Indeed, that is not a bad idea, and is similar to the Pennsylvania RR Museum example above. By leaving a few pieces of track empty here and there, you can do a lot to alleviate the tedium of endless rows of cars and locomotives stuck end to end to the horizon. It can also open up enough space to get a good look at what you are trying to show off.

Look, I really understand and agree with the idea of getting it all under cover (although some might suggest that you get it 80% under cover and rotate out some equipment into outdoor display--see the piece on the Colorado RR Mus). I just think some of us are ready to think about taking the next step, and that step is not a dimly-lit butler building with tightly spaced, parallel tracks, unless you want to bore your visitors with a big warehouse full of trains. The typical carbarn experience is a lot like strolling the aisles at Costco (or Sam's Club, if that's the way you swing). It is not fun, and does nothing to provide a decent context for viewing historic railroad equipment. This should not be an either-or discussion. My whole thing here is about building INDOOR display space. It is spatially less-efficient than indoor storage, but it is still building MORE covered track.

The visitor experience ought to be a priority, but museums that offer a ride on their heritage railway have been able to neglect the collection viewing experience. Their business models have more in common with tourist lines than traditional museums, but being a museum should mean creating an engaging AND indoor space in which to view some of the collection highlights. Ideally, such a space would be easy to rotate equipment out of and would allow your museum to create changing exhibits that focused on these pieces. This strategy is considered a must in the traditional museum world to bring in repeat visits.

Go ahead and minimize the aisles in the carbarns. Make them fit as much stuff as possible with tracks on 15' centers. If we took all that extra aisle space in a big "display" carbarn and instead used it all at one end of the building, you could create a museum display space for a couple of through tracks. Let the hardcore fans (and anyone else) go through the storage barns, but also make something special that will hold just a few pieces. Build it so it can be expanded later. Combine it with some other needed projects (like an archive). Include restrooms. Give your visitors a museum.

Like I've said before, not many private museums are ready for this step, but a few most definitely are. If your total indoor storage area approaches that of a small Wal*Mart, then it is time to make this the next major project.

Well that I certainly agree with. At WRM, we have pieces so well restored that they look unnatural, meanwhile we have a handful of pieces that are still stored entirely outdoors.



You mean like this? :)
http://djwong.org/photography/home/west ... slide.html
et.seq.

I would not dream of criticizing that project for the good it has done to protect a good chunk of WRM's collection.

...But, maybe Carbarn #1 should not just be rebuilt as is? It's just an idea.

Robert and all,

This is an interesting discussion. The new Jensen Memorial Car Barn at the Western Railway Museum is 108 X 350 feet long. It has fire supression, a moisture barrier under the tracks and insulated walls.

It is ADA compliant from the front door of the Visitor center to the back end of the barn which is hundreds of feet away through Car barn One.

While the six tracks are close together than we'd like; you can take people through there on concrete sidewalks. I have been giving tours through the building since it opened in May. Here are some observations:

It has to be easy for the visitors to get to. We run an Interurban right up to one of the doors! People are willing to walk back from there after the tour.

The barn contains a range of equipment from the untouched bodies to shining new paint jobs fresh from the Shop. Including the two Sacramento Northern freight cars that we just got from the California State Railroad Museum.

For the first time in our history the museum can display whole trains such as a Sacramento Northern freight train,a Western Pacific passenger train and soon a train of SN passenger Interurbans .

The most popular item is the WP steam locomotive #94 followed by the electric locomotives that are placed at the end of each track. There are two Kennecott copper mine locomotives in there and people enjoy them also. They are sust plain BIG.

I am waiting for what passes for winter here to see what happens with the tours. It may be that more people will wait for the next Interurban to ride back to the VC rather than get rained on.

In my opinion, people want to see "stuff" and when there is a person there to explain what they are standing next to, then they go away happy regardless of how wide the isles are and what colors the walls are painted.

These tours are designed for adults. I just wish that we had the volunteers who can do a kids tour. They think that trains are an amusement park ride not something real and the fact the we are half way between the RT Light Rail in Sacramento and the MUNI in San Francisco. to say nothing of the CAl Trans, Amtrak and the world famous cable cars!

Of cours most of their parents do not ride trains either.

Ted Miles