SHHH!
My betters at the Branford Electric Rwy. Ass'n. - Shore Line Trolley Museum remind me that if you don't tell people about these "extras", they won't know that they missed anything.

Those few times when I can tear myself away and head trackside, I see all the "usual suspects" whom I offer greetings to. These are the guys who I see listening to the scanner, writing down lineups, and going after photos. Of the dozens I encounter trackside, I've only ever seen one visit the museum and one who regularly volunteers with us. Occasionally we can attract railfans when we do a special event, like Diesel Days, where we are running multiple trains and various rare diesels from our collection.

Most railfans turn their nose up at railroad museums and tourist railroads. Whether the excuse is "it's not real railroading" or "it's not painted the right color" or "the trains run in the wrong orientation for photography" or whatever. In the case of my museum, it could be either we're not offering programming that is interesting to railfans, or they don't know enough about our operations and collection. But they don't wanna visit.

What I'm saying is, most railfans have a personal preference, and it's not to visit a railroad museum. Doesn't make them bad people, but on any given Saturday, they'd rather be trackside on CSX than shooting the caboose hop at the museum.

Let us not confuse RAILFANS with "People Who Have an Interest in Trains." We just had our opening weekend at RGVRRM, and I met plenty of folks who were interested in trains and railroad history, some were very knowledgeable about makes and models and history and operations, and some just asked really good questions and wanted to learn.

-otto-

[quote="Otto Vondrak
I can think of three examples, and they happen to be in Ohio.

- Northern Ohio Railroad Museum in Medina - looks like an impressive collection of traction, and it appears that they have just started opening their doors to the public. No overhead wires yet strung, but it looks like they occasionally tow around some of the cars with a diesel. Not a bad way to start.

-I don't talk about these examples to put them down, but they do bring up the point that you don't need to be at Museum Preparedness Level: SMITHSONIAN to be open to the public. You could be a COLLECTION that takes steps towards DISPLAY on your way to being ACTIVE. I think the three groups I mentioned above are taking steps towards future goals to increase their chances of success.

At the heart of the matter, success equals survival.

-otto-[/quote]



Otto,

Thank you for the compliment. The Northern Ohio Railway Museum is definitely a work in progress. We have always considered ourselves open to the public. Even before we had buildings, if someone showed up, we showed them around.

The transition for us has been slow and measured with cautious steps taken along the way to our present development. Formalized tours began about 2008. We kept things initially very low key to learn from the experience. Car signs were developed in 2008-2009. Each sign has a brief history (600 characters or so) of the car with the text aimed at a general public audience. Also something memory evoking is included in the text. For example nick names the cars became known as are included like, Half Witt for our Toronto Peter Witt car. Toronto had small and large cars in this configuration and the smaller cars were known as Half Witts! Moving on in the signs have a pair of vintage pictures of the car. Finally the sign has all the statistical data on the car for those rivet counters out there. The signs are 22x17 inches in size.

In 2011-2012 we began creating a series of "Ask NORM" signs around the museum on the tour route. These signs, the same size as the car signs ask a question and then answer it. Questions include; What is a PCC car?, Who is Peter Witt?, How did streetcars help our cities grow? There are 20 plus signs like that with more under development.

Our present tour is a walking tour of the collection and starts in the restoration carbarn. We direct people to have a seat in Cleveland streetcar 1225. There a video is playing that orientates them to the museum and area traction history. Museum activities are also shown like switching moves, trackwork, etc. The docent then gathers the assembled group and takes them through the restoration barn. They get to see work underway. They head outside to see cars stored there and then its into our second carbarn to see additional cars. The final stop is the Museum store. It is housed in a restored PRR boxcar. There are also additional museum displays in this space.

It was mentioned about hauling a streetcar around with a diesel. Sorta true. We have used Shaker Rapid car 12 hauled about using Cleveland Railway Differential crane 0711. This latter car is powered by a gas engine powered three phase alternator feeding a solid state rectifier. The end result is 600 volts DC. The car doesn't know it didn't come off a wire. In the fall of 2014 we hauled about 2,400 people with this setup in one weekend for a special county wide history event. Again when it was all done, we analyzed the event and saw area's we need to refine when it comes to dealing with large groups pf the general public. A work in progress.

Sorry Otto, you made one big mistake. You said we have no wire. False! In December 2015 we strung a little over a thousand feet of wire. It was tied off at either end of the line and tensioned over the winter at about 1,200 lbs. Mother Nature then forced us into retreat. In 2016 work resumed with final tensioning of the wire and attaching it to all the ears at each bracket arm. Rail bonding is now beginning.

Work is also underway on 0711 to allow it to feed 600 volts DC to the overhead. Car 12 is also getting work to return her to service. Just this last Saturday she moved herself under 600 volts for the first time in many years. I don't know if we will be offering a public ride under wire this year, but a car will be running under wire at NORM in 2016.

I'll shift gears a bit and move into an area that I don't recall anyone specifically mentioning in this discussion on museums and success. That area is endowment funds. In 2015 NORM opened an endowment fund with the Akron Community Foundation. They administer it and we earn a return much greater than we were able when we were growing the fund in its early years. Having an endowment for long term income is an important factor in a museums chances for success.

Steve Heister
Treasurer, Northern Ohio Railway Museum

Steve, this is a great example of transitioning and expanding a program to include operations. Thank you for the clarifications and updates! I admit, I've only visited your web site once in a while, so I may have missed some of the progress you outlined. I'll be sure to be a regular virtual visitor. Looking forward to your progress!

-otto-