Hello,

My family and I took a trip to Roanoke this past weekend to visit the new O.Winston Link museum and the Virginia Transportation Museum. I thought I should share my thoughts and observations of my 5 and 8 year old boys and wife.
My wife and I thought the Link Museum was fantastic and very well done. My wife is not even remotely a train buff so this was quite an endorsement! The photographs, displays, movie and the general set-up were excellent. My boys were somewhat interested, but wanted to know where the steam engines were. On to the Transport Museum...the kids had a true appreciation for the N&W 611 and 1218 which surprised me a bit. I had just shown them videos of them in action in the 80's and 90's. Besides the two N&W engines, everything looked pretty dismal - the kids said as much. They couldn't understand why the "rare" (as they called them) E units were in such rough shape and outside the fence. I didn't really have much of an answer, except that it takes money to restore these items and money is obviously lacking. We did make a deposit in the cash box. My observations were similar to the kids. I must say that the new pavilion was impressive looking and the 611 and 1218 looked great. Looking at the collection with a critical eye, I started to wonder why the Nickel Plate Berk, Lavino tank engine, etc. are there and what other visitors must think. There were no signs to interpret the items or their relevance to railroading or transportation in general. Now on to my wife. She has seen the museum before, was not impressed then, and did not want to go in again! Period. During this trip, I felt more like a tourist than a railfan and thought these observations might help museum staff who read and post on this board.

hubbard5004@msn.com

The Link exhibit must be spectacular. Based on what you say, the interpretive specialists there must have figured out how to make "railfan stuff" interesting to non railfans.

In a posting earlier today, TVRM Director Mark Ray thanked those who contributed to TVRM's recently concluded tour of key Pennslyvania railroad museums. As a participant in that sojourn, I would humbly suggest that others take the time to go see how "things are done" elsewhere. And while at Steamtown, you will be richly rewarded if you can slow down Glenn Smith, Ella Rayburn, Ralph Coury, Pat McKnight, and Mark Birtel. Their combined expertise is an unrecognized but world-class treasure.

Similarly, the staffs at Strasburg, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and the B&O Museum were all very helpful. I am confident they also would be happy to share -- within reasonable limits -- their expertise to those seriously interested in enhancing the collections interpretations prowess of their hometown railroad museum.


amiller@rtms-movietrains.com