Interesting philosophical debate # 3,981:

Suppose that the RR Museum of Pa. had, by virtue or lack thereof of 1960s politics, been put somewhere besides Strasburg. Say it had been put in suburban Pittsburgh. Or Scranton (and the Steamtown collection ended up elsewhere). Or State College. Or Erie. Or Northumberland. Or Altoona.

None of these places would have had an operating steam excursion ride across the street, although some would have had had the option of an adjacent main line.

Would the RR Museum of Pa. thus have an incentive to provide an operating demonstration? Would it be an out-and-back shuttle like B&O Museum and Steamtown have? Would it be a real demonstration track/yard, if some trackage in Altoona or Erie had been available?

And what would they use? Would they have gotten "expendable" locos with no ties to Pa. (like the Northwestern Steel & Wire 0-8-0s or LS&I 2-8-0s), or would they only offer yet another GP9 and Pennsy P70?

Hmmmmmmmmm?

lner4472@bcpl.net

I think most of realize that hardly anyone would ever vist the place were it not where not where it is- directly across the street from a amazing and comfortably accessable steam train ride (with Thomas savvy, along with a nice, working sense of 'musology and ethics' doodah- witness Car 10 & the LO&S motorcar). One that happens to be in a prime touist location (no matter how much Lancaster County sprawl is working toward destroying the landscape). I do remember hearing ideas about putting it in Mt. Union, which may have been interesting, but not as financially viable. Same goes for all the above mentioned locations. Just look at Steamtown's visitation numbers and finances.

A quick google search turns up some stats. Steamtown visitation fy 2001 138,272 (and that's them doing the counting) with a $5,000.000.00 budget. Strasburg Ridership for the year was 400,000. Sure would love to see what those Strasburg folks would do with a 5 mil budget! Now, I guess the question is how much of the ridership comes from museum visitors? It's my guess the museum visitors come from the Strasburg's ridership!

I bet 5 million would be a reduction for Strasburg. They get a lot more than just train fare out of each family that visits that place. Not to mention that they have folks just stop by the gift shop without buying a train ticket.

Tom Gears

> A quick google search turns up some stats.
> Steamtown visitation fy 2001 138,272 (and
> that's them doing the counting) with a
> $5,000.000.00 budget. Strasburg Ridership
> for the year was 400,000. Sure would love to
> see what those Strasburg folks would do with
> a 5 mil budget! Now, I guess the question is
> how much of the ridership comes from museum
> visitors? It's my guess the museum visitors
> come from the Strasburg's ridership!

a great point- but then they pay their taxes, payroll, huge cost of goods sold- the gift and food is a concession I think? And I don't see too much volunteer labor running around. I don't think Steamtown has to worry about filiing the tax forms, nor the RRMPA!

> yet another GP9 and Pennsy P70?

Yet another P-70?

There are so few P-70's left intact (and my effort to save one of the most intact a few years ago failed) that they rate HIGH on my endangred species list.

Among the short list of passenger stock I would like to see presevred in original fabric, a P-70 is one. The one I was trying to raise a rally around was intact down to it's trust plate. It had EVERY internal detail in place.

It's sardine cans now.

P-70's are not commonplace.

Rob


Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

> A quick google search turns up some stats.
> Steamtown visitation fy 2001 138,272 (and
> that's them doing the counting) with a
> $5,000.000.00 budget. Strasburg Ridership
> for the year was 400,000. Sure would love to
> see what those Strasburg folks would do with
> a 5 mil budget! Now, I guess the question is
> how much of the ridership comes from museum
> visitors? It's my guess the museum visitors
> come from the Strasburg's ridership!

Strasburg's visitation is all about tourism in the Lancaster area - it has very little if nothing to do with the Museum.


cessvw@cs.com