[PRCo] Re: Railfans Running Museums

[Bob Rathke]

I believe there will always be railfans, even after the last steel wheel has
run on a rail in revenue service.  Witness the many Civil War enactments
around the country, staged by people who were born at least 40 years after
the Civil war ended.

Bob 11/10/01

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred W. Schneider III" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2001 10:10 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Railfans Running Museums


>
> This has been sitting in the draft file while I think about it.  And I
> think it still has relevance.
>
> Jim Holland makes some interesting points ... including
>
> 1.  All people at museums are railfans. He claims that denying it
> doesn't change the facts.
>
>   Jim, I strongly protests.  At one time they were all railfans.  As you
> stated, they were the ones who felt it was worthwhile to save the
> equipment to create a museum, or at least to create a place where they
> could go and play on Saturdays away from their wives.
>
> Today? At some museums, yes.  At others, no.  In
> those which have worked hardest to get new blood, the answer is more
> commonly no.  I can go through the members at PTM and in complete truth
> say this isn't true.  We have people whose hobbies include museums ...
> any kind of museums.  We have one member who is a former school teacher
> who is there because a friend gave him a membership ... he is running
> for the board this year.  He is an educator, not a railfan.   We have
> some young people whose interest is in
> making something work ... they're not railfans, but they feel welcome
> rebuilding a streetcar. We run a scout program at the museum.  Some work
> a year, some leave immediately, some find it fund and stay ... but they
> didn't come as railfans.   We have political types who want to leave a
> legacy to themselves, and, if that serves the museum and the public, I
> can't suggest that it is wrong.  We have a half-time paid educator who
> is as far from being a railfan as you can get, but she is making a great
> contribution to the program.
>
> If, on the other hand, I were to try to evaluate the people at the
> Baltimore Streetcar Museum, I would probably
> agree that there are very few people whose hobby is not that of your
> definition of railfan although many have more than one hobby.
>
> The former museum, i.e. PTM, has developed a strong survival instinct.
> The latter
> has not.  People at the latter create reasons why something doesn't
> work. I think that 50 years from now PTM will still be educating the
> public, but there won't be many railfans left.  I don't have the same
> warm fuzzy feelings about BSM.  As you suggested, Jim, everything has a
> life expectancy. I would hate to see BSM's grand collection of cars from
> that city going back to 1896 cut up but that could happen.  Certainly
> the number of workers has declined starkly in the last 15 years.
>
> 2.  Jim has stated that they were all railfans when the museum's were
> formed.
>
> That should come as no surprise. John Q. Public wasn't interested.  He
> was simply happy that that damn trolley wasn't tying up traffic (even if
> the reality was it was being slowed by autos in front of it).  It took
> full blown railfans to be crazy enough (and I didn't say dumb enough) to
> by a fleet of thoroughly worn out trolley cars, track, copper, real
> estate, and then try to turn it into their play pen.  That was then,
> this is now.
>
>
> 3.  Railfans started museums "and now they seem to be denigrated as
> barriers to serving the public."  Then he supported this with John
> Swindler's remarks about church ministrations ending at the coffee
> table.
>
> I've had conversations with the older people at PTM on this subject.
> The conclusion seems to be that some of the deceased older members would
> be very pleased with the direction we are going. Others would be sad.
> Two commonly repeated names are those of raving railfans, foams,
> whatever you want to call them.   We think one of them would be very
> upset with the direction we are going. He wanted the play pen without
> the public.  Another would be very pleased. I knew both of them from the
> time I was 12 years old.  Apparently, most
> of the others who survive have no problem with the direction we are
> going.  Ed sent out a list of names last week of old time members.
> McGrew still does Trolley Fare.  I've worked with Art Elise on car crews
> many times.  I'll probably be with him in another two weeks because he
> traditionally carries a Polaroid camera on the Santa Trolley to make
> money.  Obviously Art has no objection, and he is a railfan.  CAPITALS
> FOR EMPHASIS: PERHAPS IT IS OK TO SAY WE ACCEPT RAILFANS AS LONG AS THEY
> ARE WITH THE PROGRAM.  If they want to foam about their favorite car and
> drive the public away, then we really don't need them.
>
>
>
> Jim, you pasted in John Swindler's remarks:
> > > .......The speaker also mentioned that the club mentality creates
> > > barriers to reaching out to the public, with the result that the
museum is
> > > stuck with a declining, aging membership.
> > > Then about a month later attended a northeast region church conference
in
> > > which the theme was reaching out to the public.  As one speaker
commented,
> > > in too many churches fellowship ends at the coffee table rather then
> > > reaching out into the community, with the result that many  churches
are
> > > stuck with a declining, aging membership.
> >
> >         But isn't this really the message of life   ---   it ends in
*Death!*   Why be surprized
> > when  *Anything*  dies   ---   an Individual, a Pet, an
ganization   ---   even rocks in
> > the lmountains disintegrate into dust?!?!   Grieve, yes, but Death is a
part of living!
>
> And here I agree with you.  Death is part of living.  It is a
> continuum.  And those that don't adapt will die.  Ford came close to it
> after Chevy started installing electric starters on cars. Peerless and
> Pierce Arrow died because there was no room for luxury automobiles in
> the depression, Packard died because of mismanagement.
>
> But isn't it so much nicer if Bob Brown can look down on us from where
> he is today, and think, I started it all?
>
>
> 4.  And for those, Jim included who want to see 739 or 722 running
>
> Last of all, I would like to run that West Penn 700 some day.  I have a
> lot of fun running the unusual.  And I don't get a whole heck of a lot
> of time with resistance braking schemes and cars with track brakes
> controlled separately from the other brake scheme.  National Capital has
> several European cars -- Graz, Berlin, Duesseldorf -- they're fun to run
> because they required a standard of motoring competence undreamed of in
> the US.  That's not saying I'm good at it.  I'm not.  They're damn
> difficult beasts to run.  But I like trying. The last car I ran with a
> dynamic brake scheme was London E1
> class 1622 at Crich.  So if the 700 was there, I'd probably be one of
> the first standing in line to prove I could handle it.  And the wooden
> Harmony interurban would be great too! And I made a suggestion how we
> could restore them ... by separating the restoration responsibility from
> the museum operations responsibility, and using different funding
> streams. Possibly even by using those different funding sources to pay
> for restoration off site, where paid and non-paid staff don't conflict.
> Perhaps the reason that no one jumped on that idea so far is
> that it means they need to help to find the money instead of spending
> someone else's money. And once you have them done, remember that those
> people with walking and climbing disabilities will not be able to board
> them. By the time they are rebuilt (20 .. 30 ... 40 years from
> now...could be 5 with the right funding campaign), you may be one of
> those with such a handicap.  And it is damned hard
> climbing up from the ballast on bad knees or new knees.  And in that
> time, the direction of the museum in question could change several more
> times, perhaps to diesel trains with smiley faces on front running on
> the adjacent former Pennsy line.  There is every reason to believe there
> will be no one
> left that remembers PCC cars.  And those who knew the Siemens LRVs will
> be fighting for money to keep one of them in service, or to restore one.
> And unless someone from this age group finds the money, 3487 and West
> Penn 832 may still be sitting in the shop waiting for a friend.
>