- Association of Railway Museums

Number 16
Spring 2014
Trolley Museum of New York hosted the
ATRRM Spring meeting. They operate
on the recently rehabbed easternmost
portion of the Ulster & Delaware to the
Kingston waterfront, where trains and
local streetcars met Hudson River
steamboats. Aaron Isaacs photo.
Address Service
Requested
ATRRM
P.O. Box 1189
Covington, GA 30015
PRSRT. STD.
U.S.POSTAGE
PAID
TWIN CITIES, MN
PERMIT NO. 1096
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3
ASSOCIATION OF TOURIST RAILROADS
AND RAILWAY MUSEUMS
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
By G. Mark Ray
The purpose of the Association of Tourist Railroads and
Spring time – flowers blooming, snow melting, sunshine,
Railway Museums is to lead in the advancement of railway clanging of trolley bells, and the lonesome sound of a steam
heritage through education, advocacy and the promotion locomotive whistle are all signs that a new operating season is
of best practices.
upon us. As we all open our doors again to the thousands of school
kids, parents, and grandparents, we’re all faced with the growing
burden of regulation. Some of this is the result of the Rail Safety
Improvement Act passed by Congress in 2008 as a result of an
event in California.
Last year, through Task 13-01, the Federal Railroad
Administration established the Tourist & Historic Railroads and
Private Passenger Car Working Group. Initially, this working
group was tasked to:
•Review the interpretation and application of the exception to the
safety glazing standards (49 CFR Part 223) provided in 49 CFR
Officers
223.3(b)(3).
President: G. Mark Ray, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
•Review regulatory treatment under 49 CFR Part 215 of freight
Vice-Presidents:
cars 50+ years old. (Does not include freight cars used in
commercial freight service)
Scott Becker, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
•Review application of 49 CFR Part 232, Appendix B to historic or
Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road
antiquated passenger or freight cars.
Secretary: Ellen Fishburn, Orange Empire Railway Museum
•Identify
any other issues involving regulatory treatment of tourist,
Treasurer: Alan Barnett, Indiana Railway Museum
scenic, historic, excursion, educational or recreational rail
operations or private passenger rail car operations and
Directors
equipment.
Richard Anderson, Northwest Railway Museum
The first meeting of this working group took place on April 9th
Scott Becker, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
and 10th. Our representatives, Bob Opal (Illinois Railway
John E. Bush, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
Museum), Linn Moedinger (Strasburg Rail Road), and Jim Miller
Steven M. Butler, Texas State Railroad
(Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum) presented recommendations
on how to treat Part 215 for freight cars 50 years or older. Part 215
Don Evans, West Coast Railway Association
prohibits the use of freight cars greater than 50 years old as
Terry Koller, Georgia State Railroad Museum
measured from the date of original construction. There are some
Bob LaPrelle, Museum of the American Railroad
exceptions including Maintenance of Way equipment, narrow
Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road
gauge cars, cars used in “dedicated service”, and cars used solely
G. Mark Ray, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
on plant railroad trackage. The rule allows railroads to petition the
Ken Rucker, National Capital Trolley Museum
FRA to continue age-restricted cars in service. Many tourist
Jim Schantz, Seashore Trolley Museum
railroads and museums utilize cabooses, restored freight cars, or
Donald Tallman, Colorado Railroad Museum
freight cars converted to passenger cars in their operations.
Jim Vaitkunas, Minnesota Streetcar Museum
ATRRM offered a recommendation that would reduce the burden
Meg Warder, Black Hills Central Railroad
of filing for waivers and allow continued operation of the freight
cars into the foreseeable future. Our recommendation was well
Kyle Wyatt, California State Railroad Museum
received and Mr. Opal has been tasked with writing the rule text
for the “50 year rule.” The rule on glazing was also discussed but
Committees
only at a conceptual level. Rule 232 on passenger car brakes
Renewal Parts: Rod Fishburn, Chair,
involved an effort by the FRA to add more brake regulations on
[email protected]
non-general system tourist railroads. Fortunately, these attempts
were withdrawn after a fair amount of discussion. Keep an eye on
Staff
the Resources section of the ATRRM website for future updates on
Suzanne Grace, Executive Director
this working group.
Lynette Rickman
ATRRM visited Kingston, NY, for our Spring Board meeting.
We had a great turnout with 60 attendees. This meeting was a
P. O. Box 1189
watershed moment for ATRRM as we updated our Strategic Plan.
Covington, GA 30015
Our previous plan, developed in Strasburg, PA, was focused on the
[email protected]
steps needed to merge ARM and TRAIN into a single
770-278-0088
organization. With that now behind us, our new plan focuses on
building the organization to one that is providing increased
Aaron Isaacs, Editor
member services. We want to increase our involvement in
3816 Vincent Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55410
advocacy at the congressional level, work harder with our
[email protected]
regulatory agencies to reduce the current regulatory burden, offer
more reference tools to our members, and develop up-to-date
612-929-7066
economic impact information for use in grant writing and other
The Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums is funding requests.
I would like to thank the Trolley Museum of New York for a
a Professional Affiliate Member of the American Association
well-planned
and well executed conference. I also need thank our
of Museums.
sponsors, McRail, Rail Events, Bella Terra Publishing, and
HMBD, who provided us with some great food and drink!
To advertise in Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums, contact Aaron Isaacs at [email protected].
To download an advertising rate sheet, go to www.atrrm.org, and click on Publications.
For more details, or to report address changes, please contact
us at:
ATRRM
P. O. Box 1189, Covington, GA 30015
www.atrrm.org
770-278-0088
[email protected]
4
5
Texas State Railroad
_________________________________________________
Rusk, Palestine & Pacific Railway
P.O. Box 166, Rusk, TX 75785
2014 FALL ATRRM CONVENTION
___________________________________________________________________________
Location:
The Holiday Inn, South Broadway, Tyler, Texas
Dates:
November 4 through 8
Schedule:
Pre-convention:
Tuesday, November 4
Dinner train on the Texas State Railroad
Wednesday, November 5
Trip to Dallas to visit McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, and the Museum of the American
Railroad in Frisco.
Convention:
Thursday, November 6
Trip on the Texas State Railroad from Palestine to Rusk.
Friday, November 7
Strategic planning meeting, Board meeting and seminars.
Saturday, November 8
Seminars, Banquet
Travel:
By air you can fly to Dallas, Tyler or Longview.
Amtrak stops at Mineola, which is 25 miles from Tyler or Longview which is 34 miles from Tyler.
Tyler, Texas is located 100 miles south east of Dallas, Texas.
6
7
8
ATRRM IN THE
HUDSON VALLEY
By Aaron Isaacs
Our host for the ATRRM Spring
meeting is a small museum with a long
and winding history. It started in
Brooklyn in 1955 with four streetcars,
including a Queensboro Bridge Master
Unit that was one of the last streetcars
to run in New York City. During the
1960s the cars were consolidated at the
B & O Staten Island yard, but their
storage track was removed to make way
for a parking lot. In 1968, the four cars
were moved to the Trolley Valhalla
Museum in Tansboro, New Jersey.
Overhead wire was already installed
there and trolleys were in operation.
Unfortunately, the Valhalla group was
unable to secure the site, resulting in an
eviction. The following year, 1969, a
new site with a 30–year lease was
located at the Morristown and Erie
Railroad in Morristown, New Jersey.
However the railroad ended up in
federal bankruptcy court and the
collection found itself back where it
started in Brooklyn.
In 1972, the head of the Transit
Authority of New York encouraged the
museum to purchase three Boston PCC
trolley cars. Plans were being made to
operate the cars as a tourist attraction on
McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn, when
the transit authority came under the
control of a new manager who did not
support the streetcar idea. The museum
was ordered to leave the property.
In 1987, three Philadelphia trolleys
were donated, under a 90-day deadline
to be moved from the SEPTA yards
where they were stored. Near the end of
the 90 days, a new storage location was
found Greenpoint, New York.
A truck was dispatched to
Philadelphia and arrived there on the
91st day only to find that the cars had
already been cut up for scrap. The story
of the trolley cars was picked up by the
Philadelphia newspapers and made the
wire services. It was read in Kingston
by Hildegard Frey, who brought it to
the attention of Stephen Finkel, her boss
at the Ulster County Development
Corporation. Finkel in turn brought the
story to the attention of the Mayor of
Kingston. Negotiations were started
with the Museum for leasing part of the
recently abandoned track in Kingston.
In April of 1983, the Museum reached
an agreement with the City of Kingston
Top: Conference attendees board ex-Johnstown #358 at the Trolley Museum of New York.
Middle: Believe it or not, the grafitti on New York subway car #6398 (ACF 1955) is intentional. The museum received funding
for an event where grafitti artists would paint the car. Included was the requirement and funds to remove the grafitti and
repaint the car after a given period of time.
Bottom: Perhaps the gem of the collection is the only aluminum bodied PCC, one of a kind Brooklyn #1000 (Clark 1936).
