Just wondering if anyone has had experience with The History Factory, which NS has hired to set up its new museum? It would seem there are plenty of qualified people in our field who could use the income from such a project that there would be no need to hire expensive consultants with little expertise in railroad history. Do they have any rail-qualified people on board?

Well, they could have had me, as I applied for a job there, but happily I landed at AAM instead. They did have one of my co-workers, but she left them to come here.

I think they rely on a mix of a small staff of generalists who can get up to speed on any industry (deeply enough to do a lobby exhibit at least) relatively quickly. They also use consultants, but not expensive ones--a good grad student in business history with knowledge of a specific industry can usually be hired for 12 or 15 bucks an hour.

Sadly, relatively bright and talented people in history, even industrial history, are common enough compared to the work available that they do not command huge wages or hourly fees. And History Factory has plenty of connections to locate such people relatively easily.