Dick Cowles was kind enough to track down this article--thanks Dick!
Keith
The following is a reprint of an article that appeared in the Fall 1995 issue of the Dispatch, the Friends publication of record. It is a useful guide to understanding the terms used in architectural preservation work, especially as these extend to railroad preservation.
PRESERVATION PERSPECTIVE: NO.1
Definitions in Preservation
If you attended the work sessions, you received a list of preservation principles with your registration materials in the form of a condensed version of the Secretary of the Interior's "Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings." The guidelines mention steps in the preservation process, including protection, maintenance, repair, replication, alterations, and additions. Also used and implied are the terms preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation. Often I see these words used interchangeably when, in fact, each refers to a specific aspect of preservation. Even in preservation circles, these words may be confused as the author becomes careless or presumes to write for an audience well-schooled in the field.
For my definitions, I turned to a standard text on architectural preservation, Historic Preservation by James Marston Fitch (McGraw Hill, 1982). Check your local library for this book if you would like more information. While the definitions are slanted toward buildings, I think they apply to boxcars as well - boxcars are just little buildings which move! Also keep a dictionary handy for some of the lingo-istic words which follow.
Broadly defined, rehabilitation means to restore to an operable or sound condition. Locomotive 463 was rehabilitated.
Preservation implies the maintenance of an object in the same physical condition as when it was received by the curatorial agency. Nothing is added to or subtracted from the aesthetic corpus of the artifact. Any intervention necessary to preserve its physical integrity (protection against fire, theft, or intrusion; heating; cooling;
lighting) are to be cosmetically unobtrusive. Several years ago, the Friends worked on derrick OP to preserve its physical condition.
Restoration describes the process of returning the artifact to the physical condition in which it would have been at some previous stage of its morphological development. The buildings at Sublette, New Mexico, have been repainted in a color scheme representative of the D&RGW paint scheme used during the period of abandonment.
Conservation and consolidation involve physical intervention in the actual fabric of the object to ensure its continued structural integrity. For several years now, a crew led by Randy Worwag has been hard at work on 30-foot refrigerator car 55. Each summer the group carefully disassembles part of the car, investigates the extent of damage, and meticulously crafts new wood replacement parts in a railroad-like manner. The intent is to return the car to operation.
While a prototype is an original form which serves as a basis on which later stages are based or judged, a replica is a copy or reproduction; a facsimile is an exact copy or reproduction. No two objects on the C&TS are quite the same, and D&RGW cabooses are typical. Caboose 0503 can be considered a prototype on which caboose replica 0306 is based. Caboose 0306 is not a facsimile of 0503, however: 0306 is much more comfortable!
Adaptive use involves saving a structure by adapting it to the needs of the new tenants. Many boxcars were adapted into passenger cars in the early history of the C&TS.
Reconstruction describes the re-creation of vanished buildings on their original site; rebuilding the snow shed at Cumbres is one example.
I hope this helps to clarify some often confusing terms. You can see from the examples that the Friends has embarked on a wide range of preservation and rehabilitation projects, and often the projects encompass several definitions. Inherent in every project is a series of decisions about the condition of the existing materials and how best to maintain and preserve them.
