The first short thought is that I hoped you were wrong. But another post leads me to believe we have lost this car to another organization. As one member said, "You snooze, you lose."
There has been little member support or other donations to acquire this for IRM. No where near enough money on hand to schedule the transfer or set up a move. And the reality is that any such acquisition moves forward with donations, not money from the Museum General Fund.
As such, we could use help from you all to help retire the deficits existing from the last two acquisitions, the MILW covered hopper and the six dome tank car.
Anything further on the certain fate of CNW 284, I will leave to our Executive Director, Nick Kallas, who was the owner contact for the car in Elk Grove.
Bob Kutella
I drove by Lawarence Foods today, Tuesday April 13, 2010...and yes the boxcar that was nearest the road was gone. The two others are still there though.
Well, it is good to have an accurate report. One I got earlier said those also were gone, but perhaps that gentleman did not get to the correct address.
Is it GOOD NEWS - should we reset and go for one of those which were NOT our first choice?
Bob Kutella
The 284 is indeed gone. The donations already received will be refunded to donors if they request, or can be re-directed to other projects at IRM. If someone comes forward to do the work to try to acquire one of the remaining two cars, I can help and explain the next steps.
Bob Kutella
I did take one quick photo of both the remaining boxcars, & of course the far one, the car furthest from the road and blocked by the other remaining car, at least looks better. If you can email me Bob what the next steps are, that would be great. I have no clue about the cost of something like this...but am courious. Also, I do have one photo of the lost boxcar going down the road. I can send you all three. Is there some type of inspection the museum does before going forward with trying to get a car?
Assuming the car can be given to us at no cost, here are some rough estimates of the costs involved. These assume we will want to preserve the car and that means the money needs to be raised to place it under roof in our next barn, waiting for restoration.
Trucking, loading, and unloading - $4000. Other costs and fees to place it on track at IRM - $3000. Barn space - $9000. So, before the first can of paint is opened, FOR THIS FREE CAR, we are looking at a commitment of $16,000!
Bob Kutella
For those of you interested in the fate of CNW 284, I was just following a link from the Trains.com news page regarding NKP265 pulling excursions at the Hoosier Valley Railway Museum in northwest Indiana this summer, and guess what shows up on their equipment roster? Yep, CNW 284, donated by Lawrence Foods to HVRM in April 2010. At least it didn't go to the scrap yard!