With the continued construction of new car barns at museum across the country; the latest at the National capital Trolley Museum and the Illinois Railway Museum and the Orange Empire Railway Museum; I have read and seen opinions that say people wish that equipment would be outside for better viewing.

I stand on the side of preservation inside a building. Putting both main line and traction equipment is so much better for the artifact in the long run that is just the thing to do as far as I can see.

Not that moving equipment outside in the summer is a bad thing. I suggest that more museums will be doing more of that as time goes by.

Remember too that historically equipment was in steam Round Houses or Trolley Car Barns when not in use.

So what do you think do you like it better when equipment is displayed outdoors?

Ted Miles

Indoors! Our goal is preservation. Equipment displayed outdoors will deteriorate much more rapidly. The viewing issue can be solved with suitable width viewing aisles and adequate lighting. Admittedly, this costs money, but the alternative is much more costly in the long run.

Pardon a bit of a flame, but I feel that many of the people who complain about indoor storage are "armchair railfains" who have never been actively involved in preservation work.

Our display plan for the display barn allows for several operable cars to be parked closest to the door so they can be moved outside or operated in service on rare occasions. One of our big events in the 1980s was a "photo lineup" where we pulled everything outdoors once or twice a year. Of course this was possible with our small collection. I'm not sure if this will resume once things settle in.

Otherwise the collection stays inside.

Wesley

I beg to differ.

Moving equipment outside for the summer IS a bad thing. There's heat, and also longer days with the associated high dosage of ultraviolet radiation, to name two obvious environmental hazards. Also, importantly, there are CHANGES in temperature with each day/night cycle. And, of course, outside storage is much less secure and invites vandalism.

At WRM, our new barn is designed to minimize temperature fluctuations, and it is kept totally dark except when people are in the building. Also, the lights have low UV output and are directed mainly away from the exhibits.

We will never leave equipment outside during the summer.

Given the cost in volunteer time and paint (Awl-Grip is about $80 per gallon) to repaint our cars, I think we would be way ahead to pose each of our cars outside, take good professional photographs of them, and sell them at cost in our bookstore rather than leaving the equipment outside so individual photographers can get their own pictures. I know people like to get "their" photographs of the cars, but our responsibility is to preserve the collection.

It depends upon the goal for that equipment.

For many (most) railway museums, today's goal is to preserve the many (dear I saw "too many") pieces of equipment acquired. For that purpose, indoor storage is required, with equipment "stuffed" into buildings.

If the goal is to display and interpret history, then indoors is still the best long term, but with space around the equipment to allow for displays and to get the feeling of that piece of equipment. Best is to operate it occasionally and to store indoors.

I am an architect. I have worked on theaters, aquariums, art museums, and many other building types. I am currently working on a small railroad museum that will not include equipment display.

The goal is supposed to be for museums to preserve and display. That is what makes a collection into a museum. I have suggested in previous threads that there are several large and reasonably successful rail museums that are ready to consider dedicated interior museum display space for a portion of their collection.

All non-railroad museums have the same basic components:

Public Spaces
Lobby
Restrooms
Exhibit Galleries
Staff Spaces
Office
Shipping/Loading
Collection Storage
Conservation
Janitor
etc.

Larger museums may also have classrooms, auditoriums, gift shop, etc.

I am accustomed to seeing a selection of a given museum's collection is on display in a beautiful environment that complements the artifacts. Art is frequently displayed with indirect natural light in brightly lit rooms where each piece is given enough space that it can be appreciated in isolation from nearby pieces. History museums often create contextual scenes in which a variety of artifacts may be displayed.

In the bad old days, railroad museums displayed and operated everything outdoors with the results we have come to regret. Now, a number of places are getting close to having a large portion of their collection under a roof. This is terrific except these collection storage buildings are primarily engineering solutions that do not adequately consider the visitor experience. They are almost invariably dark, crowded warehouses. This effectively means that the only equipment that is well-displayed is the stuff that is being operated. The next step for these organizations is to plan for museum-quality indoor display. This may be in a purpose-built structure, or it may be in a portion of a larger collection storage building.

I am not trying to criticize the construction of car barns, but I am trying to say that there is a lot more to aspire towards, and I believe that a number of museums are ready to take this important next step.

The Gainesville Midland decapod #208 and the GM consolidated #116 were given to cities along the GM route.

They both have pole barns (open sided buildings with only a roof supported by poles) for their protection. Both have chain link fences around them to discourage intruders.
This may not not the best display the locos, but they are protected some and also open to viewing. Heck to try to photograph since they are in shadows most of the time.

In other climates where snow and so being more of an issue than here in GA, maybe a closed building for winter and a pole barn for the summer.

The 116 was "repainted" by a local boyscout group. Unfortunately, they only planned to paint her. They painted over rotten wood and rusted out metal (boiler jacket and rotted out tender). However, they did more than paint it black. They used the original GM paint scheme - black, graphite, red deck and cab top, and yellow trim on the running boards and hand rails.

I do think that hiding RR equipment indoors does not allow the visitor get the feel of a railroad. However protecting the little used equipment is important.

If you have a large set of duplicated (such as the Cumbres & Toltec) and many of the car classes number more than one, one set can be kept indoors and the rest can be left outside.

FWIW

Doug vV