9
and Ulster County to lease the
abandoned former Penn Central line to
Kingston Point. Operation for the
public began in July 1983 using a Brill
Model 55 gasoline car.
By 1984, a total of eight subway and
trolley cars were moved to the Kingston
site. A trolley barn was constructed and
two European cars joined the collection.
In 1985, volunteers reconstructed the
track link between the U&D Main line
and the industrial spur leading to the
Maritime Museum a block away. In
1985, two additional pieces of
equipment were moved to Kingston,
one being a Staten Island Transit car
that was damaged by fire. Volunteers
totally reconstructed the car and it was
used as a gift shop and loading platform
until it was destroyed by fire in October
1991.
The two–track, two–story carbarn
has room for eight electric cars on the
ground floor. The rest of the equipment
sits outdoors in the yard. Upstairs are
offices, a meeting room, library, visitor
center and store. The museum
maintains a photo archive that is in the
process of being catalogued.
The museum’s 1.25-mile line, leased
from the city, starts at the Hudson River
waterfront, formerly the location of the
dock served by the Hudson River Day
Line steamboats from New York City,
as well as the ferry across the river to
Rhinecliff and its train station. The
track reaches the river via a long
curving causeway. The rails had been
removed when the river steamers
stopped running in 1932. They were
relaid by Penn Central in the 1960s to
serve a new cement plant, then
abandoned again. The riverside
terminus is in a beautiful setting that
has become a city park. In its day there
was an amusement park here. Until
1928, the park was also served by the
local streetcar company. To my surprise
the peak–roofed streetcar waiting
shelter was still there, along with a
short piece of original streetcar track.
At the carbarn the line splits.
Streetcars follow a short spur that
crosses the street and serves the historic
Rondout Creek waterfront, home to a
marine museum, restaurants and shops.
The mainline climbs past the carbarn
and follows a steep S-curving 3.95
percent grade through town. The
museum recently terminated its lease of
this track, on which it had never
operated. It will be converted to a trail.
Lacking overhead wire, the museum
has relied on self-powered cars.
Johnstown Traction #358 (St. Louis
1925) was acquired from the Stone
Mountain Railroad, which removed
four rows of seats, install an underfloor
diesel engine and a new home built set
of trucks.
Recent years have seen a number of
10
site improvements. The city paved and
landscaped the former dirt parking lot.
The carbarn is now more attractively
faced in brick. A couple of years ago
the museum did a major cleanup of the
grounds and rationalized the collection,
disposing of several cars that were
beyond restoration. Most important, a
federal grant rebuilt the railroad and
installed a new platform at Kingston
Landing.
***
The conference included a visit to
the Catskill Mountain Railroad, also
located in Kingston.Ulster County is
trying to evict the railroad and convert
the right of way to a trail. The next
article tells the story to date. We’re
hoping for the best, but it may not end
well.
THE CATSKILL
MOUNTAIN FIGHTS ON
By Ernie Hunt and Dan Howard
Reprinted with permission from
Railpace Newsmagazine
The Catskill Mountain Railroad is
fighting for its life. After experiencing
record ridership and reaching other
significant milestones, both natural and
man-made disasters are preventing the
line from reaching its full potential, and
might even cause it to be lost forever.
In 1979 Ulster County took
ownership of the 38-mile portion of the
railroad within its borders in exchange
for $1.5 million in back taxes owed.
The intention was to attract Steamtown
to relocate from Vermont to Kingston
and use the line for its excursions. After
Steamtown selected Scranton,
Pennsylvania, the first lease of the line
from the County to the Catskill
Mountain Railroad was established.
Chartered as a for-profit company for
freight and passenger service, the all
volunteer Catskill Mountain Railroad
was born. In 1983 passenger service
was initiated at Phoenicia, and some
limited freight service in Kingston. The
West End was extended east from
Phoenicia (MP 27.5), to Boiceville (MP
22.7) in 2004, and to Cold Brook
Station (MP 22.1) in 2008.
In 2008, track restoration efforts
resulted in resumption of passenger
service in Kingston for the first time in
over 50 years with the initiation of
holiday shuttle service. The Catskill
Mountain Railroad now had two
separate operations, with over 2 miles
of track restored in Kingston and about
6 miles in the western portion of the
county. Expansion west of Kingston
was hampered by an $800,000
contractor estimate to repair the C9
bridge on the mainline at Milepost 5.
The railroad met the challenge with an
in-house reconstruction plan and began
repairs under the direction of a licensed
professional engineer.
In 2011 Hurricanes Irene and Lee
devastated portions of the Northeast
and the Catskill Mountain Railroad was
not spared. Its 6 miles of in-service
track on the west end in the Phoenicia
area was cut in half. Fortunately the
railroad had the foresight to move its
equipment out of Phoenicia to its
Mount Tremper station in advance of
the storm. This proved invaluable as the
rail line was literally wiped out in a few
sections just west of Mount Tremper,
preventing any train service to or from
Phoenicia. Other parts of the line were
also severely damaged, including
destruction of the Boiceville trestle
across the Esopus Creek at milepost
21.3.
2012 was a year of both ups and
downs. Utilizing materials costing less
than $20,000, including donated
timbers from the Poughkeepsie bridge,
CMRR volunteers repaired the C9
bridge and by December, Kingston
passenger trains were operating across
it. To help improve passenger
accommodations out of Kingston, the
New York and Atlantic Railway
donated a passenger car to the Empire
State Railway Museum in Phoenicia.
Catskill Mountain’s West End consist lays over east of Phoenicia.
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Over 300 full-color
illustrations and photos
accompany detailed
histories of each streetcar and cable car.
Other features include
route maps, a trainspotter’s checklist, and
directions for several
ride-and-walk tours.
Call, fax, or email for
sample pages and
purchasing details.
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11
Above: Campground Curve east of Phoenicia was washed away. After the county
withheld $2.3 million from FEMA, the railroad rebuilt it themselves.
Below: Ernie Hunt hosted ATRRM conference attendees at the Kingston yard.
The museum in turn is leasing the car to
the CMRR for Kingston operations.
In late October, as part of his 2013
budget release, Ulster county executive
Michael Hein dropped a bomb on the
railroad–announcing plans to scrap
portions of the line to create a rail trail.
This would include the lifting of all rail
on the 38–mile corridor except for the 6
miles from Phoenicia to Colebrook. The
pro-trails movement and the county
executive were further bolstered by a $2
million item in Gov. Cuomo’s 2013
New York State budget for the planning
of a rail trail in the corridor.
This set the stage for CMRR’s battle
to stay alive. The CMRR responded in
February 2013 with a well engineered
rail–with–trail solution so the trail users
could share the corridor. This was flatly
rejected by the Ulster County executive
who has made no compromise from his
initial position that the road must vacate
12
all but 6 miles of the corridor, even
though CMRR has 2 years left in its
current lease with the County.
Although most trail users support
rail–with–trail, the leadership of the
trail lobby seeks to destroy the railroad
at all costs. On Friday, April 26, 2013,
without contacting or consulting the
railroad, the city of Kingston obtained a
temporary restraining order preventing
CMRR from transporting four historic
passenger coaches into the city on the
basis that they were a hazardous
materials health issue. At the city’s
request, the county health department,
under the control of Hein, had
conducted a test on the paint on the
coaches and determined there was lead
content in the paint. These cars,
including the historical Lion Gardiner,
were stored on the main track just west
of the city limits and are planned for
restoration at the CMRR Cornell Street
yard in Kingston. Although the CMRR
was blindsided by the city/court action,
they fully intended to abide by the
restraining order. However, late on
April 26, Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo
took matters into his own hands and
ordered the city Department of Public
Works to block the rail line with a city
dump truck. Fortunately this illegal act,
a class D felony under New York
railroad law–unlawful interference with
a railroad train--took place late in the
day after the CMRR had operated a
special train for the New York Central
System Historical Society's annual
convention.
It appears the main goal of the city's
action is to use local zoning laws to force
the CMRR out of its secure storage and
maintenance area in Kingston, which the
city said needs “site plan approval” even
though it has been used by the road and
its predecessors for 140 years.
While Hein’s corridor plan calls for
CMRR maintaining limited operations
on the 6 mile segment between
Phoenicia and Colebrook, he still has yet
to release the $2.3 million of approved
FEMA funds to repair even that portion
of the line. As of late May 2013, Ulster
County deputy director of planning Chris
White told the railroad that he is too
busy working on trail matters unquote to
release the funds.
A David versus Goliath situation
appears to be taking place. Although
some elected officials and the local
Kingston press has sided with the protrails movement against the railroad,
there is also much public support for
CMRR, some political support, and the
Internet is playing a big role in the fray.
With supporting letters to the editor and,
more important, online public comments
to both the newspapers and CMRR
related newspaper articles, there is an
overwhelming 32-1 public support in
favor of CMRR from this audience.
Along the way, a Facebook page
named “Friends of the Catskill Mountain
rail trail” was created. However, when
anyone has posted a pro-rail and trail
comment or comments supporting
CMRR, the person posting the comment
has been subsequently blocked from the
page, and all of his or her comments
removed. This page is anti-rail
propaganda.
