Marketing and Preservation may seem to be two completely different paths but those two paths cross at this point: MONEY.

Today I was watching two YouTube vids on two delightful little railroads in the UK: The Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwca6i62omo) and The Moors Valley Light Railway (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wSBLrvcR_4).

While each railroad may seem light years apart from what goes on in North America, I believe there are two lessons which do transfer over, both have to do with marketing. Listen to the founders of each railway talk about the development and ongoing success of their respective railways and both share in common an understanding about reaching out to the general public and meeting their desires (entertainment/relaxation) in order to reach our goal (railway/locomotive preservation and/or operation).

What is true in their case and ours is that the public has a want (to be entertained) and a resource (money) and we have a need (money) which we lack to reach our goal (preserving and/or running trains). They have many places to satasfy their want, we have relatively few places to meet our need. If we want to satisfy our need in order to reach our goal than we need to access their resource by meeting their want.

Each of the founders of these two entertaining railroads expressed that in so many words. So, how are we doing there? I have often wondered if we need to branch out and connect our facilities with other interests in order to draw more public to gain access to more of their dollars. Let me give you a broad example. Tourist railroads in tourist areas generally do better than tourist railroads in low or non-tourist areas. Why? Partly because there are more things for the general populace to do than just one thing, in our case that would be trains.

What if we expanded our facilities to include more than railroad related activities or items? What if we were to include something ourtide of railroading that might interest other members of the family who might not share Dad's interest in trains? What if next door there was something Mom liked? What would Mom be interested in anyway? Or the kids? Wouldn't the family be more likely to come and share with us their resources so that we can meet our need? (I know that trains are not just an adult male interest, just work with me on this one).

In Bredgar and Wormshill's case, they incuded picnic facilities as well as a bit of automotive interests as well as gardens. Moors Valley includes a other things. Watch the vids for examples of what I am talking about. That is what got me thinking about these things.

What if we thought in terms of the market (the public) as much as we think about the items we like to preserve and/or run? Museums and railroads that don't think in terms of what the general public want will probably forever be on the public dole in terms of the necessary funds.

Just some thoughts.
Scott Markloff

I am not sure if "Marketing" is the correct word for the point you are trying to make. As I understand it, Marketing refers to an organization's efforts to create awareness in the public's mind of its existence and what it has to offer the public. Marketing is about creating a positive image and attracting visitors based on this image. This is important for any organization, but a more important concept for this conversation is "Service." You are talking about we can do to offer the public an attractive service. As public-benefit non-profit organizations, railway museums have an obligation to serve the public. This "service" should be a crucial part of our mission statements, and consideration of the public benefit should guide all of our decisions. Almost everyone here sees preservation itself as the end product of our "service." It is not. The end product needs to be the programs by which our preservation efforts benefit the public. It is not axiomatic that preservation itself is a public benefit. It is only through display, interpretation, demonstration, and research that our precious hunks of steel benefit the public.

So yes, to better serve the public, we need to appeal to the public. Synergistic relationships with nearby attractions are terrific; locations along heavily trafficked corridors are great; and being recognized amongst a region's top attractions can not be beat; but ultimately, from my philosophical viewpoint, we must endeavor to appeal to the public by doing what good museums do best. We need to tell interesting stories in well-designed and well-maintained facilities. By "tell," I mean by demonstration operation, docent-led tour, interpretive signage, and other programs designed to present our preserved artifacts in a meaningful way; and by "interesting," I mean these stories must appeal to the public, and by public, I mean everyone. We have plenty of cool stuff to say to people that do not happen to be white men that already like trains. If we can figure out how to do this, we will attract people in force, and will be able to build more sustainable preservation organizations. If we can not figure out how to do this, our efforts as preservationists will fail, and we will have deserved it.

We can do a lot better at both serving and attracting the public by telling good stories, establishing our relevance, and fostering interest.

The October 2010 issue of (correction--Minnesota Streetcar Museum's) Streetcar Currents has a great article on one organization's very practical approach to these questions. I believe Jim Vaitkunas may be able to post it here on the Interchange for us soon.

Interpretive signage is a very inexpensive and effective way to enhance a display. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a poster with a half dozen pictures and some explanatory text is worth up to an hour of your docent's time.

PC

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for some of the poor grammer in my original post as the website was doing funky things as I was trying to type. So at times I had to guess at what I was typing.

