Research Question?

How many railroad museums -- defined as operating museums and those based on interpretive activities centered around static displays and preserved buildings -- have benefitted from state and federal government funding (ISTEA, TEA-21 included)exceeding $1 million? Can RYPN readers help assemble a pretty good list? This question arose recently in a serious and scholarly discussion of rail museum development trends and strategic survival probabilities.

I suspect RYPN participants are better suited than any group to lend a hand with this research question. Thanks, in advance, for comment.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com

> How many railroad museums -- defined as
> operating museums and those based on
> interpretive activities centered around
> static displays and preserved buildings --
> have benefitted from state and federal
> government funding (ISTEA, TEA-21
> included)exceeding $1 million? Can RYPN
> readers help assemble a pretty good list?
> This question arose recently in a serious
> and scholarly discussion of rail museum
> development trends and strategic survival
> probabilities.

> I suspect RYPN participants are better
> suited than any group to lend a hand with
> this research question. Thanks, in advance,
> for comment.

We had a few postings following a similar question back at the begining of November.

At that time the statement was made that most enhancement grants were in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

See the link below for the lead posting in that thread.

Brian Norden

message link

NCTM-Spencer must be close to an aggregate $1 mil. over several grants from a number of sources. C&TS must be close or over, but mostly with Separtment of Commerce-EDA grants. B&O may be close once all the roundhouse restoration funds are raised and tallied but I doubt they are at that number yet. I assume CSRM and RRM of Pa have both garnered numbers larger than that in public funds (mostly state) over their complete, aggregated financial histories.



eledbetter@rypn.org

> NCTM-Spencer must be close to an aggregate
> $1 mil. over several grants from a number of
> sources. C&TS must be close or over, but
> mostly with Separtment of Commerce-EDA
> grants. B&O may be close once all the
> roundhouse restoration funds are raised and
> tallied but I doubt they are at that number
> yet. I assume CSRM and RRM of Pa have both
> garnered numbers larger than that in public
> funds (mostly state) over their complete,
> aggregated financial histories.

I suspect the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is approaching $1M in ISTEA grants over the last several years for their east end expansion program. From what I can see they are spending the money well.

pjslks@ix.netcom.com

McKinney Avanue Transit Authority has received UMTA and ISTEA in the past, I think adding up to over $1M.

Obviously Steamtown NHS (duh).

Railroader's Memorial in Altoona, I suspect, over its life.

Also, depending on how you slice it, you could count Georgetown Loop. The operator is a private franchisee, but the owner of the physical plant is the Colorado Historical Society, a state agency, and certainly it cost over a mil to rebuild.



eledbetter@rypn.org

The Seabees built it with largely donated materials. There was some cost in rebuilding it so trains could run over it.

dave

ironave@bellsouth.net

The large problem with your query is that there are so many ways that government monies could be channeled to a railroad. For example, how about FEMA money after a natural disaster?

I'll throw in another possibility--the Wilmington & Western Railroad, between the flooding of Floyd in 1999 and the flooding after Henri in 2003, has in all probability secured over your $1 million threshold in combined FEMA and state monies, strictly to repair washed-out bridges/track.

There are possibly/probably other operations that have managed to get such monies after flooding. I'm thinking Cass (a state operation anyway) after flooding in 1985(?)........ Maybe Gold Coast RR Museum after Andrew...... Roanoke after a flood there a while back......

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

FEMA was once a good source of funding after a disaster but we've learned that things have changed.

The Northwest Railway Museum received over $200,000 of relief from FEMA to repair damage after flooding in 1996. The feds paid 75% and Washington State contributed 25%. It is unlikely this level of funding would be available in the future.

FEMA eligibility rules have been changed and Museums are instead directed to the Small Business Administration. Museums are expected to apply for a loan just as any other small business impacted by a natural disaster would. This is part of the leaner FEMA that is supposed to give relief only to "critical" public facilities - Congress was apparently shocked at the huge payouts after several hurricanes in the late 1990's. Now, museums can only receive money if the SBA determines that they are not eligible for an SBA loan.

