The networks of support that other history (and art) museums rely upon, along with whatever good will these organizations rely upon did not just fall out of the sky. It has taken (and continues to take) a lot of work on the part of these movements' enthusiasts to create a sustainable non-profit industry. Most importantly, they have worked to establish their legitimacy by arguing for their relevance.

The American marketplace does not only react to the availability of a product or service, they also react to its marketing. People can be persuaded that they want something if there is a good case to be made (and sometimes, when there isn't). Railroad history is not snake oil; it is good, interesting stuff. I don't see how anyone here could doubt that. I am not talking about rolling out a national marketing campaign for railway preservation (although, may not be such a bad idea; what does ARM do again?), but we could all do a lot better at creating messages to help the public understand why railroad history is important and interesting, and why railroad museums should be deserving of support. This kind of thing needs to build upon itself. For rail museums to earn that support, they need to deliver the goods in the form of relevant and interesting stories. A few photos and descriptions tacked to a board are not going to cut it, but a well-designed docent-led tour might.

As I mentioned before, the Tenement Museum has a downright depressing story at its core, but it doesn't matter. People want to learn about how their great-great grandparents lived when they moved here from Europe. Of course, they could have taken their 1863 (I looked it up) building and made a museum strictly about historic construction technologies and architectural styles, and although this is addressed, the primary framing device is the immigrant experience as lived by specific families. In a one hour tour, they addressed folk song, ethnic discrimination, plumbing, cooking, housing reform, health care, social structure, machine politics, tainted food products, wallpaper, and more.

Robert has suggested a message that focuses on the "sustainability" of rail transportation, but there are many different valid approaches that will vary based upon your collection and location. I suggest looking for stories that are people-oriented, and will can be observed to have broad appeal.

Agreed in all points but one: looking back to the genesis of most of the institutions forming most of the well supported, long lasting established art and hostory museums, one finds the specific interest of a small number of very wealthy individuals pursuing their passions, then finding it worthwhile to share them with the public for mutual (and tax) benefit. Private collections put into public facilities along with foundation funds to support the operation of these institutions is a bit like having them fall out of the sky. Over time, the networks have worked well to build on the relationships with the robber barons of the gilded age, through the corporate giants of the expanding post WWII economy, to spread the support out among a slightly larger bunch of oligarchs - and then a little bit of average middle class people got interested enough to start to contribute, but the core of the support rests in those original and early foundation donations.

Do we need to become less technical, more humanistically relevant as the actual technological background of our markets change? Absolutely. Do we need to try to create more sophisticated ways to attract the sort of interest and support among the modern bunch of corporate and private financial giants? Hell yes........but we are off to a late start, and are competing with the already well established, more "culturally correct" institutions for the same resources in a shrinking economy. Guess who wins.........

dave

Actually, to be accurate about it, British loco owners and heritage railways have found that roadway transport, in spite of permit fees, road transporter costs, etc. is typically more cost effective than rail transport between venues. And we're not talking just little 0-6-0Ts, either, but often 2-8-0s, 4-6-0s, and even Pacifics and mainline diesels (though the biggest locos in the UK are puny by American standards--the LNER A4 Pacific and BR Class 55 Deltic diesel both clock in at 100 tonnes, give or take a ton or two, with the latter having a 60-ton tender, and a GWR King 4-6-0 at 89 tons with a 46 ton tender; the ex-LNWR 0-4-4T at Steamtown Bellows Falls was 60-62 tons.)

This is not to say that the business model of mobile steam loco operation can't work in North America, but increased loco sizes and more obstacles thrown up by major railroads are the obstacles in our way. But as one example, couldn't one see the goodwill presented by a month or two of operation or display of the likes of PRR 1361 at many venues throughout the commonwealth for which it's supposed to be the "official state locomotive"? Or a trade of Conway's 7470 for a season with, say, one of Valley RR's steamers, or leasing out a Grand Canyon steamer to La Veta or the Arizona Central/Verde Canyon? Or swap an IRM diesel for one of Whitewater Valley's Limas? Or "WM 734" for a month on the Potomac Eagle when the WMSR is slumbering or dinner-train-only?

