Apparent neglect and the National Railway Museum

In issue 351 of Steam Railway magazine it is mentioned that the NRM have in
stock an original Stirling tender more historically suited to the Stirling
Single. They have also said that it has been exposed to the weather for 40
years. This reminds me of a recent visit in which I saw the Iron Duke
tender, admittedly a replica deteriorating outside. This raises that
question of how good a job the NRM is making of caring for the Nations
treasures and why nothing is done about it. If this tender is restored for
the Stirling single will the current one be dumped outside instead of being
saved for a future project?

In message
<8c4e9e35-1a80-4899-ba20-72b3236c1392@56g2000hsm..com>, at
08:12:13 on Sun, 29 Jun 2008, trackmiles@ remarked:
>Knowing many of the team I do understand that there is som desperate
>soul searching each time a decision to place an item outside

Would it not help to at least have some kind of cladding to keep the sun
and rain off?
--
Roland Perry

The problem with such a collection as the NRM has (and a very fine
collection that is indeed) is that by definition it must continue to
grow to save representative examples of today's technology for future
generations.

Such a policy can only work if there is a vast amount of space
available into which that collection can continue to grow for the
forseeable future. I can understand that covered space is at a
premium, but the money and manpower required to restore the rolling
stock that is being left to rot today must be brought up at some point
in the future. Isn't this simply deferring the problem to a future
date? At the same time, many original materials are being lost that
cannot easily be replaced.

Such safe storage place need not necessarily be accessible to the
public (except m,aybe on special occasions), neither must it all be at
one location. Rail access is not really a prerequesite either,
especially when it comes to long-term storage. There are plenty of
brown-field industrial sites avaialble that would fit the
requirements.