Mostly yes, Dave. You won't find a piece of paper saying "AAM says railroad museums should use the ARM recommended procedures," but since AAM's Museum Advancement and Excellence department--the department at AAM that runs Accreditatation--helped ARM develop the procedures, that is a very safe assumption.

What the Accreditation Commission wants to see is that a museum has chosen and systematically applied standards that are appropriate to the museum's own field. The Commission is not in the business of telling sub-disciplines what those standards should be--it just wants a museum to have appropriate standards, to be able to explain what they are, why they were chosen, and how they have been implemented.

For railroad museums, the implication is pretty obvious: the ARM standards define best practices appropriate to the railroad museum field.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. I visited ORM in July 1977, and shortly thereafter it seemed to go "off the radar"--no more entries in Steam Passenger Service Directory. I think the N&W steam loco was "embargoed" shortly after my visit--even then it was so tired it needed help from an electric locomotive. I remember going off the property to get photos and movies at their Highway 161 bridge, watching the reaction of motorists to a steam engine or trolley car passing overhead ("What the heck was that?!?") I also remember that they had 4449 running--not the Daylight steamer, the Chicago El car. Good to see it coming back to life.