Since there was some interest in this, I thought you guys might like to know how we did.

Of 503 riders last Saturday on opening day of operating season, we had 416 "freebies", folks from our home county who were invited to come and "try us" for free. Our executive director tells me that many of these folks had either never been or hadn't been in about 10 years.

Our development director got 20 new memberships out of it (the hook here, being, "well, come and ride free the rest of the year; buy a membership").

And hopefully, we set up a buzz in the community with some word of mouth advertising that will yield some better visitation this spring.

The addition of the Amtrak F40 and the nearly complete Back Shop shell is also another something for veteran visitors/locals to see.

Our next big effort in visitation will be aimed at building back school visitation, which had dwindled in the bad economy of the last three years. We're also going to be looking into some special days to target Duke Power employees, since the company's centennial is this year and we have several Duke pieces: an 0-4-0T, a GE 25-ton switcher and Duke's office car, Doris.

Come visit!

http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

Jim,

Sounds like a great promotion for the museum, I'd like to come see that shell put back together myself - I bet it really helps the look of the whole place since it's right at your "front door".

Here in Savannah/Chatham County, all the museums have one free day a year - "Super Museum Sunday". The roundhouse of course pulls out all the stops and has everything moving it can. We do get alot of locals that have never been to the museum before - I've resisted the urge so far to wring necks when I hear for the umpity-umpteenth time "I've lived here all my life and never knew this place was here" - but then those grandparents will bring the grandkids out sometime, we usually get some free coverage on TV,(we have really big things that move and make noise) and I'm sure there are political/funding connections being helped along as well. All in all a pretty good thing. Don't know if other areas with a concentration of museums are doing this, but it seems to work for us.
Rudd