Publications
The Association of Railway Museums has a publishing program that reprints important historical works. Past projects include railway equipment manufacturer's service manuals, headliner advertisements, and equipment operating manuals. This site lists all of the works that are currently available and provides ordering information for telephone or mail orders.

Book and manual reprints are listed on the Reprints page.

Headliner advertising is listed on the Car Cards page.

  • Recommended Practices

The Association of Railway Museums developed Recommended Practices to serve as a self-help guide for institutional growth and development. Recommended Practices for Railway Museums identifies the unique characteristics of railway museums and integrates these with practices that are today standard in the broader museum field. Its goals are:

1. To serve as an educational tool for railway preservation and interpretive efforts, and to communicate the expectations commonly accepted in the field.

2. To function as a guide and to provide a framework for existing museums and organizations as they strive to achieve higher levels of professionalism.

3. To serve as a benchmark for railway museums seeking accreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM), the Canadian Museums Association (CMA), and others. By keeping the unique concerns of the railway preservation community foremost, Recommended Practices for Railway Museums will be a guide by which visiting accreditation committees can evaluate levels of professionalism at each institution.

4. To define and emphasize the railway museum community's commitment to holding its collections in the public trust, ensuring the long-term care of the historic objects entrusted to its protection.

5. To demonstrate to a public audience and to the museum field each institution's commitment to serving and educating the public through a variety of means, including effective interpretation techniques.

6. To help ARM member institutions increase the effectiveness of their fundraising and development efforts through demonstration—to the public and potential donors—of their commitment, not only to collections care and interpretation but also to professional management practices and community involvement.

Recommended Practices

Car card samples from the ARM publication program.