While I'm on the subject of Ohio traction....
Does anyone know what has been happening at Trolleyville USA? I have heard rumors that they may be being kicked out of their trailer park surroundings, and may be looking for a new home.

TJG

Buckeye Central Scenic Railroad
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

It's not a rumor, they have a year or two to find a new home. Sure would be nice for that superb collection to find a nice place to operate. As a matter of fact it would be nice if ALL the traction left in Ohio could find a nice place for Operation and Preservation. We have some pretty neat stuff that seems to be fading away!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> It's not a rumor, they have a year or two to
> find a new home.

I thought it was more like five years? Maybe somebody from Brookins could let us know what they're planning? Moving a collection that size will be a HUGE job.

> ... As a matter of fact it would be
> nice if ALL the traction left in Ohio could
> find a nice place for Operation and
> Preservation. We have some pretty neat stuff
> that seems to be fading away!

You're right about that. In an ideal world, the preservation community would find some way to consolidate the various museum collections in that area and provide a proper environment for preservation. But apart from the political problems, the resources probably aren't there.

I just hope the Brookins collection, which has been very well maintained up to now, will remain under cover.

(As a side note, it seems to me Mr. Buckeye Lake used to store a couple of his eyesores at Olmsted. I think maybe they were scrapped there - do you know?)

I heard the southwestern car was destroyed by fire, past that I couldn't tell you.


lamontdc@adelphia.net

How about the Northern Ohio Railway Museum in Chippewa Lake, OH? They have been quite active lately building track and buildings, and combining the two collections would be beneficial for both.

Tod Engine Foundation
todengine@woh.rr.com

> How about the Northern Ohio Railway Museum
> in Chippewa Lake, OH? They have been quite
> active lately building track and buildings,
> and combining the two collections would be
> beneficial for both.

Combining museums has worked at times, and at other times it hasn't worked. This might deserve a thread of its own, but I can cite examples of successful museum mergers (Illinois Railway Museum, Orange Empire Railway Museum) and of unsuccessful museum mergers (East Troy). Sometimes during these mergers, one organization tries to "take over" and the other organization, intentionally or not, gets driven out. My own opinion is that, in order for such a merger to be successful, there must be a high degree of cooperation between museums prior to merging. I'm not sure whether this is the case with Trolleyville and NORM, but I don't think that it necessarily is.

Frank Hicks

frank@gats.com

My only experience with that was the "perfect" combination of ROW and equipment and it all fell apart. It was sobering to see self immolation in action. One set knew everything about equipment and nothing about ROW while the other knew all about ROW and nothing about equipment. End result Divorce!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

It's funny, while we're on the topic of amicable mergers of railway museums, it has always amazed me how difficult it is for many railroad and transit museums to work together. Don't get me wrong, many museums you cited have done splendid jobs with relationship building, but I've heard so many more bad stories. It seems that maritime and aeronautical museums do a better job than railroad museums at this sort of thing. This might be a very unpopular thing to say, but perhaps our field attracts a higher degree of selfish people who have a pervasive "circle up the wagons" mentality and personal agendas as compared to other transportation history museums. The more relationship building than can take place between museums, the better off we all are.

> My only experience with that was the
> "perfect" combination of ROW and
> equipment and it all fell apart. It was
> sobering to see self immolation in action.
> One set knew everything about equipment and
> nothing about ROW while the other knew all
> about ROW and nothing about equipment. End
> result Divorce!


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