Meanwhile, a group supporting the
CMRR has created an All Aboard for
Ashokan Facebook page. Those who are
not in support of CMRR are not being
blocked from the site nor are there posts
being deleted. Instead polite, detailed,
informational rebuttals are appearing.
Over the course of the past 6 years,
CMRR has contributed $19,000 in lease
payments to the County and has
performed almost $1.3 million in direct
repairs and upgrades to the County’s rail
line ($93,000 in materials and $1.2
million in volunteer labor). However,
county planning documents only reflect
the 1991-2012 lease payments of just
over $34,000.
Along with questionable figures
estimating 700,000 annual trail users,
absolutely no plan or details have been
provided on the associated taxpayer
operational and maintenance costs for
the Catskill Mountain rail trail.
CMRR has been preserving and
improving a county asset at no cost to
Ulster County taxpayers, yet this appears
to be ignored by the County officials.
The railroad's current lease expires in
2016 and so far there have been no
fruitful negotiations with the County for
extensions and renewals of the lease.
***
The preceding article was published
in July 2013. Since then, author Hunt,
who is Catskill Mountain’s volunteer
coordinator, has posted weekly reports
on the railroad’s progress on the
Railway Preservation News website
(RyPN.org). Here are some highlights.
Volunteer crews have been cutting
brush, filling washouts and replacing
ties west of Kingston. As a result,
passenger service has been extended
from milepost 5 to milepost 5.48,
including the C9 bridge. This track
hadn’t seen a passenger train since
1976. 2013 ridership was 4200 at
Kingston and 10,100 at Phoenicia.
The railroad finally decided that the
county would never release the $2.3
million allocated by FEMA to rebuild
Campground Curve east of Phoenicia,
which had been completely washed out.
Instead, volunteers rebuilt it with
available funds.
Despite these positive developments,
there have been setbacks. In September,
the county removed 540 feet of railroad,
including the subgrade, at milepost
36.77, purportedly as part of emergency
bridge repair. In December the New
York
City
Department
of
Environmental Protection announced a
plan to spend $2.5 million to convert
the railroad to a trail along the Ashokan
Reservoir which the city owns. At first
this looked like game over, but the plan
was issued by members of the outgoing
Bloomberg administration, so the new
mayor may not support it. The jury will
be out for awhile.
In the court of public opinion, the
results are mixed. It’s clear, however,
that there isn’t a uniform groundswell
of support for the railroad. Legally, the
lease through 2016 is helpful, but after
that it’s hard to know. The county has
deep pockets and time is on their side.
The railroad might find some protection
under federal law, but it’s too early to
tell. This story will continue to unfold
for some time.
There’s a third tourist railroad on the west end of the line. The Delaware & Ulster
is based at Arkville, where this ex-NYC observation is part of the dinner train
consist. Below: Highmont is the line’s summit, and as far east as the U&D runs.
Unlike neighboring Ulster County, Delaware County supports the railroad.
ABOUT YOUR
VISITORS
(THE 2014 VARIETY)
By Jim Porterfield
In 2013 Mandala Research, LLC,
released updated (from 2009) research
the firm conducted on cultural and
heritage tourism in the United States.
Some of Laura Mandala's findings keep
coming to mind when I hear those
among us who disparage social media,
and proudly proclaim their avoidance of
it. As you read these summaries of her
findings, keep in mind that expert
definitions of a "cultural tourist" and a
"heritage tourist" are - for all intents
and purposes - identical.
Among Mandala's findings that will
determine the success or failure of your
museum or excursion are these:
1. Facebook and Amazon have
"replaced Google and Yahoo as the
Internet sites visited regularly" by
cultural and heritage travelers.
2. The "increase in the use of
Facebook - whether reading or posting
there - is dramatic," with more than
75% of travelers using Facebook and
more than 40% using YouTube to plan
their trips.
3. Cultural and heritage travelers use
their mobile devices to gather a wide
variety of information when traveling.
They are three times more likely than
their Non Cultural and Heritage
counterparts (business travelers and
those traveling on family or personal
matters) to learn about events, check
out
local
deals,
and
get
13
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recommendations on attractions and
lodging.
4. Cultural and heritage travelers
book dining and tickets to attractions
far more frequently by mobile device
than other travelers. More than 25% do
so using their smart phone and the QR
codes found on a site's advertising.
Do you have a vibrant, frequently
updated Facebook page to supplement
a frequently updated website? Do you
monitor both sites, as well as key travel
planning and evaluation sites? Do you
respond to criticisms (and make
corrections to shortcomings that are
called out)? Is there a functioning QR
code on all of your printed collateral
materials?
And about those "recommendations
on attractions": Consider what one
learns when visiting just one travel
planning website: TripAdvisor.com
(comScore Media Matrix reports it to
be "the world's largest travel site").
Globally, TripAdvisor.com claims 260
million unique monthly visitors, more
than 10 million monthly visitors to its
Facebook page for travel planning and
sharing, and 90 new comment
contributions every minute. It's those
comment contributions we want to look
at. But also note that there are other
travel review sites you can also consult.
A Google search yielded twenty, and
that list didn't include another popular
site: Yelp.com.
Given that many participants in our
industry disdain - or worse, belittle electronic media, I thought it
worthwhile to point out what they may
be missing by doing so. I was
surprised, too, that when I discussed
this with one industry executive I
consider tech-savvy, and our
conversation ended, he noted he'd have
to go back and check in on TripAdvisor
to see how his operation fared. Even he
acknowledged overlooking this
valuable source of feedback.
Nonetheless, here's a brief review - a
mere scratch of the surface - of what
we might learn about ourselves on
TripAdvisor.com. For starters, my
search was limited to the term "railroad
museum." That yielded 156 attractions
and 14,198 reviews and comments,
findings that are reflected here.
Similarly, "excursion train" yielded
20,248 reviews and opinions, "train
rides" 43,668, "dinner trains" 26,250,
and . . . well, you get the picture.
Similarly, if you enter a specific venue
by name, you get that organization's
results. "Strasburg Railroad" produced
872 reviews among 1,190 comments,
and "Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad"
72 reviews in 148 comments.
Of the 156 "railroad museum"
attractions, 27 were not in the United
States, and 21 (some U. S. and some
foreign) had no review comments
posted. Of the 135 railroad museums
reviewed, 17 (13%) had an overall
evaluation of less than 4 on a 5-point
scale (The overall categories are:
1=Terrible; 2=Poor; 3=Average;
4=Very Good; 5=Excellent).
Among the others, some whose
names all of us will recognize, sixteen
had a perfect 5: The California State
Railroad Museum with 706 reviews (I
found that impressive - among the most
reviewed, it had a perfect score); the
Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum
with 15 reviews; the Foley Railroad
Museum with 15 reviews; and the
Northern Ontario Railroad Museum &
Heritage Center and the Mineral Point
Railroad Museum with 6 reviews. The
other 11 5-of-5 sites had five or fewer
reviews, often just one review researchers tend to discount these on
the theory that a lone reviewer is
affiliated with the site (although mine
are often the only reviews of a place given that I seek out restaurants in
restored train stations when I travel and I have not vested interest).
My concern here is with the negative
reviews. You may have seen the
Research Institute of America's famous
report that shows a dissatisfied
customer will tell 13 other people of
their displeasure, while a satisfied
customer will only tell two others of a
positive experience. As a result, my
initial search went to those properties
that have a 3 or less rating. One
museum earned its 3 the hard way - five
reviews, with one vote for each
category. The "Poor" rating came from
a reviewer who summarized the
experience thus: "Eh," noting the
dilapidated state of the equipment on
display, adding that unless you are a
railfan, "don't waste your $5." Another
observed, "It looks like it is struggling
and needs help. Many of the railcars
were not open." And the 3-of-5 review
held a note that is a warning for the
entire industry. "Closed" was its title,
followed by, "They lost their lease to
the land as the owner need(s) to expand
its business." In other words, it could no
longer justify its existence on economic
grounds.
Another 3-of-5 property was ripped
by a half-dozen reviewers for a rude
and unhelpful staff, and by others for
poorly-lit and dusty displays, for being
over-priced, and by one as "utterly
disappointing." Interestingly, one
reviewer noted how empty the parking
lot was (on a fall day, leaf-peeper
season).
A third 3-of-5 property earned these
comments: "Bush League," "Terrible,"
"Dull,"
and
"NO
NO
NO..........BORING" (emphasis supplied
by the reviewer). Among the problems
cited were a stalled/under-powered
excursion train that couldn't complete
the trip, that the train was a "5 mph, 40
minute" push-pull affair, dirty cars, and
that a 1 1/2 hour ride turned into 4
hours, rude and poorly organized staff,
the announcer reading from a script
over a malfunctioning sound system.
One reviewer concluded, "Not
recommended at all."
Such comments can, from time to
time, be found among even the highestrated sites. Not everyone - visitor and
site - has a good day every day. One
hopes a vast majority of travelers
understand that. And one hopes railroad
museums work hard to keep bad
reviews to a minimum - or nonexistent.
