I'm not going to address the specific steam issue, but I'll offer this perspective having been on the sharp end of some of the metaphorical knives out there.

When someone attacks a museum over their perception of what they are or are not doing, they are not only not contributing, but in many cases they are serving to harm the overall reputation of that organization. You would be amazed at how many people even peripherally related to the railroad and preservation industry pay attention to our little tirades and tantrums. When someone decides to start trashing the actions or perceived inactions of a museum, one, they often do NOT have all the facts of a situation and fill in the blanks with their own perceptions and, two, their statements alone, or more often echoed by others, reverberate. Thus when an organization sends out a fundraising drive or seeks a grant or tries to encourage visitorship or new members to help restore the very items that are being whined about, they find they must overcome a mountain of whispers, false statements and bad press.

I have been there. I have fought this. It sucks and it only adds to the difficulty of trying to maintain and preserve outdated technology that needs care, love, coddling and cubic money.

Opinions are one thing. From different points of view often come better solutions to a problem. But everyone involved must be willing to WORK TOGETHER to solve the problem. Preservation groups would likely find things a bit easier if they didn't have to fight the behind the back comments of people who don't care for some of the decisions that needed to be made and who seem to relish piling more scorn on their group in their gunsights.

FEF-1, thank you. I was one of the folks who spent SEVEN YEARS plus trying to get that very broken and decayed engine to a new home. We tried like hell, but no one was willing to step up, save one museum that was hamstrung by lack of funds and new transport rules.

I'm sure my comments will just invite more fire, especially on this forum, but I have been in this game for over 30 years now and I keep working to improve, protect and restore what we can. Sometimes it feels the only thanks we get is not getting kicked in the teeth that day.

I'll throw one more log on this fire: some museums out there are linked very closely to the economy of the areas they are in. So not only are derogatory statements harming the museum, but they also, by extension, make it harder for those museums to contribute to the economy of their local region. When you have rural museums that are a major component of tourism in depressed areas, that has a big negative effect.