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Summer 2003 Railway Museum Quarterly |
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Contents:
-President's message by Paul Hammond
-Trolley Museums in Parallel By Aaron Issacs
-Treating Your Employees With Respect and Discipline By Thomas N. Jacobson
-The museum review - news of railway preservation
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By Paul
Hammond Summer has arrived as I write these words in late June, and this means the busy season is here for most ARM member museums. What will this summer season hold for us? That’s still a matter of speculation for economic and tourism experts, but most agree that certain trends aren’t going away soon. For those of us in the U.S., budget deficits face many of our states. In my home state of California, this is translating into reduced spending on tourism promotion—at a time when travel patterns are being redefined. This summer, the "experts" tell us, Americans will travel by automobile in record numbers. Air travel will remain stagnant, and international tourism will remain soft. Canadians face many of the same challenges. Does this bode well for our museums? Perhaps (particularly for those institutions located along heavily traveled highway corridors), but the message seems clear to travel professionals: this is a year to stay alert. Watch the trends and be prepared to respond accordingly. And don’t forget to market and promote accordingly, too! ARM Happenings Thanks to the efforts of ARM Western Regional Coordinator Peter Gagnon and host San Diego Model Railroad Museum, an ARM Spring Regional Meeting was held in San Diego in April. An interesting program showcased SDMRM’s pathway toward full accreditation by the American Association of Museums (they’re just one step away) and highlighted other preservation activities in the area—including a presentation on potential cross-border collaborations with Mexico! Although lightly attended (what a challenging year this has been for making travel decisions), attendees were overwhelmingly congratulatory of the efforts put forth by SDMRM Executive Director John Rotsart and his staff to present such a unique program. As an aside, I want to point out that the San Diego Model Railroad Museum is a model for ARM regional meetings as the organization is an ARM Affiliate. The museum is currently not eligible for full ARM membership because it has no full-size railway equipment in its collections—although it does display and interpret semaphores and other supporting artifacts. ARM very much would like to return to a full schedule of regional meetings for 2004 (there were none in the East and Midwest this year), but we need your help to do this. First, we are still seeking an Eastern Region Coordinator; please contact me directly if you’d like to learn what this would entail (the position is not difficult, but does require some time and the ability to travel and regularly communicate with hosts). Organizational Progress Report In the most recent edition of Railway Museum Quarterly, I discussed a number of steps that ARM’s leadership team has taken to date to address recent challenges in order to position your Association for future growth. I also promised to continue this issue with a discussion regarding the two bylaws amendments introduced last year, aimed at helping to accomplish specific ARM strategy objectives. You may recall that the proposed amendments were published last year in RMQ, and that input was sought regarding them. No comments, challenges, or questions about the amendments were received during the comment period, and the ARM Board voted to place them before the membership at the 2002 Annual Meeting for ratification. One amendment sought to increase the number of board seats from seven to nine total, phasing in one new seat each with the 2003 and 2004 elections. This change was sought by the Board itself, which realized that (a) continuity of the organization would be better assured by this change, and (b) two extra Directors would be helpful in taking on the work of the Association, which currently relies on volunteers for accomplishment. With this change, three seats on the Board will be up for election each year (terms are for three years), thus helping to ensure a predictable turnover. At the 2002 Annual Meeting, this change was overwhelmingly approved by delegates, with almost no discussion. Following a lengthy discussion and debate, however, the second proposed bylaws amendment, which would have changed the definition of a full voting "member" in the Association, was tabled. The goals of the proposed bylaws amendment were to put ARM’s current definition of member (museum) on par with that used by other professional museum organizations, and to eliminate the requirement of a full-sized piece of railway equipment for membership (instead requiring ownership and use of tangible objects, rail vehicles, and/or structures related to railways and railroading) in hopes of broadening and diversifying ARM’s voting membership. The spirited discussion brought out several issues that indeed need to be resolved within ARM. One had to do with how "Friends" or other affiliated museum support groups would be admitted to the Association. Another had to do with exactly how we regard ourselves (particularly when discussing how the terms "professional" and "volunteer" and "paid" and "staff" are related or in conflict, depending on your viewpoint), and whether work in this field is somehow compromised if those performing it are the recipients of a paycheck. At the 2002 Annual Meeting, formation of a Working Group was discussed, to further discuss the proposed amendment and recommend the next course of action (as was done with the development process for Recommended Practices for Railway Museums). A "short list" of interested participants was gathered in Dallas, but unfortunately no other interested persons responded to my call for volunteers. After further discussion by ARM’s Board at its spring 2003 meeting, it was determined that the timetable for setting a Working Group in action would be changed. The Board concluded that, rather than attempting to start up a Working Group at this time, it would probably be far more useful for all ARM members to first have a better understanding of the issues at stake, and the desired outcomes and reasons for them. Accordingly, a special session regarding "ARM Strategy" has been scheduled for the 2003 Annual Conference in St. Louis. I certainly hope that you’ll join your ARM colleagues in discussing where the Association is headed, and reviewing the major strategy steps that your Board has outlined and set in motion to move the organization forward. And if you are interested in becoming actively involved in the formation of a possible Working Group regarding membership definitions and related issues, this will be the time to reconfirm your interest in participating. Facing New Challenges As you are no doubt aware by now, ARM member B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, arguably North America’s first facility dedicated to railway preservation in a systematic fashion, suffered a major setback this winter when the iron structure of its signature Baldwin Roundhouse collapsed during the height of the President’s Day Storm (see page 13 for details). Major