But we can certainly conclude that
among the things to rub visitors the
wrong way - in no particular order are:
-Deteriorating equipment, including
those that are merely unkempt.
-Inadequate signage, whether to
guide or inform guests.
-Poor, inattentive, uninformed help,
especially those who are rude.
Several other observations:
1]. A more detailed study of the
content of TripAdvisor.com's content
vis-a-vis railroad museums and
excursions would prove helpful;
2]. There is useful guidance positive or negative - in each posted
comment;
3]. Those with complaints go on far
longer about what is wrong with a place
than do those who offered a positive
review explain why (Take it from a
veteran from the "customer relationship
management" wars: that too is not
surprising. People who feel let down, if
not outright cheated, do vent.);
4]. At a minimum, a procedure needs
to be established to assess whether
reviewers are rail history buffs - a part
of our market that is steadily declining
in number - or a "cultural and heritage
traveler." The reviewer profiles seem at
first glance to offer some opportunity to
do that, but it is a time-intensive task to
study, and needs the enforcement of a
standardized procedure. For example, at
one of the entries that fared poorly, the
only 5-of-5 review was from someone
for whom it was his/her only review another factor leading to the suspicion
that it was a plant.
So although I formulated some
guidelines to try for neutrality as I went
along, this is a less-than-scientific
study. Plans are underway for the
Center for Railway Tourism to
undertake the task of mining useful
information from this and similar
websites annually. I'm proposing to the
Davis & Elkins College's Business
Department Chair that we involve a
senior-level management or marketing
development class in the project, and
conduct the research in the fall. In that
way it will reflect the just-completed
15
peak season, and produce results that
will be useful to survey subscribers in
planning their next year's operations.
Done annually, it will also begin noting
trends. Know I welcome suggestions at
[email protected].
And if you aren't aware of it, there is
a carry-over effect to these complaints,
something dinner train operators were
aware of years ago. Occasional visitors
who have a bad experience - or see an
experience panned on line (or in print) carry that impression over to other
possible locations. "Oh, we went to that
railroad museum in _____ last year,
remember? That's no fun. Let's do
something else."
So, do you visit TripAdvisor.com
and the other travel-site evaluation
websites to see what people think of
your operation? Can you accept the
criticism for what it is rather than
rationalize it or dismiss it in some way?
Do you have a strategy for addressing
criticism, perhaps even reach out to
those who criticize for additional
information? You, all of us, have a lot
at stake. And it doesn't cost you a cent.
SIDE TRIPS
By Aaron Isaacs
When attending ATRRM’s Spring
and Fall conferences, I always try to
visit nearby museums and tourist
railroads. The Spring meeting in
Kingston, NY was no exception. I flew
into Kennedy Airport, caught the
automated Airtrain to Jamaica and then
the Long Island Rail Road to Port
Jefferson, where I stayed overnight at
my sister’s house. The next morning it
was the ferry across Long Island Sound
to Bridgeport, then Metro North to
Waterbury, a very scenic ride up the
Naugatuck valley.
Railroad Museum of New England
At the Waterbury depot, Allan
Gallanty picked me up for a tour of the
Railroad Museum of New England,
where he volunteers. The museum
formed in 1968 as an adjunct to the
Valley Railroad and leased yard space
at Essex, CT. The desire to run trains
led to an 8-year search for a new site. In
the process, both Willimantic and
Danbury were considered and rejected,
although both are now home to railroad
museums. The move to Thomaston
came in 1995 and trains began running
the next year. Some rolling stock
remained at Essex for years. The last
five cars will be removed later this year,
with one going to Berkshire Scenic
Railroad.
The museum leases the upper 19.6
miles of the state-owned ex-New Haven
line from Waterbury to Torrington.
Passenger trains are based at
16
Thomaston, and run north 2 miles to the
Thomaston Dam and south 7 miles to
Waterville. Annual ridership averages
about 15,000 per year, up gradually in
recent years, thanks to events. To
handle freight and passengers the
museum created a for-profit subsidiary,
which revived the line’s original 1845
name, the Naugatuck Railroad.
The museum inherited a railroad in
fairly decent shape. The 1960
construction of the Thomaston dam
caused the relocation of 10 miles of line
north of Thomaston. The new higher
alignment had to climb above the water
level behind the dam, resulting in a 1.25
percent grade. When the state bought
the line in 1982, it upgraded the track
except for the dam relocation, which
museum has improved. The result is a
Class 2 railroad except for four Class 1
miles above the dam that don’t see
regular service. However, an injection
of track maintenance money is arriving
this year in the form of a State Rail
Freight Improvement Program grant of
$1.6 million. It will make repairs all
along the line.
The Naugatuck Railroad has hauled
freight sporadically in the past. Now
C&D Construction & Demolition is
building a construction debris loading
facility south of Thomaston that is
projected to generate about 800
carloads per year for interchange with
Pan Am Southern at Waterbury.
Passengers board at the ornate 1881
brick Thomaston station. Under the
New Haven, it saw its last passenger
train in 1958 and had suffered from
years of neglect and a fire set by
vandals in 1993. Although work
remains to be done, it has been largely
restored. This year will see brick repair
and tuck pointing.
A storage yard was built south of the
depot. After performing all repairs
outdoors for years, a shop building was
erected in 2004. Recently the museum
has leased another 2.5 acres south of
Top left: Thomaston depot. The
coach body on the ground is a
modern replica housing restrooms. At
right is a recently received Metro
North wire train car, originally an
Empire State Express coach.
Middle left: The Thomaston shop.
Bottom Left: One of the last group of
milk cars built, for the Boston &
Maine in 1958.
Top right: Excursions travel across
the face of the Thomaston Dam.
Below: The New Haven had its own
distinctive track hardware--the
wraparound joint bar and the single
shouldered tie plate with only three
spike holes.
the shop and will add about 1500 feet
of track. A car storage building is in the
planning stage.
Restorations: In the last year the
museum has rehabbed two of its
Canadian National heavyweight
coaches. A third one, #5805 (Canadian
Car & Foundry 1923) is in the shop
with the goal of completion by fall.
New Haven FL9 #2019 (EMD 1960)
has been restored to its 1985
appearance and will appear at the North
Carolina Transportation Museum’s
streamliner event. Next in line is NH
RS3 #529, which needs new wheels.
The collection totals 69 pieces,
including 2 steam locomotives, 13
diesel locomotives, 26 passenger cars,
14 freight cars, 8 cabooses and 6 nonrevenue cars. Of note are FL9 #2033,
17
the last F unit built in 1960, and Boston
& Maine #1910 and 1920, two of the
last group of milk cars built in 1958.
Recently two new pieces appeared,
donated by Metro North, work cars
from the wire train (an ex-NYC Empire
State baggage car will be used for
storage, and a wire train tower car for
tree trimming, etc.).
RMNE has 400 members. There are
25-30 regular volunteers, with another
20 occasional volunteers.
The museum has archival holdings,
including the negatives of Charles
Gunn, the New Haven’s last official
photographer. However, there is no
formal archive at this time and the items
are in storage.
Danbury Railroad Museum
The New Haven’s commuter service
into New York City extended 24 miles
up the Housatonic River valley to
Danbury, 65 miles from the Big Apple.
The line was formerly electrified. To
simplify turning the consists, the
handsome 1903 stone depot was placed
on a large balloon loop, with a yard
located inside the loop.
During the Penn Central years, the
electrification was removed. Metro
North Commuter Railroad took over
operation of the line under Connecticut
DOT ownership and didn’t want the
station, which had fallen into disrepair.
A new commuter station was built on
the other side of the loop. They also
didn’t need the yard inside the loop.
The City of Danbury bought the station
in 1992 and leased the 10-acre yard in
1995.
The Railroad Museum of New
England considered moving to Danbury
in the early 1990s, but never was able to
agree on a lease. Instead, the Western
Connecticut
Chapter
NRHS
incorporated the Danbury Railroad
Museum and in 1995 a lease was signed
with the city. In turn, the city restored
the depot with a $1.5 million ISTEA
grant, including rebuilding the missing
curved station canopy. The museum
moved into the building in 1996. The
main waiting room is now an exhibit
hall. It contains numerous displays, plus
several model railroads and push toy
play tables for children. The former
Adams Express room is the research
library, and a gift shop occupies the
baggage room.
Although most of the yard and
terminal structures were torn down
before the museum appeared, the
turntable and sand tower survived. The
museum moved in a water tower pump
building, complete with pump. There
are plans to rebuild the roundhouse on
its original site.
From that late start, the museum’s
collection has grown to over 60 pieces.
Significant ones include Boston &
Maine 2-6-0 #1455 (Alco 1907), Grand
18
The Danbury Depot and Metro North loop track.
Top: The Danbury yard.
Middle: On the museum grounds is
an original working forge, used to
fabricate parts for restorations.
Bottom: Grand Central Terminal
double ended electric crane #1
(Industrial Crane Works 1914).
Alco RSC-2. All have been vandalized.
