Originally I wanted to see if there was a strong correlationship between the numbers of people who patronized museums that offerred both a static and a live experience vs. static only and as I got into it my curiousity grew as to how appealing our RR museums were to the general public. As previously posted it turns out that no one keeps these #'s and it's going to be quite a detective job assembling them from various sources. If my energy lasts long enough, I'll try and assemble the #'s.
Ross Rowland

It occurs to me that the fact that these numbers are so difficult to find, assuming they exist at all, reflects volumes about how far we still need to go in terms of barely adequate management and marketing in our industry. Many things can be cleaned from such figures which can help us make better decisions about what we do to better serve the public.

dave

Ross, If a museum or tourist line doesn't want to share its attendance figures with you, you might want to contact the local visitor's center in that town, which is usually run by the Chamber of Commerce or a Tourism Bureau. These folks usually know what is going on in their town and most of the time are quite helpful. In my own research into tourist traffic in western Virginia, many of these organizations had the visitor count at all of the attractions in a given area. It might be an interesting side comparison to see how the rail museums do in relation to their neighbors. NPS has visitor counts for all of their parks (including Steamtown and Promontory) available online. I would assume that state operated museums would have the same data online, as it is public information.

What's the big deal here?

Ross, average annual attendance at National Capital Trolley Museum in Silver Spring, MD is 16,000. We are an operating trolley museum. This attendance is generated on somewhat less than 180 operating days each year, defined as weekends year 'round and a variable weekday school schedule for groups (see our website to sort that out).

OK folks, step up and help Ross out.....

Wesley Paulson