Why undertake the trouble and expense to do this? As the British have found out, a "new/limited time only" steamer or "celebrity" diesel does wonders to perk up flagging interest in a "been there, done that" operation, or earns lots of "free" publicity in the local media.

Let's also keep in mind that moving locomotives around Great Britain is about the same as moving locomotives around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ours is a much larger country, and rail museums tend to be much further apart. Moving a locomotive much bigger than 60 tons by road gets to be seriously problematic, not to mention expensive.

Could you possibly be referring to ... endowments?

(an endowment being a gigantic pile of money, which you invest aggressively similar to how Suze Orman would tell a 20-year-old to invest their retirement fund, and the organization lives off the interest.)


I would say "those who play", but more accurately, "not those who don't play".

Whether in the original form of donated collections with sponsorships, however, certainly the majority of nationally recognised art and history museums have built endowments or rolled over other earlier support into them. I'm not a CPA but I believe endowments are popular mechanisms to add to self-supporting status today - or, perhaps up until last couple years.

Apart from Bill Gates, we don't have many decent hugely wealthy individuals left today. I believe we will have fewer in another two or three years - a lot of paper towers are falling. Hopefully, a lot of prison cells will be filled. Whatever, it will be a rough ride.

I reckon if we are going to play, the logical place to start is with the more local, regional, C and D list minioligarchs, with maybe 50-60 million and sharing ownership in a few senators, state reps, county comissioners, etc. They might help (along with their friends) fund a restoration or two, but will work wonders as power brokers to make development projects they like easier. Unfortunately, every other institution already pursues the same bunch - so without a personal hook, a difficult propisition. Doesn't mean we shouldn't start trying.

dave

I just sent in a postcard from TRAIN soliciting topics of interest for the upcoming meeting at Grand canyon. Sustainable steam was one I included on my list. Anybody getting TRAINLINE should have a postcard. Unless you have more pressing priorities, might be a good topic to include on yours as well.

dave

Dave's comments above on endowments and likely donors are, so to speak, right on the money.

The wife suggested we take the kids to the Tenement Museum on our last trip to Manhattan, and I made a couple observations there about museum finance, while the tour guide was giving her lecture. Since this museum has been mentioned, here they are:

First was the admission price. I don't recall it exactly, but it was seriously high even for New York City, around $20 a head, or $80 for the family. It was also worth it. This shows you what you can get if your tour guides (sorry, but saying "docent" makes me puke) are friendly, knowledgable, and enormously well-trained. The show was 75% the guide, and 25% the building, although the restoration was excellent and the unrestored apartments were a grungy showpiece. Depending on the size of your volunteer corps, you can do this with minimal expenditure; the challenge is organizational, not financial.

Second, I got the impression that this museum funded itself through pure determination, coupled with delivery of a quality product. I'm sure there were a few sugar daddies, but I suspect its supporters are mostly the kind of people mentioned above. The big money will still prefer to get photographed handing checks to art museums, but there may be enough entrepreneurs with an understanding of history to pull us through.

Third, personal stories are important. For anyone who hasn't been to the Tenement Museum, its curators have researched the biographies of residents of a surviving, unmodified NYC walk-up tenement at different points in its past dating to the 1880's: a German immigrant mother abandoned by her husband with 3 kids who supported them as a seamstress in the 1890's and an Italian family working to find work in the 1930's. Two apartments are meticulously restored to these periods, the rest untouched for decades. These stories were moving, to say the least, and it was the job of the tour guide to get them across.

One addition to our latest caboose restoration is photos and short biographies of some of the Ann Arbor trainmen who worked there. We will see over the next years what we can do to make these men and their working lives real to museum visitors.

Seems to me that Mr. Frobom is spot on. Of all the rr museums I've visited the Altoona's display which does an in depth and compelling job of telling the "human" side of the PRR story was by far the most interesting and memorable. It and the CSRRM and SNHS allow the "uninitiated" person to get a basic understanding of what it took to build this industry we so love.

I'm afraid that most rr museums fall far short of giving this piece of the story its due.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Huh, and here I thought that had been my whole point.