disasters have struck other railway museums before, and they no doubt will again in the future. In the B&O’s case, thankfully no one was hurt and the museum was reasonably well-insured. Although damage to collections was major (and in some cases irreparable), the B&O Railroad Museum is well on its way to recovery. Assistance has come from a variety of sources, including other railway museums. Thankfully there were no other high-profile disasters affecting railway museums during the storm. But disaster comes in many forms, and sometimes it is a process that takes place over time rather than some epic happening that is over in one fell swoop. Although Railway Museum Quarterly Editor Aaron Isaacs tries hard to focus on the positive, there are several items noted within the Museum Review that should be cause for attention in our industry. What can ARM do to be of assistance to organizations in distress? That’s something that I have been asking myself ever since I learned of the B&O disaster on President’s Day. Luckily, there was no lack of help forthcoming in this instance, and a number of large institutions were able to offer resources including staff. But what if the roof had just caved in on a small depot museum in, say, Nevada? Who would be there to help? As I’ve discussed over the past year-plus, this isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight. To help ensure the Association can grow and change to address an ever-more-complex set of needs on behalf of its constituents, your Board has been working diligently to develop a long-range vision and strategic plan for ARM. Like any trade association that welcomes members and affiliates for a minimal annual fee, the Association of Railway Museums helps to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the transfer of industry-specific knowledge. Annual conventions, regional meetings, and other forums which help to facilitate personal interaction are evidence of ARM’s continuing focus on the sharing of knowledge. The Association also plays an active and continuing role in representing member museums’ interests when the issues at stake apply broadly to many museums, and thus clearly mandate such a role. For instance, ARM continually monitors ongoing issues related to regulations and oversight by the Federal Railroad Administration, represented in such matters by designated, dedicated volunteers. Are there other things that ARM could be doing on behalf of its members? Absolutely. The challenge is determining which things would provide the most benefit to the largest number of constituents, since we cannot do everything. If you’re interested in learning more, I hope that you’ll join your ARM colleagues in discussing where the Association is headed, and reviewing the major strategy steps that your Board has outlined and set in motion to move the organization forward, at the special "ARM Strategy" session scheduled for the 2003 Annual Conference in St. Louis and mentioned earlier in this column. Meet Me In St. Louis By now—if you are on ARM’s regular mailing list, or have attended a recent ARM Annual Conference—you should have received via the mail program and registration information regarding the Association’s 2003 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. This promises to be an exceptional conference offering visits to, and insights into, many of St. Louis’ internationally renowned museums. If for any reason you have not received this information, please contact conference organizer (and ARM Board member) Molly Butterworth at MButterworth@stlouisco.com , write her c/o Museum of Transportation, 3015 Barrett Station Road, St. Louis, MO 63122, or call (314) 965-8007, Fax (314) 965-0242, or visit www.museumoftransport.org . On behalf of the Association’s Board and officers, I hope to "Meet You In St. Louis" if we haven’t already had the pleasure. And for those of you who have been to past conferences, I eagerly await catching up with you on what’s happening at YOUR museums! Until then, I wish you, and those you hold dear, a relaxing and rewarding summer.By Aaron Isaacs The trolley museum movement in North America can be reasonably said to have begun in New England, with the founding of the Seashore Trolley Museum in 1939. Close on its heels in 1940 came the Connecticut Trolley Museum. In 1945, a third group, the Branford (since renamed Shore Line) Trolley Museum, formed in New Haven. Since then, Shore Line and Connecticut, located only 60 miles apart, have been like sisters. They have shared members, cooperated on projects, had their disagreements and in many ways resembled one another. They are similar, yet different. I visited both on a recent trip and was struck by the parallels between the two. As we drove up to each museum, the operational streetcar that day was a Montreal standard. Both museums are built in, or next to wetlands. With a few exceptions, their collections are regional, if one considers the region to include New England, the mid-Atlantic states and eastern Canada. Both museums appeared on the scene early enough to acquire complete cars from properties that were either being abandoned or re-equipped. Connecticut Company cars are prominent in both collections, which have a number of other cars in common. Each sees about 20,000 visitors a year. Each remains primarily a volunteer operation, and each has been challenged to remain financially viable in the face of stagnant or declining revenues. Connecticut Trolley Museum The Connecticut Trolley Museum was formed in 1940 as a spinoff of the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Among the original volunteers were Seashore members who wanted a museum closer to home. The museum’s 1941 birth coincided with the end of Connecticut Company streetcar operations in Hartford. The first car was Connecticut #65 (Wason 1906) just retired from Hartford. That same year the museum purchased a site at Warehouse Point, including three miles of the Hartford & Springfield Street Railway’s Rockville branch, abandoned since 1926. Not surprisingly, World War II pushed rail preservation and museum building to the back burner. Work on the museum site resumed in 1945, and 1947 saw the arrival of a second car, Springfield Terminal #10 (Wason 1901). By 1955, the collection consisted of ten cars and operation for the public began on 500 feet of track. The first of three steam locomotives was acquired in 1956 (steam would ultimately be regarded as outside the museum’s mission and would be gone by 2002). In the years since, the collection has grown to over 70 pieces, including 41 electric cars. The demonstration railroad on the old interurban right of way has expanded to 1.5 miles. There are four carbarns and a restoration shop on the 17 acre site, all of which date from the 1960s or before. The largest capital project in the museum’s history is the visitor center, begun in the late 1980s. It is a large brick faced structure in the style of a classic carbarn. The center section is a high ceiling room with three tracks set in a concrete floor, each with room for 2-3 cars. The tracks continue one car length outside the building’s north wall, but still under roof, providing additional covered—but open air—storage. Spaces for offices, library, store, a theater and storage flank the main room. Currently only one of these is finished and is