[PRCo] Re: PTM__Equipment__Acquisition

[Fred Schneider]

I'VE REARRANGED THIS JIM TO MAKE A POINT.  THE INDENTED PORTION IS  
YOURS.

I think your statement has a ring of truth to it.  Look at how  
Branford has evolved from a streetcar museum of equipment available  
in the 1940s into a museum housing New York subway cars.   It is my  
understanding that PTM got  MWP 250 as cheaply as they did simply  
because the current management wanted it out of the way so there  
would be room for another subway car.    Baltimore Streetcar Museum  
is evolving from a museum of strictly Baltimore streetcars into  
generic PCCs (four or five now from SEPTA) and motor coaches but  
revenues are dropping severely.    I've long been uncomfortable with  
the viability of Warehouse Point and Ohio Railway Museum.   Now I see  
that WP has flood damage.     If it were not for the Americans with  
Disabilities Act, I would not be surprised that some of the cars from  
the weaker museums would wind up back on the streets as heritage  
trolleys.   Maybe that could still happen, with some of them being  
carved up for wheel chair lifts.     But yes, every organization gets  
worn out.   I'm amazed by the names of some of the old men's lodges  
that have disappeared.   Ever hear of the Knights of Pythias?   Yes,  
it still exists but not around here.   And the trolley museum may  
also some day be "not around here."

>
> Then it is possible that such museums are now nearing their geriatric
> years.       Everything gets old and worn out - even organizations.
>


Unfortunately the business angle brings in the money to allow the  
chaps to go and run the cars that they saved.    There may be another  
choice.   Would you rather see government run your museum?  Then the  
decision would not have anything to do with whether or not it makes  
money.

  I see the clubs and associations failing; the corporations may  
survive at least a little longer as a legacy to those who founded  
them.    I would not say we are all railfans, Jim.   On this list,  
maybe.   If we look at the people working at PTM, definitely not.    
We have some incredibly bright and active members who are not  
railfans but whom I might call historians or perhaps simply public  
spirited individuals who want to give some of their time to leave  
some of the past for the people in the future to look at.    The  
railfans at PTM can tell them what the past was like.   But the non- 
railfans are going to carry the message.   Our education department  
head is not a railfan ... just a high school educator to whom a  
friend gave a PTM membership to.   He goes to ARM conferences to  
learn what others are doing.   I'm not even sure I would call Dennis  
Cramer, on this list, a railfan.   I think he is a student of the  
industry, a school teacher, a band leader, an instructor and  
supervisor at PTM.   Our educator at PTM is not a railfan.   And I  
don't even think Justin Skrbin, who did such a wonderful rehab on 14  
and is now working on 4398, would classify himself as a railfan.    
Justin is much more a young man who likes to work with machines  
including his antique car.

This logic is the same is why I'm the treasurer of my church or why  
I'm on the board of one of the local historical societies.   I just  
want to give back and I think I have something to offer.   Doesn't  
mean I have to carry a Bible all the time or be a graduate historian.

On the other hand, if I went to Baltimore, I think I could honestly  
say that everyone there is a railfan.   I could honestly say that  
they could be failing.   When I lift four fares on a Saturday in  
Baltimore and hundreds at PTM, you tell me which will be around in  
ten years.   Even though BSM has one of the finest collections of  
antique rolling stock in the business ...  six hand brake cars built  
between 1896 and 1902... it still feels better to be on the winning  
team at PTM.

And if the public doesn't come, that library that you want will not  
be there either.   And I won't have a place to leave my collection.

I'm in a third museum, Jim (and all of you) but I don't have the time  
to visit often ... maybe once a year or so.   That is the National  
Tramway Museum in Crich, England.   On my first visit in the 1970s I  
was impressed, and I told them, by the fact that they appeared  
totally dedicated to the customer.   My interests as a railfan took a  
back seat to their efforts to serve the hundreds and hundreds of  
people that came through that afternoon.   The response was, "We  
realized we would not be open in the long term if we didn't cater to  
the public."    Today you can go there, ride a tram, buy souvenirs,  
walk through the viewing gallery in the shop, eat a sandwich, or even  
have a sit down roast beef dinner on Sunday with a glass of wine or  
beer.    It was the only trolley museum I can think of where the  
board minutes discussed efforts to find a maitre d'hotel for the  
restaurant.    And because of their efforts, and the fact that they  
never forget to send a written thank you, they get the right to  
charge 100 pounds to my visa card a few times a year for car  
restoration.   I guess there is another reason... when I appear,  
Derrick Redmond comes dashing up to me with a line such as "I heard  
you were here and I want to show you how we are spending your  
money."   They too have problems, and they know what they are.
>
>
> Very Interesting summation.       I liked the club aspect  --  do not
> like the business angle  --  that's when RailFans are maligned  --  it
> was a railfan club that started this in the first place but they  
> end up
> being maligned.       ALL  here are railfans  --  one may not like the
> association but  WE  Fit the definition.       A Rose by Any Other
> Name..............
>
>
>
Then I would think it is up to the person who doesn't care for the  
business aspect to pay for the part that he / she wants including the  
cost of overhaul, maintenance, and  perpetually housing the  
artifact.    And remember, thanks to inflation, there is no perpetual  
care.   Cemeteries understand that.    When the last lot is sold, the  
weeds appear.
>
> DO   NOT   Care about what general public likes and can or cannot
> discern  --  but that goes back to my liking of  PERC  as a club  
> and not
> a business.
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