News from Galesburg

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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‘Banner year’ for railroading town

Officials cite heritage, future of Galesburg
Saturday, June 24, 2006

By JANE CARLSON

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - Local leaders officially launched the 29th annual Railroad Days festival Friday evening at Sandburg Mall, asking people from near and far to celebrate what the railroad has meant - and continues to mean - for Galesburg.
“It’s been a banner year for Galesburg and railroading,” said state Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson.

Moffitt noted the completion of the overpass over Illinois 41, the designation of Galesburg as the future site of the National Railroad Hall of Fame, a new Amtrak line coming through Galesburg and the jobs that Burlington Northern Santa Fe continues to provide in the area are reasons to recognize and celebrate railroad heritage this weekend.

State Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria, said that as a transportation engineer he was well aware of the “glorious history” the railroads have played nationally and locally and encouraged residents and visitors to think about the current and future presence of the railroad in Galesburg as well as the past.

“Your assignment this weekend is to be mindful of the past, mindful of the present and hopeful about the future,” Risinger said.

Railroad Days Council chairman Dennis Clark said the festivities offer something for everyone, from families to railroad enthusiasts, and said the event would not be possible without many volunteers, including retirees from the railroad.

“The one thing that has been constant in our community is the railroad,” said Bob Maus, president of the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s given us a heritage that I am really proud of.”

Galesburg mayor Gary Smith said the community’s connection with the railroad is deeper than any roots the city has.

“It will hopefully remain the heart and soul of Galesburg,” Smith said.

Mike Godsil, pres

2

A ‘national railroad hall of fame’? ROTFLMAO!!

Maybe they will let ED run the amusement ride out in the parking lot where for $5 they will let cell phone toting yuppies climb into high walled gondolas and get rattled around for 3 minutes [:D]

3

That’s just what we need. One more railroad-related theme park to drop its straw into the glass of very limited restoration/museum funding.

Postscript: I thought last summer I visted the National Railroad Museum and Hall of Fame in Hamlet, NC.

4

I found these details. Sounds like they’re counting on the railroads to almost totally fund it to the tune of nearly $60 million, which IMHO is a pipe-dream.

Their projected Hall of Fame annual revenue to the community is $90 per visitor, based on 200,000 visitors per year. Who did those numbers?

Any guess at what the chances are for success?

$60 million Railroad Hall of Fame planned
Railroads key to funding 84,500-square foot structure

March 14, 2006

Reprinted from The Register Mail

By John R. Pulliam

GALESBURG - Imagine an 84,500-square-foot building, a $60 million project with a central architectural feature rising six stories above an atrium. Now, picture all this in Kiwanis Park, visible from Interstate 74. The National Railroad Hall of Fame is about to make the move from vision toward reality.

Jay Matson, chairman of the Hall of Fame Board, and Steve Gerstenberger, board member, are confident the hall will become “a national icon.”

Peter S. LaPaglia, president of LaPaglia and Associates, Inc., has been hired as a consultant to help develop the master plan for the Hall of Fame. Work on the plan began in January 2005 and is expected to be completed in August 2006.

“We actually started fundraising for the master plan in October,” Matson said. Pledges for $250,000 are in hand for the local portion of the fundraising.

“The community campaign will have a goal of a half-a-million (dollars),” Matson said. That will be officially announced at a press conference at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Galesburg City Hall. The money raised locally will be used to pay for the master plan, hire an executive director to lead the national fund-raising campaign, and to pay expenses associated with the ambitious goal.

Matson said the idea is to show the community’s commitment, to demonstrate to foundations and the railroad industry this is a project worthy of their support.

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we need to spend money on the now,not the past. i love history but the money could be spent better to help needs not wants.

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I can understand their vision:

If each visitor spends $90 (and that’s not just on the admission, that’s food, gas, possibly lodging, not to mention other merchandise) and the see the forecast 200,000 a year, thats $18,000,000 as was pointed out. Consider that said figure is only the first time the money is spent. Some of that money gets paid as wages, which then get spent locally again, and the cycle continues.

It’s been a long time since I’ve studied the economics of tourism, but I’d say that they will see the $60 Mil spent back in the community within four or five years (not considering the local economic boost involved in building it in the first place.

There are many “national” halls of fame in otherwise unlikely places. A good number were built not on the premise that the location was representative of the subject, but on the economic value to the community.

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Shoot,
I’ll do it for $2.50 a head…first one to barf gets second ride free!
[:D]Ed

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As much as I like trains, and Galesburg, and the area around it, I don’t see any railroad museum as becoming the biggest draw in the area, and, at between 500 and 600 people per day (every day of the year), doubling the patronage of Bishop Hill. The location, though “visible from Interstate 74”, isn’t really near the tracks, nor is it by any of the other attractions in the city.

How many people would be drawn to a museum just because they saw it passing by on the Interstate (at which point half of these people would be beyond the appropriate exit anyway)?

People visit Bishop Hill because they’ve heard about it far and wide–you have to head out the old highway, and hope you catch the sign at the corner of the road that leads to it. So, if this is currently the biggest draw in the area, wouldn’t good signs and a reasonable location be as good a draw to a nationwide audience for the new Museum?

