See the link below for my story of the Colorado Railroad Museum, its new director and a bit of its history.

http://railroadglorydays.com/CRRM

Glen,

Thank you for posting the link. I just got done reading the piece from the link on the Narrow Gauge Railroad Discussion Forum. Wonderful piece!!

I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Donald Tallman, the Executive Director, in the Spring of 2007 when Colorado RR Museum hosted the an Association of RR Museums gathering. I can away impressed.

The Colorado Railroad Museum board went through a strategic planning exercise to determine its future direction and its needs in an executive director. I am told that by looking outside the railfan/railroad preservation community and into the larger non-profit field they had numerous candidates for the position to choose from.

I too liked the article and would love to hear more. They seem to do very well, with very little "ride." The educational programs described sound great.

The Western Railway Museum also hired an outside professional from the world of big city non-profits. Their executive director is a casual railfan, but had already established a career in San Francisco's large non-profit sector before being hired by WRM. It seems to be working out well and they have worked to establish a larger community of museums and attractions in Solano County.

There is a huge world of non-profit administration and historic preservation that seems to be isolated from the world of railway preservation. Why is it so rare for the private non-profit rail museums to have leadership with a background either of these fields? I have heard people refer to the Virginia Museum of Transportation as an example of this approach not succeeding, and certainly, the Altoona Railroaders' Museum has also had problems (although their current management has no background in non-profit administration). Is anyone keeping track of which museums have professional leadership, and how they are doing vs. the volunteer/enthusiast model upon which our movement was built? Perhaps there has been a more widespread move toward professional management?

Just one more thing; I don't entirely get the point Talman was trying to make about railway preservation being different from other forms of preservation. Too much is made of how unique rail preservation work is. There are many accepted and understood practices from the world of architectural preservation that are directly applicable to railway preservation. Buildings may not move (much) but they are big, sit outside, have to meet various codes, and provide for the life safety of their occupants. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Structures could easily be applied to the preservation of operating railroad equipment.