After reading “best” 4-84 etc…l.I would be curious as to how my fellow rail fans would vote:
If the criteria for the best railroad museum in the U.S is:
Diversity of Collection by type
Capability to restore equipment
Presenting collection in historical context.
What museum would you nominate? I cant make up my own mind, I am stuck between IRM, RR Museum of Pennsylvania and California State RR Museum. I purposefully left out accessibility to transit, the inclusion of demonstration trackage, and museums limited to a specific type ( narrow gauge, trolley, interurban etc) in order to narrow the focus.
IRM. They are the biggest railroad museum in the country. They have one of the largest and most diverse collections anywhere.
Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, NV. Almost all of their engines, all of their rolling stock and all of their structures are original Nevada Northern equipment. This is probably the most original and untouched museum in the country, if not the world.
Steamtown. Steamtown seems to have one of the best kept fleet of steam engines in the country. You also have the Delaware Lackawanna running next to the museum with their own roster of museum pieces including three RS3s.
Diversity of collection is hard to quantify, however. If one discounts the museums that consist mostly of a vast collection of mouldering scrapyard refugees, perhaps the B&O Museum has made the best effort at being nationally representative.
Capability to restore equipment = money. If you have money you can buy all the talent necessary, and do anything you want. Debates on historical scruples are usually angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin exercises. In that regard, the California State Railroad Museum is I think the clear winner.
Presentation in historical context? Does that mean interpretation? If so, for an indoor, static display, California has done extremely well. But in my world, railroading is an outdoor game, and for that I think it’s difficult to find anything more like a time machine than the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, where even the employees are the sons and grandsons of railroaders, and they are running a railroad that happens to haul people, not a museum that happens to run trains. Nevada Northern at Ely
I tend to agree with RWM but I will take exception to the characterization of NNRY’s passenger heritage. When I was young, my nearly retired neighbot talked about growing up in McGill and riding the NNRY to school each way every day. Coupled with the mine & smelter shifts that is a lot of passenger trips.
Diversity of collection is hard to quantify, however. If one discounts the museums that consist mostly of a vast collection of mouldering scrapyard refugees, perhaps the B&O Museum has made the best effort at being nationally representative.
Capability to restore equipment = money. If you have money you can buy all the talent necessary, and do anything you want. Debates on historical scruples are usually angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin exercises. In that regard, the California State Railroad Museum is I think the clear winner.
Presentation in historical context? Does that mean interpretation? If so, for an indoor, static display, California has done extremely well. But in my world, railroading is an outdoor game, and for that I think it’s difficult to find anything more like a time machine than the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, where even the employees
For variety of equipment,California Railroad Museum and Ilinois Railway Museum.The B&O museum has an excellent collection of their own equipment,and that of subsisiary roads.They even have CNJ 1000,the first commercially successful diesel locomotive.
I won’t vote for which is best, noting that both the Cumbres and Toltec and Durango and Silverton did haul people and still can be used for simple travel as well as just train riding and photos. Note that Steamtown has a neighbor which can be considered as part of its museum, and that is the Electric City trolley line, which at present has a very limited collection (just one Red Arrow center entrance car regauged to standard in operaton at the present time), but has great potential, runs on an true ex-interurban roadbed (Scranton-Wilksbarre Laural Line, Lackawanna and Wyomng Valley, which I rode in 1952), including a tunel, and is used for transportation to and from a fairground. And Steamtown does run passenger excursions on real railroad lines that at one time had regular passenger service and are used for frieght today. Also, it really has studied how to educate non-railfan visitors on railroad history.
I hope someday the Durango - Chama line will be restored.
While they may not be the biggest, best or well known, I think the museums in Crewe, Va. & Roanoke, Va. are really good to be at least nominated. Both have historic steam engines on display, along with some rolling stock, an indoor model railroad layout of good size, historical groups / “friends of”, and both are located in the original historical railroad buildings sitting next to the original N&W mainlines still used by NS.
