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Pessimistic! Did I sound pessimistic? Please, let me explain. I recently enjoyed a trip to the northwest (USA) this spring. This was the first time I’ve been able to visit in about Twenty years. On my last visit to Snowquamie there was a little museum with two running Steam Engines. On this trip what I found nearly brought me to tears. The steam engines are in an awful state. I stopped at the depot and talked with its keeper who explained that they are trying to raise money to build a structure to get them out of the weather. Right now they can’t come up with some traps to protect the equipment until they can get a hard roof. They want to restore the two engines, get them running again. I wi***hem well, but I think there’s too much damage done now for that to happen. None-the-less I gave them a donation. On my last trip I visited former Sierra #38 at Crane Creek, it didn’t seem it would have taken much to give her the breath of life. Toady I understand she’s in pieces behind a fence in Shasta, California. On my last trip there was a railroad museum in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Not today. I‘m told that the three steam engines that use to call it home are rusted out hulks, not even on rail, somewhere in central Oregon. In rail preservation there are many conflicts of opinion and interest that get in the way of constructive work. So you have independent museums who struggle just to keep their equipment from being reclaimed by the elements and those who are able to turn theirs into Icons complete with cathedral (and don’t you dare try and use a tripod so you can take decent pictures with their Gothic lighting levels). Any restoration requires vast sums that continue to grow with inflation. Add in the small size of the group willing to pay for it and the REALISITIC picture does not conjure up optimism in me. Please be happy with what we do have and support it. Thank you
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