Conservation of industrial artifacts

This is a query for those conservators who must grapple with industrial
artifacts.  Our collection includes vehicles, steam locomotives and
engines, sawmill equipment, etc., etc.  But soon, the most demanding
artifact will be a 1912 interurban tram.  Dry rot and active corrosion
are threatening to help gravity bring this artifact to the ground unless
we intervene. If this problem sounds familiar to you (meaning complex
industrial artifacts in general), you are the person I want to talk to.
Have you consolidated structural timbers or sacrificed decayed matter in
the interests of the whole?  Has experience clarified the murky land
where building codes, safety standards and artifact integrity merge?

Please pardon the personal ad humour but my search for a kindred spirit
is sincere.  Many ethical questions, safety concerns and complicated
treatments for industrial collections have yet to be demystified. Please
contact me via e-mail or at the address below if these issues interest
you or, hope of hopes, you have recently conserved an interurban tram.

Elisabeth Czerwinski
Burnaby Village Museum
Burnaby, B.C.
Canada, V5G 3T6
604 293 6526

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:76
                  Distributed: Sunday, March 19, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-8-76-010
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