The HeritageRail Alliance announces the release of its updated Recommended Practices Toolkit. According to Committee Chair Bob LaPrelle “The new updated standards pay homage to how well-written the original recommended practices were written. This update was really about adding new practices to align with today’s world.”

Originally released in 1997 by the Association of Railway Museums (ARM), Recommended Practices provides a pathway to accreditation for the alliance members in accordance with the American Alliance of Museums standards and practices. Following the merger of ARM with the Tourist Railroad Association, Inc. (TRAIN), priority was given to updating this Recommended Practices document in an effort to acknowledge and address recent challenges and approaches in the field. Recognizing that such an endeavor must remain fluid to respond to an ever-changing environment and culture, this is but the latest updated version. New chapters are added to include Related Business Activities, Accessibility, Corporate Relations, Community Relations, Advocacy and Emergency Preparedness.

The HeritageRail Alliance wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their service on the Recommended Practices Revisions/Update Committee: Bob LaPrelle (Museum of the American Railroad), Chair, Kyle Wyatt (Western Railway Museum), Jim Schantz (Seashore Trolley Museum), Craig Sansonetti (Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad Preservation Society), Don Evans (West Coast Railway Association), and Scott Becker (Pennsylvania Trolley Museum). The Recommended Practices are dedicated to the memory of Ken Rucker and Don Evans.

The Updated Recommended Practices Toolkit (English version) will be available immediately for download on the HeritageRail Alliance website (http://www.heritagerail.org). French and Spanish versions will be available early in 2020. Both HeritageRail Alliance members and non-members may download a portable document format (pdf) version of the document.

About the HeritageRail Alliance

The HeritageRail Alliance was formed in 2013 by the merger of the Tourist Railroad Association, Inc. (TRAIN) and the Association of Railway Museums (ARM). The purpose of the Alliance is to lead in the advancement of railway heritage through information exchange, education and advocacy. The Alliance is guided by the principles set forth in “Recommended Practices” and incorporates other best practices generally accepted in the wider museum, preservation, and heritage railroad operations communities. Lastly, the Alliance exists to support a strong and vibrant railway preservation and heritage railroad operations industry.

I am glad to see the project of review, revision and reissue of Recommended Practices come full circle.

During the process of preparing the first edition of Recommended Practices several working group meetings were held. I managed to attend three of these; two on the east coast arranged by Ken Rucker in Washington, D.C. and the final one at California State Railroad Museum hosted by Walter Gray.

Recommended Practices was written with two purposes. The first was to help railway museums recognize now general museum practices relate to railway preservation and bring these to the attention of railway museum staff that have had no relationship to the boarder world of museums. The second was to help the broader museum community understand the uniqueness of the preservation of "large outdoor objects."

Recommended Practices for railway museums followed similar documents for Children's Museums and Science Museums both of which are significantly different to the hands-off world of many museums. After publication of the ARM document other specialty museums groups, such as the maritime museums became interested in doing similar documents.

I often found myself sharing Recommended Practices with other small specialty museums because RP is a good basic look at what it means to be a museum.

P.S. The Washington meetings were held on the first Saturday after New Years Day. One year, because of a snow storm, I was trapped for three extra days before I could fly back to Southern California.

Note to the unwary: when you follow the link to Heritage Rail, you'll scroll down to a link to "HRA Heritage Toolkit"

When you click on this, nothing at all appears to happen (at least not in Firefox on a PC set to download PDF content automatically). Do not click it a few more times to see if something's being slow to open. Look in your downloads folder for a PDF file with a name that begins "HRA_Toolkit" and open that.

This is in my opinion one of the very best resources available; it is even more delightful and impressive to me that it is provided free.