I was also thinking about times when my wife and kids have gone with me to railroad related places and in a good natured way joked about 'humoring Dad'. Going to Strasburg is so much easier precisely because nearby are things that the rest of my family likes going to. Some other highly interesting sites are a bit more difficult for me to talk my family into because there is nothing there for them.

So, if a museum doesn't have those other things nearby, maybe they should find ways to incorporate them nearby themselves. The Brits almost always have a Tea Room or other eating establshment as part of their facilities. Not everyone who visits the Tea House is there because they love trains but do spend money there because the Brits have an inordinate affection for tea (and one that I share with them). In Bredgar's case, there are the extensive gardens. Many people go to see that rather than the trains. But the railroad portion benefits by attracting them to the grounds where they also spend money that ends up supporting railroad operations.

I don't pretend to have the answer to how to do that without losing focus on the primary mission or directing such limited funds towards non-rail related things. I just know that government funds and private donations alone don't seem to be sufficient to reaching our goals. The obvious choice is to attract more money from the public.
So how do we do that?

Excellent point, but a direct message to the public probably is worth a lot more than one hour of your docent's time. The following text at http://www.mcrr.org/PAGES/nine.html is a good start. It establishes basic facts, describes a few technological details, the purpose for which it was used, and some details about the railroad for which it operated which make it unique:



Could it be better? Any suggestions? Including the photos of the locomotive in service that are on the website would help, but what else could be said and shown to create a compelling story? Would the technical details make sense to the average viewer? How would you explain this to someone that did not understand? Should the description start with this info? Could something be said about the people that used this engine? Are there first hand accounts that could be quoted? Anecdotes? Is there a way to make the story of this engine more interesting to women? Children?

The statement might be enhanced by opening with a description of the purpose and advantages of a Shay, compared with other locomotives, presented in terms readily understandable to the general public.

I would also like to point out that in the case of diesel locomotives there are some excellent art renderings in specification books, parts books, maintenance instructions, and locomotive lubrication charts that were publicly distributed, not copyrighted, and can be adapted quite easily for educational and interpretive use.

PC

Three vertical ENGINES?

Is that how you spell Tuolomne? Is this? Difficult word.......

Are you interpreting the technology of the Shay, comparing it to other kinds of locomotives, telling the story of the logging railroads of California or just West Side - what is the story you want to tell, and what part of it is best told by using WSL Co. 9? If it isn't a part of you story, deaccession it to somebody telling that story. If it is, start with that and work from there, providing the appropriate context and filling it in with interesting information.

Marketing is bigger than selling and PR - it starts with the mission statement, includes pricing and distribution, competitive and cooperative strategies, branding, product packaging, penetration or skim-the-cream, etc.

I'm sensing a lot of good forward thinking and momentum here - but we also need to ask ourselves if going back to the "book on the wall" method of interpretation is the best way to tell whatever the story is. It's sure inexpensive, better than nothing, also better than a lot of volunteer docents out there, worse than some other actors (the late Bob Dowty's program at Golden Spike NHS comes to mind), and way worse than something that plays into several sensory receptors at once.

I'm starting to believe we are "getting it" at last - thank you.

dave

So far I have not been too impressed with some of the electronic display provisions I have seen in museums, many of them are much too loud and intrusive, interfering with each other and resulting in general noise pollution. Individual viewing kiosks are sometimes a delay point with lines waiting to use them, and sometimes the general atmosphere is more like a casino than a museum.

I think that the display poster or story board approach has its place, one such place being the presentation of topics that would have been adaptable to "distance learning" techniques in the last century, perhaps by adapting some of the art and presentation technique of that method of instruction. They are only as good as the experience and interpretive ability of their author can make them, but with the computer tools we have available today to assist in the layout of attractive large format display posters, a skilled presenter can get the point across quite effectively.

But to each his own, those who prefer the electronics have at it, I will be very interested in seeing the results if I live that long. But first how about getting the websites up to date? It helps if people know the place exists and how to get there so we can have the chance to show them our displays once they find it.

PC

That sounds good. Start with what is unique about this piece of machinery not in terms of technical details (which you can get to), but in terms of the big picture.



As you write this, ask yourself if it needs more explanation. Try to keep it brief, but avoid using jargon and referring to things that are not widely understood.

Let's look at the original text:



What is a "truck?"