being used temporarily as the store and ticket office. The permanent store space and the archive room are currently under construction and offices will replace the present store. Final completion of the building is some years off. Tracks have been laid in the building, but are still isolated from the rest of the museum’s track. The building’s basic structure was funded by a grant from the State of Connecticut, but it has required considerable additional funding from the museum to complete. Construction began in 1989. After the state money ran out, the museum took out a loan to continue work. Staying current with loan payments has been a financial challenge for the museum and has restricted work on other projects. Even with the visitor center open, only about half the collection is under roof. For now, there is no money to build additional carbarns. If the money was available, environmental concerns would still make construction far more complicated than it used to be, due to much of the site being located in, or adjacent to, wetland. Because the museum began collecting so early, it was able to acquire some unusual pieces. There are ten pieces from the Connecticut Company, one of Montreal’s theater-seating open tour cars, a Five-Mile Beach (New Jersey) single truck open car and most of the Springfield Terminal’s roster. New England’s mills and factories had in-plant railroads and from these a number of excellent rarities were acquired, including the pioneer "Black Maria" steeple cab locomotive from Ponemah Miles (General Electric 1894), and the ancient Singer boxcars (see boxed item). Eleven of the pieces are non-regional. Like many museums, CTM couldn’t resist picking up a pair of Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee interurbans, four Chicago L cars and a New Orleans car. Interestingly, there are only four pieces from Boston, and most of those are PCCs in bad shape. According to my host (and ARM Board member) Nancy Peacos, the museum uses five cars for its regular operation, and has about eight others that are operated periodically. Three cars are in the restoration shop. As one walks the grounds, it appears that the museum owns more than can be maintained, a common problem among museums. An outsider would argue for thinning the collection, finding a home for the non-regional pieces and admitting that the world already has plenty of rusted Boston PCC cars. In fact, a major step was taken in 2002 when the three steam locomotives were sold. According to Peacos, the move was controversial. In the end, CTM reaffirmed its mission as a trolley museum. The demonstration railway begins at a large waiting shelter rescued from downtown Hartford, where it went by the wonderful name "The Isle of Safety". The 1.5 miles of track head straight through the woods, crossing a pair of streets protected by crossing gates. Cars stop just short of a third grade crossing. From there the museum’s vacant right of way drops into a valley on a steep S-curving grade that won’t see rails anytime soon. Across the parking lot from the loading area sits an open platform wood steam railroad combine on an isolated piece of track. It houses the dining room of the museum’s restaurant, operated by a concessionaire. The menu was limited but the food, prepared next door in the kitchen building, was quite good. In the rear of the property sits a metal building that houses the Connecticut Fire Museum. It holds an excellent collection of antique fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment, as well as a number of vintage buses. The Fire Museum used to be an independent organization leasing land from CTM. Now it is actually part of CTM. CTM has about 400 members, of whom about 70 volunteer. Staff is limited to one part time office assistant. There used to be a full time executive director, but the position was eliminated a few years ago for economic reasons. The museum is governed by a nine member board, elected by the voting museum members. The Board selects officers who are responsible for day to day operations. Peacos says that in the last five years the Board has restricted itself to policy matters. She feels the Board is trying to lead the museum in the direction of being more professional and less of a hobby club. Shore Line Trolley Museum The Shore Line Trolley Museum was incorporated in 1945 and began assembling a collection of streetcars, some of which it stored at the Connecticut Company’s carbarn in New Haven. With abandonment of the local streetcar system imminent, Shore Line purchased the outer 1.5 miles of the Stony Creek line. When the Connecticut Company ceased operations in 1948, it kept the track connection to the new museum line intact, and supplied power for a year. Thus was Shore Line the first operating trolley museum in North America. The initial euphoria was replaced by financial crisis in the early fifties. Shore Line removed most of one of the two mainline tracks and scrapped a few cars in an effort to raise money. It then hit on the idea of selling 20-year interest bearing bonds, and the influx of revenue took it off the critical list. Scheduled operation for the public commenced in 1953, creating an ongoing revenue stream. Shore Line also was something of a pioneer in opening a visitor center early. The dignified brick Sprague Building was funded by the family of Frank Sprague, who made electric traction commercially viable. One of the museum’s assets has been its association with the Sprague name. Although it was able to purchase an intact electric railway, the museum’s location has proven to be a fourfold problem. First, it is not easy to find, located well off any main streets in a quiet residential neighborhood (in contrast, CTM sits in the open next to a relatively busy county road and close to a state highway). Second, the site is constrained by its placement in a tidal marsh. Environmental laws now make expansion very difficult. Third, the site is subject to flooding and the occasional hurricane. Shore Line has been raising its carbarn floors, but in the end there’s little they can do about it. Fourth--as Seashore has also discovered--the salt air is unkind to old streetcars. Despite those adversities, Shore Line has assembled an important collection, put a roof over most of it, and made notable progress in returning much of it to its original appearance. The Connecticut cars, 14 of them, are the heart of the collection. Two major areas where Shore Line differs from CTM and Seashore is the absence of Boston equipment. Shore Line has always recruited members and volunteers from the New York City area. One of the draws is its good selection of New York transit cars, 20 in all. In recent years the rapid transit oriented volunteers have become a more noticeable group within the museum, even holding some special events to recruit more members and volunteers. Membership is at an all time high, around 950. One notable accomplishment: the museum now owns all the rolling stock in the collection. Like many museums, it housed pieces owned by members, usually an expedient at the time to save them. As many museums have discovered, private ownership can turn into a real liability, so all the private owners have been bought out. About 80 percent of the collection is housed inside carbarns. No barns have been built since the 1970s, but the