I had the chance, last Friday, to spend a few hours at the Railroaders' Memorial Museum in Altoona and wanted to share with you guys some impressions of the place.

A lot has been posted here about the museum, mostly about the ups and downs of the restoration of the K4s 1361. I have seen the K4s in Scranton but have not been back to the museum itself since the early 1990s and long prior to its relocation into to the Master Mechanic's building.

What I saw was a darn good museum that would be appealing to average visitors (ie, non-railfans or rypn.org readers). It has plenty of interpretation (nice start is on the walkway on the way in that explains what the heck a master mechanic is and who some of the prominent ones in Altoona have been), a good hook to draw visitors a little deeper into the exhibits (a generous "why i should care" panel on the first floor that ties in Abraham Lincoln, George Burns and Nazi infiltrators can't be bad!) and three, count 'em, three floors of exhibits.

The museum blended artifacts with sound and video screens together very well. Those of you who scream "Disney-esque" can get over it... this is the high tech/high touch type of exhibits that are gonna knock the socks off folks when they get there. I found myself drawn to the yard master "game" which was a real challenge trying to route cars to the proper tracks on the Altoona hump.

So, my final score: A.

Good presentation. Good exhibits. Easy to grasp for just about any age or interest level. Clean. Functioning--only one sound animation of the K4 cab wasn't working and it was soon repaired and drawing a crowd. The only drawback: It's hard to find, but that's something folks can do something about.

I saw only one bit of evidence of financial hard times: a photocopied exhibit guide instead of a printed one. Otherwise, these folks seem to be hanging in there. I hope they make it. They should--it's a place that can tell people why the PRR and Altoona were important.


Wrinnbo@aol.com

> The museum blended artifacts with sound and
> video screens together very well. Those of
> you who scream "Disney-esque" can
> get over it... this is the high tech/high
> touch type of exhibits that are gonna knock
> the socks off folks when they get there.

This appear to be far beyond readable visitor signage; however,the thought of "high tech/high touch" evokes images of large budgets and outside consultants.

How can all-volunteer museums create the same visitor impact on minimal budgets?



middlebrookk@kaisere.com

Ken,

The $64k question that haunts us all. Nobody is rolling in dough. At the risk of being a smart alec, all I can say is use your imagination and do things in stages. One of my favorite hands on exhibits is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Right beside the C&O Alleghany is (or at least, was in 1995) an embossed outline of the engine, some paper and crayons. Kids -- and adults-- couldn't resist making a colorful rubbing out of the engine.

I recall Walter Gray showing me the mechanism for the Pullman at CSRM that gave it the "in motion" feel. It was a cheap machine that runs on electricity that simply lifts the car at the jacking pad to simulate 39-foot sections fo track. I'm sure the animation on the windows was more expensive, but to hear Walter say it, the actual machine to move the car was low priced.

Jim

Wrinnbo@aol.com

Some stage effect generators are not too pricey either. Rosco fog can simulate steam exhaust. Flickering lights in fireboxes are pretty easy. A small cassette recorder with an endless loop tape can constantly provide audio texture.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

Dave,

With all of the electronic music players (MP3 and the like) available today, it would be great if someone would make a reasonably inexpensive player which could be push button activated and have a simple line-out which could be run into a self powered speaker which are also very available and inexpensive with all the computer speakers out there. Programming could come from a memory card or via an interface to a computer. Anyone know of anything? I have never looked that hard, but I hadn't found anything in the couple quick attempts I did make.

These would be a little more elegant than the continuous tape loop or the modified cassette answering machine that plays back its announcement when a button is pushed. We have at least one of those.

On the image presentation side, many new and inexpensive DVD players can play CD's of JPEG images. We use some Kodak Photo CD players around our museum to display images. Photo CD is now a 10 year old technology for showing images on CD on your TV in concert with having high res scans of your film in digital form which Kodak introduced and never took hold except in the professional marketplace. The players do work great, however, they do require the images to be in Photo CD format which is not very easy to create except for some of us in Rochester. ;) JPEG's are much easier thus the DVD player today is the better route.

Until later,
Chris



Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum
crhauf@frontiernet.net

> A small cassette recorder with
> an endless loop tape can constantly provide
> audio texture.

When I was a child growing up in Washington DC the Smithsonian played a tape of a steam locomotive starting a heavy train and getting up to speed in the Railroad Gallery. I would stand next to 1401 and listen to it for half an hour on end. So simple--so effective!

Steam Over Scranton online edition
eledbetter@rypn.org

I'm glad that you enjoyed your stay in the Museum last week. What I am especially glad to hear is that the financial situation was almost invisible to the visitor experience. We have worked very hard not to allow the situation to affect the very thing that will help right the situation - VISITATION!! As we continue the work in the yard and reopen/reuse the original museum building (referred to as Bldg B), I want to invite everyone who reads this post to a larger, more interesting, stronger-than-ever museum operation when we return to our 7-days-a-week operation April 1, 2003. I also welcome any of you who have CONSTRUCTIVE criticism of the operation to email me directly. I promise I will read each and every one.

Scott Cessna
Treasurer
Railroaders Memorial Museum

I had the chance, last Friday, to spend a
> few hours at the Railroaders' Memorial
> Museum in Altoona and wanted to share with
> you guys some impressions of the place.

> A lot has been posted here about the museum,
> mostly about the ups and downs of the
> restoration of the K4s 1361. I have seen the
> K4s in Scranton but have not been back to
> the museum itself since the early 1990s and
> long prior to its relocation into to the
> Master Mechanic's building.

> What I saw was a darn good museum that would
> be appealing to average visitors (ie,
> non-railfans or rypn.org readers). It has
> plenty of interpretation (nice start is on
> the walkway on the way in that explains what
> the heck a master mechanic is and who some
> of the prominent ones in Altoona have been),
> a good hook to draw visitors a little deeper
> into the exhibits (a generous "why i
> should care" panel on the first floor
> that ties in Abraham Lincoln, George Burns
> and Nazi infiltrators can't be bad!) and
> three, count 'em, three floors of exhibits.

> The museum blended artifacts with sound and
> video screens together very well. Those of
> you who scream "Disney-esque" can
> get over it... this is the high tech/high
> touch type of exhibits that are gonna knock
> the socks off folks when they get there. I
> found myself drawn to the yard master
> "game" which was a real challenge
> trying to route cars to the proper tracks on
> the Altoona hump.

> So, my final score: A.

> Good presentation. Good exhibits. Easy to
> grasp for just about any age or interest
> level. Clean. Functioning--only one sound
> animation of the K4 cab wasn't working and
> it was soon repaired and drawing a crowd.
> The only drawback: It's hard to find, but
> that's something folks can do something
> about.

> I saw only one bit of evidence of financial
> hard times: a photocopied exhibit guide
> instead of a printed one. Otherwise, these
> folks seem to be hanging in there. I hope
> they make it. They should--it's a place that
> can tell people why the PRR and Altoona were
> important.


cessvw@cs.com