The discussion of the future of our equipment leads to the question of collections policies, which are an important part of AAM accreditation and part of ARM recommended practices. Does anyone have collections policies they can share from the various organizations represented?

Ben Kroger
Dallas, Texas

The Orange Empire Railway Museum's collections policy is available online through this link: http://www.oerm.org/pages/collection_policy.html

The Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resouces also has theirs on line at http://www.spcrr.org/spcrr_policies_and_guidelines.htm

National Capital Trolley Museum's Collections Policy is summarized as follows:

COLLECTIONS POLICY

The Museum collections should satisfy the Mission Statement. To completely achieve such a goal, the size of the collections would have to be far larger than the Museum will be able to support. Collections must be conserved or preserved, and require considerable capital expenditures for facilities, manpower, and materials. These limitations necessitate controlling the growth of collections while simultaneously maximizing the possibility of achieving effective interpretation. To accomplish this dual mandate, four (4) criteria are employed in the collection development recommendations:

• Using Washington, DC streetcars whenever possible to trace the technological development of electric street railways enhances the regional nature of a small streetcar collection.
• Building the International Collection reflects the unique role of Washington, DC as an international city.
• Establishing arbitrary limits based upon degree of interest among members defines the media collections.
• Permitting the curatorial staff to select representative samples of electric street railway artifacts provides flexibility for interpretive work.

Wesley Paulson

From the UK, here's National Railway Museum-York's:

http://www.nrm.org.uk/collections/documents/NRM%20Collecting%20Policy.doc

and Darlington Railway Museum's:

http://www.nemlac.co.uk/nemlac/resources/DarlingtonRailwayCentreMuseumCollectingpolicyNov04.doc

From Canada, Candian Museum of Rail Travel Web excert:

http://www.crowsnest.bc.ca/cmrt/cmrtpurpose.html

From the US, Old Pueblo Trolley:

http://www.oldpueblotrolley.org/VAP.htm

Readers might also be interested in this general article with links to other resources from AAM's Museum News magazine.

http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/MN_JA02_CollectionsPlanning.cfm