collection has been thinned slightly, freeing up space. There are plans for at least one more barn, to be located on a small area of higher ground to the east of the present carbarn complex. It’s the only land owned by Shore Line that rises above the 12 foot 100-year flood stage. Two obstacles stand in the way of construction, environmental and wetland regulations and not enough money. According to Board Chairman Ken Rosen, money has always been a major challenge for Shore Line. Its three main sources are admissions, member donations and the open car lease to Lake Compounce (see photo on page 9). There have been occasional grants and bequests over the years, but nothing major, let alone sufficient to establish an endowment fund. Shore Line, like Seashore, has accumulated a major inventory of parts over the years. It has initiated a series of often complex inter-museum trades of parts and entire cars. This sometimes returns to their home city cars that were acquired hastily to beat the scrapper. A recent example is the return of D. C. Transit center entrance #650 to National Capital Trolley Museum. Shore Line remains a primarily volunteer organization. It employs a part time General Manager, a full time Curator/Supt. of Equipment and a part time gift shop manager. All other positions are volunteer. Both CTM and Shore Line have weathered a number of up and down cycles. Shore Line has been able to maintain and make progress on the condition of its fleet, while attracting new volunteers. CTM appears to be losing ground in the area of fleet condition, although progress toward completion of the visitor center is heartening. Despite similar visitor counts, Shore Line has been able to keep a small core of staff employed, while CTM is down to the bare minimum. Both Peacos and Rosen note that competition for the leisure time attention and dollars of the public has gotten much stiffer in ways that never could have been envisioned when these museums were founded in the 1940s. Television had barely begun, let alone video games, the internet, shopping malls, a proliferation of sports, gambling—when they were founded, most stores were closed on Sundays. Rosen is concerned that the traditional trolley museum—or
perhaps the traditional way a trolley museum presents itself—is becoming
obsolete. When they were founded, the visiting public had recent memories of the
cars in service. A ride and a carbarn tour were enough. Now, says Rosen, the
visiting public is so much more sophisticated, that it may no longer be enough. The Singer Boxcars The two museums each own a group of rare 19th century wood
boxcars that fall outside their normal collection policies and are sitting
outdoors and unprotected. The cars were acquired from the Singer Sewing Machine
Company in Bridgeport, Conn., where they were used in intra-plant service. With
the exception of an 1889 Seaboard Air Line car at Shore Line, their identities
are unknown. All are equipped with link and pin couplers. According to Nancy
Peacos, CTM’s three cars date from the 1860s. Three of the seven Shore Line
cars are single truckers. According to John H. White’s authoritative "The
American Railroad Freight Car", the single truckers were an abortive
experiment of the 1870s and 1880s, most common on the New York Central. The
Shore Line cars have always been used as storage containers and are not part of
the accessioned collection. Board Chairman Ken Rosen of Shore Line said he would
be happy to discuss the future of the cars with other rail museums. Connecticutt Company Survivors The Connecticut Company was a creation of the New Haven Railroad, which resolved in the early 20th century to monopolize transportation in its service area. It swallowed up short line steam railroads, most of the steamboats on Long Island Sound and dozens of local streetcars and interurbans. The electric lines were organized into a pair of large operators, the Rhode Island Company and the Connecticut Company. Though some of the city systems were connected by interurban lines, others were isolated. The company inherited a varied roster from its predecessors, and supplemented those with new purchases of its own. In all, it assembled a fleet of some 700 cars. Economic downfall and abandonment began in the 1920s, and accelerated during the thirties. By 1940, only the Hartford and New Haven systems were left. Hartford went in 1941 and New Haven lasted until 1948. By that time, the three pioneer trolley museums were able to preserve a large and representative cross section of Connecticut Company rolling stock, 30 cars in all. It is one of the largest groups of preserved cars from a single company. Perhaps most memorable are the open cars, the very symbol
of New England electric railways. Incredibly, the company in 1940 still rostered
80 of them. They ran on charters and high school football game extras, but were
really kept for one chore, the annual Yale Bowl football game. On that cool fall
day each year they would roll down the streets of New Haven groaning under the
weight of throngs of Yale students, who hung precariously from the running
boards and even rode on the roof. Ten of these cars survive today at Seashore,
Shore Line and Connecticut, where they are the favorites of visitors. Shore
Line’s signature car is #500, the wicker-furnished business/parlor car that
remained active until the end of operations. Here is a list of the Connecticut
Company survivors. Connecticut Company Survivors Number Built Type Builder Museum 65 1906 wood Wason Connecticut 0206 1910 Express motor Home built Connecticut 302 1901 15-bench open Brill Shore Line 303 1901 15-bench open Brill Seashore 0309 1902 Work car Brill Connecticut 663 1902 15-bench open Brill Connecticut 0357 1925 Unmotored flat McGuire-Cummings Seashore 500 1904 parlor Brill Shore Line 771 1904 42 ft. wood suburban Jewett Connecticut 775 1906 42 ft. wood suburban Jewett Shore Line 838 1905 15-bench open Jones Seashore 840 1905 15-bench open Jones Connecticut 865 1905 41 ft. wood Wason Shore Line 923 1906 15-bench open Jones Shore Line 1160 1906 42 ft. wood Stephenson Seashore 1199 1907 41 ft. wood Stephenson Shore Line 1326 1910 42 ft. wood Osgood BradleyConnecticut 1330 1910 41 ft. wood Osgood Bradley Shore Line 1391 1910 15-bench open Osgood Bradley Seashore 1414 1911 15-bench open Osgood Bradley Shore Line 1425 1911 15-bench open Osgood Bradley Shore Line 1468 1911 15-bench open Osgood Bradley Seashore 1602 1911 41 ft. wood Wason Shore Line 1802 1915 43 ft. steel Wason Shore Line 1911 1919 49 ft. steel suburban Brill Shore Line 2022 1911 Express motor Wason Connecticut 2023 1910 Express motor Home built Connecticut 2350 1922 Single truck Birney Osgood Bradley Shore Line 3000 1922 Double truck Birney Wason Shore Line 3001
1922
Double truck Birney
Wason
