It looks as though Nevada is looking at some drastic steps to balance it's budget. According to the story they have already taken a major hit in cutting all employees to part-time and cutting hours.

http://carsonnow.org/story/10/18/2010/r ... t-hit-list

This is actually a pretty good article, detailing the potential economic impact of closing such a site. I'd also wager that once all the local spending by visitors is accounted for, the museum actually contributes more than it costs. The article alludes to this as well.

I myself have paid for a total of 4 room nites, 2 fill ups and a dozen or so meals on the two visits I've made to Carson. I would not have gone if the museum were not open.

Dave

So, what's the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City?

The entire museum and culture system in Nevada is under threat. This includes the three museums named and also the Nevada State Historical Society museum and its resources in Reno.

It seems that the the museum in Boulder is not named. Maybe that is because it is in the populous county in the State. In fact, Clark county has more people than the whole rest of the state.

Note that the article says that the people working at the Nevada State RR Museum are part-time. When the hours were cut, everyone was made part-time instead of doing furlong days as in California. This enabled the State to drop benefits for the workers.

As the article quotes Peter Barton, it is still early in the budget process. Also as he and the Chamber and Visitor Bureau notes this move is anti-tourism. We hope that the state political structure wakes up to that.

THAT -- is the problem with dependency on government for a rail museum. Of all the things government has its finger in, ranging from fire departments to dial-a-ride to prisons, rail museums are not that important and will always be the first cut.

Thus you get a funding whipsaw that is not a recipe for success for any organization.

A $3 Billion shortfall puts Nevada in this kind of a situation? Massachusetts is planning on spending almost that much to run a new commuter rail service in competition with existing private bus lines to two Southcoast cities where the traffic has never reached the capacity of the bus service.

PC

I agree. Although I know this is not necessarily true, I feel that if for example the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer was not a part of the North Carolina state government, we would still see the Graham County Railroad shay 1925 or Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 #4 (renumbered 604) in steam. Granted, I know that privately funded museums and non-profit groups have trouble with raising money as well and that keeping steam in operation regardless of what type of operation is an expensive proposition that takes more time and money than it is worth. With that said, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to see both 604 (4) and the 1925 in steam during the time they operated and can only hope for an improvement in the economic outlook in this country so either one or both of them may steam again in the future.
At the same time, the NCDOT has a great operation with the Carolinian and Piedmont passenger trains, but who is to say the funding for those might not be cut if the economy does not improve. I hate to hear about the situation in Nevada, but am not surprised. Hopefully things will turn around for them sooner rather than later.

Fire departments aren't safe either. Believe me, I know!