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Summer 2004 Railway Museum Quarterly |
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Contents:
-President's message by Paul Hammond
-IRM - Museum of the Big Shoulders by Aaron Issacs
-The museum review - news of railway preservation
-Electric City's New Old Interurban Line By Henry Adamsik
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By Paul
Hammond As
I write these words in late August, the summer season is concluding at railway
museums across North America. School is about to start up again, and the fall
season will soon see pumpkin train events for the public, educational programs
for school children, and a host of other activities. From
time to time, we all need to take time to take a step back from our museums, and
in doing so, to consider what’s going on in the world of museums around us.
Fall offers a great time to do this for many ARM member museums, and one of the
best places you can interact with your peers during this time is at the
Association’s Annual Conference. See You in Ogden!I
myself am preparing for the trip to Ogden and the 2004 ARM Annual Conference
this coming October 14-17, and I hope you are doing likewise. The program that
has been lined up by the folks at Ogden Union Station promises to inform,
challenge, and engage all those who attend. Our daily conference outings and the
pre-conference trip will visit a variety of railway heritage sites. This is a
conference that’s well worth your time, whether or not you’ve visited Ogden
previously. Conference
attendees will have the opportunity to not only take in the splendid spaces of
Ogden Union Station and vicinity, but also to travel to downtown Salt Lake City
via the region’s new light rail system for a visit to the Utah State Archives.
A steam-powered excursion aboard the Heber Valley Railroad will introduce you to
the mountainous countryside east of Ogden. For fans of history, a trek to Golden
Spike National Historic Site will be a special highlight. An optional
pre-conference trip will visit one of railway preservation’s most hallowed
places, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely. Of
course, no conference would be complete without numerous opportunities to share
and compare. I urge you to sign up now for what promises to be an engaging and
interesting program. If you haven’t seen program information or the associated
registration form, or can’t locate your copy, visit www.railwaymuseums.org and
click on "Annual Conference." I look forward to seeing you all in
Ogden! Association UpdatesAs
I noted in my most recent column, your Association is taking action to host one
Regional Meeting this coming spring, rather than attempting to conduct two or
three simultaneously as had been our past goal. For 2005, the Regional Meeting
is planned to take place in the Midwest Region, as this region will not see an
Annual Conference in the fall (and in fact is not scheduled to host an Annual
Conference again for at least three years). I’m
pleased to announce that the Illinois Railway Museum has graciously agreed to
host the 2005 Regional Meeting. The tentative date for this meeting is Saturday,
April 9, 2005. As for programming, the goal is to make the Regional Meeting a
"show and tell" event encouraging the exchange of information and
ideas, and the fostering of networking opportunities and collaboration between
ARM institutions. Mark your calendars now and plan to visit IRM, which boasts
the largest collection of railroad equipment in North America and is featured in
this issue of RMQ. Please watch for further updates! ARM’s
Spring Board Meeting will coincide with the Regional Meeting, so as to bring
together ARM’s leadership with those in attendance. The Regional Meeting is
planned to have a completely different focus than ARM’s Annual Conference,
which occurs in the fall—and to also ensure that folks aren’t asked to
travel to more than one event annually in their region. Annual Conferences will
continue to offer all that they do, scheduled—as has been ARM practice for
many years—in the fall. Leading our FieldAs
a Professional Affiliate of the American Association of Museums (AAM), ARM is
asked to provide input on a number of ongoing initiatives and undertakings
relating to the larger museum field. As I write these words, I’ve just
completed reviewing proposed revisions to two documents related to AAM’s
accreditation program. "Characteristics of an accreditable museum" is
an outline listing dozens of characteristics that North America’s best museums
are expected to embody or be in the process of incorporating. An accompanying
"accreditation self-study questionnaire" is a means of getting museums
to see how many of these characteristics they already have in place. I
think it’s worth noting that ARM’s ongoing relationship with AAM continues
to improve. Railway and transportation museums in general have been welcomed
into this large organization’s fold, and in fact many accomplishments of ARM
and its member museums are admired by those hailing from other types of museums.
I’ve also noticed that railway-related TV documentaries and art/photography
exhibitions seem to be at an all-time high, at least within the U.S. I’m not
sure of the exact reasons for this, but there are opportunities to be pursued
given this circumstance—although they’ll differ from museum to museum. This
past July, I was honored to have the opportunity to participate in a program
known as the Museum Leadership Institute (MLI). Held at The Getty Center in Los
Angeles, this program was an intensive, three week "immersive
experience" that challenged participants to share, examine, and question
many facets of their museums, and their institutional and personal leadership
styles. Throughout the program, I was struck by the many common
"directional" challenges that face museums. What
do I mean by directional challenges? I mean the kinds of issues that are central
to the very existence of our organizations. MLI participants were challenged to
consider difficult questions like, "are our museums really worth what we
think they are—and who gets to decide?" We examined our institutions’
overall purposes, and questioned whether our various audiences would agree with
those purposes. We considered team-based approaches to problem-solving and when
they work best, and we determined there were times when teams were just not the
best means of accomplishing a desired result. Most importantly, however, we
learned that good, effective leadership and associated positive accomplishments
rarely "just happen." Sharing our DreamsArt
museums, science museums, history museums, and plenty of other types of
museums—throughout both the U.S. and Canada—face many of the same challenges
that railway museums do (rising insurance rates, lack of public awareness,
falling or static attendance, challenges with board-staff interactions, and the
like). To top it off, many museums that once were either wholly or partially
government-funded are now either completely on their own or well on their way to
getting there. How
the most successful of these museums had managed to flourish in these
challenging times was illuminating, at least for me. It was, from what I could
see, not so much a matter of how large they were, how many paid, full-time staff
members the institution boasted, the numbers of volunteer hours logged, what
kinds of collections were being cared for and/or exhibited, or the types of
exhibitions or special events mounted in a given year. Rather, the most
successful museums realized that they needed to know where they were going, and
they also realized that they wouldn’t get there unless they purposefully
acquired the necessary skills and resources. They spent time researching and
planning, then they set a course and followed it. When the unexpected occurred
they adjusted their course as necessary, but tried not to waver from the core
goals they were pursuing. These
museums figured out how to develop their organizational capabilities (paid and
volunteer staff resources and the proper mix of skills). They set the stage for
appropriate leadership styles to develop within their organizations, with an eye
toward encouraging growth, learning, and new opportunities for current and
future leaders. Finally, they kept an eye on their various "bottom
lines" (among them financial performance and adherence to a clear mission
and/or vision) to ensure they had adequate resources to carry out their work.
