A well run, professional museum needs to look ahead at what will be worth preserving in the future, not just what they want to get now. I suspect 30 years isn't too bad a guess. The Minnesota Transportation Museum has an SD-45 (GN's "Hustle Muscle") which to folks my age is "modern power".
Illinois Railway Museum has an ex Chicago & Northwestern SD40-2 #6847.
FWIW, even though almost everyone outside Japan refers to the Shinkansen as, "Bullet trains," the original stock has been museum fodder for about 15-20 years now.
The latest iterations look more like inverted grain scoops...
Chuck.
I would hope that examples will be preserved. But that is most likely to happen if the present generation of fans who have grown up with them also get actively involved with the railroad museums. They always need new blood even if some of the older crowd seem like fossils. Back in the 1960s it was difficult to save 1st generation diesels because museum founders saw them as the modern machines that killed steam. Fortunately enough survived that a reasonable sample ultimately survived across the continent. There are also some conspicuous gaps, the DL-109 immediately coming to mind.
We are somewhat smarter now, perhaps because the evolution of diesel models has not been so traumatic as the steam to diesel conversion. EMD's 2nd generation is reasonably represented in preservation with various models of GP and SD preserved. The situation is not quite as good for GE but a few U-boats have been saved. Not sure if any -7 series has joined the ranks.
The other thing to keep in mind is that resources will always be limited. While the ideal is to save at least one of everything, we have to leave room for the future relics such as the potential SD70ACe or AC4400 some decades away. As a hypothetical example, instead of saving a GP40, GP40-2, SD40 and SD40-2, cutiing back to a GP40 and an SD40-2 may cover the types sufficiently. And ideally museums would avoid duplicating what has already been preserved elsewhere . Dream on.....
John
While a few may end up in museums it will take some form of signifigant shift in motive power to give them the nostalgic power to be collected and preserved. We preserve things from the past that are unique, interesting and define who and what we were at a point in time. While I am blinded by the present, I don't really see the current generation of motive power generating those kinds of feelings without the next generation of power being somehow totally different from the present.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I am wondering when the SD40-2 and GP38-2 will end up in museums more than the modern power.
Selector,
It is unfortunate how little the public is aware of how important railroads are nowadays. In fact, even if you were to drill it into their heads as much as you could, the average person still wouldn't understand.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them in museums in maybe 30 years. The problem with museums housing large exhibits is that they are very costly. They take up space, volume, and tax footprint. They take utilities, maintenance, exhibit care, and all the rest that goes with museums. Those things will be very costly in densely populated areas where they are likely to serve a sustaining public.
Of course, leaving them outside would be worse for the artefacts, but....
Back to the timeframe. I don't know that they will follow steam locomotives and other items of that five generations-worth of steam technology and be donated for static displays in parks, or if bright people will find a way to keep the squirrels and bipeds out of them. Many steamers went on display, some sat on scrappers tracks, while others stayed in service for one reason or another. Diesels may do that, but they are seen these days more as impediments to travel and on videos showiing close calls at grade crossings. There is little fondness, fascination, or appreciation for the role they play in modern consumerism. While steamers were part of everyday life, and could be seen and heard nearby, few of us comparatively even want to have much to do with trains in modern times.
Crandell
How long do y'all think it will be before we see any 'modern power' i.e. GEVOs, SD70/80/90s, etc., in a museum?
Kind of a strange question, but those things happen sitting in History class.
Thanks!
Acela
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.