And don’t forget about the museum in South Hill, Va. Located in the historical railroad passenger station which is on the original mainline of the A&D. While they may not have any locomotives or rolling stock on display, they do have a very good size HO layout showing in great detail how the railroad and town along with the local area looked almost 100 years ago.
Can I suggest two more criteria for you consideration? Location and attendance
The museum with the best collection or best preservation isn’t doing much of a job if it is so far from it’s visitors that they can’t get there. As visitors we may not know the numbers, but the annual attendance figures would go a long way towards telling us how well they are serving their visitors.
Feel free to add them. My only hesitance to do so was a question I asked myself; Is accessibility the same thing as quality? Same for attendance. I think there are so many ways to measure this, I simply wanted to narrow the focus which may have been too narrow. Even so theres always a certain amount of subjectivity and its far from being scientific. Any thoughts?
I was surprised to see that lines preserved intact as a “system” were consistant winners. In retrospect, it seems obvious…they are complete in terms of context, history etc. Duh…
But none of the above is really a museum. So, ignoring your criteria, I would suggest that the best railway museums in the US are the Colorado Railroad Museum, the Nevada State Railroad Museum and the California State Railroad Museum.
No one has mentioned the California State Railroad Museum located at Jamestown. This has to be one of the finest in the land. A real gem that seems to be ignored.
I think another criterion to add is that of telling the story of those employees who worked on the railroad in the local area. Telling what sort of conditions under which the employees labored, and what it was like when they had to go and work in all sorts of weather, at all hours of the day or night, or before there were any sort of safety regulations or hours of service regulations. Then use the equipment to give examples of those things. For example, going to work along the docks at Duluth, Minnesota was going to be different than working in the coal fields of Virginia and West Virginia, or in the humidity and neat of east Texas, for obvious reasons. Tell a story about the employees, and not just have a collection of equipment.
For museums, one can’t go wrong with the Lake Superior Museum of Transport, in Duluth, or the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, WI.
Is it actually possible to rate the best railroad museum in the US unless you have actually seen every one?
Mention should be given to the North Carolina Transportation Museum - they have a pretty good collection based on North Carolina history. Many of their locomotives are operational as well. And the price is right - no admission charge - but last time I was there, we wound up spending $70 in the gift shop.
The B&O Museum is great, but it is very pricey at $14 a person in 2006.
In the context expressed by CG9602, I would nominate the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA. Not only does it grandly meet the criterion of showing how folks in the local area worked on the railroad (operations, shops, M of W) in a graphic and entertaining way, but also has a collection of equipment, and operates the park at Horseshoe Curve.
My vote for best museum is the East Broad Top. Virtually intact since operations ceased in April 1956, you can tour (by car) the entire main line, visit extant facilities, ride on a portion, with virtually all original equipment and structures in place. Only on the NN, D&S, C&T can you do this anything like this. These are the best museums since you come away with the greatest experience possible.
Why worry about which one is “best”? They all make a sincere effort to work with what’s available and regionally appropriate. I wouldn’t wish any of them to go out of existance. Some have the resources of a large state at their disposal and do meticulous restorations. Others run their stuff and deal with the soot and grime and wear and tear with volunteers and local support. Which is more meritorious? I wouldn’t presume to choose but I wish them all well and visit when I can. From the switchbacks on the Cass Scenic to the shores of the Essex River to the rim of the Animas Canyon, who would want to give up any of them.
For best museum in the classic ‘artifacts in a big impressive building’ sense of the word, my vote for best would have to be the California State RR Museum… how many other buildings have a narrow gauge 4-4-0 in the rafters? For both diversity of collection (trolleys, streetcars, interurbans, freight and passenger rolling stock from the 1890s to recently retired, trolley buses, and railroad signal equipment) and restoration of equipment for either operation or static display, my personal favorite is the Illinois Railway Museum. Check out the department blogs on their website www.irm.org; even in a Midwestern winter, there are volunteers out there working on restoration projects in the various shops.
