There are museum professionals (aka consultants) who do such planning, but generally for much larger projects and for significant fees. They can also fall prey to telling you what you what to hear...

You may want to start by contacting AASLH (American Association for State and Local History) or AAM (American Association of Museums) Additionally there is ARM (Association of Railroad Museums) which has a good "recommended practices" document for operating museums, taking into account the size and complexity of railroad equipment.

A couple of truths... You will get fewer visitors than you expect or hope for. Displays (real museum displays) are expensive... there are some quick and dirty decent ways around this but they are temporary, needed to be renewed regularly, or replaced over time.

A couple of thoughts

Can you (collectively) write a three paragraph statement of what your museum should look like?

Can describe it in a way that would make your wife to want to visit?

Create a list of artifacts you have, or expect to get, including how you would use each, and any condition issues. (We have a s-1 but it is stuck on a disconnected siding and is pretty rough and we need to paint it.... be honest)

Look at other local museums, see what each does, and ask about attendance and such... not just railroad museums, locally were I am I might talk to a aircraft museum, several local history museums, a Pez museum (plastic candy holders) a couple of depot museums...

You will want to look at what it takes to keep the doors open, electric bill, heat, rent, how many volunteers need to work how often.

How many days will you be open, how many guests (make your best guess then cut it in half) and how much do you expect in donations, local tourism support, gate fees, rentals, etc...

If you can complete the above, you (or a hired consultant) can develop a statement of purpose, a business plan and a promotion plan...

Good luck,
Randy, moderator and occasional consultant...

How to start a Railroad Museum

Step 1: Snatch some precious artifact from the jaws of the scrapper.

Step 2: Make a deal for a temporary storage location. Burn all your money working on the artifact. Optional: Take it all apart so it's immovable.

Step 3: Get evicted. Go to step 2.

Step 4: Commiserate about step 3 with friends with same problem. Get together.

Step 5: Realize that now would be a good time to start a nonprofit.

Step 6: Write mission statement with high-falootin' talk about great railway museum.

Step 7: Find temporary storage for everything. Spend all your money moving the stuff.

Step 8: Get evicted. Go to step 7.

Step 9: Get sick of repeating step 7. Start shopping for a hunk of land.

Step 10: Realize it helps a lot to buy land next to a branch-line railroad.

Step 11: Buy land. Spend all your money on mortgage.

Step 12: Realize it would have been better to buy land next to YOUR railroad.

Step 13: Spend all your money keeping up with Mother Nature's damage to equipment

Step 14: Get sick of step 13. Build Carbarn #1 cheap, because you might need to move again because of step 12.

Step 15: Get lucky: Adjacent branch line is abandoned and offered to you.

Step 16: Realize you should have bought a lot more land.

Step 17: Buy more land. Visitors center. Clean ladies' room. Families come back!

Step 18: Start walking your talk from Step 6.

:)

Yeah, that about covers it.

Why does the Northeast need another "railroad museum"? Especially in the Albany Capitol District, considering the history of railway "preservation" efforts there, during the last 25 years?

Howard P.
You-Know-Where, CT

Good question. Why not add, why can't people join there resources to make the few bigger and very good museums better? There are many people and many resources in the Northeast, and lots of interesting railroad history. There are also stronger regional factionalizations, and for some reason a greater reluctancy to travel. A friend in Boston notes that people moan and groan if they have to travel more than 20 minutes, and they rarely get outside of that region.

Perhaps one other reason is that because of the tendency to factionalize, or specialize, that an existing museum might tend to exclude others - and promote the development of another group to address some unique aspect, or regional character, of preservation. The group with the ALCO manufacturing site has something unique, and it can't be moved. It either gets preserved or interpreted as it is, or it doesn't.

I would also add that of the larger, more inclusive museums, those that are more successful have figured out how to manage their factionalization (in each department or restoration group) in such a way that they all get along. Or at least mostly try to do that. Internal politics can kill any museum by making it not very fun or rewarding for the volunteers.

I hope the more individual and smaller preservation efforts will sensibly conglomerate in the next few years. It has to some extent already, with the old East Troy collection largely going to IRM, and a northern Ohio trolley collection going to NORM. How many private collections are out there which will need a home some day when the benefactor dies?

If memory serves me correctly, most (if not all) of the Lima Locomotive Works has been torn down. Preservation of its archives, photos, etc is spread among several organizations, including one local one-the Allen County historical group.

So that has me thinking-should a proposal to preserve part of the Alco plant be just about Alco, or should it have a larger focus (such as the NY equivalent of Allen County)? One example is the North Carolina Transportation Museum, which utilizes the former Southern Railway repair shops in Spencer, NC. There have been debates in the past as to whether it should have been solely focused on railroading vs. multiple forms of transportation in the state. It may be worth considering that the larger focus could have been key to its survival.

From that perspective, the options get bigger, but the caveat is (as alluded to earlier)-what will we put in all of that bricks-and-mortar that will make people visit?

#3 -- that's life in a railway museum. Show me a museum that doesn't have that going on...

#1 -- that's a serious problem, yes. The opposite case is the museum where 10 cars are in a million pieces, because of too-permissive management which does not demand focus or deliver solutions. There's a fine knack to being railway museum management. You have to let people do what they want, while inspiring them to drop that and do what's more important to the organization.

#2 -- I submit that the best way to preserve historic equipment is to cause the facilities for doing same... railroad, land and carbarns. I don't suggest that such facilities will create a unity among volunteers, but at least it will create a place they can want to call home.