This might all sound way over the top, too "corporate" in tone, but if
that’s your first reaction I urge you to take a step back and think about your
museum’s current condition and its outlook for the future. Has
your museum realized all its goals? If not, what will be required to do so? We
all have dreams for our museums—and generally, we can see those dreams very
clearly. But if those with whom we work side-by-side at our museums, if those
who assist our museums with their donations, and to a certain extent, if those
who visit our facilities do not also share our vision for the future, our dreams
are at risk of never being achieved. After all, our dreams are big, the costs to
implement them expensive, the facilities and skills required sometimes
overwhelming. We need others to not just be aware of our visions for the future,
but to share them. How
to do this is not at all easy to understand, and learning the necessary skills
takes time and dedication. My point here is one I’ve made before: whether we
are paid or volunteer staff members at our museums matters not. What matters is
our dedication to the purposes of our institutions, our internalization of the
value of railway heritage in societal terms, and our willingness to adopt a
"professional" approach to our participation and involvement within
this field. The Association of Railway Museums is here to assist, providing
numerous means for sharing and interaction in support of this goal. Final NotesAs
I mentioned in my previous column, the ARM Board at its spring meeting reviewed
the Association’s overall membership policies, structure, and dues pricing.
Membership dues have remained the same for many, many years, while costs have
continued to rise—particularly given the gradual expansion of our offerings
over the past decade. As ARM prepares itself for the future, it too must be
assured of sufficient income to provide for increased costs of operation. Thus,
the Board unanimously recommended that dues for all classes of membership be
raised effective January 1, 2005. The increases will be modest, and early
renewals (received by December 31, 2004) will be honored at existing rates for
those wishing to postpone the increases to 2006. Thus, although Organizational
Membership within ARM will be rising to $125 as of January 1, 2005, if your
institution renews before December 31, 2004, you’ll be able to take advantage
of the current annual dues pricing of $100. Similar
increases are scheduled for institutional affiliate, commercial affiliate, and
individual affiliate membership categories as well, ranging from a modest $5 to
$25 overall. The new and (old) rates are as follows: Institutional Affiliate $75
($60), Commercial Affiliate $200 ($175), Individual Affiliate, $20 ($15). As
always, ARM trusts that its current participants value membership in, and the
offerings of, the Association of Railway Museums! As
I wrap up this column, I want to acknowledge the passing of Dave Shore of the
Illinois Railway Museum. As someone with a long-term commitment to the railway
preservation movement, Dave was active within ARM’s Parts Committee, and had
assisted a number of electric railway museums with parts acquisitions,
particularly from Japan. His unique personality and his wealth of knowledge will
be sorely missed. Until next issue I wish you, and those you hold dear, a relaxing and prosperous fall season. See you in Ogden! CorrectionIn
the last issue’s Museum Review, the age and builder of Baltimore Streetcar
Museum’s horsecars #129 and 417 were incorrect. They were actually built by
the shops of the Baltimore City Passenger Railway during the period 1883-1888.
Car 129 remained a horsecar. Car 417 was electrified in 1895. Both were
eventually preserved as part of United Railways’ historic collection.
NRHS AwardsThe
National Railway Historical Society has awarded a record $32,000 to 20
recipients of its Railway Heritage Grants Program. Atlanta
Chapter, NRHS: $2,000 towards the restoration and recertification of the Georgia
Power # 97 steam locomotive. California
Trolley And Railroad Corporation: $1,000 toward paying a vendor to repair and
rewind a 1920’s era armature used in a compressor to operate with 600 volt DC
on a trolley car. Cape
Cod Chapter, NRHS: $1,000 toward the exterior restoration of the historic train
station to its original 1911 appearance. Central
New York Model Railroad Club & Historical Society, Inc.: $1,000 toward the
cosmetic restoration and painting of the Skaneateles Junction passenger and
freight station. Colorado
Railroad Museum: $1,500 toward the restoration of the 1931 Rio Grande Southern
Railroad Galloping Goose railbus No. 2. Danbury
Railway Museum: $1,500 toward the cosmetic and operational restoration of a New
Haven Railroad RS11 diesel locomotive built in 1956 by the Alco. Inland
Empire Railway Historical Society: $1,500 to sort and catalog over 35,000
historic railroad documents. Lake
Superior Railroad Museum: $2,000 for the video virtual tour interpretation of
the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway business car Northland built in 1916
by Pullman. Maine
Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum: $2,000 to restore Bridgton and Saco
River Railroad 2-4-4T # 7 (Baldwin 1913). Minnesota
Transportation Museum: $2,000 for the fabrication of twelve-reproduction
"walkover" seats for Winona, Minn. streetcar #10 (St. Louis Car 1914). National
Model Railroad Association, Inc.: $1,000 to preserve, catalog and provide access
to the Kentlein-Porter Collection, which existed as a locomotive builder in
Pittsburgh, PA from 1867-1950 manufacturing over 7,800 locomotives. New
York Central System Historical Society: $2,000 towards the completion of
photograph digitalization of over 3,000 historic railroad drawings of equipment
and facilities of the former New York Central. North
Carolina Transportation Museum Foundation: $2,000 toward the restoration of
North Carolina Ports Authority 45- ton switch engine L-3, (General Electric
1943). Old
Dominion Chapter, NRHS: $2,000 for the replacement and casting of firebox grates
necessary for the continued operation of a Porter 0-6-0T steam locomotive built
