How many do we need?
I visited the National Railroad Museum and Hall of Fame in 2005 in Hamlet, NC. It officially opened in 1976 and is located in the old Seaboard Air Line Railway’s depot at the crossing of SAL predecessors. Of the original eight diamonds, only one remains. The depot was built in 1900 and was the home of the North Carolina Division of SAL.
On the other hand, I thought the National Railroad Museum was in Green Bay.
Two “National Railroad Museums”. Now we have Galesburg, Illinois stumping for funds to build a second National Railroad Hall of Fame – in its town.
Here’s who’s been inducted – so far. Comments, please, especially who’s missing or who should not be an inductee:
1800-1865 - “Birth & Development Era”
1866-1945 - “Golden Era”
William Jackson Palmer
Jefferson Davis
Theodore Judah
Daniel McCallum
Herman Haupt
Hagerman
and on and on and on…
These museums tend to put all the shiny playtoys on display and forget about all the textural history that is sadly ignored or put off (note how few research libraries)
[quote user=“Poppa_Zit”]
How many do we need?
the more the better…Scranton is good from a Federal standpoint but every railroad town on the map should have its own…[:D]
1800-1865 - “Birth & Development Era”
adding
Oliver Evans…not just for his Orukter Amphibole…which was his self propled steamboat that moved under its own power on land from his garge to the Schuylkill river…but as a Railroad prophet…as early as 1786 he was talking about steam carriages…in 1813 he wrote in the Aurora a Philidelphia monthly paper of the need to establish a “steam carriage road from Philidelphia to New york for the transport of heavy freight and passengers” in 1819 he stated he believed that “steam carriages would come into general use and travel at speeds of 300 miles per day and have places for eating and sleeping”
J. Edgar Thompson…first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and one of the greatest all-around railroad men this country has ever seen
William Butler Ogden…started the C&NW and finally convinced the leaders of Chicago in 1848 that railroads not plank roads were that city’s future
Ezra Cornell…installed tel
The National RR Museum (NRRM) at Green Bay is just that - by congressional decree in 1956.
I’d encourage you to check out the NRRM archives which include thousands of books, pieces of RR paper, photos, etc. They put a big emphasis on the research aspect. Among the other full time staff (i.e. Director, Educator, Genl Mgr, etc,) The museum has a full time curator who focuses largely in interpretation of the non-rolling stock artifacts.
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/en-Us/exhibits/collections/default.aspx
N&W would have been just as good without him. He certainly played a large part in the Penn Central debacle. I’d love to read an “Old Timer”(Ed King) post on him.
…atleast you mentioned PC and not Amtrak [xx(] he got plenty of right-ups in the press when he was running Amtrak as im sure he did during the PC years…
no doubt the N&W would have eventually dieselised but would the following expansion have come?..the N&W had a run of 11 years IIRC with the lowest operating ratio in the US while Suanders was in charge…he left managment ideas and philosiphies that carried the road thru the 70’s and 80’s
i encourage more museums but indeed they should have different names
[quote user=“J. Edgar”]
[quote user=“Poppa_Zit”]
How many do we need?
the more the better…Scranton is good from a Federal standpoint but every railroad town on the map should have its own…[:D]
1800-1865 - “Birth & Development Era”
adding
Oliver Evans…not just for his Orukter Amphibole…which was his self propled steamboat that moved under its own power on land from his garge to the Schuylkill river…but as a Railroad prophet…as early as 1786 he was talking about steam carriages…in 1813 he wrote in the Aurora a Philidelphia monthly paper of the need to establish a “steam carriage road from Philidelphia to New york for the transport of heavy freight and passengers” in 1819 he stated he believed that “steam carriages would come into general use and travel at speeds of 300 miles per day and have places for eating and sleeping”
J. Edgar Thompson…first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and one of the greatest all-around railroad men this country has ever seen
William Butler Ogden…started the C&NW and finally convinced the leaders of Chicago in 1848 that railroads not plank roads were that city’s future
Ezra C