The problem is retrieving them. They
sit next to a power plant that has
blockaded their tracks to avoid the
liability of a move. Those same tracks
have another way out, but it’s over a
condemned bridge that would have to
be repaired. There is no road access, so
trucking them will require building a
temporary road. All the options
explored so far are prohibitively
expensive, so the search for an
affordable solution continues, along
with fund raising.
The museum has about 350
members, of whom over 100 volunteer.
There are about 21,000 annual visitors.
There is an emphasis on serving
children and families. They even built a
model railroad layout at one of the
local schools.
Central Terminal double ended electric
big hook #1 (1914), a New Haven
railbus (Mack 1950) and a Sperry Rail
detector car #135 (EMC 1928).
Currently under restoration is New
York Central heavyweight observation
Tonawanda Valley, built in 1928 for
the 20th Century Limited.
June 2013 saw a notable acquisition
that comes with a major financial and
logistical challenge. In Glenmont, NY
the Mohawk & Hudson Historical
Society for years had owned New York
Central’s first electric locomotive, S-1
#100 (Alco-GE 1904). They also
owned a very rare NYC class T-3
electric #278 (Alco-GE 1926), along
with a U23B and a Seaboard Air Line
Saratoga & North Creek
The day after the ATRRM
conference I drove up to Saratoga
Springs and took a round trip on the
S&NC, part of Iowa Pacific’s
expanding roster of tourist railroads.
The winter Snow Train schedule had
ended the previous week. It was only
the second day of the Spring schedule,
a single daily round trip. In July the
schedule will expand to a pair of fulllength round trips, with a partial round
trip sandwiched in between.
In 2011 I interviewed Iowa Pacific
CEO Ed Ellis and he told me the
S&NC was coming. This followed a
failed attempt to revive the DenverWinter Park Ski Train. Ellis pointed out
that Gore Mountain ski area in the
Adirondacks, located on the S&NC,
was as good a market as Winter Park,
but didn’t require as long a haul to get
there. Another difference is that the
Denver Ski Train was seasonal, while
the S&NC runs year round. Now in its
third year, it appears to be succeeding.
The railroad is a former Delaware &
Hudson branch that leaves the AlbanyMontreal main line just north of
Saratoga Springs. Extending 56 miles
to North Creek, the line dates to 1871
and saw passenger service until 1956.
In 1944, it was extended another 33
miles to Tahawus to reach titanium
mines. With that extension came a new
engine house at North Creek, which
now serves as the line’s base of
operations. The southern portion of the
19
line is now owned by the online town of
Corinth, the northern portion by Warren
County.
I’ve ridden plenty of threadbare
tourist trains that require foregiveness
and forbearance on the part of the
passengers—torn seats, peeling paint,
fogged windows and 10 mph on uneven
track. The S&NC is the exact opposite.
It starts with the recently constructed
city-owned Saratoga Springs depot, an
attractive building that also houses
Amtrak and intercity buses and is
blessed with a large paved and
landscaped parking lot. Once on the
train the equipment is clean, well
maintained and comfortable. First class
is just that, with meal and beverage
service by a very friendly crew in a
plush super dome. All the food is
prepared in the car’s galley, not brought
in from a lineside kitchen.
In the first 17 miles out of Saratoga
Springs, the line climbs over a summit
through deep woods. The Polar Express
uses the first few miles. Just before the
Hadley station at mile 21 a memorable
high bridge spans the mouth of the
Sacandaga River. This is where the line
joins the Hudson River, which it closely
follows the rest of the way. It’s
extremely scenic, and especially so
when I rode, as the ice was just
breaking up and was brilliantly white,
contrasting with the dark churning
water. All this looks fine from the
dome, but is even more fun from the
dutch doors that are intentionally left
open and which the crew encourages
passengers to visit. No one sternly
instructs you to “stay seated until the
train comes to a complete stop”.
The track is all Class 2, with welded
rail the first 17 miles. The speed limit is
30, which always seems much faster on
rails than on pavement, especially given
the frequent curves.
The line passes through seven
intermediate stations. Two are flag
stops, but the rest are positive stops,
even though no one boarded the day I
rode. Riverside still has its original
depot, and Warren County has erected
new depots and parking lots at Hadley
and Thurman. The train runs on time—
we even killed a couple of minutes at
one of the stops because we were ahead
of schedule. Despite being a tourist
attraction, the railroad runs in a
traditional and businesslike manner,
down to the correct and somewhat
archaic fine print on the ticket.
When we reached North Creek, we
were met by the railroad’s shuttle bus,
which obligingly takes passengers
anywhere they want to go in or near
town, including the Gore Mountain ski
area. North Creek still has its original
1871 wood depot, which the local
historical society has populated with
history displays. The enginehouse is
20
Above: Saratoga & North Creek shares the Saratoga Springs depot with Amtrak
and buses.
Middle:Trains closely follow the Hudson River most of the way to North Creek.
Bottom: The North Creek terminal. Left to right is the 1871 depot, the 1944
enginehouse and the turntable.
wood and looks like it might be the
same age as the depot, although it was
built in 1944. Behind it is a working
turntable.
The single round trip provides a 3.5hour layover in North Creek. Unless
you’re skiing or river rafting, the town
is charming, but not 3 hours’ worth.
The addition of the second round trip
from July through October doesn’t
shorten the layover. It does, however,
open up timed transfers with Amtrak’s
Ethan Allen.
On the trip back I interviewed
Passenger Service Manager Mark Salis,
who was conductor that day. He
estimates that annual ridership now
surpasses 50,000. First class normally
fills up first and accounts for about half
the revenue. Although it isn’t a dinner
train in the usual sense of the term,
meal and beverage service is available
to both first class and coach passengers
and Salis says about 70 percent of
passengers eat during the trip.
The full service summer schedule
and the winter Snow Train schedule are
built around Amtrak connections at
Saratoga Springs. So far only a small
percentage take advantage of that, but
Amtrak is now allowing skis on board,
which should improve those numbers.
The S&NC sells joint train ride/Gore
Mountain ski lift packages, and skiers
make up about 40 percent of the Snow
Train ridership.
Coach ridership expands during fall
colors. The railroad also runs such
short-distance tourist train staples as a
pumpkin train and Polar Express.
The line is notable for running a rare
former Bangor & Aroostook BL2.
Shortly before I visited, a second one
had arrived and was scheduled to go
through the shop.
As with other Iowa Pacific ventures,
reviving freight service is part of the
business plan. This year will see the
first freight trains hauling rock to New
York City to repair storm damage from
Hurricane Sandy. Freight last ran in
1989.
Above: The C&CV is based at Milford. Displays fill the 1869 depot. The shop is in
the distance.
Below: Trains terminate on the south edge of Cooperstown at this park-ride lot,
where passengers can transfer to a shuttle bus to reach downtown. That’s a
former D&H RPO car in the distance.
Below: The offices of Delaware Otsego Corp. occupy the former D&H
Cooperstown depot. This track is now isolated.
Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley
I’ve always been a baseball fan, so
the ATRRM conference in Kingston
being reasonably close to Cooperstown
was an opportunity to check off a
bucket list item—visiting the Hall of
Fame. It also offered a two-fer, stopping
by the Cooperstown & Charlotte
Valley. They weren’t running yet, but
office manager Fran Puffer was nice
enough to give me a tour.
The 16-mile former Delaware &
Hudson branch line was purchased by
the Delaware Otsego, who became
much better known for reviving and
extending the New York, Susquehanna
& Western. Although they sold the line
to the Leatherstocking NRHS Chapter
in 1996, DO’s headquarter’s remain in
21
the large Cooperstown depot, with extra
space provided by several permanently
attached boxcars and a heavyweight
business car.
The Leatherstocking Railway
Historical Society used an ISTEA grant
to purchase the line and to renovate the
northern eight miles for passenger
service. Two state DOT multi-modal
grants funded the purchase of rolling
stock.
The society bought the 1869 Milford
station and the adjacent 35 x 85 foot
steel engine house which DO had built in
the early 1970’s. The flurry of initial
activity also saw the donation of a
miniature railway that now circles a park
next to the Milford depot.
On June 6, 1999 the LRHS ran its first
revenue passenger train.
The society has collected railroad
artifacts, including ephemera such as
blueprints, photos, magazines and books;
hardware items including lanterns,
switch locks and oil cans in addition to
railroad signal equipment and track
components.
In addition, LRHS acquired the D&H
FA tower, which at one time controlled
the railroad from Oneonta south to
Nineveh, NY, and moved it to the
Cooperstown Junction, where the
society’s non-operating equipment is
stored.
All the trains start at Milford and run
north, but don’t actually make it into
Cooperstown. The last mile to the depot
was not part of the sale and half of that
track has been removed. Instead, trains
end at a village-owned park-ride lot on
the south edge of town. There they meet
a shuttle bus that travels into the rather
cramped downtown, where the Hall of
Fame is located.