Connecticut SHELBURNE FALLS TROLLEY MUSEUM In the land of very old trolley museums, one of the newest and smallest is located in Shelburne Falls, Mass. It owes its existence to a carbody that beat the odds, a TEA21 grant, and a trolley bridge that survives as a civic landmark. Shelburne Falls is a charming tourist town in western Massachusetts. From 1896 to 1926 it was served by the seven mile Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway. Until 1908, the line consisted of two isolated segments that met at the Deerfield River, where passengers and freight had to transfer to wagons and reload on the other side. In 1908 the line built its own bridge, a distinctive multi-arch concrete span that crossed the river at a 45-degree angle. When the line was abandoned, the bridge survived. Eventually someone got the idea to decorate it with flowers in the spring. Soon it became known as the Bridge of Flowers, a community attraction that has kept the long defunct electric line in the public eye. The line’s first car, combine #10 (Wason 1896) survived on a local farm as a shed from 1928 until 1992, when the body was donated to the newly formed museum. A $350,000 TEA21 grant was secured and the car was professionally rebuilt. It’s an odd little creature, double trucked, yet at 33 feet, shorter than some single truckers. It’s also very narrow, only 7.5 feet wide, and the deep end windows that extend below the belt rail only emphasize this. It rides on a pair of Taylor trucks that are a reasonable match for the long gone originals. The museum has leased a privately owned building located in what was formerly the Boston & Maine freight yard. The yard is still intact, and the car shuttles back and forth on 1200 feet of track. The power supply is an oddity. Lacking the funds to install 600 volt DC, the museum brought in 240 volt single phase rectified to 220 volts DC. The car doesn’t go very fast, but then it doesn’t need to. The group has also acquired a 1934 Baldwin 0-4-0T, Central Vermont wood caboose #4015 (1910) and a Bangor & Aroostook "American Flyer" coach converted for work train service. Unfortunately the landlord, who also owns the track, has raised the rent dramatically in recent months, to a level the museum can’t sustain. A move may be imminent. Treating Your Employees With Respect and Discipline by Thomas N. Jacobson This could happen to you! The female employee in your gift shop is let go because of a poor attendance record. She responds through her attorneys, Dewey Cheatem and Howe, with a demand you pay $50,000 to settle the sexual harassment and discrimination suit. Upon receipt of the letter from Hugh L. Dewey you respond with some excuse, "But we’re just a small little historic operation performing an important public service." Sorry, but that excuse and any other excuse will not relieve you of your obligation to properly and lawfully conduct your operations in accordance with current legal requirements. As you investigate the allegations contained in the letter from Mr. Dewey, you learn that some of the "good ole boys" would take a break from their normal routine and come into the gift shop and tell dirty jokes, snuggle up to the employee, put their arm around her to assure her she was "one of the guys" and try to be funny by poking fun at her. Since she was gay, some of the guys would tell her from time to time she needed a good time with a man to straighten her out. You also find out that one of the "volunteers" would ask the employee from time to time to stay an extra hour to finish some work on a project not related to the gift shop. She was never paid overtime for staying over. When you call your insurance carrier you learn that because the Board of Directors wanted to save money and never agreed to buy coverage for negligent acts toward employees you have no insurance. You also learn that even if you had insurance you would not be covered for intentional acts. At this point the best advice you will receive is to get this mess to mediation as quickly as possible and bring your checkbook. This case should not go to a jury because it has the potential to result in a substantial verdict. Your operation should not lose its treasured assets to resolve a preventable situation. In order to avoid situations like the one described above, every operation should adopt strong prevention measures. The first preventative measure is to understand the rules and get control of the environment. It is wrongful, actionable and illegal to foster a work environment that allows any form of discrimination or hostile work environment. The rules are quite simple and involve straightforward common sense: Comments directed to or in the presence of an employee that relate to sex, preference, race, religion, political beliefs or similar topics are inappropriate and potentially actionable. Even if the employee tells one of your supervisors or volunteers a dirty joke, do not reciprocate, but rather advise the employee in writing such conduct will not be tolerated. The work environment is not the place for this type of conduct and you must change the attitude of your volunteers and employees. Do not hug, touch or squeeze. Though a volunteer may think she likes it, when she is terminated she will say she was offended and told several people to stop. No matter what you observe in other environments, do not allow touching in your workplace because when things aren’t so friendly this will be used against you. Never make an issue of someone’s sex, race, religion, beliefs or politics. This should never occur in this day and age, but it does and continues to be a costly mistake. Remind your volunteers and employees from time to time that the appropriate behavior for the workplace is to refrain from any reference to these categories. Do not belittle employees. If they are not performing, take them aside with another management person, counsel them in a businesslike manner and preserve their dignity. Place a memo in the employee’s file and treat all employees equally. One of the primary causes of expensive litigation is the mishandling of disciplinary situations. Be firm, but be respectful. If it is necessary to terminate, do it quickly and always have a witness. Adopt Board policies establishing that your organization will not tolerate any act of discrimination or harassment. Publish the policy and reiterate it at staff meetings. Communicate with all employees and volunteers that there will be zero tolerance for any act that violates the Board policy or the right of an employee to a proper work environment. Discipline immediately any employee or volunteer found to have violated your policy and/or applicable employment laws. No favoritism for "key" people can be tolerated. A lawsuit costs you the same no matter who the offender. Do not encourage or promote sexual relations between employees and management, other employees or volunteers. This is the breeding ground for invariable conflict and a hostile work environment claim. Another issue often overlooked by small businesses is the issue of overtime. Generally, all employees, except management and professionals, are required to be compensated for overtime, even if salaried. Overtime is normally due after 8 hours in a single day or 40 hours in a week. Employees that "volunteer" or perform additional work to obtain "comp time" are not exempt. In fact, if the work is performed after 8 hours in a single day or 40 hours that week, the amount due, even given as "comp time" is at the overtime rate. Therefore, an employee that requests the opportunity to work an extra hour so they can have an hour off the next day is actually entitled to 1.5 hours of pay or "comp time". It is a big mistake to avoid the overtime issue under the mistaken belief the employee doesn’t care or would never complain to the Labor Board or other government entity. Should a discipline issue arise, invariably the