Why not clear an area nearer some of the other locations (specifically the railroad museum and the Amtrak station), possibly close to the in-town crossing of the two rail routes (which was, last time I was in the city, a fairly run-down area), and let the museum draw people from (and to) the struggling downtown area and other places of interest?

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I’m with you, Carl. I had hoped to get down there again yesterday, but we’re just too busy here (sigh). BTW, I’ve not heard of Bishop Hill- please enlighten this ignorant dummy.

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Bishop Hill is/was a 19th-century religious community. Many houses and public buildings in the town have been preserved and/or restored. Lots of crafts, reproductions, and antiques are available there. It’s some distance northeast of Galesburg on a road off U.S. 34.

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Excuse me, Swede from that area stepping in… [:D]

Actually, Bishop Hill was a settlement of Swedish immigrants.

Bergie

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Ah, OK… the Illinois version of the Amana Colonies (German).[:D]

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When I was going to college, I must have driven by that teeny-tiny sign on Route 34 about 200 times and never had a clue as to what it was. The sign (in those days at least) was mebbe 18 inches by a foot, and just said “Bishop Hill” with an arrow. It was pretty easy to miss at 60 mph.

I also find it hard to believe that 100,000 people a year visit Bishop Hill. That’s about 270 people per day, 365 days a year. I’ve since driven through “downtown” Bishop Hill several dozen times taking the shortcut out of west Kewanee and have never seen more than 10-15 people there at one time, and those were very rare occasions.

In my experience, those entities providing such studies in an effort to get a tourism project funded (hired by the funding-seekers) tend to, ah… embellish potential attendance numbers a wee bit.

But it all may be moot because I don’t see our nation’s railroads coughing up $60 million for this project, either.

Who would decide who gets in? And just who would they induct into the railroad hall of fame? Casey Jones? Jay Gould? C.P. Harrington? Thomas Durant? Theodore Judah? TheAntiGates?[:D] A.C. Gilbert? The Credit Mobilier? Chinese laborers who built the Transcontinental Railroad? Norm Mineta? Cornelius Vanderbuilt? Robert Stephenson? Raymond Loewy? Henry Dreyfuss? O. Winston Link? Erik Bergstrom? John Snow? Thomas? Joshua Lionel Cowen? Mike Wolf?

Let’s face it, railroading hasn’t provided us with a huge wealth of household names who richly deserve to be inducted.

I’ll stay tuned.

14

Pop, I have to say that the visitor’s center, at the south edge of Bishop Hill, usually gets quite a crowd of people looking at the exhibits. And I’ve been in the old schoolhouse during quilt shows and found it difficult to move around (or was that because I was being held onto?).

You’re right–if the Hall of Fame is going to have any substance, a lot of the names ensconced therein will have little meaning to many in the public. I might even get in, if they have a Hall of Notoriety wing!

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Yeah, we’re not talking about tourist-magnets like Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose (whoops!) [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]

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Bergie –

Suggestion, not vote… yet.

Should that great honor of being named to the nominating committee for the National Railroad Hall of Fame ever befall this quasi-humble soul (and the building itself gets built), I shall nominate both yourself and OGaugeOverlord based on your painful, undying and thankless servitude of screening goofy posts on these boards. There will be a special place in the HOF (and heaven, too) for forum moderators. [:D]

As for settling the nerves after a long day of policing the forums, that recipe for Glögg sounds pretty good. At the tavern in Bishop Hill, do they first run it through a screen to remove the lumps so you don’t choke? [:D]

We Polish-Americans have a traditional drinkie called “Mead” that serves the same general purpose when imbibed in copious amounts. When properly made, Mead usually has the viscosity of pancake syrup during the summer, and during winter requires chewing. Much like Glögg, Mead is a “stealth” drink – it slowly sneaks up on you and finally knocks your **** into your watch pocket. [My asterisks to make this family-friendly because the automatic profanity screener somehow – and surprisingly – does not delete the word I first typed in. Whoopee and ****-a-doodle-do!]

Other American-Pole traditional drinks include the Boilermaker (a regional mixed drink), Jack Daniel’s and Se

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Maybe there could also be a Hall of Infamy?

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Yikes! They’re going to need a bigger building![:0]

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No, but they should. My only advice (besides sipping it - because it’s not only hot but STRONG!) is to never accept the first cup out of a new pot. I did that a couple of years back at that tavern in Bishop Hill and mine was noticably stronger than the cups my relatives were drinking that came from an emptied pot. It was so strong it sent a tingle down your spine with every sip. It was basically like sipping poorly-flavored everclear. I guess it explains how the Sweeds can eat the food they eat. [:)]

One final gloog story… My parents made a batch about four years ago for a family gathering at their house around Christmas time. You make it in a big pot, and every once in a while you need to “burn off” some of the liquor. Here’s how that process works: dad lights a match and holds it near the rim of the pot. With the burning match in place, mom takes a pot holder and slowly opens the lid in the direction of the lit match. The result? A quick fire ball that reached the ceiling of th