in 1942 for the U.S. Army. Old
Smoky Railway Museum, Inc.: $1,500 for improvements to 2-8-0 #154 (Baldwin
1890). Paducah
Railroad Museum: $1,000 for the cataloging, care and storage of rulebooks,
procedure manuals, yard books and minutes recorded by the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Fireman Lodge 238 Paducah. Rockhill
Trolley Museum: $2,000 toward costs associated with rebuilding components of an
air brake system on Johnstown Traction streetcar #355 (St. Louis Car Company
1926). Southern
Oregon Chapter, NRHS: $1,000 toward the restoration of Southern Pacific Flanger
#330 built in 1928. Watauga
Valley Chapter, NRHS: $2,000 to repair and restore corroded carbon steel side
sills and collision posts on the Southern Railway sleeper/lounge Crescent Harbor
(Pullman 1949). Yaquina
Pacific Railroad Historical Society: $2,000 for the restoration of a 1923
Southern Pacific RPO/baggage car # 5132, which was unusual as two thirds of the
car was tin floored with drains to accommodate the icing of fish, milk, butter
and beef. "Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation." From the poem "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg IRM
- Museum of the Big Shoulders By
Aaron Isaacs Every
museum has a personality and it’s not out of line to say that the Illinois
Railway Museum’s mirrors the city whose rail history it has preserved. The
railway museum with the largest collection in North America celebrated its 50th
anniversary last year, charting its own unique course with no signs of slowing
down. Alone among the top rank of railway museums, IRM continues with a
volunteer management system like that of most railway museums, yet has
achievements on a scale that no other volunteer-based museum has approached. IRM
has grown at a tremendous rate for most of its history, a rate one might think
unsustainable. For a half century it has averaged eight pieces of newly acquired
rolling stock each year. It owns a huge physical plant, including 150 acres of
land, a 4.5 mile high speed electrified mainline, seven large carbarns and a
group of other buildings, including two off-site libraries. More buildings will
be built soon. IRM
defies the conventional wisdom that volunteer management puts a ceiling on
museum growth, that to achieve more requires paid management. Like the bumblebee
that is theoretically unable to fly, IRM’s size and robustness would seem not
to be possible. I visited recently to learn how they do it. Back whenIRM
was born in 1953 as the Illinois Electric Railway Museum. Its first car was a
classic-- Indiana Railroad high speed interurban #65 (Pullman-Standard
1931)--acquired when second owner Cedar Rapids and Iowa City dropped its wires.
For the first several years, #65 and a growing number of Chicago transit cars
and interurbans from the Milwaukee Electric and Illinois Terminal sat outdoors
in a rail yard at the Chicago Hardware Foundry in North Chicago, Ill., alongside
the North Shore Line. In
1957-58, five miles of abandoned interurban right of way was purchased in the
open country west of Chicago. This was formerly the Elgin & Belvidere
running east from Union to Huntley, Illinois, abandoned in 1930. This narrow
strip was supplemented in 1964 by an additional parcel near Union, and the
museum decided it was time to move. By this time there were 42 pieces in the
collection. The
word "Electric" was dropped from the museum’s name in 1962, and a
short time later the first steam locomotive and passenger car were added to the
collection. At Union, IRM lost no time laying track and turning itself into an
operating museum. The first train ran in 1966. By 1968 trains were running
daily. Then
came a major setback. Adjacent property owners challenged IRM’s deed to the
right of way, claiming it had reverted to them when the E&B abandoned. They
won in court, and suddenly a one-mile piece in the middle of the museum’s line
was missing. There were three parcels in all, and IRM spent the next 12 years
buying them back, finally reassembling the right of way in 1980. That
wasn’t the only problem. Boot Creek runs through the site and overflowed its
banks, sometimes to a depth of five feet, in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1978. Since
then the museum has reduced the flood risk by widening the creek and is
currently building a new series of holding ponds to mitigate the runoff from
future carbarn roofs. General
Manager Nick Kallas says the museum has set aside the money for two more barns.
Construction began in August 2004. When complete, the number of vehicles left
outdoors will drop noticeably. The Museum in MotionIRM
runs lots of trains, hence its slogan, "The Museum in Motion". I
visited on one of its annual events, Diesel
Day, and was treated to a Pullman green heavyweight consist (opposite page)
behind four F-units, a caboose train, the Nebraska Zephyr, a three-car C&NW
push-pull set and a vintage freight. All were running at once, directed by a
busy dispatcher at the board in the Spaulding Tower. In addition, a streetcar
circled continuously around the trolley loop and various other diesels shifted
about on the yard tracks. At 2 PM everything stopped for the parade of a dozen
or so extremely varied diesels. One
of IRM’s real assets is its well-maintained main line(pictured on the rear
cover), extended to Kishwaukee Grove near Huntley in 1991. It’s a classic
midwest interurban, built redundantly next to the C&NW (now Union Pacific
and still active) and straight across the prairie. White rock ballasted and
block signalled, steam and diesel trains are permitted 30 miles per hour.
Electric cars can go 40. Nothing captures the feel of historic railroading like
prototypical speed and for this alone, IRM deserves kudos. As a nice plus,
vintage South Shore Line catenary structures hold up the double track overhead
at a passing siding. Eventually the line will have turning facilities at its
east end, so trains won’t have to shove back and single-ended electric cars
can be operated. Walking
the grounds There’s
plenty to see at IRM. Leaving the parking lot, visitors encounter the Spaulding
interlocking tower and Marengo Depot, where passengers board mainline trains.
