What an ambitious plan. I am always thrilled to see a effort made to preserve industrial architecture, and putting these buildings to use as a complex of history museums seems particularly apt. I am especially interested in the proposal to co-locate other museums at the site. There are a number of interesting projects around the world that have successfully adapted industrial facilities into cultural centers while retaining the texture and grittiness that characterized these facilities. The contrast between such a setting, and modern cultural facility can be strikingly beautiful.

That said, I think there could be some room for improvement with the site plan. A lot of attention has been put into maximizing the site's capacity for storage and display tracks, but it does not appear that an equivalent effort has been made to address the public areas of the site, and the sequence of spaces that will make up the visitor experience. It is a large site, and some manner of organization will be necessary to successfully circulate the public through such a large campus. This is particularly difficult with railroad museums because the scale of the equipment is so large.

I know nothing about this organization from out here in San Francisco, and I was wondering if anyone would care to comment on the feasibility of this project and their ability to pull it off? With whom might they form strategic partnerships to develop this complex?

Buffalo is about as broke and rust belt as they get. The money is not going to come from any government entities. I think the general question many in the area are asking is where the money is coming from. Rumor has it that one major corporation is putting up some money, but only enough to get the first building fixed up. Hopefully that is enough to generate enough excitement to raise money. This group has a lot of equipment scattered over multiple sights - moving it all to Buffalo alone will cost big buck. I know at least one of the Class I's hinted at for running excursions was taken by surprise as the first they heard of it was from seeing the Buffalo News article.