Caring about railway preservation and proper interpretation of railroad history is a curse and an endless source of angst.

I learned through a web search tonight that an unusual electric mining locomotive from the history-rich mining town of Black Diamond, WA, was donated by the Palmer Coking Coal Co. of that city to a group in Ohio called, Ohio Vintage Coal Co. It was shipped to Ohio in Spring of 2009. [www.youtube.com]

A few months later, the Northwest Railway Museum donated a surplus Plymouth locomotive from Seattle to the Black Diamond Historical Society because, "the Black Diamond Historical Society... was looking for a small locomotive to help them tell their local history." [trainmuseum.blogspot.com]

I see now that the historical society has since painted the Plymouth into pink and black, and lettered it "history express". [www.youtube.com]

This kind of thing drives me nuts!

To sum up, this local historical society failed to save and interpret an actual artifact from their area, and let it get shipped off to Ohio. And instead they acquired an industrial switcher with no ties at all to their city. To top it off, they gave the locomotive a silly, childish appearance.

As an aside, the historical society of another nearby town, Issaquah, acquired an Italian or Portuguese trolley to interpret their local history -- even though the town never had a trolley! The city paid close to a million dollars to restore it, too, all in the name of "historic preservation."

Small town historical societies are probably well-meaning, but some are unsophisticated and probably not up to the task of serious historic preservation. I have seen some good small town museums in the Midwest. The two noted above leave me feeling a bit dismayed.

I guess the good news is that the Plymouth loco in Black Diamond, though pink, is at least preserved.

Oh well. When the giant meteor hits, none of this will matter anyway.