The train schedule is somewhat
unusual. Except for fall colors and some
events, trains run only on Thursdays, but
there’s a reason for it. A couple of miles
south of the park-ride lot is Cooperstown
Dreams, a complex of youth baseball
fields and dorms that holds weekly
multi-day tournaments. The railroad
passes through the complex and there’s a
station right next to the fields. Every kid
who plays gets a complimentary train
ticket. Their family members have to
buy tickets, which is where the railroad
makes money on the deal. The tourneys
end Wednesday, so on Thursday
mornings the kids board the up train,
transfer to the shuttle bus at the parkride, visit the Hall and are later bused
back to the Dreams Park.
On Saturday nights a private party
charters the rolling stock and runs a
Blues Train with music and a cash bar.
Total ridership on the line was 7700
in 2013.
22
THE “VIRTUAL
NATIONAL
COLLECTION”
PROJECT
By Jim Lanigan, President, Canadian
Council for Railway Heritage
The primary purpose of the proposed
Virtual National Collection is to
assemble and present on-line a
carefully-selected collection of
preserved
Canadian
railway
locomotives and rolling stock. This
project has become the Council’s
principal advocacy objective. It will
identify the most significant pieces of
preserved equipment within the context
of the overall story of Canadian railway
history.
Examples displayed will be “of
outstanding significance and national
importance to Canada” and considered
integral to telling the Canadian railway
story. Through both photographic
presentation of, and interpretative
narrative of the purpose and roles of this
equipment, the VNC will provide
“virtually” on-line broad public access
to viewers throughout Canada and
internationally. It will also enable the
owning museums to raise their profile,
feature their premier artifacts and
encourage public visitorship to their
physical display sites.
The CCRH’s unique “Evaluation
Mechanism for Historic Canadian
Railway Equipment” (the “mechanism”)
will be deployed by qualified evaluators
to assess the suitability of railway
equipment nominated for inclusion in
the VNC. This innovative mechanism
was developed by noted Calgary
museum consultant W. Jim Cullen
through amalgamation of two totally
unrelated models for
i) evaluation of historical
architectural treasures and
ii) objective assessment or ranking of
diverse human resources within large
complex organizations.
The resultant mechanism enables
comparison and ranking of diverse
preserved railway equipment on a
common denominator. An additional
benefit of the mechanism will be the
ability of various preservation
organizations to objectively evaluate on
their own behalf the components of
their collections, particularly in
assessing where to dedicate scarce
restoration and maintenance resources,
and also perhaps make decisions on
whether certain objects are worthy of
continued preservation within their
collections.
The VNC website will be very
modern in nature and be designed to
appeal to all ages. The intent will be to
include a cross-disciplinary nature of
the on-line exhibits, which will include
modern “still” and 360 degree walkaround photos of the equipment,
applicable narrative or stories and
perhaps archival materials (historical
photos, blueprints, written accounts,
moving images), as on-line technical
capabilities permit. This approach
should assist in raising railway
preservation websites to the forefront of
modern communication and culture.
There is growing enthusiasm for the
initiative, provided funding can be
secured for the envisaged project. The
CCRH believes that creation of the
proposed Virtual National Collection is
imperative in the national interest of
Canadian railway heritage preservation,
as it will have widespread advantages
and value.
Most importantly perhaps, should
any of the identified objects become
endangered in the event of their owning
organization being wound-up, survival
can be facilitated and assured through
alternate ownership and relocation to a
viable organization.
In addition, the availability of the
VNC will allow public access from
anywhere to view the significant
railway equipment that is located in
many museums across Canada. Indeed,
the VNC will be an important memorial
to the historical role of the railways in
the development of Canada and, with
the approaching Sesquicentennial of
Confederation in 2017, an appropriate
gift to the people of Canada as an
historical and educational resource.
An application for funding has been
prepared to the Canadian Heritage
Information Network’s (CHIN) Virtual
Exhibits Investment Program (VEIP).
CCRH Board Member Jim Brown of
Vancouver has extensive experience in
obtaining government grants from
assisting the West Coast Railway
Association in its extensive capital
funding programs. He has determined
that CCRH, as an Associate Member of
CHIN, qualifies for making Application
for a VEIP Grant up to $400,000
(including GST). Among other
requirements, the VEIP Grant would
pay for retention of Jim Cullen as a
consultant to “spearhead” the project,
including structuring the process for
nominations of equipment, recruiting
and training qualified evaluators, video
conferencing evaluators’ meetings
(multi-regional evaluators are
anticipated), preparation of the narrative
and photo images of the equipment for
posting on the website, and
incorporation of the presentation into an
on-line venue such as CHIN’s Virtual
Museum of Canada.
THE ROLE OF
MINIATURE
RAILROADS
By Aaron Isaacs
For some time I’ve been trying to get
a fix on the role miniature railroads play
in the tourist railway and museum
movement. By miniature, I mean trains
of less than two-foot gauge that can be
ridden. If they can’t be ridden, that’s a
model railroad and a different creature
that serves a different purpose.
Railroads, more than most other
forms of transportation, seem to lend
themselves to carrying people in (or on)
scale miniatures. It doesn’t work for
automobiles. They look like clown cars
or something from a Shriners’ parade.
Boats have an inherent instability
problem, so even large model boats are
unlikely to carry a human cargo. There
are small airplanes, to be sure, but scale
miniatures lack the lift to be ridden, let
alone safely.
Miniature trains can do the job
because of the stability provided by
track and because they’re big enough
Train time on the Riverside & Great Northern at Wisconsin Dells, WI.
Jim Vaitkunas photo.
Left: Hesston Steam Museum, Hesston, IN. Right: The Whisky River Railway at the Little Amerricka amusement park in
Marshall, WI. This is an historic locomotive that was once owned by Gene Autry. Jim Vaitkunas photo.
and strong enough to carry multiple
passengers. Even small gauges can be
ridden, provided the passengers don’t
shift their weight too much. The other
great advantage is that even miniature
railroads require a certain amount of
familiar infrastructure. It’s hard to have
a railroad without stations and engine
terminals. Might as well make those as
atmospheric as possible, and throw in
signals, grade crossings, trestles,
towers, tunnels and turntables while
you’re at it. Despite the advancing years
24
and the disappearance of much of it,
railroad infrastructure is still well
established in the public consciousness
and those accessories give comfortable
context—it’s expected.
Even if there were little rideable
boats and airplanes, the free-form
nature of their movement and the lack
of support infrastructure would simply
make it less interesting. Miniature cars
could certainly run around miniature
landscapes, but it wouldn’t be as exotic
or particularly historic. And it wouldn’t
be experienced as a group, which I’m
convinced is part of the attraction with
trains.
Miniature railroads are everywhere.
The website www.discoverlive
steam.com lists 455 of them in North
America. That means they outnumber
full size tourist railroads and museums
by almost two to one.
One major difference with miniature
railroads is the number that are
privately owned. According to the same
website, that’s 52 percent. The rest are
owned by clubs (30 percent), operate in
parks or zoos (12 percent) or call
themselves part of a museum (6
percent). Since most clubs and some
individuals host the public from time to
time, it’s reasonable to assume that at
least half of these railroads are open to
the public.
Given their numbers and public
availability, miniature railroads are as
likely as full size tourist railroads and
museums to host the public. That gives
them a greater influence than many in
the industry might readily admit.
In certain ways, miniature railroads
are a perfect entrée to railway
preservation and tourism, especially
when it comes to children. Admission
tends to be less expensive than the
typical full size railroad or museum.
Trips are made frequently and the trips
are short, whereas a 90-minute tourist
run can exceed kids’ attention spans.
Safety is less of an issue, especially the
potential for serious injury or death.
Size matters, in reverse in this case.
Full size trains can scare some kids,
ruining the outing. Unless an engine
whistles too loudly or pops off too
close, most children are unlikely to find
the miniature intimidating. Just the
opposite is true. The trump card is being
small and therefore cute. It is the rare
person who isn’t taken with miniatures.
That goes double for children. Think of
playhouses or anything else scaled
down to kid size. It’s a bigger, better
toy.
Smart museums recognize this
phenomenon and take advantage of it.
In fact, over 20 full size museums (and
the Strasburg Rail Road) host miniature
operation on their grounds. Miniatures
have a couple of other advantages. You
may not be able to run a real Northern
or articulated around the grounds, but
small size makes big power possible—
and at high scale speeds. Miniatures can
serve the useful function of transporting
people around the museum grounds.
The West Coast Railway Heritage
Park uses their Mini-rail as an on-site
tour and a revenue source. Even better,
it’s portable. Every Christmas season
it’s deployed to Canada Place in
Vancouver, where it introduces
thousands to the museum and brings in
needed revenue in the process.
Of course the miniature doesn’t have
to be a side show. It can be the main
attraction. Indeed, four ATRRM
members exist primarily to run
miniatures.
Our friend John P. Hankey for some
time has decried artificial barriers
within Trainworld, as he has dubbed the
general railroad hobby/interest area.
Miniature trains and full size trains
seem to occupy different tribal areas,
and there are ample reasons for those
barriers to be breached more often and
for miniatures to get more respect..