12" by 15" measures what? Where is this "flexible drive line?" What is "gear reduction?" Which part of this is the "boiler?" Narrow gauge? Tractive effort? Superheated? Whoa.


What kind of town is Toulumne? Why "maximum?" Did the length vary? Why? What is a "spur?" "Nine worked?" What about crews, surely the engine and its brothers did not "work," but instead, were "worked" or "operated."


This line addresses how the engine physically came to be preserved in Iowa, but what about why? Were similar engines used in Iowa? Was it simply because of the uniqueness of the WSL operation? And, by the way, what is a flat car?

Maybe you could also try to explain why the timber company would have not just built roads and used trucks. That is what they do now, and it is obviously easier to build a road than a railroad. Have a good answer for that one?

Sorry if I am being a bit pedantic, but I feel this is a big deal that most of us do not seem to get. Our visitors do not understand most of what we try to tell them and that is a problem. Also, I have been teaching all day, and may have gotten stuck in explanation mode.

Thanks

Here's an alternate look at interpreting a Shay, taken approximately word-for-word from a Cass Scenic Railroad shop tour:
_________
So, quick, a show of hands: how many of you know what a Shay is? A few of you? OK, great. Who can give the rest of us an idea? What makes it unique?

“It’s driven by gears”

That’s exactly right. How many of you have ever seen, maybe in the Western movies, maybe even in real life, a steam engine that has rods that turn the wheels? <making gestures with arms to indicate rod movement> Well, in those engines the wheels are like cranks. The pistons move the rods back and forth, which turns the wheels, just like this.

Why wouldn’t that work in the logging industry?

“Because the loads were heavy?”

Well, yes, that’s part of it, but what else? Remember what I said earlier about how logging railroads were used? How a given track might only be left long enough to harvest a particular stand of timber? Well, what that meant was that the track wasn’t always just so. They wanted to get the track down, get the trees cut, and get the timber out, so it all went down quickly without the kind of earthwork you’d see going into something more permanent. That meant steep grades, sharp curves, and light, imperfect track. So with a locomotive like you see in the movies, what we call a ‘rod engine’, you have a whole bunch of wheels together in one frame, and it can’t flex a whole lot because the rods all have to connect together in order to work. Do you follow? <audience nods>

So this fellow, Ephraim Shay, came up with an idea that works sort of like your car’s drive train. The whole idea is to make the thing fairly light and extremely flexible, but still powerful enough to move those logs. So instead of what you might call a direct drive <uses arms to show imagery again> you’ve got cylinders, usually three like this one but sometimes only two, turning a crankshaft – again, just like your car – that forms part of a drive shaft – everyone see where I’m pointing? – that runs the length of the locomotive. Then, since the wheels are mounted in trucks that swivel and pivot to follow the contours of the track, the drive shaft is flexible too. Everyone know what a universal joint is? Yes? OK, how about a slip joint? That’s a joint that enables it to expand and contract along its length. All of that makes the drive shaft able to follow the curves in the railroad. Then, through bevel gears – everyone see why they’re called that? – the force is transferred to each wheel. That’s what moves the Shay.

So, like this gentleman said earlier, it has a gear drive, which makes it very powerful in the same way that certain sprockets on your bicycle make it easier to climb a hill. Having every wheel act as a drive wheel helps with this too. But the real key to use on that rough, temporary track is that it’s flexible, too.

So that’s a shay, and it was a success for Mr. Shay, who sold his patent to the Lima Locomotive Works soon after, and they were the exclusive builders. This one is xyz tons, built in 19xx for the ABC Lumber Company, who were in the business of hauling Spruce logs, explain why boiler off center, why it burned what it did, etc, etc, etc.
_________
So, we don't use jargon without explaining it, we interact with the audience so it feels like it's a conversation and not a lecture, and we ask lots of questions to see who understands what, and to get everyone engaged in what's going on. Only after everyone knows what we're talking about do we get into more detail. Some of Mr. Ruiz's observations are very good, and if properly applied can make the difference between a data sheet for the railfans and a true interpretation for the general public, whether by guided tour or by some form of written communication.

If you can make the mystical, technical stuff digestible to the soccer moms, the necktied suburbanites, the kids, the grandparents, and all the other non-railfans, you can earn their undying gratitude....which often manifests itself in donations, gift shop sales, and repeat visits. Good interpretation is money in the bank.