Next to the depot is the gift shop, housed in a complex of three baggage cars
and a World War II troop sleeper. Store sales are big at IRM, equal to gate
receipts. Once
beyond the depot, visitors can browse among the various carbarns and yard
tracks. In the last couple of years the museum has paved most of its walking
paths, as well as Central Avenue, the main thoroughfare that is also used by
motor and trolley buses. According to Kallas, the paving has brought several
benefits. The paths are no longer dusty or muddy, parents with small children
find them easier and more inviting, they keep the dust out of the trolley bus
motors and help define where visitors should walk. Better footing also makes for
safer walking, especially for senior citizens and parents pushing strollers.
Inside the carbarns, the walkways are either paved or elevated, allowing
visitors to peer into cars, which are often illuminated. Explanatory
signage has been upgraded in the last few years, and the equipment in the barns
has been shuffled into a more coherent order. The themes of each barn are made
clear by signs at each entrance. IRM
still has a large number of unrestored pieces sitting on open track, but an
effort has been made to move the most unsightly to the rear of the property
where most visitors don’t go. Along
the paths between the barns, and in the barns themselves, are all sorts of
interesting extras—a row of every imaginable type of block signal, track tools
on the wall, stone lions rescued from old La Salle Street Station and art deco
metal and neon signs from the Insull interurban lines. A signature feature of
IRM is its collection of entablatures, which are stone names, initials and logos
that once announced the ownership of carbarns and freight stations. The most
impressive says "Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway
Company" in two-foot high letters stretching about 100 feet, bracketed by a
pair of Soo Line logos. The entablatures are mounted in low brick walls about
the grounds. IRM
has placed a premium on security. The entire property is fenced. Kallas showed
me a recently installed digital camera system that covers the entire property
and records the images for review later. The CollectionThe
IRM collection is a bit hard to define. It couldn’t do a better job of
representing Chicagoland, yet portions of it have a much greater geographic
reach. Like the Museum of Transport in St. Louis, that’s partially because
Chicago is a national rail hub, with much of American railroading passing
through. Also like St. Louis, Chicago was a rail manufacturing center, so if it
didn’t run through here, it may have been built here by Pullman or
Electro-Motive (or McGuire-Cummings or Haskel & Barker). For
all its size, IRM is an informal place. It doesn’t have a conventional
collections policy. I asked Kallas how acquisition decisions are made. An
extensive acquisition report must be completed on each proposed piece. Beside
describing the piece and its condition in detail, the report must describe
relevence to the collection, how it advances the mission of the museum, and the
cost to display and restore the piece. The sponsor must raise the funds to
acquire, transport and store the piece, including a track space charge of $75 a
foot. So
what does IRM collect? If it’s Chicagoland, or a midwestern interurban, it’s
probably welcome. IRM’s hunters of interurban relics call themselves the
"body snatchers" and have come home with some rarities. IRM has ten
Illinois Terminal electric pieces, 16 from the North Shore Line, eight from the
South Shore Line, four from the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, and 16 from the
Milwaukee Electric. It has acquired several classic wood interurban carbodies
from Indiana. One of these, Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley #504 Talisman
(Cincinnati 1906), so far has had an extensive structural and cosmetic
restoration and is a thing of beauty. The
Chicago transit collection is formidable, 52 pieces including buses. IRM
benefited from the donation of two major collections. In 1973 the Electric
Railway Historical Society handed over its collection of ten streetcars and one
1930-vintage trolley bus. One of this group, Chicago & West Towns #141
(McGuire-Cummings 1923) is currently the highest priority in the Electric Car
Department and is close to the end of a complete rebuild. In 1986, the Chicago
Transit Authority donated five of the eight cars in its historic collection,
including a horsecar from 1859. There are nine PCC-type L cars built by St.
Louis Car in the 1950s. The
railroad collection is grounded in the grangers, those midwestern roads that
connected Chicago with the farm belt. There are 23 pieces from the Chicago &
North Western, 20 from the CB&Q, 19 from the Milwaukee Road, ten from the
Illinois Central and nine from the Rock Island. Other well represented large
carriers are Union Pacific and Santa Fe. IRM
would like one of each steam locomotive wheel arrangement. They have 16 wheel
arrangements so far. It says something about IRM that in 1995 it sent one of its
own diesels, Burlington Northern U30C #5383 (GE 1974) all the way to Texas, with
a side trip to Council Bluffs, to pick up two steam locomotives and haul them on
their own wheels to IRM. Steam
is operational in the form of St. Louis-San Francisco 2-10-0 #1630 (Baldwin
1918), originally built for Russia. In the shop, Union Pacific 2-8-0 #428
(Baldwin 1901) is being put back together after an extensive rebuild. They’re
big on first diesels. They have Chicago & North Western #1518 (EMD 1948),
the first GP7, Southern Pacific #1518, (EMD 1951) the first SD7, and Milwaukee
Road H10-44 #1802, the first Fairbanks-Morse production diesel in 1944. They
have units that are unique survivors, such as Burlington E-5A #9911A (EMD 1940),
Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern double-engined centercab #21 (Baldwin
1948), and Delaware Lackawanna & Western pioneer boxcab #3001 (Alco/General
Electric/Ingersol-Rand 1926), the ninth diesel in the US and oldest in the IRM
collection. A
visit to the diesel shop revealed a practice that is not common at museums, the
backdating of diesel locomotives. Because they are of relatively recent
manufacture, and often were not heavily customized by their owners, it is
tempting to tune them up, repaint them and declare victory. This is even more
the case when the diesel arrives already painted in its vintage color scheme,
which was the case with C&NW GP7 #1518. However, volunteers discovered that
the C&NW, which had previously chopped the unit’s nose, had taken some
shortcuts when backdating it, and those are now being corrected. Likewise,
Burlington SD24 #504 (EMD 1959) is having its footboards reinstalled and the
steps rebuilt from four to the original five. While
their passenger car collection is heavily regional, they’ve branched out
nationally, looking to acquire every car type they can. One IRM hallmark is
multi-car acquisitions. None is more striking than the five-car articulated
Nebraska Zephyr consist (Budd 1936), but the museum can also field a three-car
C&NW bi-level train with matching F7. The
same goes for freight cars. IRM’s collection of 69 freight cars is bigger than
most museum’s entire collections. They’ve also discovered that a freight car
can usually be turned into a presentable exhibit faster and cheaper than
anything else, so there are a large number of non-rusty freight cars all over
the property. There is also a fondness for cabooses, of which there are 21. IRM
has a history of acquiring multiple pieces and then brokering the surplus ones.
