher - a rare venue in which to trace those technological advancements and that social history in one place with relative completeness. And should we compromise that so a few other museums and railfans in other areas can have something to call their own? THAT is the definition of narrow-mindedness. You know, maybe while we're at it - giving away our collection, that is - we should give our Chrysler Turbine Car (the Concours winner that's the only operational one on public exhibit) to someplace in Michigan. Utter, complete nonsense.<p>As someone who has a master's degree in public history, who has worked at a top historical society and national aviation museum, who helps her fiance run private cars on Amtrak and for excursions and tourist railroads: I feel confident the position of MOT is a strong one in terms of professional museum practices. How many of you have written a comprehensive collections policy for your site? How many have been forced to make difficult decisions in the deaccessioning process? I have, and every day the professional staff at MOT and I face these and other challenges in protecting and interpreting our sizeable and outstanding collection.<p>For those of you who have not visited MOT in the past five years, I would encourage a visit before rushing to judgment regarding the collection and our ability to take care of it. I am the first to admit that Dr. Roberts, despite his incredible achievement of assembling this collection, did not have the financial resources to care for it the way he or any of us would have liked. Every day I see things I so very much want to change. But we are...sometimes slowly, more often quickly. In the 2 1/2 years I've been at MOT, we've restored or preserved no less than 5 passenger cars, 10 freight cars, 8 locomotives, and several streetcars and automobiles. How many museums can say that? And these are sympathetic restorations, projects that protect every bit of historical fiber possible and reproduce exactly what we must. One of the beauties of our collection is that it hasn't been compromised - the historical integrity is still there. A top steam consultant told me just last week that MOT is the place he comes to research because things are preserved as they should be and not destroyed by faulty or incomplete "restorations."<p>And as for the infamous DL&W 952...I won't go into the whole ownership/possession debate other than to say that much of what is floating about out there in railfan land is complete hogwash thrown about by people too emotionally involved to investigate the entire story. The bottom line is this: We took the locomotive in 1953 when it was evicted from its shop on the Lackawanna due to dieselization. We have had it since and performed restorative work on it on an as-needed basis. Much of the "deterioration" of it was acutally of the wooden cab, which was an incorrect attempt to backdate the engine prior to its arrival at MOT. No, the cab was not restored or preserved because it was wrong, wrong, wrong. Most of the "neglect" of which we're so often accused arises from the appearance of that cab. We began restoration of the locomotive this year, and it presently sits in our restoration shop on the same track the Frisco 1522, the Forney, and other notable restorations took place. Last year, we laid out a three-year restoration plan with the goal of cosmetically restoring the engine to its late operating period appearance. We are about to begin installing the new jacketing and will construct the cab according to the original drawings in the upcoming year. When the restoration is complete, it will reside under roof (that "good permanent home," Mr. Gears - the new one constructed five years ago)alongside several of our notable locomotives, including the FT-103 and N&W 2156.<p>To say we have intentionally neglected the 952 on the basis of the storm of controversy surrounding it is ludicrous. That would be the same as saying we waited to restore the Milwaukee Road Bi-polar until last year because we aren't fans of the Milwaukee Road. That, too, is a highly significant, one-of-a-kind locomotive. The difference is that the true fans of it - the ones who genuinely cared about its well-being - awarded MOT a grant to help pay for the restoration. Thank you, Milwaukee Road Historical Association. That, my friends, is an example of how it should be done.<p>I'm sorry, Mr. Gears, if I have not numbered my responses to you so they match your challenges. I have enough respect for the railroad preservation community to expect they will find them in the paragraphs above without deigning to make it easy to find them by numbering. And I'm sorry, too, that we're not willing to do the "right thing" according to you - that thing being breaking up one of the best collections of railroad equipment ever assembled. Provenance, respect d'fons - two museum terms whose meaning will not be lost on those who really do run museums but will be on those who sit back and pontificate to those of us who look out for our collections every day.



Museum of Transportation
Molly4006@aol.com

The DL&W 952 was give to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society by the DL&W. <br>They could not sell it or give it away. One more thing the DL&W ask was that the 952 be<br>used by them as a public relations tool at times they ask for it. This was done one time and<br>a wooden cab put on to make it look older. Then the steel cab was lost. The 952 needed a<br>new home and the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society moved the 952 to NMOT on<br>a long term loan not a gift. They got a place to store the 952 and the NMOT got a great<br>locomotive to display for the time it was there. Dr. Roberts know that. The NMOT as part<br>of its end of the deal keep the 952 so at the time the DL&W ask for it all would be ready<br>to go back. 45 years have past an the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society ask that<br>the loan be ended. What is left of the DL&W is run by Steamtown a rail museum and NJT<br>a arm of the State of New Jersey now setting a rail museum up and they have ask for the<br>engine back. Now the NMOT has start putting work in the 952 after being ask to give it<br>back and tell you it is there engine from the start.. You tell me how they come up with<br>this?<br>



lvrr@enter.net

Have you also noticed that no one seems ever to say thank you for giving this or that loco a home for nearly 50 years, keeping it intact, or anything else like that? It's a perfect example of no good deed going unpunished. <p>And what about the only other DL&W steam loco, the 2-6-0 that is at Scranton? What has been done to make it presentable and placed where it can be seen? What does it look like today? Does anyone have a photo?<br>



rdgoldfede@aol.com

The DL&W loco at Steamtown is in the shop for a cosmetic restoration as we speak. When it is comleted I am sure it will be placed in a location appropriate for its historic significance to that facility.<p>As we all know, a Steamtown restoration is one ofthe best you can have.<br><br>



bighookx45@aol.com

It realy is nice to hear that this loco is also getting worked on. Who would have thought that the only two locos from the DL&W would be getting the cosmetic treatment at two different places at the same time. Good news! <br>



rdgoldfede@aol.com

While the 2-6-0 and #952 are the biggest DL&W syeam left, let us not forget the DL&W 42" ga Vulcan that was last at the Wanamie, PA mine operation. She is still around (Washing, I think) and very much not on display.<p>Perhaps there should be some effort to get her back to coal country, as well????<p>Rob<br>



inlinebob@aol.com

<br>.<br>