Actually some interesting comments. I have done rebuild work for places back east, and what I have learned is that there are different kinds of groups and they tink differently. Now that I'm out here, this is what I see: CRSM is a historic static collection of stuff for the public to come see (like the PRR museum at Strasburg), it's just too bad that a couple of pieces that steam & diesel rebuilders would like to attack are stuck there (to me 2467 4-6-2 IN should = E-8 & F-7 OUT to run somewhere). Nevada State is an important collection well presented staticly. The Niles Canyon RR is both an operating vintage railroad and a collection of stuff that got saved (but not a museum), and will be dealt with by the next generation. While an ex-SP mainline operation, their stuff is really mostly CA logging & shortline. Bay Area Trolleys & Orange Empire are nicely preserved collections with one of everything, but not really museums. GGRM is a different bird, more like the St. Louis Steam Train Ass. that restored and ran the #1522 or the #3751 group. These are operating groups and not museums, and what they own is generally tied somehow to the main engine.

I've seen pictures of 40+ pieces that GGRM had (what happned to the unique SP Dome Car?), and 99% of it had nothing to do with running and maintaining the 2472 (or F-7s hope, hope, hope). The assumed plan that those pieces were for the museum is fine, but when, where & by who? CA State RR museum #2? Getting a clolection of railroad cars and engines from mothballed to museum style presentable takes money in the millions nowdays. Land, access, enviromental studies, building engineering, engineers, etc. Keeping an engine running and ready go takes a lot of work, even when it is not running, and those hours & $ can't go to a "museum" project. The people and way of working are different.

I have personally seen "museum" people in a group groan loudly as $25,000, 50,000 or 100,000 was spent on contracted work to a diesel or steam engine, saying "we could have fixed 3 coaches, 2 boxcars, a caboose and the baggage cart with that money". Two different worlds.

So actually my original point I meant was that when you look at a groups "junk" or scrapped "junk", the reason for keeping something by one group doesn't apply to another, or why one group would spend money on something that someone else would sell off. All of these places have to work within the limits of space, money & volunteer time, and all of the above are limited. Another idea that one group could buy, dontate or adopt another groups unwanted piece is a good idea, but what group isn't already overloaded their own stuff? This happens hardly at all.