Examples include eleven Grant Trunk Western 0-8-0s acquired from Northwestern
Steel & Wire in 1981. Today only one remains on the property. Kallas says
that over 97 rail pieces have been deaccessioned, traded, sold and even scrapped
during the museum’s history. IRM’s
aggressiveness with acquisitions has included scouting other museums for pieces.
For example, Pennsylvania four-wheel bobber caboose #476199 (PRR Shops 1903) was
purchased from Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. Detroit Peter Witt streetcar #3865
(St. Louis 1930) was purchased from the Henry Ford Museum. Toledo & Detroit
4-4-0 #16 (Baldwin 1914) was acquired through a trade with the Ford Museum. The
museum deserves credit for picking up obscure and unique pieces that otherwise
would have been lost forever. Examples include an experimental McKeen steel
boxcar from 1906, and a shorty McKeen passenger trailer from 1908, both
originally Union Pacific. Certainly among the most unusual pieces is an entire
train from the two-foot gauge Chicago Freight Tunnels, recovered after being
abandoned below ground decades ago. As
for trolley buses, other museums have them, but only IRM has returned them to
operation under wire, carrying visitors on a regular basis. The oldest, Chicago
Surface Lines #84 (Brill 1930) is fully operational. According
to Kallas, there are currently 25 pieces of rail equipment being restored--nine
electric cars, three steam engines, four diesels, six coaches and three freight
cars. The
collection extends to paper. In 1990, Pullman donated a large portion of its
drawings and photos. These are now housed in the IRM’s Pullman library, a
former bank building in downtown Union. In 1998 the museum leased the Strahorn
Public Library in downtown Marengo, and purchased the building several years
later. It contains the rest of IRM’s paper collection. Running the placeHow
do they do it? How do they grow at such a rate and keep it all together with
volunteer management? To try and answer that question, I followed Nick Kallas
around for a day. Kallas has been the unpaid General Manager for 30 years. That
remarkable fact has a lot to do with IRM’s personality and its success. He’s
a school teacher by profession, and having summers off has allowed him to devote
the endless hours needed to do the job—a very big job indeed. Yet I found Nick
that day on a bobcat, clearing weeds out of a ditch. Don’t
you have a paid Executive Director?, I asked. We had one for a couple of years,
Kallas replied, describing the experience as a "$40,000 a year
mistake". They went back to the established way of doing things, which is
decentralized and surprisingly informal. There is a Board of Directors, which
appoints Kallas. He, in turn, appoints the department heads, and it’s at the
department level that the work gets done. As
the museum grew, the departments appeared gradually, one by one. They are:
Operations, Electric Car, Exhibits, Internal Combustion, Steam, Railroad Coach,
Freight Car, Motor Bus, Trolley Bus, Buildings & Grounds, Track &
Signals, Publicity, Pullman Library and Strahorn Library. Each has its own
budget and internal governing structure. Kallas tries to interfere as little as
possible, preferring to leave them alone. He concentrates on acquisitions and
moving equipment. His
authority, and that of the Board, comes from controlling the purse strings. The
departments come to the Board each year for budget authorizations. Departments
may raise funds independently, but all require a piece of the admissions, store
and restaurant receipts, so the Board retains considerable leverage. To
extend the Chicago analogy a step further, Kallas reminds me of a classic ward
politician. He maintains an intricate web of trust relationships, cemented by
favors given and received. This applies both inside and outside the museum. For
example, all professional railroaders get free admission, and the EJ&E and
Union Pacific deliver IRM’s ballast cars at no cost. Oh—the ballast is also
donated. He understands the success of the museum is due to the work of the
volunteers with their varied personalities and interests, and works with them. Kallas
describes the IRM Board, which is composed of active volunteers, as “blue
collar, not blue chip”. Attending their meeting, presided over by President
Barbara Lanphier, the daughter of a North Shore Line employee, I was struck by
how much it resembled every other volunteer-based museum board I’ve ever seen.
