How familiar this all is, the repeating story of post industrial America.

There was recently a newspaper article in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which used to be one of the largest textile manufacturing cities in New England, stating that some local groups wanted to have a textile museum in the city. Lowell Massachusetts already has an excellent one, but that one is almost two hours drive from New Bedford.

So they looked around New Bedford to find a cotton production line that they could incorporate into a museum (I won't get into naming all the machinery involved in the process, it is quite extensive). They found that out of the thousands and thousands of production lines in more than 150 mills in the city, not one set of machinery still existed in New Bedford. But there are still almost 100 of the 150 mills, most of them completely empty.

My dad's last work at Berkshire Hathaway, the largest mill in the city, was to package up all the machinery in his department and send it to South America when that portion of the mill was closed. He commented later than he should have just quit and walked out a few days early rather than participate in it.

PC

Mixed feelings reading this.

The tone of the editorial is far too wistful and not very constructive, though the emotion and personal history by the writer is deeply appreciable. It's people like him that provide a context for "modern" times to view the past, but what he talks about is a plight shared by many cities, by many groups, in many places. It is not uncommon.

The trouble now is not to say "gee, what have we lost?" or "how could it have been better?" The real challenge is to ask "how do we make what we still have matter?"

The viewpoint that museums are a "growth" industry that is going to lure lots and lots tourists into former industrial areas is becoming increasingly common as a theme for urban redevelopment. It seems to be the last gasp of a failed industrial economy, the final desparate option after the plans for the world class aquarium, the luxury condominiums, the massive shopping malls and the resort casino have all fallen through. The people in the cities hated the big industries in their day for the pollution, noise, and traffic they generated. Now that none of them are left and there are no jobs in town, the "old stuff" all of a sudden is resurfacing as the attraction that is going to bring in people from someplace else who some how, magically, have acquired lots and lots of money they want to spend while visiting a museum.

PC

> what he talks about is a plight shared by many cities

What he talks about is a plight which has its grips on America. Our production machinery goes out of the country, soon followed by the jobs of our citizenry. Our reward for being retrained in a lesser job, we get a massive influx of immigrants from the countries who received our machinery and jobs, and then we get to compete for those jobs all over again with people who will work for far less $$$ than we can support our families on without government subsidies, which they qualify for and we do not.

Did I mention that we get to pay to teach them and their children to speak English (for those willing to assimilate) and pay their medical expense too?

I believe Brother Cook is mentioning "Cultural Tourism" or "Heritage Tourism" as it relates to being in the quiver for economic development.

I've found the term "heritage" to be interchangeable with "cultural," and actually a touch more digestible for the general public given the presumed ignorance/disdain toward "museums/history/heritage."

A recent study for Cultural Tourism in Indiana (which relates that CT has an economic impact of $4.9 billion with $43 million in business related taxes in the state) it was shared that the cultural tourism industry did not suffer during the recession in comparison to other recreational/entertainment driven venues.

I would suggest that embracing cultural tourism isn't so much a last gasp as it a potentially effective urban revitalization tool as it relates to quality of life, sense of place, and identity, which are mini-catalysts for economic development and talent retention. The better "story" a place relates, the more magnetism it can have.

Well, since this is quickly getting off the narrow topic of Altoona and it's Pennsy heritage, let me add my thoughts.

What does the "Rust Belt" have to offer to attract and keep people? Preston and Kelly both make good points as to what this part of the country has to offer. Certainly it's not the pleasant year-round climate <G>. I didn't move back to Northern Ohio for that, although not being subjected to up to 30 days each Summer of 100 degree plus heat is not a bad thing versus the DC area. What we have is what attracted people to the region in the first place, good water resources, good soil for growing food, and good transportation and natural resources. We need to prevent those living in less hospitable places from stealing the water and piping it to the desert SW. Above all, we need to actually MAKE THINGS that can help us deal with the problems we are heading for. I've said for years that you can't have an economy based on casino gambling and selling each other French Fries. Cleveland has not learned that lesson yet, and I'm predicting that the new Aquarium and Medical Mart will be white elephants less than 10 years after they open, and gambling bankruptcies will increase with a new casino downtown. Akron tried to go down the tourism road with the Inventor's Hall of Fame, and that crashed and burned several years ago.

To get somewhat back on topic, there is no reason the region could not play a major role in building the rail transit vehicles of the next 100 years. That tradition was here, EMC, NIles Car, Twin Coach, White Motors, and Lima LW to name a few of the great names from the past. The new won't look like the old, it hopefully will be cleaner and greener, but we can and must do more than satisfy "American content" rules in being the final assembly point for equipment made by foreign manufacturers. Ohio just blew a great opportunity in giving back $400 mil. in rail money to the feds that would have partly gone to several dozen Ohio companies that provide material to the industry, especially U. S. Rail Car, in Columbus, that would like to make the equipment for any new passenger service, and is in-fact, a U. S. owned business. That is the real future, not heritage tourism, although that is where my heart is as well. We need to make the vehicles that will be the museum artifacts of a hundred years from now.

Indeed it's not enough to merely look back...but like you say Paul, maybe some of us can help get back to making the meat and potatoes rather than making do with the French fries.