employee looks for issues to mitigate their poor performance. Don’t give them the opportunity. Employers allowing poor performance to continue may find themselves blamed for the employee’s acts when they try to finally to terminate. Assuming the employee is "at will" and not under contract, and as cold hearted as it may sound, it is best to terminate a relatively new employee upon the first sign of chronic trouble. The newer the employment, the less ammunition the employee has to retaliate. In many jurisdictions the concept of an "at will" employee has been the subject of much litigation. Generally, it is now well accepted that absent special circumstances, an "at will" employee is just that: the person serves at the will of the employer. In order to preserve that status it is important not to tell employees that if they do their job they will have a job for life. Though it is difficult not to reward good employees with assurance of continued employment, there has been much litigation on this subject and it is now quite well established that the way employees get around the "at will" status is to allege they were given assurances and other communications guaranteeing them employment. Many museum professionals insist on employment contracts. From the standpoint of the employer contracts are not in the employer’s best interest. If the employer becomes dissatisfied with the employee, the employer is normally compelled to provide the employee with compensation through the end of that term. The employment contract usually is either quite vague about the employee’s responsibilities or fails to enumerate a responsibility the employee desires to avoid. Whenever possible employees should be "at will" but provided with a letter of expectation and a handbook. Few museums, tourist railways or historic operations have employee handbooks. There are many sources for generic handbooks, and every operation, no matter how small, should have a handbook. There are many other policies and practices that should be adopted for the work environment, however, the theme in each instance is the same. The workplace is a place of work, not a party environment. Every employee is entitled to his or her dignity and an expectation that everyone will follow prescribed rules of conduct, many of which are prescribed by law. A well disciplined and compliant organization is less likely to encounter problems and claims. Museums, tourist railways and historic operations are not exempt from the rules of the American working environment. Awareness of the rules and a strong compliance program will avoid a letter from Mr. Dewey on behalf of his aggrieved client. The
museum review B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, MD During the height of the 2003 President's Day storm, the iron structure of the 1884 Baldwin Roundhouse, the B&O Railroad Museum's signature building and collections exhibit space, collapsed under the weight of the snow and force of wind. No one was in the Museum at the time of the collapse, however, damage to collections was extensive. Structural engineers have been working to stabilize the building and protect the collection from further damage, and reconstruction efforts were well under way as of June. Following the roof collapse, curatorial staffers from other rail museums have been brought in to assess the damage. They include John Bechtel of the North Carolina Transportation Museum; David Dunn, Ryan Kunkle, Allan Martin, Steve Meola, and Mark Volatile of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania; and Walter P. Gray III and Kyle Williams Wyatt of the California State Railroad Museum. According to the Baltimore Sun, it will take more than $20 million and at least six years before the B&O Museum fully recovers, but the museum still expects to reopen sometime next year. The roundhouse will be rebuilt to its original appearance, but with some changes, including welded steel trusses instead of riveted wrought iron. The new roof will be slate, like the original and is expected to be completed around next January. Its $10 million cost will be covered by insurance. Insurance is covering one year of operating costs, so no
employee layoffs have been necessary to date. The museum’s collection was
insured for $5 million, but repairing the damaged pieces may cost as much as $15
million if done commercially. If done in house, the estimate is about $10
million. Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, Brooklyn, NY BHRA is a heritage trolley project that never really got off the ground, and now is in the process of being dissolved. The idea was to create a new electric line along the East River waterfront from the industrial Red Hook neighborhood to downtown Brooklyn, over a mile away. A TEA21 grant was secured. It paid for a couple of blocks of new in-street trackage, and the acquisition of 13 PCC cars, one from Boston and 12 originally built for Minneapolis-St. Paul, later owned by Shaker Heights Rapid Transit and Buffalo. Only the Boston car was ever rebuilt and repainted in Brooklyn colors. Carbarn space was leased in a waterfront warehouse. To make the complicated story short, the grant money ran
out before the promised work was completed. A tugboat collided with the dock
outside the carbarn, rendering the track unusable. A split within the
organization led to charges and countercharges of various kinds of fraud. The
local politicians withdrew their support and the carbarn owner issued an
eviction notice. By the time you read this, the accumulated BHRA cars and parts
may be available for sale. California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, CA May 28 saw the dedication of the reconstructed Transfer Table at the Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops. The pilots of Union Pacific 0-6-0 #4466 and Southern Pacific E9A #6051 were nose to nose on the table as the ribbon was cut (see rear cover). The 70-foot long table, custom built by CSRM crews in the old Shops complex, took nearly two years of planning, design and fundraising, and two more years of construction and rehabilitation of the original rails and slots in the pit. The completion of the Transfer Table—a $500,000 project funded jointly by California State Parks and donations solicited through the CSRM Foundation—marks the first step toward building the Railroad Technology Museum as a centerpiece of Sacramento’s Downtown Railyards redevelopment. The table will immediately allow access to the 182 feet wide by 516 feet long Erecting Shop, which will provide protection for a large portion of the Museum’s collection of historic railroad locomotives and cars. They have been stored outside for years. CSRM membership reached an all-time high in 2002, with just
over 11,000 counted among the ranks—from children’s level "Caboose
Club" members on up to the Silver Spike category. For those at higher
giving levels, a special Behind the Scenes Tour was held on May 10. This
year’s version of the annual invitation-only event featured tours highlighting
railroad laborers and management personalities interred at the Sacramento
Historic City Cemetery, which dates from the beginning of the California Gold
