[PRCo] Re: Bus museums

[Paul Steven]

We have the same problems with storage in the UK, but integrated events seem 
pretty good. My local one is the http://www.altonbusrally.com/ which last year 
ran 13 free bus routes with over a hundred buses, linking to local towns and 
stations on a preserved steam railway - 
http://www.watercressline.co.uk/Events/57
-- 
Paul Steven

On Saturday 16 Apr 2011 23:11:11 Fred Schneider wrote:
> 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
>