Dennis Storzek opines-

I bring it up only as a reminder of how worthless
railway museums are for doing prototype research.

Dennis, I am almost completely sure that you really meant to write "...how worthless [SOME] railway museums..." :-) .

Having been centrally involved in many full size locomotive and car restoration decisions over half my lifetime, I can assure you that your fears in this regard do not in any fashion embrace everyone. Some thirty years ago, I was a central protagonist in a basic policy argument supporting meticulous prototype research that curiously had to reach the highest levels of California government before being eventually settled in favor of scholarly honesty.

That said, once in a very great while , i.e. on extremely rare occasions, although meticulous scholarly prototype research may point to many other restoration solutions (and are so recorded in a systematic fashion), a curatorial decision may be made to do completely otherwise simply because the artifact is required as a tool to tell a broader and more important story than any inherent to the car itself. Although generally to be deplored, one has to ultimately agree that in the final analysis paint is only several microns in thickness, and is easily removed.

Denny



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Denny S. Anspach, MD
Sacramento