Rush. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, Jamestown, CA The first major project associated with the nearly $1 million in facility repairs, stabilization, and upgrades to the Historic Sierra Railroad Shops and Roundhouse outlined last issue is now complete. During the month of April, foundation repairs were made to free-standing roof support columns. In the process, the roof columns were attached to the concrete support piers, helping to stabilize the structure in the event of seismic activity (previously the columns lacked any physical attachment to the piers). The fundraising campaign continues to return Sierra
"Movie Star" 4-6-0 locomotive No. 3 (Rogers, 1891) to operation. As of
the end of May, nearly $100,000 had been donated or pledged toward a $300,000
campaign goal. Canadian Railroad Museum, Ste. Constant, PQ Three more pieces have been added to the collection. The last RMQ reported on the acquisition of Canadian Pacific RDC4 #9250. It has now been joined by donated CPR RDC-1 coach #9069 (Budd 1957). CPR has also donated 70-ton covered hopper car #416002 (MIL 1956). Used for dry bulk goods such as cement, wheat and livestock feed, the car is one of 2700 operated on Canadian railways. Canadian National donated 70 tom covered hopper #53315
(National Steel Car 1948). Also a dry bulk hauler, it was part of an order of
150 similar cars. Car 26 Restoration Association, Cedar Grove, WI The Association is the owner of Sheboygan Light & Power
#26 (Cincinnati 1908). A recent newsletter recounts the status of work on the
car, now located at East Troy. Fund raising has reached $223,000, with an
additional $60,000 needed to complete work. The trucks and motors are being
rebuilt. Professional restorer Glenn Guerra has located a Hale & Kilburn
seat that fits the missing originals and replicas will be manufactured. Electric City Trolley Museum, Scranton, PA Red Arrow #80 (Brill 1931) is being readied to serve as the second operating car for the museum’s ex-Laurel Line demonstration railroad, now two miles long. It has received a new roof and a partial rewiring. The museum’s collection of electric cars remains
scattered at four sites in eastern Pennsylvania, due to a lack of storage space
in Scranton. Thanks to funding from the Lackawanna Valley Heritage Authority,
that is about to change. A building has been acquired that can hold 16 cars,
including a shop and a work area for up to 2-4 cars. The LVHA has also secured
funding to rebuild Scranton streetcar #324 (Brill 1903), followed by Rio de
Janeiro open car #604 (1911). The funding includes salaries for at least one
paid carpenter, although volunteers will be used extensively. Professional
restoration assessments for both cars have been completed by Glenn Guerra. Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, Albuquerque, NM Now that the Rio Grande Railway Preservation Corporation is
back on Board as the C&TS operator, financial resources solicited by the
Friends are starting to flow to the railroad once more. The New Mexico
legislature has appropriated almost $1 million this year. The federal Economic
Development Agency has awarded a $1.3 million grant for locomotive work, with
the Friends and the C&TS Commission each putting up half of the 20 percent
local share. Friends members have donated or pledged $500,000 over the last
winter. Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL In addition to the collection is Northern Pacific
Slumbercoach #325 Loch Sloy (Budd 1959). The car’s unusual configuration of 24
single bedrooms and eight double bedrooms was designed for a lower priced market
than conventional sleeping cars. The car went to Amtrak, which converted it to
head end power. Lake Superior Railroad Museum, Duluth, MN Canadian National has donated a locomotive simulator from
its Wisconsin Central division. Valued at $250,000, the simulator was used to
train engine crews. It has been installed at the museum and can be used by
visitors for an extra admission charge. According to the press release, this is
the only railway museum in the United States with a working simulator. Nevada State Railroad Museum, Carson City, NV The museum continues to add small pieces of the Virginia & Truckee to its collection. The latest arrivals are a circa 1926 speeder, four signal flags, an oil can, a bookkeeper’s desk from the Carson City station, 44 freight receipts from 1904, and 25 balance sheets for the period 1911-33. Looking to create a new membership benefit, the museum has begun enclosing copies of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s semi-annual publication Railroad History along with the quarterly newsletter. New York Museum of Transportation, Rochester, N.Y. Recent acquisition: 82 previously unseen photographs
showing the 1922 construction of the Rochester Subway. New York Transit Museum, New York, NY On September 16 the museum’s main Brooklyn facility is
reopening after a two-year closure for renovation. Housed in the unused Court
Street IND subway station, the museum has always offered subway history in
context. The renovation included climate control systems, improved fire
protection, safety and electrical systems and new lighting. The exhibit
galleries have been refurbished and now contain new interactive exhibits. Among
these is On the Streets, about New York’s trolleys and buses. This reflects
the museum’s broadened mission—to present the history of all the
predecessors of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, subway, surface and
commuter rail. The new Stanford Gaster Education Center is designed for visiting
groups and contains a new computer resource center. Oklahoma Railway Museum, Oklahoma City, OK The photo collection of the late Preston George has been
donated to the Oklahoma Museum of History. It includes 1500 original, well
documented negatives taken by George beginning in the 1930s. As part of the
donation agreement, the George family specified that the Oklahoma Railway Museum
have access to, and use of the photos. Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has earmarked $397,000 in the FY2003 for the museum’s Phase 3 Visitor Center project. Santorum had visited PTM in December 2001 and was reportedly impressed by what he saw. Here’s a different tie-in event—PTM has teamed up with the minor league Washington (Penna.) Wild Things to create an Elderhostel baseball event. Titled, "Take Me out to the Ball Game", it starts with a visit to PTM, featuring the history of trolley riding to the old Pittsburg Pirates home Forbes Field. Then it’s on to the new Falconi Field for a behind the scenes tour of the stadium, a picnic dinner and a ball game. Railroad Museum of New England, Thomaston, CT Already the home for two ex-New Haven FL9s, the museum has
now taken delivery of FL9 #2059 (EMD 1960). The locomotive is notable as the
last passenger locomotive purchased by the New Haven, and the last F-unit built
by EMD. Arriving the same day was ex-Providence & Worcester, ex-Conrail U23B
#2203 (GE 1977). It is the last U-series locomotive built by General Electric. Rio Grande Chapter, N.R.H.S., Grand Junction, CO The Chapter has been acquiring and rebuilding equipment from the Unitah Railway, the isolated northwest Colorado narrow gauge known for its extremely steep grades and sharp curves. So far it has rebuilt wood boxcars #200 and #221, wood stock car #412, and work car B&B #1. Nearing completion is wood caboose #3, which was in very bad shape when work began. Work has begun on another boxcar. Yet another boxcar, a stock car and Pullman sleeper #51 are in the collection, but deteriorated. All are located at the Museum of Western Colorado’s Cross Orchards Living History Farm in Grand Junction. Other extant Unitah equipment includes coach #50 and