Kallas’ get-along, go-along style was much in evidence when another board
member decried the lack of internal disciplinary policies that prevented a
volunteer from being disciplined for alleged bad conduct. The same board member
criticized the informality of a transaction with a local railroad. In both
cases, Kallas made it clear that he had the situation under control, and that no
good could come from installing inflexible policies. The board took no action in
either case. Lest
it sound like Kallas is presiding over a dwindling group of cronies, IRM appears
to be both energized and growing its volunteer base. This being a big event day,
there were over 40 volunteers present. I was surprised how many of them were
young, in their twenties. Frankly, I haven’t seen that at many museums. The
visible IRM volunteers ran the age spectrum. According to Kallas, there are
about 2400 members, of which about 150 participate in some form of maintenance,
construction, operations, restoration, management at the museum site. What’s to comeThe
museum has taken a far-sighted approach to land acquisition. There are two
reasons for this. First, IRM expects to continue growing. Second, suburban
sprawl, once far away, is now just over the horizon and moving west. It will
reach IRM in the next decade or two, and it is likely to bring neighbors who
will object to living by a railway museum. IRM has purchased large parcels both
south and west of the main complex. The south property will soon see expansion,
including new rail yards and two carbarns. Even so, it still is big enough to
serve as a buffer, as does the 56 acres to the west. IRM recently bid
unsuccessfully on a parcel to the southwest, but the successful bidder was
another museum, which is better than residential development. More land will be
purchased if it becomes available and is affordable. The
museums’ master plan calls for adding carbarns until the core collection is
under roof. Also envisioned is a roundhouse for the steam collection and a
street scene to more accurately portray and interpret the operation of the
streetcars and interurbans. Preservation
marches on.. Alberta
Pioneer Railway Association Edmonton, Alb. The
County of Barhead will relocate its Canadian National boxcar #557073 to the
museum, and will pay for the move and a new paint job. The Association will work
with the Historical Society of Barhead to create a local history display in the
car. B
& O Railroad Museum The
museum will reopen for the public on November 13. California
State Railroad Museum Sacramento Calif. During
2003, nearly 500 individuals gave 100,500 hours of service on the Museum’s
behalf. Added together with the 30,519 volunteer hours at Railtown 1897 State
Historic Park during 2003, the grand total for CSRM and Railtown topped 130,000
hours. The
L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation has awarded $5,000 to scan the Museum
Library’s approximately 1200 railroad menus and put them online. The
donations keep coming. The most recent are: -Thomas
Sefton’s 7000-piece collection of Lionel standard gauge trains and other toys,
accompanied by a cash gift to transport, store and organise the collection. -Completely
rebuilt Rock Island section motorcar #MC674 (Fairmont 1937) with owners manual
and maintenance history. -Virgil
Staff’s collection of Western Pacific records, photos and other documents. -355
Santa Fe publicity photos. -An
1869 Union Pacific three-way stub switch stand, 13 circa 1865-75 wooden railroad
patent models from Betty Kimball, wife of the late Ward Kimball. -1450
black and white photos taken by Southern Pacific employee Jack Wirick. Edmonton
Radial Railway Society Edmonton, Alb. The
three block extension of the north end of the high bridge streetcar line, dubbed
the "Ribbon of Steel Multi-use Corridor", shares the former Canadian
Pacific right of way with an adjacent bike path. The $2.3 million project was
sponsored by the City of Edmonton, Province of Alberta and Government of Canada.
Anticipating
project completion, the Society in 2002 built a spring switch passing siding at
the south end of the High Level Bridge to permit two car operation. Due to the
extra track length, single car frequency will decrease from every 30 minutes to
every 40 minutes. The line’s second car, Melbourne #930, was acquired in
February 2004. Fort
Smith Trolley Museum The
museum was formed in 1979 to restore the body of Fort Smith Light & Traction
single truck Birney streetcar #205 (Cincinnati 1919). The body was fixed up,
placed on mobile home wheels and displayed at different locations. The museum
has obtained patent drawings of the Cincinnati model 139 power truck and brake
system and begun a campaign to build a replica truck. Components from Milan,
Italy are being purchased from Gomaco and the rest will be fabricated. The 20th
Century Electric Railway Foundation has awarded a $4000 matching grant toward
the anticipated $30,000 construction cost. Fort
Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Fort Wayne, Ind. Nickel
Plate 2-8-4 #765 is coming back together after a complete rebuild. It is helped
in this effort by a $60,000 bequest by the late Stephen Loeschner, a long time
member. Friends
of the East Broad Top Robertsdale, Penn. The
Friends will lease a portion of the EBT’s brick paint shop, located next to
the Rockhill Furnace roundhouse. A restoration shop will be established to
repair rolling stock. The building itself will receive new wiring and repairs to
the roof, floor and windows. Halton
County Radial Railway Milton. Ont. The
museum’s insurance provider of 20 years unexpectedly dropped its coverage and,
after shopping around, new coverage was found to be available only at twice the
former price. This has led to financial belt tightening, including eliminating
coated paper and color in the Radial Report newsletter. Some projects have been
put on hold until the higher premium can be paid. A
major overhaul of Toronto Transit Commission Peter Witt streetcar #2424
(Canadian Car & Foundry 1921) is complete. The car received new headlining,
rebuilt light fixtures, upgraded wiring, overhauled air system, new brake shoes,
an overhauled compressor and exterior body work. Illinois
Railway Museum Three
ex-Amtrak stainless steel passenger cars have been added to the collection.
