Looking at all the responces to this thread, I seems that we all have a lot to say on the subject. No running a few old cars over an unused piece of railroad track does not make a museum.

Obtaining 501c.3 Tax Exemption as an Educational entity will help bring permance to a group. Having a staff dressed for the part and talking about history with your riders is another way to get a message out. Putting the correct names and colors on the equipment that you are running is another. As an aside; is any museum running a commuter car from saw the Erie/Lackawana or other commuter line painted for what it was?

Someone mentioned the Environmental Living Pogram at the Hyde Street Pier; I know it is one of many such programs at istorical museums. Are ere any railroad museums that take a class group or Boy/Girl Scouts on a ride back in time aroard a train or to a roundhouse to maintain them?

The ELP takes a lot of staff but the education community loves them!

Museums are not tourist railroads because they tell people real history not stories about ghost rail lines as they do on the Strasburg RR.

My $.02 worth. Ted

AMILES1060@aol.com

I believe the Midland Railway in Kansas has an active association with Scouting programs, with the kids participating. There may be others also.


Railway Preservation News
ryarger1@nycap.rr.com

> I believe the Midland Railway in Kansas has
> an active association with Scouting
> programs, with the kids participating. There
> may be others also.

Given that Julia Gordon Lowe and her family were proiminent in the C of G Savannah shops (she was also a blacksmith as well as founder of the Girl Scouts) we host many girl scout activities. One goal for the futurs a developing an overnight hostel program using sleepers or cabeese or crew cars as acomodations for scout and other youth groups.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

The Ohio Central RR has been host for Boy Scout Railroad Merit badge programs at their Morgan Run
Shops for the past several years, this includes a train ride from their scout reservation located
along the OC tracks south of Coshocton Ohio. It has been a major success & has become an annual
event. We have several employees that are scouting leaders or affiliates. I would encourage
others to look into hosting scouts as a community
function not to mention exposing the boys to the
RR'ing industry.



sposato@digitalexp.com

Two summers ago I arranged for a local boy scout troop to camp out at our rail museum in New Castle, PA for a weekend. We had 18 scouts, and we filled the two days with several activities and resulted in awarding of the railroading merit badge to all 18. Actually a couple of events happened that were unplanned but beneficial, including giving everone a ride on an NS wide body locomotive, and unusualy heavy traffic on the CSXT main behind the museum. Quite worthwhile of a project though.

rickrailrd@aol.com

> As an aside; is any museum running a
> commuter car from saw the Erie/Lackawana or
> other commuter line painted for what it was?

Actually, yes: Steamtown has repainted all their coaches into the original owner's liveries. Look closely and you can see a subtle difference between Steamtown's DL&W Pullman green commuter cars and their Erie Pullman green cars; Steamtown found the difference in the original chips, and had new paint mixed to match.

eledbetter@mail.rypn.org

>Erie Pullman green cars

Excuse me: for Erie, please read CNJ

eledbetter@mail.rypn.org

> Looking at all the responces to this thread,
> I seems that we all have a lot to say on the
> subject. No running a few old cars over an
> unused piece of railroad track does not make
> a museum.

> Obtaining 501c.3 Tax Exemption as an
> Educational entity will help bring permance
> to a group. Having a staff dressed for the
> part and talking about history with your
> riders is another way to get a message out.
> Putting the correct names and colors on the
> equipment that you are running is another.
> As an aside; is any museum running a
> commuter car from saw the Erie/Lackawana or
> other commuter line painted for what it was?

> Someone mentioned the Environmental Living
> Pogram at the Hyde Street Pier; I know it is
> one of many such programs at istorical
> museums. Are ere any railroad museums that
> take a class group or Boy/Girl Scouts on a
> ride back in time aroard a train or to a
> roundhouse to maintain them?

One way the railroad museum community can improve its stature with the general public would be in the realm of interpretation. All too often railroad museums miss the point--we are always too eager to tell technical jargon as the story. The general public could care less about how many rivets are on the side of the tender or how many turbochargers are under the hood. While the technological story is an important one, it should not be the only one. Tell human stories!! I would bet 95% of most railroad museum visitors have had little or no experience with trains; what a better way to draw people into the subject than by telling stories about the railroaders of the past who worked, toiled and dripped sweat on the equipment viewed on exhibition. Human stories are ones that everyone can relate to. Otherwise, they will be lost in a sea of technical mindlessness and irrelevancy. Remember folks, we want them to come back again and again; without their $ support there would be no museum! Railway museum people need to get outside themselves and take an unselfish look at the people who patronize your museums and ask, "What do we need to do to improve our visitor experience?" Gather people information. Do exit surveys. Conduct oral histories. The last generation of steam is quickly fading--get it now! Interview the diesel generation and preserve the present oral traditions. Collect objects and gather artifacts that tell people stories. Then develop exhibits that allow you to tell a human story while incorporating historic locomotives, cars or trolleys as extensions of those stories. Find a way of drawing women into the interpretive picture. Remember, tourism studies show that wives usually plan the family vacation--if you don't have something to offer her, she will not go back (and if she has a good experience she'll tell three people; if she has a bad experience she'll tell 20). Just having locomotives and cars on display is not enough to draw visitors anymore; you must be audience-saavy! A good model to follow is the Altoona Railroaders' Memorial Museum--they have written the book on the railroad people subject; the Smithsonian's new transportation gallery, scheduled to open in 2003 is following a similar approach, as is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's new orientation exhibit, currently in the scripting phase.

