#Scrap mackinac survival full#
#Scrap mackinac survival professional#

Is the property old enough to be considered historic (generally at least 50 years old) and does it still look much the way it did in the past? When it comes to nominating something to the National Register of Historic Places, which is America's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation, it must generally meet all or some portion of the following criteria:

#Scrap mackinac survival professional#

If you want to help preserve Michigan railroad history, the SRI, Nat'l NYC Museum, or SS City of Milwaukee are worthy candidates of your dollars and time.ДЄs a professional historic preservationist who has real-life experience with both historic buildings and historic pieces of railroad equipment, I think I'm allowed to chime in on my soap box here. The E8, #4085, probably logged quite a few miles on MCRR. While they don't mention MCRR very much, anything that ran for NYC was fair game for use on MCRR. You also have the Nat'l NYC museum ten minutes over the border in Elkhart. The Pere Marquette livery lives on today in much-modified form as 'dark future' - that's one of very few heritage liveries to survive. When it comes to rolling stock, Michigan didn't have a lot of distinctive equipment due to the fact most Michigan roads, postwar, were subsidiaries of NYC, PRR, CN, or Wabash. In other words, Michigan has the only coal-fired revenue steamer left (it's just not a locomotive).

Further, some railroading assets identifiable only as Michigan are still in place - Niles station, DT&I catenary arches, and 4 lakes ferries (one still operating and coal fired). The PM 1225 is one of the premier steamers alive today, and they have a few other smaller locomotives at SRI as well. I would argue that the sentiment that little of Michigan's railroad history is being saved is a false statement. You can't just go by surface appearances.

For someone who judges as harshly as you do, you need to look a lot closer.

#Scrap mackinac survival full#

All musuems have a back forty full of junk. That reflects SOME level of stewardship which cannot be denied. Say what you will, a random SMRS engine is more likely to run than a random IRM or WRM engine. 'Knowing what you are doing' is not nearly enough.Д«esides, 'not knowing' is fixable by asking someone or picking up a book. So no, the super-museums are not a silver-bullet, and your comparison is unfair. Or they might get in a housecleaning mode and scrap it like it was nothing. Or they might bump it the minute they get a more desirable (to them) unit. Heck, your unit may not rate the car-barn. (mind you, WRM has a mere 100 cars in its collection, that doesn't help the Utah fans get their stuff to the front of the line.) 469 would be unlikely to ever run in IRM's hands, not when they have Illinois units that are more important (and not 244's.) Similarly, Seashore trolley museum is totally capable of giving the Detroit streetcar a world-class restoration, but that is not gonna happen. We have way too much equipment and can barely maintain a fraction of it. We 'top museums' are not as good as you think we are. I also volunteer at WRM in the mechanical department, which is every bit the equal of IRM.

If something has to go out of state to be preserved by an entity that knows what they are doing then so be it.ДЄt first blush I'd agree, seems like it oughta be that way, doesn't it? On top of this, no location in Michigan has proved to me that it is capable of taking care of diesel locomotives in a museum setting aside from the Henry Ford Museum.