Just picked up a copy of Kalmbach's "2006 Tourist Trains" and noted with interest that it now includes some entries marked as "Editors Choice", denoting: " 'not to be missed' museums or tourist trains that are among the best in North America." Of the "more than 600" entries, I counted less than 120 marked as editiors choice, less than 1 in 5.

I had two immediate thoughts. First the editors of Trains have a lot of intestinal fortitude to publicly announce which they think are the best 20% to visit. They have probably just disappointed at the very least 80% of the rail attractions in North America!

Second was what a good idea this is. First it lessens, at least a little bit, the negative impact on "good" organizations of poor visitor experiences at one of the unmarked entries, and it helps promote the "good" ones --much like the starred attractions in the AAA Guidebooks.

In addition it does provide a comparison of the various railroad related attractions from a tourist satisfaction point-of-view by very knowlegeable people in the field. It will be interesting to see if those not on the "Choice" list are spurred on to make an effort to improve the visitor experience to try and get on the list next year.

I thought the selection was eclectic -- not just steam operators, not just Museums with strong interpretive or educational programs, not just large well-establilsed organizations, and not just newer upstarts. And I thought it was interesting which large institutions were left off the list.

I would be very interested if those who made the selections would expound here on their criteria.

Anybody else care to comment?

Peter:

When I first saw this "Editors Choice" notation in the book, my first reaction was that that all the museums who WEREN'T "Choice" got short shrifted. I've had quite a bit of time to think about it since then and you know what? It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth! Of course it is THEIR book, and they can do anything with it they want.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum*/North Judson, Indiana)

*NOT an "Editors Choice."

I haven't seen it yet. I don't know if we care or are not. Every month, they decide which organization's news get's printed in their magazine. I note that we are never featured. On one hand, it would be good for the morale to see our news in print, and, to be a choice museum. On the other hand, we serve the 11 million people in southern California who live within 3 hours of us, and an extremely small few of them are railfans who have seen us in the book. So, from a business standpoint - it's not important.

All that being said - they should have a posted criteria somewhere where all can see how they were judged. Realistically, not all museum are created equally.

National Capital Trolley Museum received an "Editor's Choice". I was pleasantly surprised with the recognition. My colleagues and I continue to press ahead following the fire. As a result of the losses, the regular operating fleet is down to three PCCs. In that regard, we continue to look ahead to better days in the near future. The recognition from the guide book was a nice gesture and did much to lift my morale.

Maybe Jim Wrinn can share some details on what benchmarks were used to bestow Editor's Choice. Perhaps they deal with some of the issues we've talked about: visitor facilities, interpretation, etc. Maybe we can all learn from this.

Wesley

The UK "Heritage Railways" magazine ran 2 articles recently naming the author's version of the top-ranking heritage steam railways in UK (Standard gauge ex BR and narrow gauge covered in separate league tables). The articles also mentioned the lines that just missed our from the premier league but were in the second division. The articles generated some heat in "letters to the editor" but importantly DID set out the criteria used. Note however that it avoided trying to compare apples with pears but having two articles.

Both issues of the magazine are well worth reading if you have a particular interest in this topic. I know that sitting in Australia I found it most useful to look at some of the criteria used and mentally comparing whether our operation had particular areas of similar strength or weakness but felt they had a fair railfan bias. In contrast UK publisher of other transport magazines Ian Allen has been known for years for his advocacy of taking a general public viewpoint which led him in to many editorial comments about the quality and condition of public toilets (washrooms to you US citizens) being more important than wheel arrangements of the locomotives.

Wes,

We had several things going on in the selections, and there is a general criteria printed in the front of the book.

Basically, we wanted to try and lift as many of the worthwhile railroad attractions up and over the increasing numbers of model railroad layouts, live steam operations, etc. There's obviously nothing wrong with them, but the central focus of the book is excursion lines and museums, so we wanted to give as many of them as we could an extra plug.

Obviously some places got the Editor's Choice plug for their worthwile collections, others for their magnificent rides, and yet others for interpretation, and a number of other attributes. The key to perfecting this, in my opinion, and I hope the folks in the books department this coming year will follow through, is to allow us to provide some commentary to clarify exactly what is being held up as exceptional.

As always, I welcome suggestions to make it the best guide possible. The Steam Passenger Directory of old was a great Bible for those of us who loved to seek out every last operation out there, and the Tourist Trains book of today is a good successor, and I hope to see it become better.

Jim Wrinn, Editor
Trains magazine
jwrinn@trainsmag.com

One thing to think about for the next time around is whether it would be worth indicating whether a museum/ tourist road is on the NRHS discount list.

Right now that information's been posted at NRHS.com

Bob H