NORM'S gotten Larrggerr!!! Normally such a statement would be a call for going on a diet, but here it is a good thing.

I am very excited to tell you that the Northern Ohio Railway Museum (NORM) has been purchased an adjacent parcel of land to our immediate north. Previously the Museum owned just under thirty acre's on our main property and an additional ten acres of the old Cleveland & Southwestern right-of-way. This new parcel is just a fraction over eight acres and is bordered by the Museum on two sides. Our Museum President has known the family who owned the new property since the museum first moved to Medina County in the mid 1970's. He let them know long ago that if this parcel ever became available we would be interested in purchasing it. Also the local community is in favor of us owning this property, rather than seeing it developed into yet more housing.

Why buy this property now? There are several reasons.

First of all the horror stories of Museums that do not own their property abound in the industry. One of the best known is Trolleyville. Once the trailer park it was located in was sold, the museum was forced to find a new home. Sadly that did not happen. The collection sat in a warehouse in Cleveland for five years before it was finally scattered across the country. They are not alone as other operations have been forced to move or simply cease to exist when their borrowed home disappears. Other museums are being smothered by a lack of space to grow. Several examples exist out there now, fill in your favorite. The area where NORM is located was undergoing considerable exurban expansion from Cleveland, Medina and Akron. That came to a halt with the downturn in the economy but we figured it to be only temporary.

Secondly, this property gives us access to a second road. This will give us a back entrance for safety and emergency purposes.

Thirdly, our present master plan calls for a loop on the north end of our original property. A portion of that loop would have passed through an area with poor soil conditions and would present considerable construction problems. The new property will allow us to move the loop farther north and avoid the poor soil area.

Finally, the road to the north is served by a three phase power line giving us access to the electrical service we need to run our trolleys. This power is not currently available to us on Buffham Road.

The museum paid nearly $71,000 for this property, with that figure including closing costs, a land survey and attorney fees'. The museum so far with the help of a matching grant from the 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation has raised all but just under $8,000 of the funds needed. Please help us close out this fund with your contribution.

Steve Heister
http://www.northernohiorailwaymuseum.org

Congratulations!!

NORM is a "place to watch", as they are doing the core fundamentals really well and has one of the brightest futures of any midwest museum.

NORM has very reasonably priced Life Memberships.

I'm sure watching the double failure of Trolleyville and Lake Shore was a factor. There may also have been some influence of Charley Sheets, former leader of the Waterfront Electric Railway/ Toledo Angola & Western / that mystery site at the west end of the Toledo Lake Erie & Western. He was talking about "Railroad, Land, Carbarns" about 20 years before I was.

And by the way, the lack of "railroad" is not necessarily a problem for a trolley museum. Many successful trolley museums have only a mile or so, and they probably have that in circumference, never mind I believe they have use of the interurban RoW on their east edge.

Is there some sort of preservation order for the treed are or do you consider it an assett in its own right?
Cheers, Bob

s/treed/trees/?

http://www.medinacountyauditor.org/gis/gisfind.htm

Note that there are TWO Right-of-Ways on their east edge. Between the blue and green line is an old interurban RoW. Between the two green lines is CSXT. The interurban RoW runs from the freeway@CSX via Kennard@CSX northwest to Lake Rd. Google Earth says this RoW is about 2 miles long. NORM owns it.

Sweet.

Wow, it comes really close to the abandoned amusement park. Oh, interesting, CSX has a right-of-way right into the park.

To answer a couple questions.

treed/trees/?
I am assuming you are wondering how we treat our forested areas. We have a Museum department of Environmental Affairs. It exerts influence over everything from scrap sales/recycling to managing our natural resources. Obviously we clear cut trees where museum growth dictates. You can't have trees and track in the same space! We are introducing tree's into places we want them. It isn't easily visible in the low res image aerial image posted, but a row of maples has been planted along the front of the property on Buffham road. These are maple saplings transplanted from the forest. Some of these tree's are now up to 4 to 5 feet in height. The plan is to have a nice row of shade trees along the front of the property lending a park like atmosphere.

We are also monitoring the overall health of the tree's in our little forest. A museum member has been practicing his tree surgeon skills. He has been selectively cutting tree's and branches in our wooded area's to allow the remaining tree's to be healthier. Gone are twisted branches, split trucks as well as other unhealthy tree's. This will allow the healthy ones to thrive. We also have made a preemptive strike against some trees that were going to threaten our soon to be erected first section of overhead. Originally we cleared an area next to this track of undergrowth to reduce fire hazards and left the big trees', all those big trees were Ash. When we discovered that those Ash trees were all infected with an invasive species (Emerald Ash Borer) that would kill them within a few years, we made the decision to remove them. It was cheaper and easier to remove them now, rather than do it with trolley overhead next to them.

All was not lost with those Ash trees. When they were cut down, we made sure the logs were long enough to get useable lumber from them. We took the logs to an area Amish sawmill where they were rough saw into planks. They are now air drying. Eventually this wood will be further cut to make new decking for flat cars.

Concerning the Interurban ROW. We do own the two mile stretch mentioned. It was our first property purchased back in 1977. In 1984 the main property of 29.2 acres was bought. We spent a lot of years making land payments and having little money to do much else. Eventually when the Museum is fully built out, a demonstration trolley ride will be about 5 miles in length. This is achieved by going each direction on the line as well as trackage on the main property. Attached is a master plan of the main property. Obviously we need to modify this drawing to include the new property.

The amusement park was once served by both the interurban as well as the B&O RR. The interurban ran right by the front gate while the RR came in on a large looping siding that connected to the main line at two places. Trains could pull in and then leave by continuing forward back to the main. The name of the park was Chippewa Lake Park. It closed in 1978. More recently that property was going to be redeveloped into a luxury resort. We had talked to the developers about synergies and they were willing to work on that. They gave us the remains of a Grand Trunk Western wooden caboose that had been in a picnic area of the park. Vandals had burned it to the frame. We got the arch bar caboose trucks and underfloor equipment to salvage. Sadly the resort project is now dead and the property is up for sheriffs sale. What happens with this prime real estate next ????


Steve Heister
http://www.northernohiorailwaymuseum.org

It's really a shame about what happened to Chippewa Lake Park. It was the last of the "Trolley Parks" in NE Ohio. I heard about an effort over 20 years ago to reopen it as a classic amusement park of older rides (kind of like what Glen Echo Park in the DC area has become). Most of the coaster stood until about a year or so ago. Would have been a natural tie-in with NORM.