personally, I think barn 11/9 could make a great terminal station or convert 9 into an indoor steam center like from your 1968 plans and yard 13/14 could be the steam barn ( exclusively! )
what i was origonally going to say is the that the 2-6-2T ( cornate phosphate )and the mogul (L.T.C.co 18) from monee IL looks like they are in bloody bad condition.
I am not sure what you envision mentioning Barn 11 as a great terminal. For what? No mainline or even car line tracks come close enough to that. And a stub end operation with several saw movements to get to track that goes anywhere, limited to one or two cars, will simply not handle our traffic on busy days.
As to yards 13 and 14 as exclusively for steam, perhaps only a very few saddletankers could ever conceivably negotiate the trackage to get there. This area was never designed or planned for heavy long wheelbase equipment, maybe even tight for some 85 foot passenger cars.
Bob Kutella
As we have explained here many times, funds are accumulated by donation and then applied to house a single particular piece of equipment under roof. Many of the cars you suggest have no such funds and no prospects. So what then? Evict cars that have paid their way in?
Bob Kutella
As several of the barns at IRM are 'themed' already, perhaps Mr. Chapman is suggesting that any new barns could be similarly dedicated to display a single type of equipment. The diesel collection is mostly stored in and in front of Barn 2, which is not open to the public... should IRM ever build the long-proposed turntable and roundhouse for the steam collection, Barn 9 would be perfect for displaying and protecting the diesels while opening up more shop space in Barn 2. Will Barns 10 & 11 be opened to the public any time soon? It seems a shame to spend so much time, money and effort to repaint and restore the equipment only to store it away from public viewing.
Barn 11 is planned to be open to the public. Probably after access to it is improved - right now it requires navigating some rough ground across the throat of Yard 10, on foot, through areas left by the construction.
Bob Kutella