KL

While some of you folks will hash out the debate over whether and how much of railroad and industrial history will have to be saved and by whom (and, most importantly, on whose dollars), let me all advise you of the next impending mission:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... Facilities

Very, very soon, we're going to be hearing very vocal arguments about diverting massive amounts of Federal dollars to preserve Kennedy Space Center--indisputably historic, and after all, Federal dollars built it all, so shouldn't Federal dollars save it all?...........

And if you thought preserving a 2-8-4, station, box car or roudhouse was a rhymes-with-witch, wait'll someone tries to stabilize and preserve the VAB and Launch Pads 39A and 39B..........

Those mobile launch platforms are ALCO powered, maybe the best maintained ALCO prime movers in the World!

Mayby we can't give the city of Altoona much credit for foresight, but we can certainly give the Pennsy brass some credit for saving one of each major class of steam locomotive and some other assorted rolling stock. How many major railroads did that? The Pa state museum commission choose Strasburg over Altoona and some other sites for the establishment of a PA Railroad museum for obvious reasons. Besides the success of the Strasburg railroad, Lancaster County is the number one tourist destination in the state, I believe. Correct me if I' wrong. So the formula for success has always been keeping all kinds of folks in mind, not just us railfans. My point in the Strasburg Shop update concerning the restoration of RDG 1187. Will anybody else care besides us foamers? Certainly an encouraging sign is the number of kids who still likeThomas. We just need to encourage them to graduate to bigger and better. It is living history after all!

Of course, Altoona's chance is far from over. Unlike potential centers for industrial tourism that have either been bulldozed clean or declined into tragic socio-economic hells, Altoona still has quite a bit of the "bones" from the Pennsy still in place... And still active.

Much like Pittsburgh and Scranton, Altoona's once diverse ethinic neighborhoods are largely intact with tremendous architectural richness.

It's location is beautiful, the climate is actually pretty nice (you know, they still have four seasons) and there's a world class educational facility a half hour up the road.

Is it an uphill climb? Sure. Are they still in the game? Yes, if they want to be.

They certainly have a better chance at industrial tourism than Schenectady, Lackawanna, Eddystone and the myriad other bulldozed palaces of heavy industry.

Rob

Good thing that article wasn't published on this forum since it violates the guidelines.

And Altoona has Sheetz :)
Seriously, we make the trip every year or more often if we have the money and the car's running well enough. We bought life memberships to the museum (whether they're worth anything or not this year.) I can't say a whole lot about what didn't get done at the museum because I'm over here three hours away and can't get up there to volunteer. However...

This is why, when we were discussing that nice little steamer in NJ, I kept saying "Restored, and then what?" The Master Mechanic's Building looked like a great idea, and in a lot of ways it is, but the letter writer had a point about the same exhibits being in place since it opened. In hindsight, it might have been better to go with fewer exhibits and rent out some of the space to keep up operating funds. Fresh displays attract people. Older ones don't so much. Older displays with broken or missing parts really don't.

Cooperation among all of the rail tourism spots in that area would also help. Back when we first started going up there (early '90s) asking about East Broad Top at ARMM got us a nasty look. This year, there was active cooperation. When we're headed home, we usually make our way from the museum parking lot up the mountain (maybe stopping off at Boyer's and Benzel's if time permits) to the Curve, from the Curve up Glenwhite Run to Gallitzin, from Gallitzin over to Cresson and Cassandra, with an occasional side trip to the Portage RR or the Johnstown Flood park at St Michaels. We stay overnight in the area, eat at the fast-food joints, buy stuff in the gift shops, patronize the golf driving range if it's open, and so on. The weekend isn't a series of isolated events. We're out railfanning and we try to look at everything. If the counties involved would get their heads together, they could market the rail attractions like that--as a whole chunk of the Heritage Trail system.

Altoona has, as you said, the great old neighborhoods and interesting rail spots. It's a crime that the Sam Rea Shops closed. Like our home area, it needs a good dose of heavy manufacturing to make any kind of permanent comeback to support the tourism industry.

Maybe, just maybe our new governor in Ohio will be able to turn our state around, cut tax rates, reduce regulation and make the state more business "friendly". I'm pulling for him!

That big city southwest of Altoona has a huge opportunity on its hands, but who knows if the people in charge of it are up to the challenge. I'm talking about the Carrie Furnaces, two ironmaking blast furnaces built in 1906 for the US Steel Homestead Works. The massive plant was acquired by Allegheny County five years ago and last year Rivers of Steel obtained a lease on the plant and intends to convert it into a steel heritage center.

Rivers of Steel's game plan since day one when they started this project 20 years ago has been for the National Park Service to acquire and operate the site as the steel industry's Steamtown. However, their acquisition of the furnace plant happened to coincide with perhaps the greatest sweep of anti government spending sentiment to hit this country ever. The man largely responsible for acquiring the Carrie site, Allegheny County Executive Dan O'norato was defeated in his quest for governorship, and the one US Senator that championed the project lost his job (after he switched sides).

Preserving the well maintained VAB at Kennedy would probably be a bit easier than trying to preserve a blast furnace plant in Pennsylvania that has not seen a lick of maintenance since the early 1980s. However if the Pittsburgh area has anything its an appreciation of its heritage (having a football team with the right name helps), and I think that with a proper capital campaign enough money can be raised to stabilize the Carrie furnaces.

The Carrie plant does include the only car dumper in preservation and the only ten axle bottle car preserved as well. I've been doing some volunteer work for Rivers of Steel leading tours through the plant and have a special interest in seeing that project succeed.