HERITAGE RAILNEWS
Amherst Railway Society grants
The Amherst Railway Society has
awarded more than $40,000 in grants to
19 organizations that work to preserve
rail heritage. This year the society’s
$10,000 Founders’ Award went to the
Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum in
Shelburne Falls, Mass. The museum is
raising money to build a fire resistant
metal two-car barn to house part of its
collection.
The Robert A. Buck Award, totaling
$2,000 and named in honor of the longtime director of the show, went to the
Chester Foundation in Chester, Mass.
for restoration of a 1919 wooden
caboose displayed at the Chester Depot.
The President's Award, totaling
$3,125, went to Shore Line Trolley
Museum for restoration of Connecticut
Company car #865 (Wason 1905).
The other grant recipients are:
•The Alco Historical & Technical
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Society of Schenectady, N.Y., $1,000 to
help cover the cost of moving
Adirondack RSC-2 No. 25 to a new
location for eventual display.
•Bartlett Roundhouse Preservation
Club of Bartlett, N.H., $1,000 for
continuing restoration of the Conway
Scenic Railroad’s 1923 Russell snow
plow.
•Central Vermont Railway Historical
Society of Randolph Center, Vt., $2,500
to aid in archiving CV historical
information.
•Conrail Historical Society of
Marysville, Pa., $1,500 for the purchase
of a portable generator for outdoor
restoration work.
•Friends of the Keystone Arches Inc.,
of Huntington, Mass., $1,500 to lift
stones from the Westfield River to
restore one of the Keystone Arches in
Chester, Mass.
•Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp.
of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., $1,500 for
construction of a replica of the 1892
control tower.
•Seashore Trolley Museum of
Kennebunkport, Maine, $3,000 toward
restoration of Bay State Railway car
No. 4175.
•National Railway Historical Society
– Cape Cod Chapter, $1,500 toward
interior restoration work at the West
Barnstable, Mass. station.
•Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley
Chapter NRHS of Scranton, Pa., $3,200
toward continuing restoration of Boston
& Maine 4-6-2 No. 3713.
•Western Connecticut Chapter
26
NRHS of South Norwalk, Conn.,
$1,500 for exterior restoration work on
SoNo Tower.
•Old
Colony
&
Newport
Railway/The National Railroad
Foundation and Museum of Newport,
R.I., $1,450 toward window
replacement on the railway's 1884
office car No. 74.
•Rowe Historical Society of Rowe,
Mass., $1,232 for the purchase of a
display case.
•Rutland Railroad Museum of
Rutland, Vt., $2,000 to upgrade interior
lighting.
•Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington
Railway Museum, $2,600 for interior
enhancements to the Percival house.
Since 1991, the nonprofit Amherst
Railway Society has given away about
$750,000 in grants.
Pennsylvania rail grants
A pair of grants from the state will
benefit tourist railroads. Bucks County
Railroad Preservation & Restoration
Corp. is getting $1.8 million to replace
rail.
Oil Creek & Titusville Lines, Inc.
will receive $127,194 to install 1,500
new cross ties, and restore proper
profile and depth of roadbed.
Aurora History Museum
Aurora, CO
The city of Aurora broke ground
March 18 on a 2,580-square foot
addition to the Aurora History Museum.
The new space will permanently house
restored Denver Tramways streetcar
trailer #610 (Woeber 1913), pictured at
right.
B & O Railroad Museum
Baltimore, MD
Chief Curator David Shackelford has
just authored a new book, The
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in
Maryland.
Baltimore Streetcar Museum
Baltimore, MD
The restoration of Baltimore single
truck streetcar #554 (Brownell 1896)
has received a boost from a Baltimore
National Heritage Area matching grant
of $14,470.
Center for Railroad Photography
and Art, Madison, WI
The Center has opened a large
exhibit on the World War II railroad
photos of U. S. government
photographer Jack Delano at the
Chicago History Museum. It will run
through August 10, 2015. What makes
this exhibit different is that Delano’s
son, Pablo Delano, located some of the
subjects of his father’s photos,
interviewed their families, and tells the
stories of what happened to them before
and after the war. To make the effort
even more accessible to the public, the
center has published a companion 200page book titled Railroaders: Jack
Delano’s Homefront Photography. It’s
available
at
www.rail-photoart.org/store.
parts have been gathered together. The
20th Century Electric Railway
Foundation has approved a $50,000
challenge grant and most of the match
has been raised. In addition, the same
foundation granted an additional $8600.
Gold Coast Railroad Museum
Miami, FL
The museum has acquired NASA
SW1500 #2, which formerly worked at
the Cape Kennedy Space Center.
Restored Denver Tramways trailer #610. The car is now indoors and on trucks.
East Broad Top
The East Broad Top Preservation
Association has completed the purchase
of another segment of the legendary
narrow gauge railroad from the
Kovalchick family. The purchase
includes track and right-of-way from
Mount Union to the Aughwick Creek
bridge, about four miles.
Edaville, South Carver, MA
A new 4-track enginehouse/house is
nearing completion. It will replace the
current 3-stall structure.
Edaville has a new operational 0-4-0
#11. It was acquired from Boothbay
Railroad Village, which rebuilt it from a
non-operational 0-4-0T.
Electric City Trolley Museum
Scranton, PA
A major fundraising campaign is
underway to restore Scranton
Electromobile #505 (Osgood Bradley
1929). Always a complete car, it was
disassembled and deteriorated badly
during years of outside storage. Now it
has been moved indoors and all the
Houston Railroad Museum
Houston, TX
The museum, which recently was
forced out of its long-time Railwood
leased site into temporary storage, is
changing its name to the Texas
Railroading Heritage Museum. This
anticipates moving into a new site in
Tomball, TX, 30 miles north of
Houston, in the next couple of years.
Santa Fe S-2 diesel switcher #2350
(Alco 1945) has been donated to the
Rosenburg (Texas) Railroad Museum.
Seaboard Air Line lightweight sleeper
Fort Lauderdale (Pullman Standard
1955) has been listed for sale.
Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL
Operating steam is back at IRM after
a nine-year absence. St. Louis-San
Francisco 2-10-0 #1630 (Baldwin 1918)
is now good for another 15 years.
27
Magma Arizona 2-8-2 #7 (Baldwin
1917) rides the table at the Texas
State Railroad. See it during
ATRRM’s annual convention in
November. Steven Butler photo.
28
First Class Railroad Pins and Patches
Indiana Transportation Museum
Noblesville, IN
A 1910 wood refrigerator car
discovered inside a building has been
acquired. It’s a “billboard” car, with a
large ad for the Kingan Refrigerator
Line of Indianapolis and “Reliable
Sliced Bacon” painted on the sign. Such
ads were outlawed by the ICC in 1938.
Lake Shore Railway Museum
North East, PA
The past year has seen the addition
of two General Electric locomotives
that couldn’t be more different. In May
2013 the Norfolk Southern donated
Dash 8-32B diesel #3563, the first
Dash-8 to be preserved. Recently the
museum acquired tiny Lehigh Portland
Cement 23-ton single truck boxcab
diesel #1901 (GE 1939).
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
Washington, PA
With the completion of the Artifact
Preservation Building, parts stored
inside four refrigerator cars have been
moved into the building and the cars are
now surplus. One of them, former
URTX #26571 has been shipped to new
owner Age of Steam Roundhouse.
Reading Railroad Heritage Museum
Hamburg, PA
Reading wood caboose #92938
(Reading Shops 1942) has been
donated. It previously was located at
Hershey Park in Hershey, PA.
Rockhill Trolley Museum
Rockhill Furnace, PA
San Diego U2 light rail car #1010
(Siemens Duwag 1981) has been added
to the collection.
The ex-Electroliner Liberty Liner
which ran on the red Arrow Norristown
line(St. Louis Car 1941) has been
returned to operation after an 18-year
hiatus.
Arizona Eastern copper anode flatcar #7013 has been restored by the Arizona
Railway Museum.
San Bernadino Railroad Historical
Society, San Bernadino, CA
The society, which preserves and
operates Santa Fe 4-8-4 #3751, has
received two passenger cars through
donations. They are Southern Pacific
econo baggage car #6673 (St. Louis Car
1959), which looks like an elongated
boxcar and Santa Fe dorm-lounge
#1391 (Budd 1946). Both are described
as needing “considerable work” to
return to service.
San Diego Electric Railway
Association, San Diego, CA
The association has acquired San
Diego streetcar #54 (San Diego Electric
Railway Kettner Shops 1903) from the
San Diego History center, where it was
displayed for many years. A classic
“California” car, the mid-section is
enclosed while the two end sections are
open. It was built by combining the
bodies of two former cable cars. It ran
in service until 1914. The body was
sold to a private individual, who used it
as a real estate office. In 1958 the car
was donated to the Railway Historical
Society of San Diego. In the 1970s it
was moved into the San Diego History
Center in Balboa Park.
Seashore Trolley Museum
Kennebunkport, ME
The oldest trolley museum in North
America has a problem most others
don’t—carbarns that are wearing out.
