Hi, All

On a slightly more positive note, but closely related to the "2000 cars must die" thread, I thought it might be interesting to hear stories from organizations that have built the sort of large buildings we all dream of to protect our collections.

Every now and then we've seen postings of this sort, but I thought it would be very helpful and interesting to see these stories in one thread where they're easy to find.

At the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls, Ontario, the only covered trackage we currently have is 126' of track in our car shop, but we're working toward building a high quality facility.

We have finished filling nearly five acres of low land where our buildings will eventually live, a process which has consumed more than 1500 truckloads of rock, concrete rubble, and soil. Photos of this multi-year project can be found at: http://public.fotki.com/elliottd/sfrmeo ... uture-tra/ .

The proposed facilities that will live on this land can be seen at:

http://public.fotki.com/elliottd/sfrmeo/site-plan-/

While all that fill settles, it is time to get cracking on detailed planning and fundraising, to make this a reality and get our weatherbeaten hulks indoors where their importance can be appreciated!

Looking forward to seeing your success stories and other works in progress!

Steve Hunter

In 2009 we opened Street Car Hall at National Capital Trolley Museum. This 8,000 square foot facility contains three tracks, with two offset to create an aisle for viewing the cars. Lighted kiosks feature histories of the cars on display. There are currently 7 cars on permanent display and 2 cars from the collection on temporary display.

Museum staff provide a twenty minute tour after each car trip (about every 40 minutes). Visitors appear to enjoy the ability to see the collection close-up after 40 years of being limited to looking in through the front doors of the barns at the old location. The tour consists of a short introduction speech with staff using three cars to trace the development of streetcars from an 1898 single truck to a 1912 center door and finally the PCC. The remaining time is used for Q&A and to let visitors roam around in the space. When the boat car is on winter "holiday" (storage) we have used it as seating for the introduction. Otherwise we do not invite visitors to board the cars. In general, the visitors seem to be ok with that.

(I posted photos futher down in this thread.)

Wesley

Another extremely important concept is the provision of context in the background of the displays - CSRM does this pretty well, and their Jamestown site even better since it is real........although it sometimes takes a back seat to simply providing shelter, and justifiably. Context - think of it as stage sets for the rolling stock, which should ideally make up an entire train in each display setting - helps the visitors absorb the story you are telling in your interpretation and involve themselves more viscerally into the hardware. the better they are involved, the better the support, the better you can gain support for preserving more stuff, so it actually pays in the long run.

dave

I would say that a true success story is the Pine Creek RR/NJ Museum of Transportation car barn. NJMT is not a huge organization but does have a sizable, although varied, collection. This effort began in the early 1980s. The car barn began life as an older structure that had been torn down so the cost to acquire it was minimal compared to buying a new building. If I recall correctly it is 160 or 190 feet long and about 90 feet wide. Being narrow gauge, 4 bays were squeezed into it with one bay set up as dual gauge for some of the standard gauge equipment in the collection. The SeaBees helped with the construction of the building which again reduced costs and eventually a loan was taken out for the skin of the building. Some years later a "car port" was added along one side to provide additional covered trackage. It took a few years to pull it off, but I'd say its one of the best examples of what a small museum can pull off. I seem to recall that the total cost was about $200K.

Key is that with some very creative thinking you don't need a million dollars to build one heck of a building.

If one delves into the ancient history of some of the early museums, like Seashore and Branford, they were building pole barns themselves, without benefit of architects, building permits, or inspectors. They dug the holes by hand, used old utility poles and hardware to fasten everything together, and covered the frame with corrugated sheathing. Track was any old kind of rail cobbled together, sometimes using old poles sawed to length as ties. Many of the early barns housed four or maybe six cars, jammed in as tightly as possible. They were to shelter the equipment, not to display it. At least one museum used a military surplus Quonset hut as a combination shop, powerhouse and display space, with a couple of wooden cabooses nearby as member bunkrooms.

Can't get away with any of that these days.....

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum completed a $2M 28000 ft2 building in 2004 that houses 32 cars from our collection. The building has 4 tracks 350' long. One is dual gauge, the other three are broad gauge only. The two outer tracks are tight against the walls, providing a walking clearance only. The two inner tracks are tight against each other with a similarly close walking space only. The two main aisles thus created provide unobstructed viewing of the cars on all four tracks, plus are wide enough and well lighted enough to allow large group tours to progress through the building. The Trolley Display Building, as we call it, provides dry protection for those 32 cars. No type of outdoor storage can do that, as condensation is the enemy even under tarps. We also found that any flooring other than concrete still allows condensation under certain conditions. This building, while not climate controlled, does have a degree of humidity control and does have insulated walls so that it acts as a giant heat sink, remaining warm in winter and cool in summer relative to ourdoors.

