You know, that's almost precisely what I said to myself about the East Broad Top for about fifteen or more years.................

I'm not sure why we are holding Steamtown to a different standard than say... B&O... the B&O doesn't have any operating steam locomotives anymore. That's 1 less than Steamtown. The B&O is also government-run and has no lack of funding.. they just choose to spend it on other items.

Now sure.. I think the B&O Museum should run steam, and I think that Steamtown should have more operating locomotives... but if not running steam is a failure than we have LOTS of museums that are failures.

Because they are supposed to be two different types of museums. Steamtown always pushed their mission of being a "living, breathing memorial to the steam era." At the time of the Grand Opening it was widely emphasized that Steamtown could be the "Jurassic Park" of steam since there was a good chunk of the former Lackawanna main where a mainline experience could be had and a yard where almost constant activity could take place. This is what was envisioned but not what has proven true. In other words, steam operations were to be an integral part of the whole mission and experience. At the B & O Museum, the emphasis has always been on the exhibits with the operations being more of a secondary demonstration. The steam locomotives operated only occasionally, while at Steamtown, steam operations went from being a near constant to next to nothing.

John

Just a quick point of clarification for Crescent-Zephyr, the B&O Museum is not, and has never been a government run museum. It is a private foundation that was created to carry on the work started by the B&O Railroad's B&O Transportation Museum which had been operated by the PR dept of the RR up until then. The museum may occasionally receive a government grant, but it not officially operated by any government entity.

But times change. The Grand Canyon Railway used to be ALL steam and now steam runs once a month with a diesel assist. While I would much prefer that Grand Canyon still be all steam, I don't think it's failure.

I'm not saying Steamtown is run well, and I do think they are missing some amazing opportunities. But I feel the same way about B&O and RR Museum of PA. (Especially PA since they have strasburg across the street... there should be such a good partnership there).

But Steamtown is still an impressive museum that has 1 operating steam locomotive that gets a little bit of attention. That does not equal a failure in my book.



Ah.. interesting. All the "Smithsonian Affiliate" language made me feel it was a government thing one way or another.

Believe it or not, the Smithsonian Affiliation is something that they actually pay the Smithsonian for.

There's ready made solution right there waiting to happen.

Sell the SNHS to Andy Muller for $ 1. Sell the county owned DL trackage from Scranton to the DWG to Andy Muller for 3 times what it's gross freight revenues were in 2022.

Stand back and watch Steamtown rapidly become the finest steam show in the nation and its current paltry attendance quintuple.

Any chance this could ever happen? About the same as your winning the Powerball Lottery.

Hope springs eternal. Ross Rowland

If you remember, he tried to get the rights. A lawsuit was filed. Since then, I don't remember/know what happened with that.

https://www.railwayage.com/news/rn-take ... authority/

Yep, and eventually, it "wanted to get clean". And now look at it! Wife, kids, white picket fence, the whole shebang, lol...

I’m not sure why you’re so insistent in defending Steamtown. You can’t compare Steamtown to say RRMoPA or the B&O museum because they simply have different ambitions.

The “missed opportunities” you’ve referred to are not a part of the real goals of the organization. The B&O museum doesn’t have the ambition of running trains behind the C&O Hudson from Camden yards down the old mainline to Point of Rocks and back. The RRMoPA doesn’t have the ambition of running a K4 from Strasburg to Harrisburg and return. So people aren’t going to give them crap when they don’t do these things.

Unlike steamtown, which has had stated ambitions that have never been met.

First of all GCR is a private entity; no legislative mandate. They can run anything their heart desires or that that they think will get them ESG brownie points.

They aren't being held to a different standard; they are being held to THEIR STANDARD.

https://www.nps.gov/stea/learn/manageme ... FD_508.pdf

Note page 15:

"Employees with specialized trade skills and knowledge of railroading are reaching
retirement age."

"Other railroad-related museums and excursions are increasing in the area."

So.. here we are.. five years later....

I was just informed that an outside entity produced a "long range interpretative plan'.

Then there's the "Comprehensive Interpretive Plan".

They all say variations of the same thing.

Maybe fewer plans and more action?

Like the idea but is this possible??

Probably not.

Depends on the "outside entity". Is it a reputable, well-known railroading "entity"? Or is it just some random company that was hired to come up with a plan? If it's the former - then perhaps something is afoot. If it's the latter...eh.

A sample of their staff shows no background in railroading. Majors in history. journalism, library science. I didn't see any engineering, metallurgy or economics majors-no any representation from essential technical trades.

Of course without reading the plan, we can't draw many conclusions on it. It seems to me that should be readily available to the public, since we paid for it. I don't think there's anything in there that would allow somebody to make an atomic bomb-just a guess.

https://www.historyassociates.com/portf ... -archives/