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Re: Western Railway Museum Railfan Day
Author: Mike Ninneman
Date: 08-07-2016 - 23:08
Hello all,
I was sent this link by one of our longtime members who thought it would be a good point of constructive criticism to review. I have read each and every one of the above comments, and I can confirm that yes, we do consider the comments of our visitors.
I am a "new" member (active for nearly three years) at the Western Railway Museum/Bay Area Electric Railroad Association, so some may automatically discount my opinions. Regardless, I will give it here anyway for those who are interested.
First, to those who seem to have some animosity towards our organization, some of the comments regarding what seemed to be implying incompetence or general lack of interest interpreting to the public are not appreciated. We do not have a perfect organization by any stretch of the imagination, but we are still people, volunteers trying to run it. As a young railroad enthusiast hoping to make a difference in the disposition of our collection, said comments are very discouraging. Please consider this when commenting on the aspirations of an entire group.
That said, I will try to field each comment on "why" we aren't as welcoming of an organization as, say, when we had steam and diesel, back when Rio Vista Junction saw many more enthusiastic visitors.
The biggest reason, as many here have already noted, is a great lacking of "new blood", or dedicated volunteers. Right now, we are down to possibly as many as five or six regular shop hands, and few others elsewhere on the property tending to other museum needs. With so few active volunteers with a complete skill set for maintaining 80+ plus year old equipment, it can sometimes be difficult keeping up with it.
Second, again as many have stated, is money. Yes, we do have a multi-million dollar endowment, from which we earn a decent amount of interest to pay our expenses. However, the amount of interest we make is not enough to operate the museum the way that we have been the last few years, for a multitude of reasons. We do have, or at least used to have several paid staff members in addition to our volunteer base. We have a store, a cafe, and a relatively large collection that requires attention, so it is easy to see where the need for employees comes from. Some may say that we have managed these positions in the past with volunteers. Yes, that is correct, but also consider that that was years ago. We do not have the volunteers now that we once did. And being one of them, I can say I would not enjoy spending my day at the museum manning the store, which is why we pay people to do it.
To continue on the explanation of requiring paid staff, we have had an Executive Director until recently to help make Board decisions to better our museum image and move further towards our mission of preserving and interpreting our collection. Pardon me if I have not described the position accurately or fully, I am not a member of the board. Anyway, for reasons that I should not discuss, the Director left the museum of his own will to pursue employment elsewhere, and we have just recently begun the process of finding someone who will better help lead the museum to new horizons, and a better future.
Another issue that has been brought up is how we have been perceived by recent visitors. I apologize on behalf of our museum for any offenses or inconveniences you have experienced. As I said previously, we are not trying to drive visitors or potential volunteers away. Sometimes our members do not always conduct themselves appropriately, but with this knowledge please consider this; I hope we might make it up to you in the future.
Our "Railfan Day" event was the brainchild of a few of our more active members in order to better market the museum to new visitors. A combination of poor advertising and a lack of qualified volunteers to operate the number of trains that were planned resulted in last weekend's event. We had planned to operate probably close to a half-dozen more cars than were out that day, but we had too few volunteers signed up. Our 2015 "Members Day" event had over a dozen pieces of equipment operating throughout the day, however poor advertising and weather plagued the day, in my opinion. We are planning more new events in the future to better appeal to visitors, new and old, but feedback from participants is essential in order to make them enjoyable to everyone.
Car House 3, as some have mentioned, is closed to visitors quite often. The reason for this, as at least one person pegged, is that we do not have enough active volunteers to supervise the Car House while it is open. As a result, it is usually only open when our "Interurban" returns from its 12 Mile Round-trip ride back to the museum, and riders are let off at the Car House and led through the building. The doors are often only open during that short window when the car is stopped at the Car House to let people off, however if you ask one of our volunteers on-duty, we may be able to open the doors and allow you to either look inside briefly, or join a tour.
To try and address the lamenting of the Wildflower Trains powered by diesels in the past, there are many reasons why we can no longer operate these trains; this is a shame, as it was an excellent experience for visitors back then. One reason, although not an enormous obstruction to future excursions heading to Dozier, was removing the larger diesels from the collection. Many of us do not necessarily agree with this decision, but on the bright side we did receive a few "Diamonds in the rough", in the form on Sacramento Northern 44-ton diesel 146 (which we are currently overhauling for limited service) and SN caboose 1632, which we have since restored, and occasionally used to give rides behind SN motor 654 around our museum's loop. Secondly on that subject, the track North of the museum is in deplorable condition, to say the least. While we do have a good, competent track crew that is doing exceptionally well maintaining our serviceable Six miles of track to Pantano, we cannot afford the expense of servicing the railroad North, or thinning our active track crew by working on two sections of the railroad. Anyway, while we are no longer able to give rides North to Dozier or even Creed, we do still have many enjoyable happenings at the museum, and we hope to better the experience in the future.
