MagnumForce wrote:Just what SMRS needs, more junk...
Sorry but this everything needs saved mentality is just ridiculous in my view.
...but admit it, you are knee jerking in the opposite direction. You are so appalled by the rust-fest at many museums that you automatically naysay ANY possible acquisition at any museum.
Save nothing???
I do sympathize with the sentiment though. Museums need to be selective. Smart museums have a collection policy, which guide them as to which items they should collect and why. It should be reasonable and consistent, and should not be about one guy collecting all his favorite stuff. So what is a reasonable collction policy for a Michigan museum?
Before the RS-2, there were diesel switchers ... and diesel mainline road engines, "covered wagon" multi-unit lashups. Local and branchline service stayed with steam as there was no reasonable diesel option. Switchers (and RS-1s) were too underpowered/slow, and 3-4 unit road engines were overpowered and had terrible sight lines for switching (consider that handheld radios did not yet exist.) But when Alco combined the FA powerplant and RS-1 sight lines... they had the diesel that could replace steam in any role - a true general purpose locomotive.
D&M was the first railroad in America to dieselize. They also were the launch customer for the RS-2. 469 is not the first RS-2 (466 was) but it was in the first order. it is the equivalent of the Juan T. Trippe among jumbo jets.
What would a reasonable collection policy say about that? Should D&M equipment be preserved by a Michigan museum? If so, which D&M equipment? Are RS-2's historically significant, or are they as unimportant as, say, a GP39-2? If they are important, which RS-2(s) nationwide are most worthy of preservation?
These are serious curator type questions. You talk as if every single piece of railroad equipment is equivalent. They're not.
As for SMRS's standard of care, I would be the first to say if I think they are off the rails. I am on the board of a truly world class railroad museum, WRM, and I go around and I look at a lot of other railroad museums. Most of them are pretty horrible in terms of operability (everything at SMRS has run in the last 10 years and everything was parked working). Most are also godawful in terms of collection - they have way way too much random junk that doesn't fit a sensible collection policy. Not an SMRS problem, their rather small collection actually fits a south Michigan museum of NYC lineage. The only thing out of place is the WM loco, and a South Shore car, but guess what, SMRS is the closest museum to South Bend that actually runs one. And what else would they run, Lackawanna coaches (like the San Diego museum LOL)? Yeah, some of the equipment is ugly as heck, but every museum is like that, and the only real cure for that is carbarns. And they're on track for that!
I'm not an SMRS guy. I support them because I think they have the right stuff to succeed. if they didn't, I would support someone else who did. I will get that carbarn built whether there's a 469 to go in it or not. If not, there will be empty space for something else. What else belongs there more?
