B&O Museum
Exhibit A
Our grandson in the cab of either C&O 377 or Clinchfield 1 set up as a hands-on display.

Back to the original post...I'm a member of the museum, and I'm o.k. with it. What harm does it do to promote a kids themed train?

If most folks only realized how much work goes into making any event like this happen, there would be no complaints.

The best RR museums and tourist RRs run this kind of fundraising event. That's what it is, fundraising. So look within your family, and if you can, bring the kids to the museum. It only helps preserve the real trains, and the kids have fun. What's wrong with that?

The train you save could be your favorite one.

Brian

wesp -

Probably Clinchfield 4-6-0 number 1, which is on display in the "roundhouse". C&O #377 is back in the storage area I believe. Your grandson looks like he is enjoying himself!


Les

I don't know how old of a grumpy old man you are, but there were train stories for children back when you were a rugrat!

Perhaps you grew up reading Mariam Potter's The Little Red Caboose, a Little Golden Book, that was first published in 1953? My copy is from its seventeenth printing, dated 1973.

Or perhaps you read Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo, The Story of a Little Engine Who Ran Away, first published in 1937? My copy is from its 9th printing, dated December 1974.

This "outrage" isn't "beneath dignity" it is beyond silly. It's their herald and they can modify it as they see fit.

Marketing is all about having a product that sells. Small children are often frightened by the size and noise of trains. This is a way to reach them "where they are".

In defense of the need to tell stories at railroad museums, from some well respected individuals:

"We may be documenting and preserving splendidly, but fifty or one hundred years from now, will the people be interested or care? Without some personal connection, there is a danger they may not."

Herbert H Harwood, Jr., "Are Railroad Museums Forgetting the Basics?," Railroad History, Number 176 (Spring 1997), 104.

When the B&O Museum opened in 1953, it wasn't necessary to tell stories; museum visitors brought the context along with them as railroads were still an important part of most people's lives. Now, the context must be given to the visitor with stories about the men and women who laid the track, ran the trains, repaired the locomotives, etc.

A quote from Peter Barton, former director of the Railroader's Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA:

"Artifacts need to be placed in context...it needs to be something more than an object placed on an altar."

Peter A. Hansen, "Is Stuff Enough?," Trains (May, 2007), 50.

I am as much a foamer as anyone on this site; I get excited when I see a Baldwin diesel switcher (whether active or preserved)or Strasburg's #90 in steam, for example. I know why these sights are significant; most railroad museum visitors do not and therefore need to be told.

Our first strategic plan at National Capital Trolley Museum, circa 2000, recognized the above when applied to visitors at a trolley museum. At the time, streetcars had been gone from Washington, DC for almost 40 years, and by then even the tracks had all but disappeared from city streets.

To give context to the large objects on display we developed a theme of Streetcar Communities with a series of large panels illustrating streetcar lines by route and neighborhood. In the layout of the new facility, visitors see these panels first before taking a ride or touring Streetcar Hall to view cars from the collection. A series of temporary panels provide additional insights with topics including "Promoting Transit", "Civil War Streetcars/Gilded Age Streetcars", and "Women in Transit".

Visitors have responded well to this approach.

Wesley

There are good marketing teams and bad marketing teams. The truly talented will have the creativity to attain goals without cheapening the brand for short-term gain. There's also a quite evident dichotomy between the new media model, deeply rooted in authenticity, and the old guard, which tends to transcribe tired tactics rather than introduce new ideas. "Keeping current" by adapting to the latest Saturday morning cartoon choo choo generally abides by the latter philosophy—necessary within reason, but a survival drug at best.

Preservation stands to benefit greatly in adapting to the emerging school, which is increasingly less about selling and all about telling a story. Storylines manifesting physically via exhibits is becoming increasingly common for museums and marketing messages, brand assets and social media content should be integrated to effectively articulate a coherent mission. Without context, everything we're passionate about is only going to fade further from generational memory and be rendered irrelevant. The Irate Codger's Youth-Hating Wonders of Corrosion phylum of institutions is already there.

...that said, we're talking about a Facebook profile picture—about the lowest common denominator on the brand asset totem pole and easily reversible. Yes, it's cringe-worthy and yes, there's too many terrible, needless vector art-based logos in the tourist railroad industry, and that's unfortunate. But consider the alternatives:



"We are definitively against any fashion of design and any design fashion. We despise the culture of obsolescence, the culture of waste, the cult of the ephemeral. We detest the demand of temporary solutions, the waste of energies and capital for the sake of novelty."

-Massimo Vignelli

Bringing a touring show like Thomas or Chuggington to you site isn't cheapening your brand - you are paying royalties to make good use of somebody else's brand that has achieved the kind of mass market status your hasn't in order to increase your market to something closer to the size of theirs in a regional sense. Very smart marketing people in your organization can find ways to further grow your market to include some of the people who are there just for the event, and find ways to bring some back for home grown, house brand programming, but you have to get them there first....... and provide high quality varied experiences to keep them coming back. It's important to know who you are, tailor all your activities to support that brand, and to not scrimp on being it very well.

People here seem to hold the Strasburg RR in high esteem.

Comments on this photo, which showed up on their Facebook page posted by someone else? Is this "beneath their dignity"?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

Not at all. That is classy!

Given the how many of our guests are already families with young children, we should all be working to attract and engage these people.

I was more closely involved with Orange Empire when they adopted the new Thomas-y logo, and I have to admit, I was not happy with it for two reasons. The first, is that from a design perspective, it is a hot mess. It is just a riot of color, shape, and to my eyes, clumsily stylized rail equipment. The second, and probably more important reason, is that I felt it created a set of expectations that the museum was unable to meet. Given how much it evokes Thomas™, the logo suggests the museum is more equipped to serve children than it is.

There are lots of competing attractions built around entertaining and educating children. It'd be a great idea for Orange Empire (and other places) to do more for children with regular programs and exhibits geared for them, but in the meantime, it may not be a great idea to make it look like something they aren't.

Strasburg Facebook link is now dead.

Hello

This is a case of know your attendance.

This event is not geared for railfans It a kids event!

I had two old geezers go off on me at board meeting for NSRM when I first talk to about bring thomas to boulder city. "They told me is below dignity of our group".

The plain fact it Thomas, Santa trains, ect... sell tickets and move stuff in the gift shop.

At the end of the day museum need to have events for everyone, the ones that do this the best are Orange Empire and IRM.

Also to keep our none profit status we need to education events guys

Chris

PS

I guess the kids story time and camp we had would be below our dignity also..

Not for me it isn't.

Your mileage may vary, depending on your Facebook usage.