We've talked before on RYPN about the need for compelling, engaging, interactive and imaginative displays and the exhibition of information in a preservation environment. And we all know how limited time, people, and budgets can preclude us from developing these types of solutions. Sometimes signage and images alone can do wonders to create a presentation where none exists.

Even at one of the better railroad museums in the country, I was left a little wanting after spending most of the day surrounded by nose-to-tail displays with very little interpretation, context, or meaning. It was just stuff.

What are some you've seen or have experience with? Is there anything out there in rail preservation that we could consider a railroad attraction for the 21st Century?

Is looking to rail preservation to narrow? Are there exhibits or displays in non-railroad environments and museums we can look to?

The display like the one used at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum DMIR Yellowstone #227 is always really cool to see. Because to me when the motors to turn the wheels are on I can just imagine what the #227 would have looked like going along a stretch of rail.

I'm not sure if this counts but I enjoyed the Henry Ford Museum. They do a great job of keeping their collection in good running order at the village and the Allegheny is a sight to see in the main museum.

As a middle school science teacher, I can tell you, nothing invites inquiry like the ability to manipulate and touch. Go to any Exploratorium or aquarium touch tank. You'll find the excitement in the places of interaction. I think motorizing under a locomotive's drivers does great deal for educational enthusiasm. I would say that manipulative valve gear is a good thing. Simulators, such as the NS Simulator at RMPA are great ways to engage children (and children at heart). I've yet to see a steam locomotive cab simulator connected to a projected exterior viewing field, but for all the complexity, I'd believe the right interface to fireman's side and engineer's side would be a winner. A cab like the fantastic K4s copy at the Altoona RR Museum would be ideal, if a bit large.

A few of the things that got me immediately involved:

1. Cleveland History Museum - you walk through a nice but ho hum display of old machine tools, exit through a door and find yourself on a brick street on the riverfront at night lit by gas in the 1870s. You walk down the street for a few yards and up the gangplank onto the riverboat to exit. Incredible....

2. San Francisco - The Exploratorium. I went with family of older and younger generations and everybody from toddler to 85 had a great time messing with everything. We ran out of day before running out of things to do.

3. Indianapolis - the Reuben Wells sound and light show. It did give you the feeling you were trackside as she ground up the hill pushing a train ahead of her.

4. CSRM introductory show - the curtain lifts on a projection of a photo to find a 3 dimensional version of the scene in the photo that you walk though into the museum itself.

5. Keighly and Worth Valley in the UK. It's not just a train ride on old stock, but an entire railroad of old stock with many stations etc as they were in the 1950s. they do context exceptionally well.

6. The river port of Echuca in Australia. You could for a while take a steam train to the wharf, get off the train and onto a paddle wheel steamboat, and cruise up and back on the Murray River a bit. the train isn't running last I heard, but the river trip and wharf area is another example of great context.

I think the thing that works for all these examples is the creation of an entire mini universe based on a theme and carried out to an extreme so you are not just walking through a representation of it, but integrally involved in it.

dave

#1 in list from previous post is Cincinnati, not Cleveland

I always liked the museum at Lomita....

Just its location makes it unique and the way they have it laid out in a neighborhood setting made it engaging to the eye and mind....

It may not exactly fit the criteria for "hands on" motorized education, but it certainly drew my attention. It was very well kept when I visited it. It reminded me of it being "frozen in time".

I agree that "stuff" just lined up nose to nose is boring for the mind, but interpretive displays can only please on certain levels as well. You either gear it towards kids, which disinterests adults or gear it towards adults which disinterests the kids...finding that happy medium is the obvious trick.

I would agree with Dave's comments re: California State Railroad Museum. The Death Valley Scotty transition at the end of the orientation film is very well done.

I am very proud of our O-gauge diorama of the Chevy Chase car line, a perennial favorite with our visitors.

Wesley

Kelly,

I completely empathize you and was left with a similar feeling not long ago. I like your question and think it is a good one to be asking. However I would amend your question of the "best museum exhibits/displays in preservation" by adding "for what audience"? Each audience will require slight tweaks in their experience to create one which they consider interesting. I personally believe a museum should be a microcosm of life, allowing the visitor to choose and interact with things they are most draw to, but there should be some explanation for those things in some form. Visitors should control their level of engagement.

I also think it is helpful to think outside of the "railway museum" box because all museums and, in fact, all businesses are fighting for people's time, money, and attention. We have to do as well as or better than the others if we are to develop a following. We cannot exist solely on the premise that what we have is important.

Personally, I tend to prefer immersion type experiences so the following appear on my "best" list:

Railways:
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/
Great Central Railway, which I have vivid memories of from a visit more than 10 years ago. The railway is presented in such a seemingly complete fashion that interpretation in a sense seems unnecessary because various rolling stock, track structures, buildings, and equipment, work in harmony to create their own sense of purpose and function. The only long lines of equipment you see on this line tend to be moving trains! This of course, is quite costly and involved, but it creates an amazing effect for the visitor. In this country I think it might compare to being a sort of Williamsburg of Railways.

