To repeat a phrase from someone in "our biz":

"Non-profit is a tax status, not a business plan."

Even museums need to have to show a positive cash flow, or they will soon be out of business.

I don't remember who it was who used that phrase; perhaps someone on here can recall.

Howard P.

So then what makes irm “not a tourist railroad”.
The train ride they offer is slightly longer than Strasburg’s ride. And it runs daily in season.
I can’t imagine anyone would say irm is not successful.

IRM (or any similar operation) is a museum first, and operates restored equipment on a demonstration railroad to 'interpret' their artifacts to the visitor. Static displays simply don't convey as much interactive experience (particularly if the displays are behind glass or ropes) as being able to get on it, touch it, hear it, smell it, ride it, feel it move and look at the world from that vantage point, and that's necessary to draw visitors.

Tourist railroads are simply railroads that haul tourists. They have little more duty to history than what might draw visitors on various levels of nostalgia.

I'd argue that Strasburg operates much more as a museum, even though they are a common carrier, but look close at how they operate their historic equipment. Cars are rebuilt with engineered wood or plastic wood products instead of wood planks where appropriate, membrane roofs, and use modern paints instead of three coats of linseed paint and 4 or more hand rubbed coats of varnish (they do a pretty nice job of old style on the interiors though), where a true museum would be obligated to use original materials and methods. They carry lounge and dining cars, but what 4.5 mile RR without through connections ever would have done that? They are at the high end of tourist railroads with a high attention to historic detail, and some others follow a similar historic bent - but to varying degrees, including Valley, WP&Y, D&SNG, C&TS, etc. Some operate everything from flat cars with benches to commuter coaches 'only' 40-50 years old to the newly retired Amtrak/Santa Fe high-levels. The key is most of these are highly modified to suit tourist needs, not restored to original condition. The tourist roads are only obligated to meet customer demand, not historic authenticity.

It's easy enough to type that but there are tourist railroads that operate like museums and museums that operate like tourist railroads. Obviously there is no operation that is 100% historically correct. Talking about the way Strasburg used modern materials for their cars is silly... yes I guess it would be historically incorrect to use lumber that fell in the 2000's... for that matter should we also get coal that was mined using 1930's technology? Strasburg and many other "tourist railroads" present a historically correct operation.

Back to the original question, an operation like IRM and TVRM, while technically museums, are still successful passenger railroad operations that operate for the general public. Which was my point.