I am a fan of railroad rosters; expecially rosters of euqipment preserved at railroad and railway museums. A very good one is the illustrated one at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. I think we should encourage other museums to add rosters. For example I do not see one for the Colorado Railroad Museum.

How do others feel about this subject?

Ted Miles long time museum watcher

I love the equipment rosters. A number of groups have them, either online or handed out/sold as a booklet.

One issue I find is that the restored equipment is often listed, but the bone yard is not. This has made it difficult several times tracking down equipment. However, others listed this equipment and encourage donations to help with the restoration.

A final challenge is keeping the rosters current. Good luck on this for the active organizations.

Bart

When I lived in the UK and visited restored railways or museums they all had two things I could buy, a history of the group/line and a "stock book," with details about nearly everything they had. But in the USA that usually isn't the case and few outfits have such things. These may be hard to keep up to date but they are sure things to have for sale in your gift shop. Not having them is lost money. In 1973 Mr. Kean produced a spiral bound book listing the collections of museums and tourist lines of the time which shows it is possible.

And that is why we don't see more up-to-date roster information.

“ Mr. Kean produced a spiral bound book listing the collections of museums and tourist lines of the time which shows it is possible.”

A spiral bound book would allow adding or removing pages without having to print a whole new book. If drawings, pictures, and equipment diagrams were included it might be very popular. Maybe move deaccessioned equipment to a separate section. Done right it might be a good seller.

I can trump this.

UK publisher Allen & Unwin, who did many other rail history and photo books, put out a book titled "Steam 80," edited by Roger Crombleholme and Terry Kirtland, which listed every piece of equipment at something like 400 locations in British preservation. It was followed by "Steam '82" and subsequently 1985's "Steam British Isles," the latter listing 500 locations and collections, including several secretive collections noted as "Collection X" and the like listed only by approximate location at best.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Book ... tn%3Dsteam

Allen & Unwin ceased as a British publishing concern a few years later, and along with it subsequent editions. Although there are several travel guides and books devoted to listing British heritage railways, just as there are in North America, I remember the Heritage Railway Association was attempting some "completist" follow-up to the A&U/Crombleholme & Kirtland tome, but I haven't followed up to see if it exists.

I undertook an attempt at some American version of this as a Museum Studies project in university in the mid-1980s, pre-household internet; our overriding conclusion was that American rail preservation is so hopelessly disorganised that nobody truly knew what was out there, even on their OWN back sidings--and I maintain that's true today.

Since then, we have had numerous specialised "valiant attempts," starting with Dave Conrad's now-outdated Steam Locomotive Directory of North America in the 1980s (itself a successor to Victor Koenigsberg's 1967 directory), Captive Cabeese by S. Roger Kirkpatrick (2008 2nd edition), Andrew Young's Veteran & Vintage Transit, and online efforts like the websites SteamLocomotive.info/.com, Preserved North American Electric Cars and The Diesel Shop. There have also been underpublicised attempts at setting up national or even international databases online.

The massive problem is that the maintenance of such a website/database and its data is utterly massive and unrewarding, and would be dependent upon multiple volunteer editors and contributors, with oversight and vetting by some "benevolent dictator" or overseeing foundation, organisation, or owner. And you can't just hand this to the likes of a Jack White, a J. David Conrad, a George Drury, a Don Dover, or the like. You need multiple experts and specialists, because almost everyone in this field is an expert in some small niche and largely ignorant outside that niche.

This would be a perfect niche project for the NRHS (claiming to be a "leader" in rail preservation) or the R&LHS to undertake and oversee. I don't foresee this happening, though.