Does anyone have an idea of a company or individual that would have a railroad point of view in the design of a railroad Museum? The Southeastern Railway Museum is working towards a long range vision on what our site should look like in the future.

To date:
1) we have developed a track plan, the major features of which will most likely not be tweaked due to space and curve requirements.
2) decided on a turntable and roundhouse general placement
3) we are moving the Duluth, GA depot to our site with funding in place
4) we have 3 large metal (ugly) buildings

We are trying to grapple with long range visitor flow, making or building other structures, and educating our architect on what railroad architecture should look like.

But we have also come to realize that we may be too close to our project and to that end, are interested in exploring outside visionaries.

Thoughts??

Dale Grice
Volunteer and Board Member
Southeastern Railway Museum
www.srmduluth.org

The first name that comes to mind is John Hankey, formerly of the B&O Railroad Museum and more lately a consultant at Savannah's Roundhouse Railroad Museum and California State Railroad Museum... J.David

Stone Consulting & Design is one place to start. I not aware of them having done museum design per se, but they have experience in heritage railways, light rail startups, short line railroads, etc.
http://www.stoneconsulting.com/

Dale,

It is vital that you find somebody or a group that knows railroads.

My place was told my the higher powers to hire a "museum consulting group" And we spent the first few months teaching them about vocabulary, artifact significance etc. We ended up doing a lot of the work that we were paying them to do.

You might try some of the professionally staffed museums, who have the money to hire such people.

And a non-railroad museum, that has rail artifacts is the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry. They moved their submarine indoors and the space is indeed a beautiful design.

Ted Miles

Stone Consulting assisted us with facilities planning and provided a valuable budget resource. They did not address the "Museum" side of things in terms of specific interiors space designs. But then we did not ask for that service.

Wesley
National Capital Trolley Museum

Dale,

On your site plan, don't forget one critical building we forgot about in our master plan. Non-rail mounted support equipment building, for storage of all the equipment that you will need to build and maintain the museum (Bucket Loader, Gradall, Lawn Mowers, Golfcarts, Compressor trailer, etc...)

Rich C

It seems you may wish to consider a "team" approach whereby you bring together an experienced museum architect, a museum planning and exhibit design firm and a tourist railroad operation specialist. It was this approach I used in Altoona to develop the visitor facilities associated with the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum/Horseshoe Curve NHL and the RR Art Gallery.

For A&E I'd suggest Wallace, Roberts & Todd of Philadelphia, for museum planning and exhibit design I'd go with Chirstopher Chadbourne & Associates of Boston and for the railroad operations -- Stone Consulting.

Chadbourne was also the museum exhibit designer/space planner who designed the new submarine (U-505) exhibit at MSI in Chicago. I was project manager of that team for Chadbourne.

Peter Barton
Administrator
Nevada Division of Museums & History

I respectfully disagree with the concept that you have to hire an architect or planner with a rail heritage background for many, if not most museum projects. It really depends on what you’re trying to build.

For a visitor’s center or gallery space, I’d look for a local firm with an architectural preservation practice. Knowledge of local zoning, building codes and especially a good working relationship with government officials is imperative. Any good national firm would have to hire such an architect, so if you can find a good fit, you’ve eliminated the middleman.

While we all can identify with the problems of teaching the hired help our language, operational needs and peculiarities, it is what they can teach us that is important. For example, the need for curb-appeal seems to be lost on railroad museums. It just doesn’t seem important in our plans. Perhaps it’s because our interests are somewhat industrial in nature or maybe we think our operations are so appealing to everyone that they just can’t wait to see the locomotives and cars. Every other retail or cultural attraction, however, seems to think that a good front door is a major, if not paramount, planning concern. Architects certainly think that way. Find a local firm that will constructively challenge your preconceptions and I think you will be well served.

Dale,

I am interested in learning more about your plans.

I think the benefits of a professional architect/planner are often overlooked in the rail preservation field. A talented design professional can contribute much to both the display of historic rail equipment and the quality of the visitor experience. Creating facilities that are both functional and attractive are crucial to the long-term success of any institution that relies on public support.

Professional planning and design can also contribute to the success of capital campaigns and the enlistment of political support.

Randy