As I understand it, a "concessionaire" is an external entity that conducts its business in a park, not just a snowcone or gee-gaw peddler.

Anyway, here's the original mention. Railpace October 2020.

This winter?

Yes, per the Railfan & Railroad website's news item, work is to resume this winter with work continuing on the tender. This was attributed to a spokesperson from Steamtown. But I also thought I saw the same mentioned in Mr. Mowbray's post.

John

Article:

In a statement to Railfan & Railroad, a spokesperson for Steamtown wrote, “While our formal partnership with the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society has expired, both sides intend to continue to collaborate on an informal basis. The funds originally held by the L&WVRHS have been deposited into an account specifically designated for the restoration of Boston & Maine 3713. Work on the tender is about 50 percent complete and is slated to resume this winter.”


Swiss cheese has fewer holes.

Given all of the issues with Steamtown, why do people still care so much about it?

Steamtown seems like a failed experiment. Why keep throwing good money after bad?

At some point, it's just time to cut bait and move on to greener pastures where peoples talents can contribute to actual progress on preservation work.

It also sounds like maybe the acting superintendent has realized that the old administration made a huge mistake alienating them, and is trying to keep some sort of relationship going...?

It's a very nice museum site that has a really impressive collection. There's plenty to care about.

I don't think I would call it a "failed experiment" It's still a good museum to visit.

Why do you care about the things you care about?

Because I want public moneys expended productively in conformity with their stated purpose.

Because it's a Santayanaesque object lesson for people that worship the golden calf of government.

Also because we care about rail preservation and there are many significant artifacts there that have been allowed to deteriorate and languish, and we hope for a positive outcome before they are permanently lost. Some are already beyond the point of no return (thinking specifically of the wooden equipment that has been scrapped) or is beyond the point of feasible restoration.

John

There are two primary reasons:

1) Like it or not, having a railroad-oriented National Historic Site, however well or badly done, puts a huge "stamp of importance/approval" on rail preservation in general that is not afforded by state museums, the B&O Railroad Museum, the "National Railroad Museum," and other theoretical claimants to "nobility" in historic rail preservation. The Smithsonian Institution does not have a "National Rail and Train Museum" the way it has a National Air & Space Museum--and one could argue that Steamtown's existence is a major obstacle to even such a concept being considered.
(Sadly, this also means Steamtown gets a nice big ol' honking target on its back as well.)

2) Back in September 1964, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Magilla Gorilla included a poignant, snide remark precisely weeks before the Vietnam War started to chew up young American men's lives:
In the episode, Magilla receives a draft notice from "Uncle Sam." He is eagerly taken down to the recruiting office by his reluctant owner, pet-shop owner Mr. Peebles, who asks after the swearing-in ceremony ("I will faithfully obey all orders of my sergeant--So Help Me Hannah!"):
"Are you sure this isn't a mistake? I mean, drafting a gorilla??"
Officer: "Relax, pal! The Army doesn't admit--I MEAN, MAKE mistakes! That gorilla is in the Army!!!!"

And not just the Army, either.

If Steamtown were ANY OTHER rail museum in its current status--on par with the late ITM, SL&RG/Iowa Pacific, the Vermont Steamtown, Gettysburg/K&K, etc.--we'd be circling like vultures looking to see what could be rescued, salvaged, etc. and what should be sacrificed to the furnaces.
But because it's the National Park Service, this circle of purgatory seems destined to go on forever.

Mr. Mitchell says it about as well as it can be said.

It may have reached a new low but as it's part of federal system it's no doubt safe from expiring and at least it's displays do a very credible job telling the important story of the huge role steam played in the growth of the nation.

And, by staying alive there's always that 1 in 100 chance that someday it will get its act together and fulfill the role as shown on its website.

Hope does spring eternal. Ross Rowland

When McDade was setting it up as an economic draw for his district, what more rational option did he have other than the NPS to choose from?

It 100% depends on what your/their motivation and rationale for the establishment of a "new Steamtown" is/was.

IF we approach this as a mission of saving a historic collection and presenting a museum and future operating/restoration facility, in broad theory there could have been a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution (which is still ostensibly independent of bureaucratic diktaks) and someone line the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the NRHS, the Tourist Railway Association, and the former Steamtown Foundation. Another option could have been the Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission. If you believe that to be far-fetched, note what happened in nearby Bethlehem, Pa. not that many years later............

On the other hand, if we are honest with ourselves and openly acknowledge the unstated goal of McDade and Co. was to use Steamtown as a double opportunity to drain and utilize "other people's money" (tax dollars from the Department of the Interior for infrastructure and jobs-jobs-jobs, tourist dollars from visitors), all the while posing for cameras and looking like they were doing a "good thing"................ then the Feds are the biggest "teat" to sucker--errr, suckle from.

The reasons for continuing to care make sense... to a point.

I guess my question is, with a track record of being a mess and causing folks to pull out their hair, why not just move on to greener pastures until the underlying conditions improve enough to reengage?

The reason I say this is because, to a great extent, Steamtown is a thing that has issues that are far beyond the capacity of someone, or even an organization "on the outside", the improve.

It's like a loved one with a substance abuse problem. You can try and help them all you want, but unless they want to get clean, all you're likely doing is enabling them.

"I guess my question is, with a track record of being a mess and causing folks to pull out their hair, why not just move on to greener pastures until the underlying conditions improve enough to reengage?"


1. What greener pasture would that be? Where else can you go for a similar experience?

2. Public discussion isn't Trichotillomania.

3.) I'm not sure how "conditions" are going to improve. The essential problem is that the National Park Service's institutional competence, habits and dispositions are developed by, for and in battlefields, birthplaces and "Woodsy Owl" facilities. Aside from administrative and IT staff, everybody else comes in as a rookie needing to be qualified on the rules and/or the territory.

As for waiting, human beings don't have forever. The late Tom Shore led the charge to establish the IHS over a period of years. I received a email from him vacationing Germany with the framework for a conversation "when I get back home". A couple days later, he passed away suddenly-the very day The IRS granted exempt status to the organization. Tempus Fugit.

Steamtown's saving grace, at least when I joined and for several years afterwards was that it had a program in place to develop train and engine crews. There were real, working professionals or former professionals on the roster. (i.e., Bernie O'Brien) as well 'weekend warriors" who through a combination of class room training, on the job training and socialization/counseling/badgering imbued both a respect for the primacy of safety (especially when there's permitted public contact) as well as technical proficiency in "noobs".

That has been lost now due a metastatic "positive feedback loop" of reduced operations- lesser opportunity for qualified individuals to stay sharp and little or now ability to bring new people along. The reps just aren't there anymore.

The 26 is halfway through its flue time, and I quite frankly don't believe the idea that work is going to magically resume this winter when the fundraiser was sent packing and the project leader retired-after being prevented from working on the engine for two years prior.

Thee bigger question here beyond Steamtown, Is it possible to have an operating museum with regular mainliine, standard gauge excursions at all?

Unlike a possessed '58 Plymouth Fury...it isn't fixing itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sw0qHJ5z7Q