Trains or "Trans"

What If …?

De bait has been taken and debate has taken off.

The recently publicized report by Museum Management Consultants criticized VMT for being a transportation museum and recommended that it focus solely on railroads. That seems to have stirred as much reaction as anything in the report. Since then others have been weighing in on this issue, here and elsewhere.

“Trans” or trains? Potato or potahto? Is this a critical issue for the organization’s future?

I have some opinions. Some of you are already sharing yours. Before I add my two mashed-flat-on-the-tracks cents’ worth, though, I’d love to hear from more of you, as well as learn more details from those who are already “on record.”

So jump on in and splash around some.

Whaddya think? Should the place remain the Virginia Museum of Transportation or forsake its “official” Commonwealth status and do what it seems to do best? Why?

And if you think VMT should retain its current mission, how could it do the job better? Where should there be nips, tucks or complete overhauls? What should be changed, added, subtracted, or displayed differently? How much should the railroad theme be emphasized versus other modes of transportation?

On the other hand, if you are convinced that planes and cars should be barred and wagons and trucks should be shucked, what would you do with them? Would Roanoke accept such a change after 45 years of hybrid emphasis? Do you think a rails-only attraction would attract as many visitors? And how would you reorganize to create a successful railroad museum? What would you do with trains that is not already being done?

Then there is the geographical issue. Despite the General Assembly’s designation, if it refuses to provide funds, should VMT’s collection be tailored more to this part of Virginia and its unique transportation history? (To a degree, that is already the case with the preponderance of Norfolk & Western materials.) To what extent should the focus be on what Roanokers will support?

Much of this is purely theoretical at this point. Nevertheless, it’s fun to play armchair quarterback, I mean, engineer. Not only that, such a debate serves a valuable function. Whether VMT ever changes its mission, clarifying the answers to such questions can help sharpen the museum’s focus and increase its effectiveness.

At least more people are talking about VMT again. That in itself is progress.

VMT Blogger Is Back

The New Kid on the Blog

February 26, 2008

Blog. It’s just one of the many other-worldly words that computers and the Internet have added to our language.

But blog? It sounds plodding. Boring. Neanderthal (“Blog take spear, kill velociraptor for dinner”). It’s short for weblog, I realize, but it rhymes with slog and clog and flog, which are not the best company to be keeping.

Blog sounds like something you might unhappily find stuck to the sole of your dress shoe.

However, I am getting off-track, which a railroader should never do. I will blog on.

Since this is my first attempt as the new blogger on this website, perhaps telling you a bit about me would be good. At least then you will have some idea who’s writing the stuff that interests or irritates you.

I have been a pastor and a free-lance writer most of my adult life. Three wonderful women brighten my world, a wife and two grown daughters. I can now speak credibly of the infamous midlife crisis in the past tense, and I have the hair—or bare—to prove it.

Sports, movies, books, photography, music and theater all clutter my imagination at times. Especially music. I collect it, listen to it and occasionally make it, though somewhat sloggishly.

My music pursuits have recently intersected my transportation interests. I have collected the lyrics (so far) of about a thousand railroad songs from the near and distant pasts, several hundred of which I have in audio form as well. More about that at another time.

About a decade ago I worked intermittently as a tour guide and workshop leader at the Museum. Now I have begun editing its quarterly newsletter. By the way, if you don’t receive a copy and want to, please e-mail us an address. Preferably yours.

And I play with trains. I started out in HO, then discovered my level of patience and fine motor skills did less damage in large scale. One of these days I plan to actually build and operate the layout which now exists only in my post-midlife brain. It will depict southwest VA about 1959, when the last steam was passing the baton to the diesel-electrics. Back then I would watch with wonder those N&W beasts snaking through my boyhood backyard.

I’m no expert on transportation, railroads, model trains or museums. However, I get excited over them all and I passionately believe in the treasures and mission of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. I will preach the gospel of VMT as well as try to learn from you.

As I muse about Museum-related topics, talk back when the mood strikes you. Your comments will make for a better blog, and I will have evidence that I’m not just mumbling to myself. And if you can’t slog through my prose without getting your brain clogged up or your interest bogged down, you are welcome to flog me.

At least in print.

Tug-of-war

The last time our Norfolk & Western J Class #611 ran under its own power was in 1994. When it finally came back to us, the crowds along the tracks were several people deep on both sides.

