M454?

[AProchek at aol.com]

Yeah, if I had Bill Gate's money (oh lets not be greedy, half would do) I 
would hire an army to restore 3498, m1, 728, 3487, and 832.  The later Philly 
steel cars just don't have much attraction for me, but I guess they run OK 
and people can get in and out of them.  Unless I get out of the oilfield and 
out of Texas, I'm stuck down here so there's not much I can do except write 
out an occasional check to help support those who actually work and hope 
these cars will be put back together someday.  Although truth to tell I think 
I'd rather have them as static but original heaps rather than replicated 
using the original parts only as blueprints (the term has been called 
"facadism").  I overheard one docent at PTM muse about ordering a new replica 
open car body rather than bother to restore Rio 1774.  I don't know how that 
could possibly fit into PTM's charter .  The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 
has a very nice philosophy on this sort of thing on their website.