On behalf of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum our thanks go to the 200+ attendees that participated in this year's conference in Washington, PA. Many traveled quite a distance including 20 from Canada and many from the West Coast. With great weather and lively seminars, I think a good time was had by all. Special thanks go to the Port Authority of Allegheny County for providing tour of their light rail shops and operations center and to the Pittsburgh & Ohio Central Railroad for supplying a GP-11 diesel locomotive and personnel to participate in our diesel seminar. More can be read from an Observer-Reporter newspaper article at:
http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Sto ... conference

Scott Becker
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Thanks to Scott and his very able staff, this was a very successful Association of Railway Museums conference. The sessions were great and included everything from strategic planning to collections management software to diesel engine care to improving education (interpretation) at your rail museum. They had great excursions too, a couple of which were to the top non-rail historical attractions in the area where attendees could learn how those institutions conduct successful interpretation for their audiences. Other opportunities found us inside the stacks at the Heinz Museum's library, inside the collection storage areas at the Penna Trolley Museum, inside the coaches at the Railroader's Memorial Museum, and of course on the top deck of the dinner cruise on the Ohio River during the fireworks show. (Great fireworks show - I'm sure it was coincidental that the rowers from the weekend regatta were on shore to watch too!)

Well done Scott!

--Richard

As a Pennsylvanian, it was great to have a local trip. It was even better to not have to apologize for the state, the weather, anything in Pittsburgh, or the state in general. The Trolley Gods smiled on us repeatedly with coincidences like the fireworks display, hot CSX mainline action at Station Square, a fantastic sunset on the Allegheny River during the cruise, and if anything went haywire during the intensive four-trolley operations at the museum, it wasn't readily apparent. Throw in firing up and moving Armco Steel B-73, the oldest operating diesel in the US, and it was a memorable meeting indeed.

Scott and his crew did a wonderful job. First-rate conference, well-planned and well-executed.

Only thing about the guest operations was that we ran a little late-15 to 20 minutes. They were running 3 cars most of the time but had 4 on a couple of occasions.

All of the big operations-trips, seminars and formal dinners went very well. The food at the convention hotel was EXCELLENT, especially considering that they are relatively new at hosting large banquets. It was also very nice of the hosts and hotel to arrange to move all of the breakfasts and some of the lunches at the hotel to the Junior Ballroom.

Hi Scott:

And, please convey our thanks from the Minnesota contingent to the hard working crew that organized and conducted this year's ARM conference. I would especially single-out Jack Samuels, Lynn Caffrey, Barb Myers-Ciccone and Barb Kearns-Jones for their stellar planning and execution. They, and the others involved in the meeting, deserve a medal. This was the best ARM meeting I've attended.

Thanks, again!

On behalf of the attendees from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum; a hardy "well done" to everyone at PTM. The bar has been raised. Thanks to everyone.