Please, before we inflate the "gold standard" to platinum or unobtanium.....

Please remember that not every "heritage railway" in the UK has it "perfect"--in fact, darned few do. If we're going to go as far as criticizing locomotive and carriage/wagon selection, then there are horribly few of the British lines that have it so. Most of them have to compromise as much as the American lines do--for example, the BR Mk.1 coach is the moral equivalent of our Lackawanna MU/SP Harriman cars--they do the job, and many/most got hauled behind steam, but it's not quite "period." Ditto the use of a SR Bullied Pacific or LMS "Black Five" in many cases, or the use of an industrial 0-6-0T instead of a more appropriate LBSC "Terrier". And, yes, there are plenty of lines run with an old BR or industrial switcher as well.

Rather, the PHILOSOPHY of "heritage preservation should be at work. The idea should be that, as much as reasonably possible, once walking past a certain point you are literally "walking into the past," and that "past" continues if you step off the train at the other end or at the lineside station complete with signal box with a switchtender dressed in period clothing drinking tea out of a vintage metal teapot. Yes, you also need the modern toilets with diaper changing stations, electricity, and maybe the satellite dish or cell phone tower, but you discretely hide those behind the shrubbery.

Strasburg does exceeding well with SOME aspects of this strategy--the East Strasburg depot, outfits, vintage freight cars looking ready to be loaded, real-albeit-relocated signal tower, real-but-clean car interiors, etc.--and not so well in other aspects (no station that I know of had a miniature live steam train running in its back yard, nor a photo studio). There are very few preserved railways ideally suited for a "time capsule" experience, and the ones I have had personal experience with all have some major flaw making a serious large-budget proposition unsustainable--C&TS, EBT, Stewartstown, etc. (One under-remarked such operation: the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern.) And frankly, we don't want to "preserve" the warts-and-all "real railroading" experience of some lines like the Gettysburg RR, which in the Cornell era seemed a complete throwback to a railroad era before the FRA and ICC--dirty cars, dog's-breakfast consists, impromptu freight moves with the passenger runs, and occasional breakdowns.......

And, junior, have you forgotten about Ma & Pa 20 at Strasburg? If they can keep jewels like that around and in good shape, I'm willing to cut them some slack on newly-built diners and the like. Besides which, as I recall, the Strasburg did an intensive search nationwide for a car to restore for the service the "Marian" does now and came up empty, forcing them to build anew........

Or,

The Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania -
a study in Museum vs. Heritage Railway done right on both sides of the street.

To the north you have the Strasburg Railroad… an operating railroad, using steam and wooden passenger cars, with a wonderful heritage theme. They are doing as good a job, (if not better) of preserving the technology of steam than anyone else in the US…

Their site, as a tourist attraction is incredibly well run, welcoming and exciting, yet they still find the value in restoring a freight car or two, and using old model T trucks to deliver supplies to the stores. Their success made resources available for others.

Their mission (as defined by me, not them) is to provide a quality visitor experience, evoking the tradition of short line steam railroading. They seem to do it well, and seem to be profiting from their success.

Across the street you have the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania… its goal is collecting, preserving and displaying artifacts related to the railroad history of the Commonwealth.

They have good visitor facilities. Most of their artifacts are inside. They have good interpretive signage and appropriate supporting displays. The collection is impressive, and comprehensive.

Their goal is artifact preservation and education… their goal does not include a need to operate. They are a government agency, and not primarily responsible for profitability (this does not mean they should not be fiscally responsible, but does mean they don’t need to be responsible for showing profit to their shareholders)

Among similar state owned and operated railroad museum they are near the top, not as good as the California State Railroad Museum, but very good and worth the trip…

We have elsewhere criticized the Strasburg R.R. for the way they rebuild their wooden coaches… The criticism would be appropriate for a restoration done for the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, but not at Strasburg… Strasburg is not restoring their fleet, they are rebuilding them for further service.

In the past people have criticized the RR Museum of PA for not restoring their locomotives to operation… This is not their role. They are there to make sure the locomotives are still around in 100 years for us to look at and admire. If they were to discuss restoritaion for operation the conversation would include a discussion of lost “historic fabric” as a primary question…

Strasburg will remove sand domes that don’t make sense… They move headlights to more astectic locations… They will assemble trains of era appropriate freight cars for special events. They will continue to rebuild passenger cars using plywood in place of the wall truss… Sometimes the little blue guy will appear… this is all appropriate and good…

The RR Museum of PA will continue to care for and restore equipment in their collection based on careful research. They will eventually build a round house to protect the engines currently outside. They will continue to preserve records, photos and other paper within the collection.

Collectively we need to step back and understand that both are doing good work, but from different views.

SEEM to be?

I have had some interesting discussions with Lancaster County folks in a position to know something about the Strasburg Rail Road's finances and shareholders over time. Let's just say that, although there are certainly more expedient ways to profit from a return on investment (see Dutch Wonderland, for example), and the railroad does lavishly spend on things they don't have to (can anyone else be taken seriously if there were suggestions that they might rebuild an 0-4-0 Camelback just to serve as a switcher to replace a diesel? Or that they rebuild wooden freight cars just because they can, not because Hollywood came calling?).............

.......... suffice it to say that speculation runs rampant that the railroad's original shareholders came out VERY well indeed. If nothing else, the story goes, every original shareholder, by being a "vice president" of the railroad, garnered reciprocal railroad passes, which some have said were heavily used by some shareholders going to such events as the Kentucky Derby, Florida, etc.

The railroad is privately held, and as such the actual particulars are only important to a few folks and their accountants and IRS representatives. But as long as the railroad is led by a gentleman (and his co-workers) that combines a keen business sense with the love and passion of preservation that inspires us all, by George and Robert Stephenson, all the more power to them.

Bottom line: They do an awesome job and I have six year old bugging me to go again as proof. When I need a little down time, its a trip East on 283 and there's no hangover!