Preserving History

[NW Mailing List]

I've sort of kept up with the Heartland Corridor thread, although it 
isn't really the sort of thing I'm interested in.  I've been amused at 
the violence of opinions expressed, and felt like throwing in my $.02 
worth as well.

As has been commented before, both here and elsewhere, it is unrealistic 
to expect a company to preserve its history in daily operations.  It's 
generally not even realistic to hope that a company will preserve its 
history in any form, since history doesn't make money.  When Ford 
stopped making the Model T, did anybody suggest that the Model A was an 
assault on the company's history?  Would anybody expect them to resume 
production now, because there are so many people who love antique cars? 
  Should farmers go back to using buckboard wagons and teams of horses 
of oxen, instead of trucks, tractors, combines, etc., just because 
they're more photogenic and historically accurate?

My point is that things become obsolete.  Objects wear out or get 
damaged, and technologies improve.  Things change.  When something is no 
longer suited to the task it has to perform, it must either be replaced 
or upgraded, and upgrading only makes sense if it can be done 
effectively.  Respecting an object's history while upgrading it is only 
practical when that can be done without increasing the cost, or where 
that preservation in itself will lead to greater profitability.

For those of us who love history, this can be frustrating and depressing 
beyond belief.  I agree with the folks who wish the old tunnel portals 
could have been kept, but I also wish we were still running trains 
behind steam locomotives and using wooden cabooses.  Time marches on, 
though, and all we can do is document what is in use, preserve what is 
discarded, and reproduce (usually in model form) what has been lost. 
Getting mad at a company for doing what a company does is sort of like 
getting mad at the sun for being hot.  It is, it burns you sometimes, 
but where would we be without it?
-- 
Kenneth Rickman - krickman1 at carolina.rr.com
Salisbury, NC