The Alco plant is currently subject to redevelopment and as a result, MOST buildings could be torn down. The City wants to build Condos and a park on the site as well as keep some industrial activity at one end.. Schenectady does not need Condos, but rather ways to bring people into the City. The Alco Museum is one way to do this and will be a specialized museum dedicated to a well known world wide builder of steam and diesel locomotives as well as other products unlike any other museum in the Northeast. Many railroad museums are "local" museums concentrating on local railroad history so they to are "specialized".

The city will not like being told what they need. To them, commercial redevelopment is urban renewal and good tax base. A railway museum is neither. They look like junkyards and they tie up a lot of land that would otherwise hire workers and pay taxes. So a railway museum ought to plan to give back to the city in other ways.

Keep a very close eye on the situation in Sacramento. The SP rail yard is being redeveloped into a "new urbanism" condo community. The California State Railroad Museum wants to keep a major presence there, and is encountering significant resistance on all fronts.

Because of the City Of Schenectady's plans, we are taking the approach of becoming PART of the overall development in the grand scheme that is planned for the site. We are not trying to take the entire plant. I am sure that the City would not agree to that, but rather take one or buildings plus some surrounding property for a Alco museum. Our plans include static and interactive displays both indoors and out. This would geared toward something similar to the Railroad Museum of PA but on a smaller scale.


I would say it starts with education: our first mission as nonprofits. When Joe and Judi Family walk by with their stroller, what do you want them to experience? What story do you want them told?

There was talk of creating a "NY STATE" RR museum but that is a massive undertaking that cannot be accomplished within the space that we have planned.

THAT is a worthy goal. Perhaps it should be part of your plan after all. Perhaps this location can/should be a satellite of a much larger museum. "Make no little plans..."

For instance here could be a very slick setup: Imagine if your space in this redevelopment were the urban end of a train ride that whisks you outside the city, out where land is cheap, and neighbors are fewer. The New York State Railroad Museum, with its vast acreage dedicated to telling the story of New York railroads.

Then, Joe and Judi buy tickets and push their stroller onto your train, and spend an afternoon exploring the larger facility. Put in a park and picnic area, and they'll come back with a picnic basket.

A couple additional thoughts… I assume the City has to do an environmental impact report for the site. Are any of the buildings considered historic (legally.) If so, the museum might become part of the mitigation for loss of the historic resources.

You might want to visit the museum at Altoona… It’s more about the workers than the trains… This direction is likely more palatable to city officals than a collection of locomotives. Also visit the maritime museum in Erie… It’s inside a converted power plant… It’s a huge space, well used.

Both of these are professionally designed museums with excellent interpretive panels rather than just collections of railroad cars.

City officials would probably be much more comfortable with these concepts (even if not on that scale)

The book Starting Right-A Basic Guide to Museum Planning by Gerald George, is a good resource and might help you with your proposals.

"What will we put in all of that bricks-and-mortar that will make people visit?"

Well, it better not be any cutaway steam locomotives.

You already know what the response to that will be.

PC

Question and a thought. With the amount of derelict Alcos aroubd perhaps a "static" museum would be a good idea. Do you plan on being another operating museum or is there a possibilty of stuff and mounts with like one or two operational locomotives? I can think of several good candidates for stuff and mounts in the region your in. Love the idea the possibilities are endless. Also, will you showcase the role Alco played in WW2 such as tank building? Another thought is to showcase the relationaship between Alco and GE, perhaps even a GE or two in the collection to show the similarities and GE's evolution from it's connection with Alco. Perhaps even you could get other groups to part with or loan Alco's they have. Steam or just diesel? Can't help but ramble on this was the topic of discussion between my engineer and I tonight. Again I like the idea and would love to hear more.

If you haven't done so already, you should seek the advice of or partner with the Schenectady Museum. Besides being a well established museum in the same city, they have had ALCO and GE related exhibits come and go over the years. I know their collections include hundreds of linear feet of GE materials; I don't know what they may own relating to ALCO.

John,

Please understand that many of us are initially skeptical about new museums, having seen so many museums which have grand ideas which never reach critical mass, and so many restoration projects which lag or are abandoned.

Your site and concept sound interesting, an original ALCO building with artifacts related to locomotive history and construction, as part of a redevelopment project.

Here are links to two more museum web sites with include resources for new museums.

http://www.okmuseums.org/resources/starting-a-museum/

http://www.firemuseumnetwork.org/resour ... urces.html

I would strongly suggest you portray your project as a museum first, and as a railroad museum second.

When choosing objects think about what story they tell, not just are they neat…

Does your organization have the ability to create a smaller temporary possibly portable display to build support? It would need to look professional to gain the support of the officials… a card table with a couple of lanterns, a binder of photos, a folding sign which looks like a 10th grade science fair project and a donation jar won’t cut it.

Good luck

John,

Like randy I am also a professional museum curator and he is telling you about some good good reading. And others have mentioned some good museums.

A friend of mine is the Exec Director of the Erie Maritime Museum; it is a good one.

Some others that come to mind are the Steamtown National historic Site and the RR Museum of Pennsylvania. These are large professionally run museums that are way bigger than what you want but they are sure to give you some ideas that you may want to include in your displays.

Also, I am a post card collector and would like to say that there are a lot of images out there that can be used to tell almost any story of people places and things.

Last, this site is an outgrowth of the old Railway & Locomotive Preservation magazine. And back in the 1980s they did a whole issue devoted to the ALCO locomotives and they did a follow up of a list of existing ALCO steam locomotives.

All of it is good reading!

Ted Miles