I enjoyed reading Yarger's California article posted at this site--EXCEPT his potshot remarks aimed at Steamtown. Let's try to be objective with articles and not take aim at other projects or interject personal agenda opinions into feature articles. That should be left in the editorials. I'm surprised Erik did not catch those remarks during the editing stage. Shame on you!!

Kerry

> I enjoyed reading Yarger's California
> article posted at this site--EXCEPT his
> potshot remarks aimed at Steamtown. Let's
> try to be objective with articles and not
> take aim at other projects or interject
> personal agenda opinions into feature
> articles. That should be left in the
> editorials. I'm surprised Erik did not catch
> those remarks during the editing stage.
> Shame on you!!
> Kerry

Kerry;
I had to reread the article at length to find the one sentence comparison of Jamestown and Steamtown. My take on it was a short and sweet comparison of the differences between the two locations. Why is it that Steamtown is above any criticism? When I first read it, I took as a constructive comment. The fact that Jamestown has an uninteruppted timeline, and Steamtown does't. All it points out for preservationist is that once the "patina" is gone, good luck trying to recapture it. "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much."


nwstaybolt@reachone.com

There was really no criticism of Steamtown intended. As a visitiable, family oriented generic rail museum, they've done pretty well. But the Steamtown of today little resembles the Lackawanna railyard of old. With all the restructuring they've done, one could hardly call it a historic site anymore. And unless one found a way to clone DL&W 4-8-4s, it really never could have been.

ryarger@rypn.org

First, Erik doesn't edit Bob's pieces - he moderates this interchange.

Having also reread the single Steamtown reference, I find myself in sympathy with Nathan's and Bob's comments.

Jamestown is like a time capsule, full of the junk and funk and color that was a shortline roundhouse. Steamtown is a national park site which has been sanitized and rebuilt from very little as an interpretive venue, with a damn fine restoration shop included, and a great ride. Both have strengths and both are worth visiting, Bob was simply defining the difference between the two.

I'd rather compare Jamestown with EBT and Steamtown with Spencer if we are looking for more similarities than contrasts.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

A more gruesome simile might be to compare a visit to Washington's Holocaust Museum with the Dachau extermination camp in Germany. The former tells the story very well, but cannot compare with the chill one gets standing in front of the actual ovens where thousands were incinerated.

To me, our best museums are places where history actually happened, and have been maintained or rebuilt to look and feel like they did when in actual use.


ryarger@rypn.org