Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

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PRR5406
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Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by PRR5406 »

Just few more of the images from around 1952.

Where are these locomotives today?
Attachments
Model RR 1952176.jpg
Model RR 1952177.jpg
Model RR 1952178.jpg
"Always stopping my train, and risking my ankles, with American made, New Balance sneakers."
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Erskine Tramway
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Re: Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by Erskine Tramway »

I can't swear to this, but, as I recall, one of the locomotives is/was in a museum. I'm inclined to think it's at Greenfield Village.

Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
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ALCOSTEAM
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Re: Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by ALCOSTEAM »

The 1501 was unfortunately donated to the Henry Ford Museum when the railroad was dismantled. It was there for awhile and then the museum sold it. The current owner is wealthy and from what I have heard has no intention of ever letting the locomotive go.
Becker should of had an agreement in writing that if the museum ever decided it wanted to part with the 1501 its ownership was still with the Becker's.
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Re: Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Which is important to note: Donating your stuff to a museum doesn't always work out the way you think it will. Often times it is the family of the deceased builder who will donate stuff. When people donate to some museum, they usually think that their model will be sitting somewhere behind glass, cleaned and perfectly preserved, to be admired by people for years and years. That's often not what happens. A lot of the time, the museum will keep these items stored somewhere out-of-sight because of limited display space, or because they don't have a way to actually display it, and will end up selling them later when they need the cash flow. I read somewhere that the majority of donations of items to museums end up getting sold at some point to generate cash flow. Just makes sense: They can't keep it all.

I have suspected for a long time that some of the old steamers that I used to see or that used to be in some of the Live Steam meet reports ended up being donated somewhere. They were then possibly put on display, or they might have gotten stored in the back room, or someone took it home to "clean it up and paint it", and they've not been seen again, at least not at a club or track. Things just have a way of disappearing like that.

I'm not saying don't donate to a museum. I am saying that you should think about what you want the future of your model to be, and often donating it to some museum might not end up being what you wanted.
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PRR5406
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Re: Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by PRR5406 »

I know of a beautiful little tank locomotive which had that exact thing happen, and was rumored to being used to attempt to try and prove a hydrogen as a fuel experiment. I offered the builder $3,000, he turned it down, donated it to a transportation museum which auctioned it for $3,000 and almost certain destruction.
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Dick_Morris
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Re: Centersville Southwestern circa 1952 Part 2

Post by Dick_Morris »

I have spent 17 years on the board and as an officer of non-profit organizations, including a transportation museum.

A museum must look at every item that it accepts for its collection as both an asset and a liability. It must be stored, displayed, cleaned, insured, and recorded - possibly forever. There is a difference between the museum accepting an item for their collection (accessioning), and accepting it for later sale or consumptive use (lawn mower, tools, fork lift, cleaning supplies, or building materials). The former requires that a formal process take place to place it into the collection and another formal process to remove it from the collection for disposal. There are restrictions on how the proceeds from an item in the collection may be used. Every once in a while a story hits the news where a museum has deaccessioned and sold something, such as an painting, and used the proceeds to pay salaries or rent. No special administrative treatment is required for items which have not been accessioned into the collection.

Note that to take a tax write-off, the IRS doesn't permit the donor to place restrictions on a donation.

While the donation of items to add to the collection is important, the in-kind donation of goods and services is critical to the success or many non-profits. In the cast of the organization I'm currently involved with, the value of in-kind donations is equal to over half of our financial contributions and every dollar in value from an in-kind donation is a dollar that doesn't have to come spent from financial contributions.
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