As Rob notes, some excellent historic sites that would have made appropriate RR museums were lost to indifference and by community competition to acquire the "official" state railroad museum to boost tourism in their locales.

As I've said for nearly 20 years now (to much derision), it's best to save the historic site first, then bring the rolling stock to it rather than the other, more common opposite way. Only when we start to think of creating historically accurate "Colonial Williamsburg"-like settings will we gain credibility. Unfortunately, we don't have a J.D. Rockefeller Jr. to finance them, so it takes at least some public funding.

I believe public funding and private non-profit effort can (with difficulty) work effectively, noting the success of the Market Street Railway and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation.

> Back when the collection came together,
> there were excellent, intact, state-owned
> locomotive facilites that would have given
> the museum a shop and display area. One was
> the small PRR terminal at South Amboy and
> the other was the CNJ locomotive shop at
> Elizabethport. Just demolished was the CNJ
> roundhouse at Communipaw in Liberty State
> Park.

> Had the NJ legislature galvinzed support, we
> would have a museum set up with excellent
> facilities.

> Unfortunately, some politicos started a
> "we want it in our town" campaign
> that stalled the project amidst long
> examination studies.

> E'port and SA fell to the wrecking ball.

> What was left was a choice of open fields to
> start from scratch in.

> The politicians could have helped stop this,
> instead, they helped create it!

> Rob


Market Street News
ryarger@rypn.org

> Hi friends,

> The long and the short of this (from the
> eyes of a Garden State resident) is that
> politics on the city, county and state level
> have stalled this project.

And now you know one of the reasons I now live in Michigan!

Martyhuck@aol.com

Bennett,
Thanks for mentioning us in this discussion! The NJ Museum of Transportation, Inc (NJMT)/Pine Creek RR is all volunteer and receives no funding from the state of NJ. Over our 50 years of operation, we have pulled together a large collection with an assortment of equipment from NJ including buildings, cabooses, locomotives, maps, pictures, etc.

We could use some money for sure which would allow us to exhibit so much more of this collection but I don't see it being funded by public funds. Private donations and grants are what we would look for, but what we need is a leader to head up this large effort. Such a facility would be outside our normal operation. What I need is a body. Someone to work through the funding, architect, and layout of the facility. I am finding that this is truly the hardest part.

We simply need a person, a fighter, to head up such an effort.

Any takers?

J.R. May
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
NJMT/Pine Creek RR

> Right on the point!!!!!!

> When we look around at the preservation
> effort only a tiny bit of the museum effort
> owes its existance to taxpayer generosity.
> With the possible exception of TEA money,
> government "assistance" is rather
> sparce, and if one looks around our
> "universe" most great collections
> were assembled without OPM (other people's
> money).

> Look at the terrific collection the Reading
> people have managed to assemble, and now
> their excellent plan to acquire Real Estate.
> I marvel at the collection and effort at the
> OERM and other sites that I have visited. It
> is called Vision and Leadership! I will
> visit Portola this week and I am sure it
> will be a most pleasent experience.

> Government money isn't always the answer.
> Look at the problems in Altoona and with the
> K4. Hopefully the new team will be able to
> be much better custodians of the public's
> investment in their community. State
> mjuseums are dependent on state funding
> processes. If not for the efforts of the
> Friends, the RRMPA would not nearly be the
> success that it is, and in my opinion if
> solely dependent on the farebox and the
> legislature would be very far from what it
> is today.

> I see a few problens in NJ that would give
> some members of the legislature
> concern,especially in the allocation of TEA
> funds. If the folks in Jersey were really
> serious rather than fragmented they could
> come together to move forward on their own
> inititive.

> If the folks 40 miles to the west in Reading
> can do it and do it so well, there is
> rreally no reason why the folks in Jersey
> can't. Just look at the folks in Allaire snd
> their "gem" of a museum. It has
> been done in the Garden State. So there is
> really no excuse!

> Leadership!, Not OPM!!!!!


http://www.njmt.org
jrmay@njmt.org

In spike of all of the troubles you folks did a great job there and are to be commended. The location has got to be one of the most difficult ones to deal with by any group. Thank You

Tom Gears