RRChef,
The M&H Chapter's equipment was not involved in the fire. Ironically, it was evicted by GTI in 1993 from the main repair/shop building. It has been sitting on a severed siding along the active portion of the Colonie Main, rotting away and being vandalized, much as the main shop building had been doing up until the fire.
You referenced it as Building 1, although for some reason I seem to remember someone on the old board saying that it was actually #5. My memory is so rotten anymore that I won't claim to remember that for sure - perhaps I am mixing it up with another building on the site. I'll ask any forum members who remember for certain to confirm that for us.
Note Added 3/29/04: It is #1. Took seeing a couple of pictures to remember.
I haven't taken much time to reflect on the personal impact this event has had on me. My life will go on, but it really is like losing an old friend. These are the kind of days where I find it very easy to understand all the bad feelings that still linger to this day over what GTI did to the D&H. I do understand that the official closure of the Colonie Shops happened because CP didn't want them when they took over, but it happened as a result of Guilford's actions, and they must take the heat for it, at least from most loyal D&H fans.
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Kurt Loerzel
Moderator, Delaware & Hudson Forum
One brief postscript, the Times Union continues to inaccurately report that the shop closed in the 1980's, and that GTI ownership was a result of taking over the bankrupt D&H in 1983. As has been stated so succinctly on the old board, to quote ChiefTroll, "The D&H was solvent, not bankrupt when GTI took over operations in 1983." Guilford placed the D&H into bankruptcy. Also, the shops offically closed in 1992, remaining used only by the M&H Chapter of the NRHS for a period after that until 1993. It has been abandoned since then.