I have been a patron of American amusement parks for more then 50
years now.  Several times I have seen them rise and fall with the
economy and the fads.  Yes, I ride the newest coasters and have been
to over 50 amusement parks in the USA.

So much for history.  What saddens me is the complete lost of
a mechanical music machine.  Putting a machine in storage is generally
a one way trip -- the next stop is the junkyard.  I understand profit
is the motivating drive behind all these parks, so what can _we_ do?

Selling off this excess inventory is a good way to boost profits and
reduce costs.  The problem that I've seen with park sales of organs
is that they think a broken unit is worth the same as an new one.  If
their is no sale it is stored some more until it becomes a total loss.
If a _fair_ price can be set I'm sure a caring buyer can be found.

Second proposal: repair for part ownership.  I like this idea better,
because it keeps the organs in the natural habitat.  One or more people
qualified to make repairs on the instrument do the repairs for a
percentage of the instrument ownership.  The parks responsibility would
be to run and display the instrument.  The maintenance team job would
be to keep the instrument in a playable condition.

Jim Nobles