We went through this process after the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001 and, after 6 months and an appeal, we were offered about $6,000 of relief. But accepting this funding would have required prevailing wage for all workers. The $6,000 represented less than 25% of the cost of repairs and the prevailing wage requirement would have nearly doubled the cost. There was also an insurance requirement that was difficult to comply with. We'd already received over 50% of the funding we needed to complete repairs at local labor rates so we turned the FEMA funding down. Incidentally, most of the funding we accepted for repairs came from a United Way/Seattle Foundation partnership to help cultural facilities damaged during the quake.

Unfortunately all but the smallest museums would meet the criteria for a loan during any modest loss and therefore would receive little if any funding. For us it would be different if there were losses of a quarter million or more. In my experience the new process to qualify is unnecessarily arduous and lengthy. The rules are more favorable if an element of government owns part or all of the facilities. But in all cases, there are a series of filing deadlines that begin right after a Federal Disaster declaration. One I encountered was just 24 hours after the declaration. Missing even one disqualifies you...

If you have a major natural disaster loss, by all means apply for FEMA funding. However you should recognize that it is considerably more difficult to receive funding than it once was and there are many, many strings attached.

> The large problem with your query is that
> there are so many ways that government
> monies could be channeled to a railroad. For
> example, how about FEMA money after a
> natural disaster?

> I'll throw in another possibility--the
> Wilmington & Western Railroad, between
> the flooding of Floyd in 1999 and the
> flooding after Henri in 2003, has in all
> probability secured over your $1 million
> threshold in combined FEMA and state monies,
> strictly to repair washed-out bridges/track.

> There are possibly/probably other operations
> that have managed to get such monies after
> flooding. I'm thinking Cass (a state
> operation anyway) after flooding in
> 1985(?)........ Maybe Gold Coast RR Museum
> after Andrew...... Roanoke after a flood
> there a while back......


http://www.trainmuseum.org
rra63@hotmail.com

...... nor would I say that anyone should *desire* to need FEMA monies. I just noted that the original question was very broadly phrased, and that if someone wanted to, they could consider FEMA money "government" money.

I think the W&W, B&O Museum, etc. would all *much* rather not have to consider FEMA monies at all, thank you very much. But given the circumstances (the valley W&W is in; the roof of the B&O Museum), both catastrophes were almost inevitable in a sense (well, sure, the planet is doomed to be swallowed by the sun someday, but that doesn't stop us.....).

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

The Southeastern Railway Museum, Duluth, Georgia, was approved for $648,000 in Federal TEA-21 funding for FY2000. This was 80% of an $810,000 project.

--Malcolm

malcolmrcampbell@cs.com

The Whitewater Valley RR in Connersville, Indiana has recieved over a mill of TEA money in the last ten years.

The below project was paid for by grants other than TEA.

Whitewater Valley Railroad Museum

Curator@WhitewaterValleyRR.org

> The Whitewater Valley RR in Connersville,
> Indiana has recieved over a mill of TEA
> money in the last ten years.

> The below project was paid for by grants
> other than TEA.

Great PICS! If I'm remembering right, White Water Valley received money via ISTEA as well. Prior to applying for the TEA-21 funds, SRM was often asked why they didn't go after ISTEA money. Unfortunately, the allocation was based on state rules and regs, and Georgia didn't allow private organizations to apply for ISTEA. By the way, a former engineer (Bob Z) from the Whitewater Valley RR was at SRM for many years and recently headed back up your way.

--Malcolm


malcolmrcampbell@cs.com

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (near Pittsburgh, PA) have received from Transportation Enhancements:
$240,000 ISTEA Funding for 1/2 mile trolley line extension
$475,000 TEA-21 Funding for sitework for 28,150 sq ft Trolley Display Building
$214,000 for rehabilition of Pittsburgh Railways #4398, a vintage 1917 Pittsburgh "low floor" car.

For an photo update on our Track Extension and Trolley Display Building Project please go to the "East Site" section of our website.
Scott Becker, PTM Executive Director

http://www.pa-trolley.org
ptm@pa-trolley.org

> By the
> way, a former engineer (Bob Z) from the
> Whitewater Valley RR was at SRM for many
> years and recently headed back up your way.

> --Malcolm

Bob is back with us and been very active since his return "home". I believe he was one of the founding members of the WVRR in the early 70's.

William

Here is another group of pics from the Dearborn Tower project.

Whitewater Valley Railroad Museum

Curator@WhitewaterValleyRR.org