The story of the Brooklyn Trolley effort is described in this article.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=37817
Main proponent Bob Diamond had his fill of trying to deal with City of New York officials in making a functional trolley line and/or museum come to fruition.

The article says another person is trying to make a museum now (perhaps with the 4 remaining PCCs?) on Coney Island.

This story reminds me of another Bob, who has also had difficulties making new urban trolley museums at a few different sites.

Even after launch, an urban museum will have its challenges. Charlotte Trolley has had its ups and downs, Seattle trolley has been defunct a long time and the Vancouver BC trolley route was cut back prior to the temporary Olympics light rail rebuild and operation.

In my opinion, successful relationships with political leaders is perhaps the most important thing for any urban rail museum to flourish. Perhaps there might be some helpful hints on how to start, and to manage, a trolley or train ride in a city. Any comment from the established downtown museums and new heritage trolley lines?

The Trolley Museum of New York (TMNY), located in Kingston NY, has the following vision statement in its master plan: "The museum and the trolley operation become a vital part of the growth and visitor appeal of the Kingston Waterfront."

TMNY is a private non-profit that leases its yard and right of way from the city of Kingston.

The museum's trolley line is uniquely positioned to be the backbone that connects current attractions and many possible future developments along Kingston's Downtown waterfront, and the city has recognized this by applying for and administering a number of grants, both state and federal, that have benefited the museum. (http://www.TMNY.org has information on what's in progress now.) Besides the waterfront where TMNY is located being the focus of development in Kingston, it certainly helps that the city's Director of Economic Development is an experienced grant writer who played a key role in bringing TMNY to Kingston in the first place in 1983.

I wish I had more than just opinion to respond with, but it is my observation that successful urban operations are managed as well as any other non-profit cultural institution. Neither the "Train Club" nor the "Solitary Visionary" operations make it. I think there are two reasons for this: these latter kinds of groups are terrible at creating a museum that can compete with other urban attractions for public attention, and they have no idea how to build the kind of professional non-profit management structure necessary to earn financial and political support in what is a more sophisticated market.

One of the main differences is one of approach. The successful and well-managed non-profits understand that appealing to the public comes first. Build-it-and-they-will-come fantasies don't have a place in a competitive urban environment.

It should be fairly easy to confirm my observations by looking at the handful of successful urban rail museums. I would love to here about exceptions.

You need to be in a city that considers you to be very important.

Big cities have so much stuff going on that a railway museum doesn't stand a ghost of a chance, except in freak conditions. Railway museums are hungry for land and there will always be something more important to do with that land. That's what happened in Brooklyn, Vancouver, Seattle, etc.

Problem #2 is the museum DIDN'T OWN THE LAND. Many museums walk into that trap. In Kingston NY they are hanging trolley wire on somebody else's railroad. In Niles Canyon, volunteers rebuild a county-owned line while freight, light rail, commuter and true HSR all seek a route through that canyon. Others labor to appease their landlords by keeping equipment bright. These stories don't end well.

Don't frack around with untenable locations. It is a waste of your time.

Failed railway museums labor just as hard as successful ones. They just do different things with their precious time.

I agree that the "Train Club" and "Solitary visionary" are difficult and ineffective business models that don't meet challenges well. "Appealing to the public comes first" - very insightful.

There are examples of successful urban railroad museums. They are all relatively unique in their circumstances. California State, Baltimore & Ohio, Altoona Railroaders Memorial, Steamtown, Market Street Railway, New York Transit Museum, Toronto Railway Heritage Center, and the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel are all located in or very near the center of town.

Some of these are public institutions, and others are private non-profits. I suggest looking at what they have in common, and in all cases, you will find that they are well-run and have a profusion of interpretive programs and exhibits.

As for owning land. Yep, that is nice, but sometimes it is worth the risk for the greater rewards a good location can bring you. The thought of using the almost unchanged 1866 alignment through Niles Canyon for new rail service is ridiculous at best, and no one currently has the money to build what would be an essentially new railroad through that canyon. The only somewhat plausible threat is HSR, whose alignments (which have been consistently not pursued) are tunneled through most of the canyon. In the meantime, if the PLA pursues its master plan goals and develops the Public Facilities and Exhibits they claim to be interested in constructing, the organization will make itself an asset to the community that will be difficult to dislodge. As for the current operation, it is hard to beat having a very scenic railroad in the middle of a +7 million metro area that includes five of the wealthiest counties in California.