business car #B-8, both at Colorado Railroad Museum, 2-8-0 #12 (Baldwin 1896) at
Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, and two water tenders at the
Durango & Silverton. Roundhouse Railroad Museum, Savannah, GA The museum has acquired the Central of Georgia office car Atlanta. It was retired in the 1960s and preserved by a private owner. It comes complete with original porters’ uniforms, linens, paperwork, china and furnishings, including an issue of Modern Railroads addressed to the CofG’s president. A burro crane has also been added to the collection. Savannah voters have passed a sales tax that will provide
revenue to re-establish track connections to the general railroad system. San Diego Railroad Museum, Campo, CA This last year has been a rough one for the museum. There was a bruising fight for control of the Board of Directors. At issue was the operation of museum excursion trains by the for-profit Carrizo Gorge Railway, which allegedly had led to the misuse of museum property. There were two competing factions. They spent tens of thousands of dollars contesting the Board election, which eventually was conducted twice under court supervision. The side which had opposed the CGRy. won the election, but the ordeal left the museum some $90,000 in debt and close to insolvency. As if these problems weren’t enough, the museum’s
archives and offices have been evicted from the baggage room of the landmark
1915 Santa Fe depot in San Diego. The eviction was unrelated to the
organization’s other woes. The neighboring Museum of Contemporary Art received
a large grant to expand and persuaded the depot’s owners to evict all the
non-Amtrak tenants and construct a modern addition to the depot. Except for
housing some of the more fragile artifacts at the nearby San Diego Model
Railroad Museum, SDRM was unable to find another home for the large amount of
railroad corporate records. They are now stored in a couple of shipping
containers at the Campo site. Seashore Trolley Museum Kennebunkport, Maine One of the strengths of Seashore’s Town House Shops workers is that they tackle the big, hard, complex jobs head on and don’t cut corners. A case in point is the repair and replication of seats, certainly one of the more challenging projects on any passenger car, electric or otherwise. Work on several of the cars in the shop has reached this stage simultaneously, causing this to be declared the "Year of the Seat". When completed, hopefully later this year, 75 seats for five different cars will have been repaired or constructed. The unifying element to this project is cane, also called rattan. It was the preferred material for many streetcar, interurban and steam railroad coaches constructed through the 1920s. Seashore has led a multi-museum purchase of transit weave cane from what is said to be the world’s last factory, in China. Seashore is also publishing a report on how to work with cane during reupholstery. RMQ usually refrains from reporting on museum plans in
favor of actual accomplishments. However, Seashore’s $372,000 "Bridge to
the New Century" fund raising campaign says a lot about where it, and other
museums, need to place their priorities. The very first initiative is to upgrade
the restrooms, simply because the public expects a certain quality of facility.
Other project priorities are replacing the visitor center roof, a new electrical
service for the entire museum, additional wells to support the single well
currently supplying the whole museum, a fire protection pond, environmental
upgrades to the shop building and a shop expansion. Only the shop expansion
sounds like a traditional museum building project. All the rest are needed
simply to stay even and legal. West Coast Railway Heritage Park, Squamish, B. C. Several new grants were announced this spring. The
Vancouver Foundation has awarded $20,000 toward the Garden Tracks project. Real
Estate Foundation has granted $16,500 to construct a wildlife viewing tower at
the Heritage Park. Western Economic Diversification Canada has contributed
$100,000 to the excursion train assembly project. It will complete the
acquisition of three coaches from BC Rail, as well as the assembly of a heater
car. The heater car is former VIA #15494. It was recently donated by BC Rail,
along with a 170 KW generator set. Assembly of the power car has been contracted
out to the Southern Railway of British Columbia. Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista Junction, CA WRM and the Feather River Railway Society’s Portola Railroad Museum have agreed to a major equipment trade. From WRM to FRRS: Western Pacific diesel F7 917 Sacramento Northern diesel GP-7 712 US Navy diesel 612 US Navy diesel 614 TTX 475127 flatcar Amtrak steam generator 662, a rebuilt Great Northern EMD F-3 diesel Western Pacific steel bay window caboose 483 Union Pacific cupola caboose 25732 New Melones Dam steel frame maintenance building From FRRS to WRM: Sacramento Northern 44-ton diesel 146 Saltair diesel 44-ton diesel DS 2 Sacramento Northern outside braced wood caboose 1632 Western Pacific MW 8522 flatcar Ballast car Speeder crane Wood frame push car No. 10 spring frog, 85 lb. Two CA&E cars from the Brookins collection have been
moved to the Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Brookpark Shops and are being
fitted with pantographs for operation on the CRTA’s Waterfront Line
tentatively scheduled for the weekend of July 25,26,27. Harold Geissenheimer’s
Transnet One of the highlights of ARM’s 1999 annual convention in
Vancouver, B. C. was a visit to the Downtown Historic Railway. Two classic
British Columbia Electric wood interurbans run on an electrified former
industrial spur that followed the south edge of False Creek. At the time it
ended in a rather nondescript industrial area. Since then it has been extended
in two stages several blocks north and east. It now terminates at the east end
of False Creek, next to the Science World Museum, a block from the SkyTrain Main
Station. As a result of being more visible, ridership reportedly has increased
25 percent. A double ended Brussels
PCC car has been added to the fleet. Edmonton Radial Railway Society Trip Sheet The rolling stock from Wisconsin’s defunct Kettle Moraine Railroad is finding new homes. Much of it is headed to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, including McCloud River 2-6-2 #9 (Baldwin 1921), two truck Craig Mountain Lumber Heisler #3 (1917) and two Lackawanna steel coaches. Warren & Ouachita Valley 4-6-0 #1 has been purchased by Hoffman Construction Company of Black River Falls, Wis., which will display it at the their headquarters alongside an ex-Louisville & Nashville business car. Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 #19 (Alco Pittsburgh 1910) has been sold by the Grand Canyon Railway to the Canon City & Royal Gorge Scenic Railway. The C. P. Huntington Chapter N.R.H.S Gondola Gazette |
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Association of Railway Museums 1016 Rosser Street, Conyers, GA 30012 Phone: (770) 278-0088 |
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