The storage containers were given to us for a long term loan by local contractor Douglas Barnhart who were publicly thanked for coming to our aid at our annual dinner. They are far from the ideal situation for us but at least the collection is dry and locked up. A small part of the collection, mainly a few of the rarer maps and the photo collection, were taken to the storage space leased by the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. Special thanks are due executive Director John Rotsart and SDMRM President Steve Siedensticker for giving us free storage of the more fragile items in a ten foot square spot in their archival storage space. At the same time we opened talks with about the possibility of a partial merger with the growing SDMRM library.

The SDMRM recently completed the construction of a library mezzanine in their museum above the Toy Train Gallery in their Balboa Park facility. This space is only about 2000 square feet but might be a good home for some of our rare things that would be of interest to historians and model railroaders both. Many details have to be worked out. It seems that one railroad library in town rather than two makes sense but our collection is just too vast for a full merger. The SDMRM is not interested in the corporate records or any of the books. Even most of the maps don't interest them but they are willing to pursue talks toward some kind of limited cooperation.

The SDMRM space is of poured in place concrete construction for maximum security and fire protection. It is climate controlled. It looks like the best location for our rarest maps even if another space for our own library should turn up. The SDMRM got a large grant from the State of California and have spent more than a quarter of a million on their library space to date. The chance of getting another grant, considering the massive State deficits of the last few years, makes funding from this source for library purposes highly unlikely. So where do we go from here to find a home for the bulk of our collection?

Unless a deep pockets rail history buff turns up our collection is going to be stored for some time in the intense heat and severe cold of our Campo property. Even the City of San Diego can't get their new library built after years of trying. The immediate future doesn't look good either except for what we can work out with the model railroaders on a limited basis. Railroad history in San Diego has always been at risk but at no time like it is now. If the mice don't eat out collection at Campo then the heat and cold will. We have spread mouse bait in the containers and several schemes have been considered for insulating the big metal boxes but all of these are short term preservation moves that still don't make any of the artifacts available for research. What a bummer! If anyone out there in membership land can help find a way out of this dilemma now is the time to come to the aid of your local railroad museum.

So, meanwhile, what is to become of our 1915 down town railroad station? As this is written the baggage room has been partially demolished and a new glass box addition is being built in it's place. The editor of this sheet has seen the drawings for this monstrosity and is thoroughly disgusted. Amtrak is still using the other end of the building so at least the most architecturally significant portion of the old building will survive but, on the other end, the glass box will be a pimple on the butt of historic preservation for generations.

Bob Underhill and Bruce Semelsberger are shown here amid the piles of packing boxes trying to wrestle the heavy copy machine off of it's perch. The massive arched doors beyond are original to the 1915 station. By now, they have most likely been destroyed. Photo by Randy Houk

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