One area of conflict that can "sink" a railway museum is not recognizing that it "takes all kinds". Unless you have a large benefactor underwriting the efforts, you need both "nuts and bolts" and "public relations" people on the team. Maintaining good relations with neighbors and city/country government officials may not get any track built, but it may mean that getting permits authorized will go through more easily.

Other successful "big city" transit preservation operations:

Minneapolis, San Jose, Dallas,

None of these "own" their site. Add Baltimore Streetcar Museum, unsure if they own site.

Does Maine Narrow Gauge museum in Portland count as "big city" ?

Add Jackson Street Roundhouse, St. Paul, MN

We do not own our site at National Capital Trolley Museum. We are a leaseholder in a public park. The arrangement has worked well for us over the years.

Wesley

I'm not sure of the precise arrangement at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, but as I recall the city owns the Visitors Center and the right of way, and leases it to the BSM for $1 a year or something "token." The City also owns outright the former Maryland & Pennsylvania RR roundhouse which the right-of-way/track passes, and made noises years ago about transferring it to the BSM when the supposedly Federally-mandated removal of the salt shed function (washoff drains right into the Harbor and Chesapeake Bay) was completed with the transfer to another location. By now, I'm thinking that was 12 years ago.......... and all parties are still waiting........

There have been exceedingly strong arguments over the past several years for both removing the BSM to another location (street running a la Penns Landing in Philly, a park, etc.) and remaining where they are. The City seems OK with where we are, but it doesn't pull a critical mass of tourists or riders, is not actually a trolley right-of-way but a railroad right-of-way, and it IS in a flood plain (as plainly evidenced in 1979).

UPDATE: Museum president says the arrangement is a long-term (50- or 100-year) lease of the real estate from the City for $1 a year. The City parks commission supposedly bought the entire Ma & Pa right-of-way in Baltimore City at the time the Ma & Pa retreated to Pennsylvania. Technically, the parks agency "leases" the roundhouse to the streets department for the salt storage.

The City of Philadelphia kicked out the BVTA's waterfront trolley line. They took their streetcars to a welcoming Scranton & now have a first class museum & a 9 mile round trip ride that actually goes somewhere. Philly's loss is Scranton's gain.

For a long time, the City of Philadelphia, Pa. has been under the control of the Democratic party. Some of the officers, insiders, and financial benefactors of Penn's Landing Trolley had employers who were allegedly of the Republican persuasion, and may have feared for their jobs if they had any involvement with politicians of the "wrong" political party.
Good relations with the locals are important, especially if they are also your landlord.

I wouldn't exactly call the Museum of the American Railroad a/k/a Age of Steam in Dallas a successful urban museum. While it is true that the museum existed at Fair Park in Dallas for over 40 years and expanded their collection. Since the museum announced plans to move to the burbs the City and the Museum are now locked in a bitter court battle, the city is trying to evict the museum. While some progress has been made on the museum's new site it remains to be seen, given the poor economy, if they can actually pull off the move.


Tom Cox
Dallas, Texas

I suppose I am what you would call a "solitary visionary". If it were not for the solitary visionary there would be no Steamtown, East Broad Top or Colorado Railroad Museum. Being a solitary visionary is sometimes the only way to get these projects started. The key is in converting to a board run, professionally managed operation when the facility has matured. For many startups, having one or a few people calling the shots and doing the work is the only way that anything will get accomplished.

We are in the preservation business, which by its very definition means that we must look way into the future and not at the current climate. Owning your own property means that people with a vested interest in the operation control its destiny, now and in the future. If you are a guest on someone else's land, there is always an end date to your operation. Be it the end of a lease or the end of a favorable politician's reign, someday you'll have to fight to stay at that location.

At the very least you should own your shops property, so if your operations over leased property should fall through, you can always retract back onto property that you control.

To get back to the original question. Wherever there are politicians involved, you will be left scrathing your head as to why they do what they do until you remember that they are there to serve one purpose and that is to further their political career and if a museum doesn't help in that end goal, they are expendable. And ideas, promises and sometimes grants rarely transit from one administration to the next. Or you could have a successful museum but the current administration doesn't see it that way and backs or proposes another, community backed, competing museum in another location in your town. Sadly, many administrations rarely see the tourist and income potential, from a well run museum. Again, it might not help further their career.

And then you run into the internal politics of a museum when there is disagreement as to whether or not the museum's doctrine is being forwarded. Many hurdles to overcome and I applaud the museum that accomplishes it and stays viable.

Later!
Mr. Ed