The annual “can we replicate a NYC Hudson” tread has morphed into a discussion of how railroad museums are doing… are we keeping up… or are we just slowing the inevitable deterioration leading to eventual scrapping.

So, what is going right… what is going wrong…

On the positive side…

The new campus at the National Capital Trolley Museum in Maryland is spectacular. The buildings are clearly a museum… with interpretive displays to match.

Orange Empire continues to fit out and organize their collection in the new car house… 600+ feet long, 6 tracks wide… Now they are raising money for a library building… Car work continues…

At the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association’s Western Railroad Museum they completed their signature restoration of Sacramento Northern 1005… and a San Francisco PCC, nearing completion of the restoration of a caboose… they have a state of the art visitor center, and a great set of car barns… they continue to make forward progress…

The SPCRR at Ardenwood (my site) has erected its first car house… It has taken 25 years and we still need to install track and connect utilities, but the building is up…

North West Railroad Museum outside Seattle has their new car house to compliment their recently completed restoration shop… and new bathrooms in their depot… They are making excellent progress on restorations… They may have made more progress over the last 10 years or so than any other museum

We saw the disillusion of the Brookins Trolley collection… in an orderly positive manor… The Illinois Railroad Museum, Fox River, Ft Smith, and others were able to acquire cars, many significant additions to their collections. I understand that other museums got significant parts.

The Nevada State Railroad Museum, under threat of major budget cuts, rolled out restored McKeen motor car, V&T 22.

The Pacific Locomotive Association, operators of the Niles Canyon Railway have worked through the process of placing the line on the National Register… they continue to rebuild locomotives, with logging mallet Clover Valley #4 nearing completion.

It seems like there are groups making forward progress…

Some thoughts… There isn’t mainline steam on the list… all of the above, except Niles Canyon have made significant investments in buildings… The best sites are putting the artifacts inside...

The Conrail Historical Society is kicking butt and taking names.

And honestly, I think we owe a lot of that to Conrail being a "recent" memory, and people realizing that the time to work on preserving stuff is while it's still around, oddly enough.


But here's what I'm finding more interesting. We have a bunch of members who are ex-Cons, and folks, like myself, who watched Conrail as a kid (being 29). But we ALSO attract a number of members who are younger: 13-18ish. Those folks were really young when Conrail got split up, which means that these folks are finding an interest in it even thought it wasn't really "their" railroad.

New Hope Valley RR in NC has bult a new visitors entry and ticketing facility, expanded the parking lot and garden railroad, and started on some significant improvements in boarding and display areas on site. New high capacity excursion cars (converted flatcars) are improving passenger capacity as demand has grown. A new board of directors is exploring in some other interesting directions as that organization continues to grow, mature and define itself.

2 smaller groups in western NC are also maiking great strides, but they can speak for themselves........and I hope they do. NHVRR has started talking about cooperative ventures with both.

Just an impressed member, not an offical POV.

dave

Maine's amazing WW&F Railway Museum, for the 19th year in a row, exceeded the goal of its annual Capital Fund Drive, this year by about 8 percent.

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum continues to attract foundation and grants funding, largely through the hard work of its executive director, allowing it to move forward with several car restoration projects, an upgrade of their original carbarn, new restrooms and other infrastructure improvements.

Wanamaker Kempton & Southern anecdotally had a better 2010 season financially than in 2009, though they didn't have as many passengers as last year. In 2011, all trains will be diesel powered.

For the first time in its history, the East Broad Top RR will begin its operating season before Memorial Day and will operate four days per week in July, August and October for the first time in several years. A number of special events are also planned throughout the season

Places I visited on a Northwest tour in Sept. 2009 that have "posted gains" recently:

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway has a very busy workshop and projects I saw in 2009 are nearing completion. As I recall, their track washout has been repaired.

Fraser Valley (near Vancouver BC) is preparing to move to larger quarters with access to the former BC Electric interurban line. The restoration of BCERy 1225, which was "repatriated" from Southern California in 2005 (I helped with the loading process) is nearly complete. My wife and I saw it in 2009; I noted the refurbished electrical components and she admired the fine woodwork. This group maintains good relations with local governments and other community groups--so important to a successful preservation effort.

In the not-so-good-news department: Have we heard anything from Worthington OH and the Ohio Ry. Museum lately? Last item was that their trolley wire had a break and fell on the Illinois Terminal PCC. Has this been repaired? There were reports that they were planning to sell off the main line RR equipment and concentrate on trolleys.

Things are going VERY well at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. (Just outside Denver.) As mentioned above it starts with an excellent executive director. Attendance numbers continue to increase, there have been many improvements to the property and the roundhouse is buzzing with activity. Current projects inside include a cosmetic restoration of ng Rio Grande 318, work on a ng kitchen car and two tank cars. Additional projects include a RG GP-30 and tunnel motor, ng pullman, encapsulation of four cars, and the list goes on.

Thanks to an ever increasing group of dedicated volunteers and hard working staff, 2011 should be an outstanding year.

Jim Barton

Wilmington and Western RR in Delaware is building a new office/training facility/library at it's shop area in Marshallton, DE.

Monticello Railway Museum has constructed a 3 track car storage barn. Track work is now underway.

DBH

This is an interesting topic but I wonder how you can take a measurement. I know that attendance at Steamtown is public record and I would assume a place like the California RR Museum or the RR Museum of PA but most museum/tourist operations are private (or private non-profit) so we can't see the numbers. Also, attendance may not tell you the story. Many operations have increased their premium/first class options so while total attendance might be down, the revenue could well be up.

As an aside let me talk about fundraising. We found 2008 to be our best year ever, 2009 one of the worst, and 2010 only a little better. So far 2011 is looking better but still nowhere near as good as 2008.

Stone Mountain Scenic found a paint catalog, apparently:

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... 20Railroad

The Railroad Museum of Long Island will be finishing the renovation of an old storage building, with a large outside deck and lighting, that houses the newly completed Lionel Visitor center layout from Michigan. When we started the building was filled to capacity will potato sacks in the wooden walls for installation. We are also working on adding new computers to the former Long Island Railroad cab simulator we got in December

Anthony

I think the underlying theme here and the stark reality is this; sheds, roofs, roundhouses, covers- it doesn't really matter what you build, just get those precious exhibits inside. Although they are rarely historically accurate, a steel framed shed with some form of galvanised iron or zincalume cladding is VERY cheap in comparison to what it may cost if you don't build one . Every organisation should have a constant fundraiser in place to buy their next shed. If you already have one-great. Start saving for another.

Just my opinion.

Wes

Where's the "LIKE" button for comments???


It is a nice scheme, finally.

What, the bloody pumpkins?

Tim, I think the beauty of this inquiry is that you can define "doing well" according to your own organizations progress down the paths it has chosen to walk. We're not comparing apples and oranges, but getting a general sense of whether we are all unable to grow in thie economy or if we can get things done.

It's also nice to know what different groups goals and priorities are and how they are working on them.

dave

On the railroad of Greenfield Village 2010 was a record setting year in terms of ridership. We had just over 270,000 passengers ride the trains. That is a 10% increase over our previous record year in 2008. This was done by increasing the number of trips done in a day from 10 to 13 and cutting the wait time on two train days to 17 minutes. We still only have 5 40' passenger cars to use and the struggling michigan economy to deal with. Additionally prior to the 2010 season we removed a couple rows of seats from one car to create a second handicap accessible car.

Dave Sutter
the Henry Ford