If Railfans Actually Care about Locomotive 202 They’ll Support its Preservation (Opinion)

Angry railfans have been flooding one of our social media posts recently, in response to an article which explained the difficulties in returning Locomotive 202 to operational status in Hagerstown. And while these individuals call Hagerstown “hoarders” and state that Locomotive 202 will “continue to rot”, they seem to miss one critical piece. One in three of Hagerstown’s children can’t travel an hour to Cumberland, because their family can’t afford it, and by keeping Locomotive 202 local we preserve a living piece of history for those children. But all of this begs the question, do the railfans actually care about Locomotive 202 being preserved, or did they just want to see a choo-choo go woo-woo?

According to Census Reporter, 32% of Hagerstown’s children are living in poverty. Compare that to the national average of 16%, or the State of Maryland’s average of 9.4%, and you’ll quickly realize why it is so critical that Locomotive 202 stay right where it is – because otherwise the children of Hagerstown would never get to see this living piece of history. When examining the census district where Locomotive 202 sits, you’ll see the situation is even more dire, with 54% of children living in poverty. Not only does Locomotive 202 need to stay in Hagerstown, it needs to stay exactly where it is, making it accessible to the children who need access the most, because they don’t have much else.

And while the railfans claim that Hagerstown “took the easy route”, I argue they absolutely didn’t. The easy route was send the locomotive to Cumberland to alleviate any financial burden on the city and the community. But we as a community rallied to push the city to take the hard route – keep Locomotive 202 here, with the promise that the community will work together to take care of it. This is not going to be easy, and is going to require continuous contributions and support from the community.

The comments of railfans during the live stream on Hagerstown’s YouTube further reinforce that the City of Hagerstown made the right decision, and the railfans completely missed the point of why Hagerstown wants to keep the locomotive. For example, Mike H. commented “I can tell you personally, I’m not driving all the way to Hagerstown to see a static steam engine rusting away.” Louisville Rail Fan stated “I’d drive from Kentucky to see it run, but now? Nahhh.” NJ and PA railfan also remarked “keeping 202 to rot is bringing no one to Hagerstown, what a useless decision.” And these comments illustrate the point perfectly – at no point did any of these railfans from across the country have Hagerstown’s best interests at heart, and it would have never benefited Hagerstown to send Locomotive 202 to WMSR, because it would only have fueled tourism for Cumberland.

Very few driving to Cumberland to see Locomotive 202 will then take an hour drive east just to stop in Hagerstown. These railfans never cared about Hagerstown, its community, or its children, or even Locomotive 202 for that matter. They only wanted to see a steam locomotive become operational again. While the net tourism gain for the community by keeping Locomotive 202 is minimal, the loss to the community would have been far greater had Locomotive 202 been sent to WMSR an hour away.

And it’s sad really, because I know that many local residents, including myself, were ready to support WMSR in its efforts to restore Locomotive 202 to operational status, should the City have sent it to Cumberland. It’s a shame that those who claimed they care about Locomotive 202 so much, will now refuse to visit or help restore it, simply because they didn’t get their way. But maybe I’m wrong on that, and maybe those comments were simply said in the heat of the moment, and railfans will come to realize “hey, this community really is trying to preserve its local history the best it can, and maybe I should help.”

In any case, it’s okay, we will push on. We rallied as a community to save this piece of local history, and now we’ll continue to work together to build something great out of Locomotive 202.

If you’d like to help, The Hub City Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, Inc., has a GoFundMe accepting donations.

Opinion article by Ken Buckler, President of Radio Free Hub City. All opinions are his own, and do not reflect those of our clients or sponsors.

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