Ron Goldfeder mentioned the restrictive available trackage at the MOT for operations on the SP 4460 thread. Thought I would start a new thread to find out other museums with this problem and exactly what they have in the way of operating track space. Perhaps Ron or someone could advise just what space IS available at MOT. Also, whether there is any possibility of increasing the trackage.

Les

The "operating" trackage at MOT is the trolley line, which is about 1,200 feet or so, laid on the old MOPAC roadbed. This does not include the turning loop at one end, which adds another 600 feet or so to the run time. Present plans call for about another 600-800 foot expansion of the trackage, to come up to the second level of the automobile building. All of the current trackage is under wire, and the street car runs about 4 days a week, Thursday through Sunday. Depending on what car is operating, it serves as a people mover, to move people from one end of the museum to the other and back. Of course, the street cars are restored and maintained by the volunteers. Much of the track work and overhead work is also done by volunteers.

Long term, and I mean long long term plans call for extending that trackage, wrapping it around the hill and having the track eventually wind its way down to the new lower level parking area and yet-to-be-built visitors center. This trackage would be under wire, and probably limited to street railway equipment, and other equipment that negotiates tight radius curves.

That being said, MOT has and will probably always be a largely static museum, and there's nothing wrong with that. Even with this proposed trackage expansion, you couldn't run the 1522 down the hill. Even museums that have a good streach of trackage are still too small to realistically operate "big steam."

With all of these people clamoring for steam operations at MOT, I expect to see a lot of new cars Saturday morning in the volunteer parking lot.

I worked for several years at a site with operating trackage of only the turntable and a few leads. Firing up our little 0-4-0T and moving stuff around was well received and made special events much more special. Nobody could ride, just watch, and they liked the experience just fine. I've volunteered at another palce in which the 0-4-0T was used every other trip as the switcher in the yard, alternating with a centercab GE as the "road engine"on the 4-mile ride. Visitors loved getting up close and personal with the little engine and its crew - we ran it back and forth a couple hundred feet for them to watch a couple times between trips. It isn't always about tonnage or distance.

Switching provides movement and variety, which the majority of visitors will find entertaining.

dave

One of the most restrictive layouts with regular standard gauge operations that I have seen is the Danbury Railway Museum in Danbury, CT. They run back and forth about 1000' several times a day on weekends with a diesel and coach. (Actually it was an RDC when I was there several years ago.)

There is a map of their track layout on my Flicker site along with MOT and many other museums, all to the same scale for comparison purposes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/polybalt/4152781207/

Peter -

Nice maps! Very well done.

Les

I'd venture to say that the Railroad Museum of New England likely has the most track of the museums, 19.6 miles of mainline, and I'd say 21-22 miles of total track once you add in the passing sidings (3?), storage yard tracks and spurs. Only about 8 miles of mainline is in regular service though.


Danbury is land and track locked currently but they do a good job with what they have. They are trying to get trackage rights from Metro North to be able to run out of the railyard.

Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum doesn't run any passenger trains, they do have a pump car they let people try out and ride on a section of track. Most of thier equipment is static display only, some not operational at all, but they do move it around at times and you can watch that.

WRM owns about 21.3 miles of former Sacramento Northern trackage plus the trackage on the museum campus. We have about 4.5 miles of main line electrified and in regular operation.

When Steamtown finishes #26, I would love to see them routinely do switching displays in the yard. Not with people riding, but rather making up and breaking down small vintage freight trains in the Yard. I just think on those short pieces of track you could demonstrate a whole lot of what happened in RR yards years ago.

I picture folks gathered on the overhead crosswalk. A park ranger is explaining the roles of the different crew members and also explaining how improvements and safety changed in the last 100 years. Perhaps even the GP9 comes in to replace the steam engine part way through the program. And the park ranger explains how that changed railroading. Maybe even a few modern day freight cars get mixed in to explain the difference. And perhaps a safety lesson or 2 for those inclined to use RR tracks as short cuts.

I would love to see more live action/choreographed activity along with good interpretation at many museums and tourist lines. Nothing fancy, just switch a few cars and explain the procedures.

Tom P