Atlantic Coast Line dining car Birmingham (Pullman Standard 1950) was retired by
Amtrak in 1977 and was never converted to head end power. It was moved off-track
and became an ice cream parlor and restaurant in Lansing, Ill. The other two
cars are 10 roomette/6 double bedroom sleepers. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Silver Ridge (Budd 1956) has its original DC power system. Union Pacific #1432
Pacific Peak (Budd 1950) was converted to HEP by Amtrak. Kentucky
Railway Museum An
agreement is in process for KRM to acquire the rolling stock of the Kentucky
Central Railroad, a tourist line located in Paris, Ky. KCRR owns 2-6-2 #11
(Baldwin 1925), a 1945 Baldwin VO1000 diesel switcher, a 1951 EMD SW7 diesel
switcher, three Erie-Lackawanna commuter coaches, a Southern bay window caboose
and a baggage/observation/business car. Reportedly the equipment has been
vandalized and is on track that must be vacated. Maryland
& Pennsylvania Railroad Preservation Society Muddy
Creek Forks lived up to its name when seven inches of rain fell overnight on
Mothers Day. The basement of the Society’s store/depot building filled with
five feet of water. A short track section washed out and 132 tons of new ballast
was needed to replace rock carried away by the flood. Mud plugged some culverts
and entered every building, even floating and cracking the ground floor of the
mill building. Though not as destructive as the flood that demolished much of
the Wilmington and Western in Delaware, Muddy Creek Forks has required a major
cleanup effort. Midland
Railway Historical Association, Baldwin, Kans. The
Midland has doubled its operable track from 5.5 to 11 miles, with the
rehabilitation of the line from Norwood to Ottawa. It was funded by a $650,000
TEA21 grant. On weekends, two daily trains will make the full Baldwin-Ottawa
round trip, with a Thursday trip continuing to run Baldwin-Norwood. Using
a $20,000 grant from the North American Railway Foundation,
Missouri-Kansas-Texas transfer caboose #5 (Katy Shops 1961) has been rebuilt and
repainted in its original red livery. Nevada
State Railroad Museum Boulder and Carson City, Nev. Readers
may be unaware that the museum has a separate site in Boulder City with a large
roster of rail equipment. In Fall 2003, excursion service on the Nevada Southern
Railway began, using museum equipment on 3.5 miles of the former Union Pacific
Boulder City branch. The
museum has received a large group of records donated by the Nevada Land and
Resource Company. The records were created by the Southern Pacific Land Company,
and document the railroad’s land grants throughout the west. New
York Transit Museum Brooklyn, N. Y. The
museum has received the Muse Award from the American Association of Museums,
given annually in recognition of excellence in museum media programs. The award
is for the museum’s interactive education web site, dubbed Education Station.
View it at www.mta.info. The
museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the New York subways by running a
series of excursions in September and October with vintage equipment, including
wood cars that haven’t left the museum since 1980. See the above website for
details. Niles
Canyon Railway The
NCRy is no longer isolated from the greater railway system. The line has been
extended 1.6 miles east from Sunol to the "Hearst Connection", a new
interchange with the Union Pacific’s parallel ex-Western Pacific mainline. The
connection, years in the making, will permit NCRy’s parent organization, the
Pacific Locomotive Association, to move its off-site equipment collection from
Oakland by rail. North
Carolina Transportation Museum, Spencer, N. C. The
exterior of the huge 1905 backshop building, under reconstruction when ARM’s
Annual Convention visited in 2001, has been completed. The $9 million Phase 1
project removed lead paint and asbestos, repointed all the masonry, added an
entirely new roof and skylights and replaced all the windows. The next phase
will stabilize the adjacent Power House, which appropriately will once again
house the backshop’s heating, air conditioning and fire suppression systems.
Phases 3 and 4 will rebuild the Back Shop interior and install the interpretive
displays. The
museum has acquired Amtrak F40 diesel #307 and U. S. Army/North Carolina State
Ports Authority H12-44 diesel switcher #1860 (Fairbanks-Morse 1954). Ohio
Railway Museum The
museum has decided to close itself to the public until some improvements can be
completed, including replacement of all transformers with a new solid state
power supply, extensive safety training for all volunteers, a general site
cleanup, board insurance and some track work. Orange
Empire Railway Museum Perris, Calif. The
museum has agreed to deaccession British Columbia Electric interurban #1225 (St.
Louis Car 1913). An agreement has been reached to sell it to the Fraser Valley
Heritage Railway of Surrey, B.C. for US$200,000. The money will go toward
construction of the new carbarn project. The Fraser Valley group has built a
carbarn adjacent to the still intact former interurban line. Railroad
Museum of Pennsylvania Strasburg, Penn. The
museum has received a $40,375 Conservation Support Project grant from the
Institute of Museum & Library Services. It will fund a pilot project to
create new photographic negatives and prints from 2244 of the museum’s most
fragile and frequently used glass plate negatives. Pennsylvania
Trolley Museum Washington, Penn. The
ongoing construction of the new Trolley Display Building has received a boost
from a $50,000 Hillstrom Foundation grant. Portola
Railroad Museum Southern
Pacific 0-6-0 #1215 (Baldwin 1913) has been sold to the California Trolley and
Railroad Corporation in Santa Clara, Calif. Sierra
Pacific Industries has donated three diesels to the museum. Quincy #3 (General
Electric1940) is a 44-tonner. Quincy S-1 #4 (Alco 1941), was originally Western
Pacific #504. SP #1100 was built by EMD as the cow half of a TR-6 cow and calf
set. In
2001, the former Western Pacific Hospital in Portola was donated to the museum.
It was built by the railroad in 1914 and served WP employees until sold in 1972.
The museum has begun to plan for the future of the building. Several rooms will
be returned to their original appearance, interpreting a hospital. One wing will
house archives. Other rooms will be used for offices and meeting rooms. Seashore
Trolley Museum Kennebunkport, Maine The
latest Dispatch newsletter illustrates how resourceful Seashore’s streetcar
restorers are, and how they are helped by the cooperation of other museums. The
new seat backs and handrail end castings in Cleveland center entrance car #1227
(Kuhlman 1915) were fabricated from originals borrowed from Trolleyville. The
connecting links to the rear truck were acquired from Connecticut Trolley
Museum. Northern Ohio Railway Museum has supplied parts from a derelict St.
Louis PCC to be used in Seashore’s St. Louis PCC #1726 (St. Louis Car 1946).
