National Capital Trolley Museum is open on weekends all year. Since April 2005 we have noticed a drop in walk-in weekend visitors.Can you comment on how your regular walk-in business has fared compared to the same general period in 2004 since April, or since the start of your 2005 season (whenever that is).Just curious in a few words, is your attendance, or your sense of your attendance pattern:Higher than last year?Lower than last year?About the same as last year?Thanks.Wesley

We are open year round also.Ridership is up - volunteers down slightly, with volunteers way down over the past 10+ years.

Interesting coincidence, I was pondering this same question this weekend.I've been out to IRM a couple of times so far this year, and it "seems" fairly quiet. While admittedly we're just officially into summer, it made me wonder about gas prices, travel, etc.Being in the Chicago area, there are basically three museums that I visit on a semi-regular basis. IRM in Union, East Troy just up the road in SE Wisc, and the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin. I'm fortunate that I live in the NW burbs, so for me the travel isn't bad, roughly 25 minutes, 60 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively.From Chicago, each of those destinations is roughly an hour to an hour and a half away, depending on where in Chicago you start, traffic, etc. Given that gas is averaging around $2.25 a gallon these days, I have to imagine this is putting a severe crimp in visits. I would guess that not only are visits down, but the number of volunteers that can afford to make the same trips must be down as well. Maybe only getting out once per month, as opposed to every week.An unfortunate situation.

Attendance at IRM is running ahead of 2004 [but 2004 started quite slowly and picked up in July & August]. I think the very hot , humid weather of a couple of our June weekends hurt us as much as anything. The weather was perfect the past weekend, and attendance reflected that.

Spring attendance at nearly all Chicago area museums again declined slightly from the previous year. Of the majors, only the Shedd has seen admission growth despite the fact that it traditionally has been the most expensive. With the new charges for seeing the restored U-505, MSI is now the most expensive: about $35 each adult if all of the special exhibits and the IMAX are included. Add $12 for parking. There seem to be several reasons for the decline. The biggest reason is that local schools are having budgetary problems and have cut back on field trips. Second, is that the convention business is down sharply. Some conventions have moved to Orlando or Vegas, but attendance at the remaining shows is down. It’s unclear whether that is due corporate downsizing, tight budgets or competition from new internet-based training methods. Third, is that new entertainment/cultural options continue to proliferate. Casinos seem to be the biggest draws. Small new museums continue to spring up, however, and it doesn’t seem that the traffic will support them all. About ten years ago, it dawned on many municipal leaders that they wouldn’t be too successful at attracting new industry. So they switched to tourism development. While we seem to have gone full circle and tourism grants are now less prevalent, many projects incubated in the go-go years have come on line only recently. Nature centers, house museums and children’s museums seem to top the list of new starts. In Illinois, for example, the newly opened Lincoln Museum has received much press and will likely draw traffic away from other downstate attractions. It was in development to over a decade. Will there be a major shakeout to reduce museum capacity? It’s unlikely even though some major players are on the ropes. The Chicago Historical Society and the nearby Notebart Natural History Museum are struggling. In Milwaukee, both the Milwaukee Public and the Art Museum are in precarious shape. It seems likely that these and others can rally enough donor support to stay afloat. Meanwhile, new museum proposals continue to abound. Chicago has recently seen plans for a new stained glass museum (in the mansion of a CRI&P president), a first amendment museum, a steel industry museum, and several house museums. In other words, competition for visitors will probably increase.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum is open year round. This year we moved our opening operating back into the 3rd weekend of April and it was a smashing success. April was grand and May a disappointment. We experienced three snowstorms on three weekends and our ridership showed it. The weather changed in June and June has bounced back strongly. In fact we have recovered May’s lost and are now ahead for the year. This year starting on the 4th of July through Labor Day we will be operating steam seven days a week. In addition to the steam we will have two diesel trains daily also. In regards to high gas prices, what we have noticed is an increase in visitors from surrounding states. Some days our parking lot looks like we have been moved to California other days Utah. This seems to bare out the research that I have done, that American’s will still take vacations, but only closer to home. I believe the two major problems facing our industry is the disconnection of the rail industry from the rest of society and our properties relying on just train rides with no interpretation of the importance the railroads in the building of our country or of the existing artifacts.The other thing we must realize is that to maintain our respective collections takes a great deal of money. To raise this money, we need to take a new look at forming partnerships with surrounding business, motels, restaurants, chambers of commerce, etc. We also need to work closer with each other. How about RailMuseum USA pass? Group advertising and promotion? The next thing we need to do is get over our fixation with price. Frankly we have under priced ourselves if we charge at all. Look at sports, theater and concerts. What do they charge? A lot more than we do, but to charge this amount we need to provide more than a train ride. Just my two centsMark

Wes.I think it may be weather related. We had an unusually cold and wet spring this year, and then it turned to midsummer in a day or two.

We are open April through December in Altoona. Attendance at the Museum has shown a nice increase vs 2004. Attendance at Horseshoe Curve is down considerably. We had horrible weather this spring, especially May. For the first time since we've tracked numbers this way (12+ years), April attendance was higher than May.Things really picked up starting with Memorial Day weekend but there is this eerie calm during the week.Come see us! Railfest is Sept 23, 24, 25 this year.

So far this year we've been doing really well. We've only been open two days so far but attendance is WAY up. I credit getting the line open to Rion, at least partially.

Thanks to all of you for your replies. Hey Art - has PTM seen any dramatic shift in regular visitation with the opening of the new barn?Wesley