For much of 2025 the W&W has been in and out of the public eye for the poor treatment of volunteers and (former) employees. Some of the highlights of the saga:

All of the paid staff has quit or been fired.
Most of the volunteers are locked out.
The only news being shared is propaganda.
The volunteer staff who were charged with training and qualifications have been dismissed.
A volunteer has filed a lawsuit to restore sanity in the leadership.
Safety concerns brought up by the volunteers and staff have been swept under the rug.
The board engaged a local temp agency to staff trains for the holiday season.
Trains are being operated by one volunteer who had his qualifications revoked for cell phone use on duty.
Trains are being operated by a volunteer who had his qualifications revoked for moving equipment without a command two different time while under 3-step protection, His father is a board member who removed the qualification and training people then had his son reinstated.
Locked out volunteers have held protests onsite at Greenbank Station.

You can see a short video here that shows one of the protests and features interviews with several locked-out volunteers and a former board member.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7BKm8Srp6k

Fundraising is ongoing to take the case all the way through the court system. Please consider helping out.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-u ... ing-rights

Thanks for your support.

WW

This is all heart breaking.

I loved the W&W.

The one thing I haven't heard yet, though, is the other side of it.

Nobody's the bad guy in their own story. There's got to be SOME rationale for what's gone down. Does anyone know what that IS??

No #*&^!@#ing clue.

There have been accusations/conspiracy theories that the long-term "plot" is to discontinue the trains and turn it into a track-speeder venue, a rail-bike operation, or a rail-to-trail trail. I know of no evidence to support this, other than allegations that 1) some board member(s) is/are NARCOA member(s), and 2) it's about the only explanation that makes any sense of their recent actions.

I can tell you one thing that has been accomplished by this group, though.

For years now, one organization to which I belong has gone through the rigmarole of announcing an applicant for membership in the monthly newsletter/e-mail and then having a vote to accept the member at the next meeting. The vote is waived if the applicant has been a member of another branch/chapter of the national organization for at least two years.
For years now, some members have groused, "why do we bother with all that formality?" Long-time members, going back to the days when the group owned rolling stock and operated excursions on other lines, pointed out that "when you sit on nearly seven figures' worth of assets, you have to use some discretion."
Now the membership secretary only has to point to the Wilmington & Western as an example of what happens when you DON'T vet membership. Allegedly some members of the BOD had a horde of friends/relatives pay for membership just prior to a meeting, cast votes in favor of Board projects the rank-and-file objected to, and then disappear never to be seen again. And that's not the only time this writer has heard of such shenanigans at an election being used to effect a "hostile takeover."

Imagine, if you will, a group that operates a rail museum having such "hostile takeover" tactics used to vote to liquidate the museum and sell off, donate, or scrap the assets, or worse yet to just sell the whole place to a real estate developer for $1. Such things have happened in the past. I've witnessed firsthand the vote of an organization to cease operations and turn over the assets to a more established rail museum--in their case, because they were losing a friendly landlord, they couldn't find ways to use or lease their rolling stock any longer, and the membership was aging out. I've also seen or heard about convoluted membership schemes where "votes" at elections are allocated according to how much one has contributed to an organization, in fundraising or volunteer hours. It all sounds ludicrous and somewhat corrupt--until you see what (allegedly) happened at the W&W.

All very good points.

I'm a-jes' gonna leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7BKm8Srp6k

Ed, there has been little to nothing from the acting board. They only release a little propaganda once in a while and otherwise have been as reclusive as North Korea.

They have failed to respond to concerns about the actions of the former CMO. His failure to properly maintain the equipment and his pencil whipping of inspections have been shared all over a number of platforms. Instead of responding they awarded him a spot on the board of directors and put back in charge of maintenance again.

They have failed to show the membership the books. There is no transparency, just propaganda. Members of the board are in the construction and contracting business, they have handled a number of projects over the years, either themselves or by steering work to their contractor friends. Nobody knows who was paid and how much. In other organizations there might be a similar situation when a board member says XYZ project was quoted at $50,000 but our friends at so and so business did it for $40,000 with some in-kind donations. Not these guys, the message is we'll handle it, nobody gets to see the cost, and if you ask too many questions, you get kicked out.

The W&W is truly following the North Korean model.

WW

I guess my question would be, what was the response from FRA after a formal compliant was filed regarding the allegations of poor safety, improper maintenance and falsification of inspection records?

MDR

From your always friendly moderator...

The RYPN Interchange is not intended to be a crap on the bad preservationist... The Wilmington & Western clearly has management/volunteer management issues... but lets be careful about what we say... the more specific the allegation(s) the more tolerant I will be... and the more focused on rail preservation the better.

This is not locking the thread... just noting a drift towards that outcome.

This is not my fight but I am watching with bated breath. The screen shot below is from page 31 of the 2021 IRS Form 990 (the most recent one available on the IRS website) https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/516015896_202112_990_2023051021193091.pdf. The last time I looked volunteers and members of an organization were also members of the public.

I have heard the management of another not-for-profit (by coincidence also in the railroad sphere) claim that because they have been empowered (they have not) to act as agent for their volunteers and they have reviewed the documents on the volunteers' behalf, they are not obligated to to allow the volunteers to examine them. This is utter nonsense. Even if it were true the agency relationship would have ceased to exist with the termination of the volunteer/member status.

I, too, no longer have a dog in the proverbial fight. But I do care about the preservation of this unique Delaware institution.

Let's throw out a completely made-up, facetious example to consider.

Suppose the owners and operators of a private excursion operation--say, the Strasburg, the Grand Canyon, the EBT, etc.--solicited the participation of volunteers--to staff the trains, to man the ticket booth, to fix up the sagging structures at Orbisonia, etc. They're happy to let you pay an annual "membership fee" to cover your insurance for being on the property. But, in exchange, you get no say in how the place is run. You came hoping to open up and staff exhibit cars, organize some archives, maybe help restore a car, and instead you're told to sweep the floors and then sit in a rocking chair to answer any questions from a curious visitor--if you know the answers of course. Yep, even if you're a welder, master carpenter, experienced railroader, whatever. And there's no guarantee, other than the owner's self-interest/greed, that it'll be open next year.

Are you interested in joining?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Now, compare that to the Friends of the EBT as things stand now. Or the huge work parties at the WW&F in Maine, or the C&TS in Colorado/New Mexico.
Whose interests do their BODs have in mind? Their own? Or the long-term survival of the organization?