They were constructed by volunteers
and are basic, to say the least. Soils at
the museum site are not the most stable.
Support poles and footings have
deteriorated, and roofs and siding need
partial replacement. In some cases, the
walls don’t extend all the way to the
ground and further enclosure is needed
to better protect the rolling stock.
Given the limited financial resources
available, the museum hired an
engineering firm, which assessed all the
carbarns and created a priority list of
repairs, which are now being
implemented. Top priority has been to
stabilize all the buildings with
replacement footings and structural
stiffening. In addition, repairs to roofs,
walls and doors are underway.
Seashore has entered into an
agreement with a private party to build
a replica of the single truck private
party car City of Manchester (1898
Briggs Carriage Company). It will ride
on a surplus Brill 21E truck obtained
from the McKinney Avenue Transit
Time to refill the saddle tanks on
Clover Valley 2-6-6-2T #4, as well as
the recently restored McCloud River
fire tank car at Niles Canyon
Railway.
29
San Diego U2
LRT
#1018
arrives at Western
Railway Museum.
It’s the second of
its class to be
preserved. The
first is at Rockhill
Trolley Museum.
30
Irwin Car and Equipment
Atlas Car Products
PO Box 409 Irwin, PA. 15642
Contact Bill Springer
Ph. 724-864-8900
Scenic Railroad and Museum Car Parts
Two of America’s favorite past Times
Atlas Car Products can help make sure that your cars stay on track, operate safely and
maintain their historical integrity with our stocked parts and extensive line of distributed
products.
Couplers and Replacement Parts
Sharon 10 and 10A Couplers
Willison and Willison Reduced Couplers
Knuckles, Locklifts, Levers, Latches, Pins
Coupler Pockets
Stocked and Distributed Parts
Axles
Gear Guards
Brake Components
Gears and Pinions
Bearings
Hoses (Air and Grease)
Bolsters
Rubber Cushion Pads
Couplers
Side Frames
Brake Cylinders
Springs
Traction Motors
Traction Motor Axle Liners
Truck Assemblies
Wheels
Wheel Sets
Atlas Car Products has Truck Assembly Repairs and Rebuild capabilities with a truck
shop and motor repair shop located at the same site.
Services Include:
Truck Assembly Repairs & Rebuilds
Traction Motor Repairs
Wheel Re-profiling
Wheel & Bearing Replacement
Custom Manufacturing
Wheel & Axle Shop
For parts that no longer available, let our engineering staff reverse-engineer them with
our high tech Faro-Arm coordinate equipment.
Atlas Car Products also supplies parts for captive services, maintenance of way, and steel
mills.
Look for Atlas Products at www.irwincar.com
31
we would like to have an evacuation
path in place before putting these
motors back down low in the cars.
Additionally, motors for car 865 have
been pulled and will be overhauled in
January. The average repair bill comes
to $6250 per motor.”
The Baltimore Streetcar Museum recently restored Philadelphia PCC #2168 in
the short-lived SEPTA “Gulf Oil” color scheme.
Authority. The contract will raise
money for the museum.
Shore Line Trolley Museum
East Haven, CT
From The BERA Journal. “
“When the museum was struck with
what we now think of as a moderate
flood in December 1992, it required
much volunteer time, paid labor and
supplies to repair the damage. In fact,
while almost all of the cars had been
restored to operational status, this took
nearly 20 years!
When Irene struck in August 2011, it
was the new worst flood ever, instantly
reversing 20 years of hard work, and
this was of course topped by Sandy in
October 2012. Yet the museum is in a
much more favorable position, despite
these recent catastrophes. We will have,
once our new tracks are in place, over
1900 track feet above the 500-year
flood line (1360 feet of it indoors), and
2800 track feet above the 100 year
flood elevation. There were
approximately 60 cars which could take
power prior to Irene, and we will have
enough track space so that all of these
cars could be stored safely in the event
of another flood, even one which is 3
feet higher than Sandy.
Of course, two things need to happen
to take advantage of this position: The
tracks need to be installed, which will
be done during 2014, and the cars
which had been operable need to be
repaired so that they could be moved to
safety under their own power if need be.
With the strong momentum towards our
$2 million goal, I’m confident that the
former will be accomplished. Let me
elaborate further on how the cars will
be repaired.
At the end of 2012, FEMA made an
32
award worth approximately $1.3
million to the museum to repair damage
to 56 cars, flooded by Irene, which had
been operational previously. We also
applied for aid for the Sandy disaster.
That award, which is awaiting the final
FEMA sign-off, is expected to be worth
an additional $1.5 million, and will
cover the additional damages done by
Sandy to our collection, and to spare
parts inventories.
Quite frankly, without the assistance
of FEMA, which covers 75 percent of
the actual documented costs, the
museum would never be able to afford
to repair even a small fraction of its
collection. The repair program was
begun in 2013. Flooded traction motors
have been removed by museum staff,
and overhauled by a professional motor
shop for cars 6688, 4573, 1001, 9137
and 2001. Except for 6688, which is
100 percent completed, the overhauled
motors have been held in storage
pending re-installation, mostly because
Strasburg Rail Road, Strasburg, PA
Have you heard of steampunk? It’s a
recent branch of science fiction set in
the Victorian or Edwardian era (think
Jules Verne). The TV show and movie
The Wild Wild West is probably the
best known example, as well as the
graphic novel and movie The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen. Steampunk
has attracted a cult following who enjoy
dressing in period costumes amid
highly fictionalized technical devices
(brass bound wood computers, steam
powered time machines). Anyway, what
could be a better setting for a
steampunk gathering than a real steam
railway, so Strasburg last fall put on a
two-day Steampunk Unlimited event. It
attracted about 1000 people. Not the
biggest thing ever, but worth adding to
the list of events that steam railways
can try.
Toledo Lake Erie & Western Railway
and Museum, Grand Rapids, OH
On February 14th, 2014, a handful of
TLE&W Museum Members personally
funded and acquired the former
Waterfront Electric Railway Museum
Property in Grand Rapids, Ohio. The
grand opening was May 10.The
railway’s home base will now move to
Grand Rapids. The site includes three
buildings:
-A 14,000 square foot car barn with
three 100 foot display tracks.
-A 4000 square foot shop.
-A 560 square foot brick building that
will house the gift shop and displays.
Along with the deal come two pieces
of rail equipment, ex-Chicago Transit
Authority L car #4439 (Cincinnati
1924) and ex-Philadelphia sweeper
#123.
Walkersville Southern
The United Railway Historical
Society in New Jersey has donated
Lackawanna & Western MU parlor car
#3453 to the Walkersville Southern
Railroad. The 3453 is one of the only
two Lackawanna MU parlor cars left in
existence. Built in 1912 as Lackawanna
club cars, they were converted to MU
trailers in the 1930s for operation on the
DL&W’s electrified Morristown Line.
Western Railway Museum
Rio Vista Junction, CA
The museum has hired its first full
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority
has just restored Dallas Railway &
Terminal #754 (American 1926).
33
time education staffer. Kristina March
will take on education, public programs,
and volunteer management as the new
Public Programs Manager. She has a
Master's Degree in Museum Studies
from San Francisco State University.
Her background includes five years of
classroom teaching experience.
The museum has added San Diego
light rail car #1018 to its collection.
This is the second of these cars to go to
a museum. The first is at Rockhill
Trolley Museum.
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
Cumberland, PA
The railroad has acquired Western
Maryland business car #204 (Pullman
1918). The car was in private hands,
used as a residence and is in need of
restoration.
Whitewater Valley Railroad has restored Erie wood cupola caboose #04946
(Magor Car 1929) and returned it to service for the first time since it was
acquired in 1973.
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34
Western New York Railway
Historical Society, Buffalo, NY
Development of the society’s
Heritage Center is progressing. Two
years ago the society purchased five
acres of the former Buffalo Color
Corporation site in South Buffalo.
Following the completion of
environmental remediation by
Honeywell, in December 2013 the
society bought 13 acres in two parcels.
The parcel known as Area A has four
buildings on ten acres. One will be
woodworking shop, and will get tracks
this summer. Other buildings will be
rented. There are already nine tenants in
the existing building, all historical and
non-profit.
-Steel Plant Museum of Western New
York
-Buffalo Lighthouse Association, which
owns an 1850s lighthouse
-Buffalo Irish Genealogical Society
-Nickel Plate Technical Society,
moving from Cleveland
-A non-profit church
-Main Sailing Foundation, which
sponsors youth sailing
In addition, negotiations are underway
with the Erie-Lackawanna Historical
Society.
A connecting track is being laid from
an Norfolk Southern connection.
Equipment should arrive this summer.
West Virginia Central
Former Baltimore & Ohio GP9s
#6530 and 6532 have been acquired.
They last worked for Aggregate
Industries in Millville, WV.
Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington
Railway Museum, Alna, ME
An anonymous donor has given
$100,000 to the museum for its
endowment fund. The endowment has
been invested in the Maine Community
Fund, and surprisingly, the new
donation came through the community
fund and the museum discovered it after
the fact.
35