Currently, #611 is the closest thing we have to an operational locomotive. The current estimate to restore it to running condition is less than $250,000 -- a drop in the bucket for anybody willing to shell out the kind of money it would take to run #611 in excursion service. This is sort of like the people who buy expensive sports cars; if they can afford the car, they can probably afford the gas and taxes.

Like #1218 and #763, we don't own #611; it belongs to the City of Roanoke, and we lease it from them for $1.00 per year. As part of our agreement with the city, and the city's agreement with Norfolk Southern, we are required to move #611 about once a year to keep its wheels and bearings from flattening under the weight of the engine. The last time we moved it was more than a year ago.

Our Executive Director had a fantastic idea to accomplish this task this year -- a large-scale tug-of-war tournament. #611 is registered as a national engineering landmark, in part because it is very well-balanced, so much so that a small group of people (perhaps as few as two or three) can pull it with a rope over level track.

The idea would be to clear the track in front of and behind #611, and have competing teams pulling in opposite directions. The first team to pull the engine beyond a certain point would win that round and it would proceed in a tournament style.

We'd solicit prizes from local businesses, get some live music, throw some burgers and dogs on the grill and charge a nominal admission fee, also collecting group entry fees from the teams. The turn-out could be tremendous, and it could easily become an annual fund raiser. There are a lot of people locally and abroad that would pay just about anything to see this engine move.

If nothing else, we'd get somebody to move the engine without Norfolk Southern having to come in with a switcher just to move the thing a few feet in either direction.

763

There was a good deal of discussion when it was announced that we were going to sell the Nickel Plate locomotive, No. 763 to the Ohio Central Railroad Historical Society (no direct link available). We received positive and negative feedback, but the reasoning behind the decision seems to have been lost amid nostalgia and passion. We'd like to explain why we chose to sell this piece of the collection, and how it will benefit you, our patrons.

To start, we need to clear up that we, the museum, cannot actually sell this particular locomotive. It doesn't belong to us. Rather, it belongs to the City of Roanoke, having been gifted to the city by Norfolk & Western in the 1960s when this museum was the Roanoke Transportation Museum. At no point has the Virginia Museum of Transportation ever owned this locomotive, and as such, its sale must ultimately be made by the city, not us.

On down the rabbit hole, this locomotive in no way furthers the mission of VMT. What is our mission, you ask? It is:

To preserve and interpret the transportation heritage of the Commonwealth by collecting, restoring and exhibiting significant artifacts in order to serve and educate the citizens of Virginia.

That's it. So why doesn't #763 add to this? #763 never ran one foot within the borders of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It came here purely by chance when Norfolk & Western acquired the Nickel Plate line. As diesels were replacing steam engines, there was no need for this piece, but it would be bad politics to simply scrap it. So, it went to the City of Roanoke, home of Norfolk & Western's headquarters at the time. The city stuck it in our back yard, where it's been quite literally through hell and high water.

Ok, now for the ugly part -- money. The American Association of Museums (AAM) contends that it is in bad form to sell any piece of a museum's collection unless the money from the sale directly benefits the collection through restoration or the purchase of another piece. Well, we can't really argue that fact. As mentioned above, the City of Roanoke would receive the money, and it would be at their discretion to allocate it to VMT or not. Assuming they would, the money would at least partially go toward the collection. There's more to it, though.

It has not been made clear quite how dire things have been for VMT financially. In a year that saw the roof torn off the building like wrapping paper on Christmas morning, the state cut our funding by nearly 60%, and the City of Roanoke which owns more than 40% of our collection, gave us a mere $52,000 (representing about a 5% cut from the previous year). The sale of #763 for $125,000, to be blunt, keeps our doors open.

If we want to adhere strictly to the AAM's guideline about the application of money from the sale, then no, it isn't all going where it should. To that, we can only say this:

If we are closed, the pieces in our collection will deteriorate more than they would when we are open.

Period. Do we have a full-time restoration team? No. Could we afford one if we did? Probably not. Would the sale of #763 allow for that? You better believe it would. It would also pay for us to offer educational programs to schools and community organizations, it would go toward restoring and preserving the pieces of our collection, and it would enable us to exhibit better the artifacts we already have. All of these things are 100% in line with our mission statement.

