(The following story by Emily-Rose Bennett appeared on The Saginaw News website on July 11, 2010.)
SAGINAW, Mich. — The Saginaw Railway Museum, located on Maple Street, is in danger of losing its only connection to the main rail lines due to CSX Transportation’s desire to rip up the old unused lines in a development project. “All that we ask is for them to leave us a little bit of track so that we can reach the main line. They can rip up the rest, ” Jim Trier, 69, President of the Museum, said. “And unless we pay them $20,000 we can’t keep the little bit of track. We’re in a real dilemma.”
CSX Transportation, a Jacksonville, Florida-based company, wants to remove the short railway line that connects the museum at 800 Maple in Saginaw, to the main Lake State Railway Company line in Saginaw because of rough road crossings, said museum board members.
But that would leave the non-profit organization without a way to add or remove train engines and cars from its stock. The museum asked CSX to leave about 300 feet of track to keep the museum connected to the main line — still allowing the company to remove all road crossings. Board President Jim Trier said CSX is asking for $20,000, an amount the museum cannot afford.
CSX Spokesman Gary Sease said the company asked for money, although he did not know the exact amount, for liability insurance and to lease the track.
The transportation company wants to remove the line because of the poor condition of the road crossings, the scrap value of the tracks and the value of the land, Sease said.
The spur line in question connected the former Malleable Iron Foundry, 77 W. Center, to the main line.
It crosses Michigan, Hamilton and Salt. The museum, which opened in 1988, is at the corner of the main Lake State Railway line and the spur line.
“It’s been here a long time,” Trier said. “What’s it going to hurt?”
The museum is doing everything it can to keep connected to the main line.
“We offered a write off on taxes for amount, but they don’t want to go that way,” he said. “We tried to buy it privately, but they wouldn’t go for it.”
The museum board went to the Surface Transportation Board in Washington D.C., but the line does not fall under its jurisdiction. It is solely under the control of CSX Transportation.
Sease said CSX believes the museum is no longer interested in keeping the tracks, but museum officials said they are.
If the museum is cut off from the main line, Trier said, it would no longer able to accept donations of rolling stock or move out either of the locomotives it has. Only one of the locomotives is operational and is small enough to be moved via truck, and board members are debating what to do with the larger, broken down locomotive. The 50-year-old locomotive needs new trucks, or wheels, and engine repairs in order to be moved.
The situation comes as a surprise to board members. Trier said they have had a good relationship with CSX in the past.
“Somewhat ironically, they connected us to the line they now want to remove, for free, in 1991,” museum Secretary Karl Melcher said. “We were surprised at their unwillingness to donate the property, and even more surprised by their asking price.”
The museum building was built in Hemlock in 1907 and stopped serving passengers in the mid-1940s. It closed in July 1976. The building was moved to its current location in 1983 and opened as a museum in 1988.
“Unless some donor comes out of the wood work, we’ll be left high and dry,” Trier said.