Museums:
http://www.hanfordmills.org/
Hanford Mills Museum in East Meredith, New York goes out of its way to establish really close bonds with the community it operates in. Many parts of this water and steam driven mill have been restored to operation and are demonstrated for visitors on a regular basis. Most importantly, there are connections being made as to how the mill and locally made products are still relevant and important today.

http://www.billingsfarm.org/
Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont combines an operating farming operation with a historical home, and museum dedicated to the heritage of farming and rural life in Vermont. This is a very good museum has lots of great exhibits, particularly their newest one. The older exhibits (done in the 1980s) are also excellent, but they are mostly passive. Almost every weekend the museum has some sort of special event which allows visitors to participate in hands on, activities.

http://www.mohai.org/
The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington is great. It includes lots of different activities and themes. It also incorporates varying levels of engagement. For the most part, the exhibits are exceptionally done.

These are all larger museums, but there are also a host of other museums I've been to where the entire museum might not have been exceptional, but there is a smaller exhibition that is really well done.
-I, along with several non-rail savvy friends enjoyed the RPO exhibit that IRM has right now.
-I have always though that Steamtown has some exceptional exhibits.
-CAMA in Kent, Connecticut has a fine operating collection of stationary steam and gas engines along with a host of other antique machinery, but some of their smaller exhibits are very neat and well interpreted.

To me, all of these museums involved activities that appealed to me and displays that appealed to me. But I am not everyone. You need to have different sorts of experiences and interpretations available to reach the biggest audience possible. One more detail on this- you shouldn't want to reach your biggest audience possible because you want to make $$$. However, you should want to do this because it helps you reach your community best. Take an art museum for example. Some people would be content to spend all day looking at one painting or gallery in a particular museum, while others want to see everything the museum has to offer. Others will want to create art while at the museum, while still others might like the opportunity to research a particular artist. The possibilities are endless...

As the history of museums in general goes:
First museums collected stuff, then they displayed stuff, then they labeled stuff, then they interpreted stuff, then they invited visitors to participate in stuff.

It is a constantly evolving conversation as you know, but I think we have to focus most on the last "inviting visitors to participate in stuff", and discovering what the next "thing" will be. Interacting with visitors and inviting visitors to share their experiences is one of these "new" things.

Take care,
Steve Piwowarski

Funny, I was thinking about this yesterday while taking a family jaunt to the Liberty Science Center in NJ.

The best rail museum experience we have had lately was at the London Transportation Museum http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/.

Why?

Here are three reasons:

- Location. Being at Covent Garden right in the city, the museum has a city feel. It is quite compact (higher than wide) yet it is FILLED with exhibits to touch, enter and immerse in.

- Restoration shop off site. The "back 40" as it were is not at the museum. The collection is much bigger than what fits in the building. Therefore, artifacts are restored offsite and brought in for display. Artifacts that don't fit in the building are loaned to other museums. And, in a very British fashion, many of the regular displays are taken out for operation now and then.

- Gift shop. This is one of the very, very, very few (maybe only) railroad museum gift shop I have been in where the interests of the visitors were truly interested. No, it wasn't full of generic railroad books. It was packed (PACKED) with models of equipment displayed at the museum, posters that reflected London transport and just about any tourist trinket you could imagine customized with some sort of railroad, underground or bus artwork.

Just some thoughts...

Rob

If we are open to looking beyond railway museums, then I would offer Lowell National Park as having a variety of exhibits and displays that stand out, including an operating power weave room, demonstration of a water turbine powered loom, a shuttle on trolleys and tours by canal boats.

Water turbine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGFzbx3mnd0

Wesley

A simple sign with photos, maps and/or diagrams can help tell the story of why a piece of equipment is historic.

I still think the perfectly appointed steam locomotive cab at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is pretty cool... ok, the U-505 isn't bad either ;-)

Stephen

A few others come to mind...1)the shaking passenger car at California State Railroad Museum, 2)the well-trained docent at Hearst Castle who really made you think she knew William Randolph Hearst in a professional yet flirty kind of way, 3)the 1970s tour of FDR's home in Hyde Park narrated by Eleanor Roosevelt (one of those old-fashioned audio tours where you carried a small cassette recorder) and 4)the behind the scenes tour at Biltmore Estate. For me, the common thread here was the establishment of a personal connection with a person, place, or thing beyond the facts on a traditional photo placard.

I agree with Richard, and I like the B&O museum. Hence, it should be the C&O museum. Although some outside engines (the big c&o engines) might look in bad shape, they have been taken care of very well. The inside engines are a little cosmetically better, but unknown mechanically. They must take care of them because you guys saw what happened to 1309