Karl Johnson of Market Street Railway helped obtain additional parts. Seashore’s
first car in 1939 was Biddeford & Saco open car #31 (Brill 1900). Now, 65
years later, the town of Saco has donated the line’s remaining 28 cast iron
overhead wire poles, finally being replaced. Most of the poles still have their
ornate caps. The
rebuilding of Kansas City, Clay County & St. Joseph center entrance
interurban #24 (Cincinnati 1913) has been greatly assisted by the discovery in
November 2003 of sister car #43, which turned up inside a suburban house. It had
been there since the line was abandoned in 1933, and much of the original
interior, including the stained glass windows, is intact. Tennessee
Valley Railroad Museum Chattanooga, Tenn. Recently
acquired GP7 #710 has been returned to its original Nashville, Chattanooga &
St. Louis colors. One of the unit’s first duties was to power a series of
excursions over 15 miles of the Louisville & Nashville "Old Line"
near Etowah, Tenn. TVRM provided a train set for three weekends, with financial
support from the Etowah Chamber of Commerce and the L&N Depot Museum. Almost
5000 passengers were carried. Timber
Heritage Association One
of ARM’s newest members is the Timber Heritage Association, formerly the
Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association. The Association is working
to establish a Timber Heritage Museum featuring an excursion train pulled by a
steam logging locomotive. West
Coast Railway Association Squamish, B. C. The
Association has donated BC Rail tank car #1902 and a coach to the Kettle Valley
Steam Railway. The
Association recently hosted the first Day Out with Thomas event in Canada. In
1999 BC Rail turned over its archives collection to WCRA, but retained
ownership. Now that the province has sold BC Rail to Canadian National,
ownership of the archives has been transferred to WCRA, along with additional
materials, including: Original
Pacific Great Eastern construction profiles from North Vancouver to Prince
George. Complete
set of five condensed track profiles. Complete
set of the PGE Coupler newsletter. Three
newspaper clippings scrapbooks back to 1918. Scrapbook
of BCR advertisements. Box
of photos from BCR Passenger Services. Royal
Hudson files and records. Western
America Railroad Museum Barstow, Calif. Union
Pacific has donated SD40-2 #3320, originally Missouri Pacific #3320 (EMD 1980). Reader LetterThe
car (reported in the Fall 2003 RMQ) that wandered to Charlotte is Connecticut
Company 1339, the body of which was sold by Branford Electric Railway
Association in the 1970s to Spaghetti Warehouse. Presently Charlotte Trolley has
1339's body (which was stripped before it left Branford) in the old Charlotte
carbarn. Branford
has the body of 1330, a sister car to 1339. 1330 ran in Waterbury CT.
Connecticut Railway & Lighting gave up on trolleys in Waterbury on May 23,
1937. CR&L sold 23 cars [Bradley lightweight cars 3127-3149] to Third Avenue
Railway System but when the cars arrived at TARS they were too far gone [and
these were 15-year-old cars!] to be overhauled and used, so TARS junked them, an
armature winder in the Waterbury car barn/shop bought the body and it was
delivered to his yard. When (BERA)
got it, it had handles and all interior stuff intact!
Waterbury was a funny division, they carried the number with the trucks
so our body started life as 1333 (as far as we know) but became 1330 when 1330's
trucks were overhauled and put under the car. Bill
Young
Electric
City's New Old Interurban Line By
Henry Adamsik This
year the Electric City Trolley Museum’s reopening of the Lackawanna &
Wyoming Valley interurban (and some Erie trackage) reached five miles from
downtown Scranton. This article is reprinted from the museum’s News Bulletin. Our
operation at five miles is truly a unique experience. Only rivaled in length by
Illinois Railway Museum and Western Railway Museum, it has to be unrivalled in
scenery. I’ve heard it compared to going out to Media. Close maybe, but there
is much more visible development along the Media line. I’d go for the
Pittsburgh Railways interurbans (beyond Allegheny County) and the West Penn coke
region. What’s
it like? The ride begins at the Steamtown platform and heads out to parallel the
rising Delaware, Lackawanna & Western embankment. The Washington Street and
Cedar Street grade crossings are crossed very carefully, then the old L&WV
Station area is skirted and the track plunges down to the Roaring Brook Valley,
passing the Iron Furnaces facilities on the way. Paralleling Roaring Brook, the
Brady Yard (ex-L&WV carbarn/shop area) is skirted and one goes even farther
into the Roaring Brook Gorge. This has been described as a seeming wilderness
within the limits of a city, but it gets even better. Crossing
Roaring Brook, we plunge into the one-mile Laurel Line tunnel for a fast ride
under Scranton’s South Side. Leaving the tunnel and passing under Strafford
Avenue at MP 2 we enter the newest stretch of operations and leave civilization
behind for awhile. Hugging a retaining wall and passing under I-81, the track
comes out into a long straight stretch between approximately mileposts 2.25 and
3.5. It is in this area that the cars give a good operating performance since
the track is in A-1 condition, straight, well ballasted and tight. You don’t
hear much except the whirr of the motors. On
one side it’s wooded, giving away to wetlands and back to woods at about
milepost 3.5. In the distance on the left is the mountain while on the right
it’s hard to believe that I-81 parallels, but it’s so hidden by forest that
you don’t know it’s there. There are three bridges over a meandering stream
in this area. The
track then curves to the runaround track for freights which is also electrified,
and goes around a sweeping curve. At Virginia the freight switchback diverges as
well as the abandoned L&WV right of way. The car line snakes over to the
adjacent Erie Wyoming Division right of way. Once on the Erie the ride is
noticeably noisier with the familiar clickety-clack. This track hugs a curving
hillside until the end is reached at Montage Mountain Road beneath the Visitor
Center. The terminal consists of a short spur adjacent to the now dormant Erie
which continues south toward Wilkes-Barre. The
line will be extended to the Lackawanna County Red Barons Baseball Stadium which
is less than a mile beyond this point. Indeed, track for this extension has
already been placed in the adjacent grade crossing, and construction is
anticipated soon. |
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Association of Railway Museums 1016 Rosser Street, Conyers, GA 30012 Phone: (770) 278-0088 |
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