This takeover attempt amounts to
certain people within the community asking the question --
does the railroad society deserve to survive?
I would say yes -- for a variety of reasons that are particular to this institution.
What is a railway museum?
Many folks reading this page are new to railway preservation, and you may not know
what a railway museum is. Is it like an art museum but with trains instead of
pictures? Is it like a classic car museum with rows of Tin Lizzies?
Or an air museum with airplanes hanging from the ceiling?
Not at all. Railway museums are kinetic! The stuff runs.
It's built so tough that museums can responsibly run it and give people
a memorable outing. And that's wonderful, because it lets people
directly experience a mode of transportation that is completely new
to them, in many cases.
What makes a great museum?
You know, the first thing I think of is "equipment". What's their collection
of locomotives and cars? Wow, they have a Mallet? There's a Niles interurban.
But it's not that simple is it? Two museums can have exactly the same piece
of equipment and it can be as big a difference as this:
This is not before/after. You are looking at two
of the, what, eight? surviving electric cars from the state of Michigan.
Neither one is in Michigan.
Both of these units live at railway museums which were formed shortly
after World War II. And most of those museums which survived, are pretty
much class acts - large fractions of their collections under cover, etc.
Surprisingly they don't all have railroads to call their own.
Demonstration railroad vs. historic rail line
The fact is, even the best museums are desperately short on actual railroad
on which to operate. Most of the elder museums (IRM, Seashore, ORM, OERM)
have hard to construct "demonstration railroads" of very short length, which
means they can't really convey the experience of riding the train - certainly
not between towns.
Actually owning a railroad is a distinctive mark among railway museums.
And the Southern Michigan Railroad Society has that beat.
They own the line free and clear (takeover attempt notwithstanding).
However there are a fair number of operations that own a railroad line and
nothing else, and they, too, are going nowhere. You need more.
The land is what makes the museum.
A museum with a railroad and a fair
block of land (>20 acres) -- has it made. Of all the "landed" railway
museums I can think of, none have failed. Collectively they are the backbone
of equipment collection in the U.S. -
Illinois Railway Museum,
Seashore Trolley Museum,
Orange Empire Railway Museum,
Western Railway Museum
and a
few others.
Ohio Railway Museum
, the custodian of the unit on the left, is
the exception that makes the rule - they never bought land, they remain crammed
on about 1 acre in urban Columbus, and they are failing and liquidating.
The Ohio bloodbath
The tristate area desperately needs "a clean safe place for trains" -
a generalized, landed railway museum.
Right now, it's a bloodbath in Ohio. Gerald Brookins operated an
excellent private trolley museum within the bounds of a trailer park.
He died, the trailer park was redeveloped. The collection went to a project
which was supposed to be government-backed to build a world class trolley
museum in Cleveland. But after the election, the new regime backed out.
So now the equipment is up for auction.
Simultaneously, the Ohio Railway Museum, is
liquidating almost all their equipment. The market for this equipment
is weak due to the economy, so much of this equipment will most likely be
scrapped. The damage to Ohio railway preservation is brutal,
the equipment will mostly be leaving the state never to return.
Boy, have we been there? Yeah, look where those Detroit streetcars are now.
Ohio does have Ohio Central, but this is a private enterprise, and
Brookins stands as a cautionary tale about the fate of private museums.
Even sad little ORM has lasted 50 years. Can you think of any private
enterprise that has lasted that long? East Broad Top started in '64.
So I say -- nonprofit is the way to go.
OK, what about Government run museums? Talk to the volunteers at California
State Railroad Museum or Steamtown before you get too excited about that.
The problem with government museums is they win or lose based on the economy
and the regime. Just like Cleveland!
Specialty museums vs. general
In Michigan, there are four specialty museums with better success -
successful Project 1225, which runs one steam engine; Bluewater, which
maintains an Amtrak grade coach fleet (talk about a match made in heaven!)
Huckleberry, a government operated museum which specializes in narrow
gauge steam. And the Henry Ford Museum, a massive, super-generalist museum.
The rest of Michigan railroading is hanging on by their thumbs, waiting
for the eviction notice or other calamity.
I very strongly advocate the Southern Michigan Railroad Society as the
museum to support, because it owns its railroad.
The Mess
But wait, isn't the SMRS in dilapidated shape, a real pigsty, a dump?
Yes, admittedly.
But unfortunately that is what museums look like in these early stages.
Even those great elder museums looked that bad in their early days.
The Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista has every single piece
under cover, 40% of them in a climate controlled barn with sprinkers.
And yet -- here's what life looked like at WRM when it was about SMRS's age.
So I hate to say -- the Southern Michigan is doing about as well as a
bunch of now-grand museums at that age.
What does it say at the bottom of that picture?
I for one, am not willing to wait 40 years. And frankly the citizens of
Clinton and Tecumseh shouldn't have to wait either. There is merit to
some of the complaints people have about the SMRS. They
could be a better neighbor and a more responsible part of the
community.
And I firmly believe the best way to be a good neighbor is to be the
best that you can be.
That's why I don't want to wait. I want the
SMRS to get the land NOW, and get their ascention into motion...
...so that sooner, rather than later, SMRS members are annotating old 2009 photos with Thank God those days are over..."
This is worth fighting for.
And we will win.