When completed the TDB allowed us to put our entire collection indoors. The acquisition of more cars, mostly from the Cleveland collection, has again forced a few cars back outside. An additional storage building is in the planning stage. That will provide 8 additional car spaces plus a large amount of component and supplies storage including covered protection for our 30+ spare trucks. In addition our original 1958 carbarn is in the process of being upgraded to a concrete floor to finally defeat the condensation problem seen frequently. All of our buildings have dry pipe sprinkler systems and security systems. Any car worth saving is worth protecting.

The good old days ;-)

For obvious reasons, there is a tendency to cram as much equipment as possible under roof. However I would suggest leaving sufficient open floor space for complementary interpretive displays and to make an attractive facility for rentals. Receptions, parties, banquets, etc. can all be valuable income producers. I like the setup at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for this reason.

Alan Maples

Delray

In the perfect world there would be three types of buildings.

1. Storage: get it out of the weather, crammed in so tight
you have to go outside to change you mind.

2. Shop: Lots of room, setup so that you don't have to move six things
to get anything done. (no hanger queens)

3. Display: Lots of room, good lighting, good finished floor,
room for Weddings, bar mitzvahs, meeting spaces for other
groups.

In the real world 2 of the 3 is about the best most of use can hope for.

-Hudson

The West Coast Railway Association (Squamish BC) recently opened their new roundhouse. A top notch multi-purpose facility! Check out the virtual tours on their web site:
http://www.wcra.org/roundhouse/

In our design, the tracks are squeezed in to enable winter storage of far more equipment than we currently own.

Until the collection grows to fill the available space, we would stagger the placement of equipment on each track to allow easy photography, regardless of season.

When the tracks start to fill up, it will be a clear signal to plan for additional space.

In the summer, durable equipment would be "allowed out" to make the building even more conducive to photography. By coincidence, the summer is also our peak season for visitor count.

We would move some equipment outdoors to allow for special events if required, regardless of season- of course, this would only be the most durable stuff. As soon as the event was over the equipment would move right back indoors.

We don't currently have the option to build additional dedicated storage barns, due to restricted space, so we must do the best job possible on our first display hall. Eventually, we hope to acquire additional land for future expansion, but there is no guarantee that it will still be available when we are ready.

The future roundhouse (3 stalls) would be set up with displays of men working on at least one of the engines, with tools arranged in a believable fashion and properly interpreted. We envision movable gallery- type displays in among the rolling stock in the main hall.

We currently have a small shop, but eventually a better facility will be built. However, proper display buildings to preserve the collection are a higher priority. The land for the future shop is partially filled, and this work will continue whenever large construction projects are underway in the area.

Of course this will all take time and hard work to accomplish, but it will be no more difficult than what has been done before.

Steve Hunter

Here on my own turf, a more modest improvement in 2010 when a $200,000+ grant was used to upgrade the building at the Trolley Museum of New York:



This building was constructed in 1988, has approx. 7200 sqf on the shop floor (2 tracks with pits) and 2400 sqf on the mezzanine level (visitor center and offices).

The Illinois Railway Museum has nine storage buildings where the primary purpose was to provide shelter from rain, snow, and sun. It is estimated these pole buildings (without heat) retard 95% plus of continuing deterioration, effectively serving to stabilize equipment, even if current limited resources mean that the next generation will have to deal with them. Current codes limit us to structures of "only" about 30,000 sq ft but some of the other barns exceed that. So, we have about 3 MILES of track under roof. We continue to plan and raise money to shelter even more equipment, although resources are just as tight for us as any of our brothers here.

We have paved aisles, improved lighting, and interpretive placards for most of these exhibits as well as additional interpretive items in most of the buildings. Sightlines for photography remain limited but we try to make the best of it. As I said we have to conserve and stabilize the equipment first. Not only is continued deterioration vastly reduced, but a restored and repainted car could well be presentable for 30 years.

We understand the need to add security and protection to these buildings and it is a tough choice. In our area without city water, sprinklers for the first structure could approach $750K investment and that is not within reach at this time. Perhaps someday city water will arrive.

None of that is possible without owning your own land, in my opinion. So, get a permanent site, and then save every penny you can to begin adding shelter. We started with one smaller building and have added extensions to several of the early buildings.

A more permanent structure, compared to a pole building, is also a dream, and that is a tough choice. The oldest pole building is about 40 years old and still serviceable although several of them have required substantial inspections and maintenance. But what a difference it has made to add life to the collection!

Bob Kutella

WRM also does not have city water. I think it cost us about a million dollars for the fire protection system which we had to install in order to build our new car barn. We did not have a choice - the barn is a Class A (public assembly) building so it was an absolute requirement.

However, the system is designed to be expanded to the entire property, so future projects won't have to pay for the tank and pump which were the major expenses in the system.