1908 Wooden CNW Baggage Car Available

Also posted in the classifieds. This car needs to find a home SOON. Otherwise, it sadly may not be long for this world.

Please click the link above for more information.

First i have seen of this, i wonder how they expect to dispose of equipment in dire need ?
i have contacted a relevant museum to see if we can do something.

Mike Pannell

It is not stated, but this could be a source of parts (trucks, draftgear, truss rods) to restore a body in someone's collection.

I find it a little strange that an organization like IRM would put a short time limit on 'deaccessing' this car, particularly as I think they could wait until Doomsday before running out of track somewhere to park the thing 'out of the way'.

So I look at this more as "here's an opportunity waiting for you" than some oh-god-thirty-days-and-we-burn-it scenario. (Of course, it promptly rules out the most likely place that might be interested in preserving such a car ;-})

Do we have an actual IRM statement that says something like 'act before April first or the kitten gets it'?

.

This is ALWAYS the chronic problem. Always has been, always will be.

It doesn't matter HOW many posts we make--to RyPN, to TrainOrders, to railroad.net, to forums at Kalmbach's website. You could take out paid ads in Trains Magazine and Railfan & Railroad, the ATTRM newsletter, the northern Illinois newspapers and radio stations and TV stations. And somehow, after every imaginable outreach effort, it will STILL escape the eyes of, for example, the leader of a model railroad club that could spend money to rebuild this into a layout space, or the station depot museum in some C&NW town that would love this car as a depot-side display.

And I guarantee you they will say "Why didn't you tell us? We would have loved to have saved this!" (Whether their abilities match the ambitions is another discussion entirely.)

Just like there are more TV channels and choices than ever before--broadcast, cable, online streaming, etc.--but the audience for each one shrinks, there are more ways than ever for a party to get the word out to prospective preservationists, but a smaller audience for each one of them, including here, the magazines, etc.

Often, in instances like this, preservation happens not because of some grand publicity blast like this, but rather discrete inquiries between experienced "senior players" or "pros" in the field. I'm fairly certain that the "powers that be" at the IRM have probably sent direct queries to the likes of the Strasburg RR, the Fillmore & Western (another "movie prop" car!), or other rail museums in C&NW territory first. What they may be looking for is someone completely out of the blue that may have either more money than reason or a financial incentive (say, that RR being built in Lancaster County, Pa. with a Kloke 4-4-0, for example).....

In my humble opinion, a large part of the problem in these cases is that there is not a single defacto place to act a clearinghouse for such things, a place to which any interested parties can be directed (owner or seeker, pro or novice). Yes, there is RYPN, Railswap, Tainorder, etc, but none is THE place and none especially well formatted to be THE place for equipment needing rescue. Not that I am volunteering to create such a place.

I'll put it this way:

Not even every excursion line or RR museum is a member of ATTRM or is/was listed in the Tourist Trains Guidebook/Steam Passenger Service Directory--in spite of a distinct financial incentive for both. (I think for years it was the Ohio Railway Museum that failed to be listed in the SPSD.)

Even in professional organizations, there's always one or more mavericks. I seem to remember that as I was covering the Mid-Atlantic craft beer and wine scene, the joke was that there was always at least one winery or brewery that kept refusing to join the official statewide brewers/winemakers association, and I had to be sure to figure out who that was lest it escape my attention. You can't rely on whatever agency-issued list (or, for that matter, any website, publicity magazine's listing, etc.) to be definitive.

I have even seen instances where owners or management have said to certain publishers "Don't you DARE put me in your &$%#@ book/list!" The issues involved may be privacy (against those entitled fanatics that feel a right to see your line/loco at any time), or they can even be petty grudges going back a generation or more over some purported "hack job" the publisher did or whatnot.

What I do see is an opportunity for some non-profit to try (in vain, for sure, but at least try) to be a central clearing house for such information. Unfortunately, the ATTRM is pretty much "industry/trade only," and neither the R&LHS nor the national NRHS has stepped up its "game" to work towards such a goal. It takes not only volunteers or subsidy, but a vision, one that most of rail preservation seems to lose amidst their blinkered focus on their own pet projects.

Unfortunately, Rail Swap seems to have gone dormant/un-moderated/"stuck", since June 2018.

Too bad; it was a good clearing house for this stuff.

Howard P.

I suspect Railswap is another one like the passenger car photo site... The owner either has passed or fallen on hard times, etc...
Anyone interested in offering by to take it on?
I'm wondering what it's cost to operate is?

This thread is showing that some people who frequent this discussion board to not also look at the "Classifieds" board on this site. A post went up there back in May of 2018.

I know that I usually don't go to Classifieds either. But I knew about the car because I saw the page on the IRM website.

The Trains news wire also carried a story about this last May.

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... -good-home

So hopefully a party with the resources needed to take advantage is working on this behind the scenes, since IRM has done a good job spreading the word about its deaccession.

How many of you wake up one morning and say, "Gee, I could really use an old wooden baggage car. I think I'll take a look at RYPN classifieds and see what is available."

My point is, I think the rationale for using Classifieds as a clearing house for deaccession material is not correct.

In many cases, the recipients of these things don't know in advance that they want it. It takes someone creative to propose a use and make a connection.

Somewhat related, I would find it interesting if random, recent classifieds headlines appeared as "advertisements" in the margins of the Interchange. I suppose it would be a big programming job for someone, but otherwise I just don't look in the classifieds. I do know we have purchased some parts from USA vendors for our various projects here in Denmark (I wrote the checks!).

First i had ever heard of Rail Swap was today.... that's the problem right there those kind of web pages are very outdated and need overhauling. I run a buy sell and swap for items on a Facebook page which i hope helps in some way, many contacts come via Facebook these days.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1522658211333952/

Mike Pannell

Do you suppose this car ever came through Wyoming on the Cowboy line?