Depends. Have you hunted down every last FB page to which this listing was shared? I saw a TON of ill-informed, knee-jerk "Gotta save it!" and "Restore it and run it on the mainline!" type responses in just the few places I bothered to look out of curiosity.

Does a "stir" only have to happen on some officially sanctioned website or forum, or among, say, the NRHS, for it to be a "stir in the railfan community"?

No, I'm mostly seeing a lot folks amazed that this relic is still on anyone's radar at all (besides that of the scrappers), plus equal parts skepticism that the costs to move it won't doom it anyway. The younger generation knows you can't save 'em all.

But you should try.

Exactly, once they're gone they aren't coming back. But beyond that indisputable reality, the problem with the theory that, instead of spreading money out among many artifacts, donors should concentrate their spending on a few artifacts to keep them in good form, is simple: they won't.

In regard to railway preservation, I think that the main thing that distinguishes "the younger generation" from the rest of us is an obsessive concern about tidiness by the former.

As a native of Rock Falls I heard the steam whistles from "The Mill" from my birth in the late 50's until their end.
I will echo the comments of J. David on her condition with a simple formula I witnessed in person:
Loco sold as scrap + buyer who converted MANY locos into nails & fence wire + a whole line of locos to replace this one when it will no longer move = Usually worn beyond belief............mld

Will Mike take any legal action against the current owner of the land that 8305 sits on currently

Something just occurred to me. What happened to the tender that was moved to Iowa? Is it still in existence, or was it perhaps scrapped?

Les

This would presume that this unknown Mr. Mahler is still alive and/or is in any position, legally or logistically, to take any such action. I mean, the scary precedent for this is Dick Jensen, after all................. as for that, he did win a $1.3 million judgement against the railroad for cutting up one of his steam locomotives, but AFAIK never collected before his demise.......

A White Elephant recently "re-discovered" in the wild in all it's Glory...

"White Elephant, noun;

1) A rare whitish or light-gray form of the Asian elephant, often considered sacred in parts of South and Southeast Asia.

2) A possession that provides few benefits and is an inconvenience or a financial burden to maintain. "

Interestingly, no one seems to have noted a couple, potentially important items.....
there isn't likely to be much "litigating" ....IRM sold it, the new owner didn't remove it...and now, the property is under new ownership....weather it reverted to IRM doesn't matter anymore, they too didn't remove it, the old owner either sold it or lost the property.... Which means what?? The new property owner owns the loco now...

typically, a railroad track that's inside a gate or Derail belongs to the customer, not the railroad, so there no likely issue on recovering equipment, etc....this has been several years now, so IRM...if they even owned it...should have made a new deal with the new owners when that situation changed....

While it's sad if it gets scrapped, this could be seen as a opportunity....
How? When IRM got those engines, the agreement was they would never run again....
But, now, this changes that deal....no special sale requirements anymore, which means whoever buys it can, if they want to spend a huge amount of money...they could rebuild it and run it....
I'm not saying it's the smart thing, but stranger things happen....

To each his own, but before I gave $200,000 for this GTW engine, I'd suggest a bit of comparison shopping. The WMSR gave $50,000 for #1309, which was much bigger and in much better shape than the #8305. I gave just under $5,000 for my little lokie, a tenth the size of #1309, thoroughly used up and trashed out, but still much better than #8305.

The determination of what is a rational price to pay for a restoration project certainly involves plenty more factors than I've just mentioned, but I could reasonably boil it all down to one sentence: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. OK, maybe a couple more: Friends don't let friends buy steam locomotives. And: DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT IF YOU'RE MARRIED.

Buyer beware. I'd be real careful about considering tangible personal property as abandoned unless you're familiar with the state laws that dictate the who, what, when, where, why and how something is legally abandoned. Just because somebody left it there, doesn't necessarily mean it's legally abandoned. There's usually a process to go through before you can claim ownership of supposedly abandoned stuff. Then you can sell or dispose of it as you see fit without the real/original owner taking you to court.

So, why even bring that up? If you purchase an abandoned something or other from a property owner and that item didn't meet the test of being legally abandoned, you run the risk of the legal owner coming back on you and all the fun and exciting lawsuits that could entail.

Check the state's laws if you want to buy it (though I don't think many here would consider it).

The legal battle over Santa Fe 3463 comes to mind. It took years for the "Quiet Title" litigation to play out.


https://csrail.org/3463


Brian Helfrich

Sammy,

You make great points, but the issue is that some unknowing knee-jerk wanna-be preservationist might not do the right research and but is thinking "any price should be paid as long as its not scrapped". Thankfully we have this forum for where the true preservationists can learn and be better people.

Thank You John,

What it comes down to is that part of our jobs as "true preservationists" is triage, just like a field hospital in a war zone. Another part of our jobs involves trying to keep novices from stepping in it big time. While we do the best we can with these tasks and all the others that we willingly assume, I've yet to hit the bullseye...