>I usually ask patrons to submit a
> letter via U.S. mail; that helps manage the
> email load a bit and seperate the serious
> requests from the casual ones

I smell a conspiracy to prop up the paper industry and Postal Service! >;-D

Seriously, we once joked about making up a form response letter to many inquiries of the type you must receive regularly:

"I'm sorry, but we must respectfully decline to answer your query. The reason is checked off below:

*The [fill in the blank with a foreign country] is not within the Commonwealth of Pennsyltucky, so we have no material on its railways.
*The Oahu Land and Railway Co. never operated in our state.
*You can find out the answer in your nearest library or encyclopedia in several seconds at worst.
*You actually expect us to write your report/book for you; we're not that foolish.
*You have e-mail so you have access to a computer--ever heard of an Internet search engine?
*Your request is so preposterously detailed and/or trivial that we are suggesting a qualified therapist to re-introduce you to life.
*Inasmuch as we are a transportation museum, we must officially take no position on the alien spaceship you say landed in your backyard, nor on what its occupants did to you."

Politically incorrect as all get-out, of course, and it'd never pass inspection........ but aren't you occasionally tempted, just a *little* bit? <:-)


LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

Kurt,
Please take that number plate across the street and ask Linn to build a 2-10-0 behind it.

Today IS 4-1-2004 ;-)

Electric City Trolley Museum Association