For those of you operating in the cooler climates, what do you do for the winter? Do you shut down altogether and concentrate on restoration projects or just simply scale back operations? What do you do for the winter months to offset the increased costs of winter operations (plowing the line) spread out over fewer patrons? For those that shut down, do you have any ideas for earning non-operation revenue to help get some income from your substantial investment in assets?

Thanks.

At National Capital Trolley Museum we remain open all year. The Washington, DC area is rather temperate for routine operations on our demonstration railway. And when it does snow, we usually close since the entire area shuts down at any accumulations over one inch! Once any significant accumulation of snow is melted to the railhead we clear the railway if needed by hand - cleaning out the switches etc. The last time we used a snowsweeper to clear snow was a nice deep snow in the late 1980s. The Museum was closed then due to weather, but several of us took a fantrip. Shortly after that, we stopped using the car for active snow removal because of its advancing age - its overall condition was too good to risk damage and wear.

Our car restoration and maintenance efforts slow greatly in the winter because the shop barn is not heated.

Most of our business is local. Prior to the introduction of Holly Trolleyfest in the late 1980s we would close in December. That just confused our visitors - hard to explain but it did. With the advent of Holly Trolleyfest, we can simply say "open weekends all year" with an explanantion of the holiday hours in December.

Wesley Paulson

At IRM we 'officially' close at this time of year. The short answer to your question is to 'bank' as much of the summer revenue as you can to tide you over the winter. Of course expenses related to visitors are also down.

Most of the operating equipment is 'winterized' by draining water, blowing out pipes and lines that might freeze, draining and venting air reservoirs, etc. The electric equipment requires less such specialized attention; but it really does not like to run in very cold conditions. The gear pan grease almost solidifies, compressor oil and armature and axle bearing oil gets very thick.

It really is not a pleasant visit for any hardy folks when it gets down near zero. While we have five heated buildings, to some extent, none of the storage barns are heated and a lot of the hardier equipment still resides outdoors, as they mostly did on the railroads.

Members, amazingly, still turn out year round to do shop work, although the operating folks must head south or stay in their cabins. We have toyed with the idea of at least limited winter operations but with any snow over a foot deep, which is often the case, there are over a mile of internal roadways and access to plow, a two acre parking lot to cope with, and untold amounts of snow handling for walkways, 2000 feet of platforms, even access to toilets and clearing room to open barn doors. There are the aforementioned equipment concerns and potentially clearing the railroad.

And if you do all that and it snows that morning, nobody comes to visit anyway. A LOT of effort for an uncertain return, minimal at best.

Anyone want an ICE COLD COCA COLA??? Yes we have even had drifts over vending machine height and if you leave pop in such a machine it is a good idea to turn off the cooling and throw in a 75 watt lightbulb as a heater to keep the cans from freezing and bursting.

And sometimes it gets a lot colder than zero (F)!!

Bob Kutella