It is undeniable that #763 has a special place in the heart for a lot of Roanokers and Virginia rail fans alike. The decision to sell the locomotive is not meant in any way to belittle or demean this sentiment. Rather, the opposite is true. The Ohio Central Railroad Historical Society has both the money and the ability to restore #763 to operating condition. Upon doing so, it will run excursions in Ohio, providing an unforgettable and meaningful experience to the citizens of Ohio, the engine's true home.

We hope that you'll come to see #763 one last time before it leaves Roanoke. It had a long history here, and will leave amid tears and celebration. But its sale helps us do our jobs, and our jobs make your experiences here better.

"Starlight" Moving On

This month will be your last chance to catch our temporary exhibit, "Starlight on the Rails," currently on loan from the Robert Mann Gallery in New York. The exhibit showcases nighttime railroad photography NOT done by O. Winston Link (though it certainly must have been inspired by his work).

This exhibit will be leaving in mid-April, to be replaced by two exhibits -- one on buses, the other on the Virginian Railway. Look for more info about those soon.

If you've been by the museum, you've probably seen a banner out front advertising the "Starlight" exhibit. If you were of an especially keen eye, you probably saw that this exhibit was supposed to have left us last year, but has been held over. However popular the exhibit has been (and people have seemed to enjoy it), we didn't keep it this long because of the mass appeal of nighttime railroad photography -- Roanoke already has a museum for that.

We kept it, to be blunt, because there were a hundred other things we had to do, and only six paid employees working in the building, two on a part-time basis. You'll probably hear some spin about how popular it is, but the reality is that when your roof comes off in a storm and your former Executive Director resigns, priorities shift dramatically, and taking pictures off a wall that HASN'T suffered water damage isn't that high on the list. Anyway, our thanks go to the Robert Mann Gallery for being so understanding. They've extended the loan of this exhibit well beyond our contract, and haven't once pushed us to get it back before we were able.

So, only about six or eight months late, "Starlight on the Rails" is leaving us to go back home to New York. Come on down and see it while it lasts. Sunday, April 8th will be the last day the Lawrence Gallery (where "Starlight" currently resides) is open before it changes over.

Come. See. Gawk.

Vince and Larry

Aside from being an under-appreciated band from the 1990s, the Crash Test Dummies are Vince and Larry.

We're happy to welcome Vince and Larry to VMT to take part in our auto gallery. Look for pictures later today.

Inaugural post!

Welcome to VMT Musings, the official blog of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. I'll be your conductor, cruise director, and flight attendant as VMT sets out to document its work and progress in the digital realm and beyond. Ok, enough fluff. Here's what's happening at the museum.

Currently, the museum is transforming itself, getting ready to open a new gallery which will increase the size of the museum by 33%. This new gallery will be our auto gallery (check back for posts with updates on and photos from the gallery), housing first an exhibit from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) called, "From Mud to Mobility." This exhibit will chronicle the history of VDOT's work in Virginia, from the first paved roads to the creation of the Smart Road. We're hoping to have a soft opening for this exhibit by the end of March, so check back in for more information.

Also on VMT's to-do list is an upcoming bus exhibit. The Executive Director of the museum loves buses (and we all think he seems happiest behind the wheel of a bus), so this exhibit has a special place for him. It showcases a collection of model buses, photographs, bus maps, and other items.

Soon, the museum hopes to re-vamp its Virginian Railway exhibit. Currently, this exhibit is little more than a hodge-podge of boarding passes, time tables, and photographs -- this is hardly a fitting exhibit for one of the leading railroads of its era, and Roanoke's "other" railroad, beside the Norfolk & Western. Look for that exhibit later this year.

Last, but certainly not least, are our on-going restoration projects. The first priority goes to the car we call "President One." This car was used by the president of the Illinois Terminal, and offers quite a few amenities including a kitchen, dining room, state room, and bathrooms. The car still needs a lot of work. Look for photos soon!

So, you're asking yourself, "Self, what can I learn from reading VMT's blog that I can't learn from press releases or advertising?"

What we'll offer you here is the stuff that doesn't go in press releases. You'll be able to follow our restoration efforts on an almost daily basis as new work is done. We'll provide photo essays on what it takes to keep this place running. You'll be able to see the real damage done by the storm last summer that tore off our roof and still has most of the building without heat. This is the acoustic set -- the good, the bad, and the really quite ugly. Stay tuned.