I predict that within the next 10 years there will be two classes of railroad museums left: 1) the ones that keep current with the times and cater to their visitors' learning interests and expectations; and 2) the ones that suffer from "buff" narrow-mindedness, are awash in techno babble, and ultimately close their doors because of dwindling revenues from poor visitation.

Where will your museum be in ten years?

> The ELP takes a lot of staff but the
> education community loves them!

> Museums are not tourist railroads because
> they tell people real history not stories
> about ghost rail lines as they do on the
> Strasburg RR.

> My $.02 worth. Ted

Boy Scouts start out working towards a goal of achieving Scouting's high rack, an Eagle Scout. Since the Scout needs over 20 merit badges to earn his rack, normally a Scout looks for merit badges that are both educational and fun. As an Assistant Scoutmaster I have found that if you offer the Railroading merit badge some of these boys will display an interest which will go beyond the requirements of the badge.

Museums should contact their local Boy Scout Council Office and apply to be on the program for an annual event.


Stone Consulting & Design
garylandrio@stoneconsulting.com

> One way the railroad museum community can
> improve its stature with the general public
> would be in the realm of interpretation. All
> too often railroad museums miss the
> point--we are always too eager to tell
> technical jargon as the story. The general
> public could care less about how many rivets
> are on the side of the tender or how many
> turbochargers are under the hood. While the
> technological story is an important one, it
> should not be the only one. Tell human
> stories!! I would bet 95% of most railroad
> museum visitors have had little or no
> experience with trains; what a better way to
> draw people into the subject than by telling
> stories about the railroaders of the past
> who worked, toiled and dripped sweat on the
> equipment viewed on exhibition. Human
> stories are ones that everyone can relate
> to. Otherwise, they will be lost in a sea of
> technical mindlessness and irrelevancy.
> Remember folks, we want them to come back
> again and again; without their $ support
> there would be no museum! Railway museum
> people need to get outside themselves and
> take an unselfish look at the people who
> patronize your museums and ask, "What
> do we need to do to improve our visitor
> experience?" Gather people information.
> Do exit surveys. Conduct oral histories. The
> last generation of steam is quickly
> fading--get it now! Interview the diesel
> generation and preserve the present oral
> traditions. Collect objects and gather
> artifacts that tell people stories. Then
> develop exhibits that allow you to tell a
> human story while incorporating historic
> locomotives, cars or trolleys as extensions
> of those stories. Find a way of drawing
> women into the interpretive picture.
> Remember, tourism studies show that wives
> usually plan the family vacation--if you
> don't have something to offer her, she will
> not go back (and if she has a good
> experience she'll tell three people; if she
> has a bad experience she'll tell 20). Just
> having locomotives and cars on display is
> not enough to draw visitors anymore; you
> must be audience-saavy! A good model to
> follow is the Altoona Railroaders' Memorial
> Museum--they have written the book on the
> railroad people subject; the Smithsonian's
> new transportation gallery, scheduled to
> open in 2003 is following a similar
> approach, as is the Railroad Museum of
> Pennsylvania's new orientation exhibit,
> currently in the scripting phase.

> I predict that within the next 10 years
> there will be two classes of railroad
> museums left: 1) the ones that keep current
> with the times and cater to their visitors'
> learning interests and expectations; and 2)
> the ones that suffer from "buff"
> narrow-mindedness, are awash in techno
> babble, and ultimately close their doors
> because of dwindling revenues from poor
> visitation.

> Where will your museum be in ten years?

This is absolutely correct.

All Museums -- railway or not -- are faced with the challenge of how they make a connection with their visitors. For our interest, we have the opportunity. How we take advantage of it will indeed dictate success or failure.

Community involvement is one way that connection is made. That can take many forms from promoting rail safety in you area to sponsoring an event to benefit a community project.

Let's remember some very important points:

In most cases, visitors have never seen a steam locomotive on any train.

The same is true for electric railways. The Pacific Electric ran it's last passenger train over 35 years ago.

And those who have ridden a passenger train other than Amtrak are a declining demographic.

This does not mean that we can not make a connection. It does mean that we will have to work at doing so. Nostalgia is a marketing tool, but we can't survive on it alone.

It comes down to a one-on-one contact. A museum can have a great display of artifacts. If it does not connect with the visitors to make those artifacts mean something, it fails. If a docent brings that artifact to life and does connect, that is a success.

Roger

rogerc38@aol.com