[PRCo] Re: Bus museums

[Fred Schneider]

I've added Jim Wrinn of Trains magazine, the new educator at PTM and Scott Becker as blind carbons.   The Wall Street Journal piece (link repeated below my message) discloses some of what Dave was talking about in training last weekend at PTM and which I've preached for years:  people who collect things and then display them in their own museums are often their own worst enemies because they haven't a clue how to relate to people out in the real world.  
Chris Zahrt's piece in the May issue of Trains magazine says much the same thing.   I commend Jim Wrinn for having the sense to publish a piece that says, in affect, that if we wish to have people come and look at our toys, then we have to experiment with what got rid of them in the first place,"change."  I think every museum manager should read that article but sadly the ones who need it the most will not read it.    

I had no clue that Jim Lehrer, the news anchor for PBS, who is mentioned in the Wall Street Journal piece,  was a founder of the bus museum at the AACA museum in Hershey.   I do personally know the bus collection president, Tom Collins (no, not the drink).   I first met Tom because we were both members of the National Motor Bus Association in 1954.   That organization changed its name in 1955 at its Easton PA convention to the Motor Bus Society.   Tom lived in Philadelphia.  He was a year older than I was.   I recall at the Easton convention, I stayed at his grandmother's home in Easton.   Funny how the world turns.   In 1956 there was a knock on the door and it was Tom.   His parents moved to Lancaster.   Then come September I found there were not enough kids for complete sophomore and junior homerooms in high school; there was one split homeroom and Fred Schneider would up by dumb luck immediately across in one row from Tom Collins in the next row.    He should be retired by now but he is one of those lucky people who loves his work; he drove for Conestoga Transportation and Trailways.   Somewhere along the way he wound up in the office with SEPTA and today, at 72 or 73 he's still in harness in the office with Capital Area Transportation in Harrisburg.  

In case some of you did not know, many of those pictures in the MBS articles on Pittsburgh bus lines were taken by a chap named Fred Schneider.   The prints were given to the MBS library almost 50 years ago to fulfill an obligation I had with the late Charlie Bender.  My bus photography phase pretty much ended by 1958-1959 unless it was something local or electrified. 

I still think a few buses in our trolley museums along with horse drawn carriages and automobiles in order to show the complete picture are necessary.   

If any of you every get to London, England, take the time to look at what I think is an ideal urban transport museum.   The only thing missing are private automobiles.   I'm speaking of the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.   And while you're there, maybe you can find a nice little girl who sells flowers!   :<)

     http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Transport_Museum

     http://www.flickr.com/photos/ltmuseum/

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5nEVry4tw&feature=related

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJA1BWaJBAc

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24-br2lUQf4&feature=related



   

On Apr 16, 2011, at 3:57 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:

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> The link line was embedded in the WSJ article, and must have become de-actived in my post. 
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> Try: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704529204576257104293191300.html 
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> Bob 
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