So true. That and many museums are now parsing through what they already have and working to manage their collections by disposing of artifacts that are not germane to their mission and collections policies by seeking other institutions to take the items that do not fit in. We will probably see more of this as railway museums continue their journey towards adopting and applying professional museum standards. It's hard, but the old time collectors have to understand that it may be more advantageous for the receiving institution to break up a donated collection than to maintain it intact.

There is a balance for sure.

On one hand... museums can overthink their collection. If you have multiple locomotives of a similar type... well take advantage of that. Durango has a collection of locomotives all from the same era and all from the same road. That's really cool. Strasburg has a collection of 3 locomotives of different types from 3 different roads.. that's cool too.

On the other hand... running mix-matched equipment looks sloppy and lazy. I'm thinking of a few operations that run bi-level commuter coaches mixed in with regular coaches and cabooses behind steam. If you are only accepting a bi-level coach because it seats alot of people and it's cheap you are under-thinking your collection.

Both Strasburg and D&SNGR are tourist railroads that support preservation, not museums. Don't confuse them any ore than you would apples and oranges.

Ok.. replace that with Cumbres and Toltec and Illinois Railway Museum.

CATS is an economic development tool for an undeveloped region in the form of a tourist attraction operated by two state governments in partnership. IRM is a museum - getting closer.

My examples really had nothing to do with the business side of the operation... if that’s what you want to discuss than you missed my point entirely.

No operation comparison is apples to apples. That wasn’t the point.

The big question is the Gold Coast Railroad Museum is a Railroad museum? or a tourist attraction?

A museum is to preserve the history

So if the Gold Coast railroad want to focus into a tourist attraction i think that not a museum anymore

I just hope the pacific locomotive will found a great home

The florida railroad museum???

Point: it makes sense for tourist operations to have identical equipment for ease of maintaining reliability through interchangeable parts and one set of dies, jigs, etc fits all. Some museums that interpret a single narrow focus may also choose to collect identical and multiple items to provide a richness of context to support their mission - others may want to provide a breadth if dissimilar items to interpret a broader and less deep focus, IRM for example or St Louis. The business basis / mission should drive the collections strategy.

Dave- do you feel like a museum shouldn’t have duplicate pieces of equipment? Do you not see how that could make an interesting display? Or are you just against me questioning a museums choice to list a duplicate locomotive for sale?

Not at all. I think it's necessary to impose the discipline of limiting the collection to only that which directly supports the mission of the museum since resources are limited and the less stuff available to gobble up the resources the better each will be maintained. CGRRM has chosen to limit the scope of their collection to that which they believe they need for supporting their mission. In their case they have chosen to do better on fewer than to do less each on more. Other museums with different missions may choose otherwise for equally good and valid reasons - and the fact that a lot of stuff was collected 50 years ago because it was available and the train club that called itself a museum didn't even know what a mission statement was at the time and it's been rusting away ever since isn't either good or valid in today's world. MOT has a mission of interpreting technology without geographic limitations which implies a lot of similar but not necessarily identical pieces in their collections - that's very good and very valid and damn ambitious. I like that IRM has developed a system of imposing "charges" per track foot occupied for each piece of rolling stock that has to be justified as a means of sorting out....... as a member of a place that's where old military centercabs go to die and rot that just spent a lot of money adding track and hauling in many pieces that aren't of obvious value, I wish more people had good strategies to guide their acquisitive and retention greed into only productive avenues based on their missions.

As I said, there is a balance for sure. I think you can err too far on the “train club that called itself a museum” mentality and overthink what belongs and doesn’t belong in a collection. I think it’s better to look at what you have and try to use it to the best of your ability.

We can't make money as a railroad museum so now we want to be an events venue.

Which I don't quite understand how they're going to pull that off because I was there 3 weeks ago and the place is an absolute dump. I mean that in the literal sense, the grounds just have piles of trash and debris everywhere and nothing regarding the grounds is being taken care of.

I mean if somebody wanted their wedding themed to "The Walking Dead" just throw some zombie make up on a couple of people and this place is perfect. Other than that they may raise their visitor numbers by making the place NOT look like a burned out abandoned factory. I imagine there's been quite a few mother's that have pulled up to this place, took one look at it, and told their kids they were going to the zoo next door instead.

Absolutely wrong. You don't build your mission based on what you have cluttering up the place, you choose the mission based on an unmet perceived need you want to fill and tailor the collection to do that job and that job only. Everything else is offered to others who might have a legitimate use based on their chosen mission.

Excuse me, you don’t get to decide what is right or wrong. My opinion is my opinion. You are welcome to disagree with my opinion, but that doesn’t make me wrong and you right.

Do you have a personal problem with me? I’ve said from the beginning that I think there is a balance and yet you seem to want to shoot every thing I say down in an authoritative way, as if you’re better than me somehow. I don’t appreciate that.

Just the effects of having built a career in the industry for over 30 years and seen what is sustainable and what isn't. Your suggestions aren't new - they are like the state of the art that came about in the 1980s when old line methods started to fail and legitimate museum as business practices were introduced and people reacted by trying to hold on to the old clubby comfortable ways by wrapping them in a more businesslike shell and appearance. It's still going on today......... I no longer try to soften advice since it doesn't sink in even when bluntly applied. If I pissed you off at least you might start thinking after you're finished reacting. Good luck. Try to make new mistakes instead of repeating old ones.