I will leave you all with these last "words of wisdom". I acknowledge the mistakes of the past history of the museum and we are still struggling to remove ourselves from these problems. However, we do still have a few new volunteers, as well as longtime volunteers with only the best of intentions for the museum at heart, that are actively seeking changes to provide a better experience for the public and our members. This is a very difficult thing to do whilst combating the ghosts of our past, maintaining a working museum for visitors, and improving our image. I hope I have shed some light on our museum's current state and possibly bettered our image for some. If I haven't, I apologize and hope that one day Rio Vista Junction will get back to the Glory Days from years ago. To anyone doubting my words or with their own words of wisdom, I welcome criticism as I myself am learning how to best do my part to lead our museum, one day in the future, and I would appreciate any advice or insight you may give.
- Mike Ninneman,
Volunteer Member, Bay Area Electric Railroad Association/Western Railway Museum
I was sent this link by one of our longtime members who thought it would be a good point of constructive criticism to review. I have read each and every one of the above comments, and I can confirm that yes, we do consider the comments of our visitors.
I am a "new" member (active for nearly three years) at the Western Railway Museum/Bay Area Electric Railroad Association, so some may automatically discount my opinions. Regardless, I will give it here anyway for those who are interested.
First, to those who seem to have some animosity towards our organization, some of the comments regarding what seemed to be implying incompetence or general lack of interest interpreting to the public are not appreciated. We do not have a perfect organization by any stretch of the imagination, but we are still people, volunteers trying to run it. As a young railroad enthusiast hoping to make a difference in the disposition of our collection, said comments are very discouraging. Please consider this when commenting on the aspirations of an entire group.
That said, I will try to field each comment on "why" we aren't as welcoming of an organization as, say, when we had steam and diesel, back when Rio Vista Junction saw many more enthusiastic visitors.
The biggest reason, as many here have already noted, is a great lacking of "new blood", or dedicated volunteers. Right now, we are down to possibly as many as five or six regular shop hands, and few others elsewhere on the property tending to other museum needs. With so few active volunteers with a complete skill set for maintaining 80+ plus year old equipment, it can sometimes be difficult keeping up with it.
Second, again as many have stated, is money. Yes, we do have a multi-million dollar endowment, from which we earn a decent amount of interest to pay our expenses. However, the amount of interest we make is not enough to operate the museum the way that we have been the last few years, for a multitude of reasons. We do have, or at least used to have several paid staff members in addition to our volunteer base. We have a store, a cafe, and a relatively large collection that requires attention, so it is easy to see where the need for employees comes from. Some may say that we have managed these positions in the past with volunteers. Yes, that is correct, but also consider that that was years ago. We do not have the volunteers now that we once did. And being one of them, I can say I would not enjoy spending my day at the museum manning the store, which is why we pay people to do it.
To continue on the explanation of requiring paid staff, we have had an Executive Director until recently to help make Board decisions to better our museum image and move further towards our mission of preserving and interpreting our collection. Pardon me if I have not described the position accurately or fully, I am not a member of the board. Anyway, for reasons that I should not discuss, the Director left the museum of his own will to pursue employment elsewhere, and we have just recently begun the process of finding someone who will better help lead the museum to new horizons, and a better future.
Another issue that has been brought up is how we have been perceived by recent visitors. I apologize on behalf of our museum for any offenses or inconveniences you have experienced. As I said previously, we are not trying to drive visitors or potential volunteers away. Sometimes our members do not always conduct themselves appropriately, but with this knowledge please consider this; I hope we might make it up to you in the future.
Our "Railfan Day" event was the brainchild of a few of our more active members in order to better market the museum to new visitors. A combination of poor advertising and a lack of qualified volunteers to operate the number of trains that were planned resulted in last weekend's event. We had planned to operate probably close to a half-dozen more cars than were out that day, but we had too few volunteers signed up. Our 2015 "Members Day" event had over a dozen pieces of equipment operating throughout the day, however poor advertising and weather plagued the day, in my opinion. We are planning more new events in the future to better appeal to visitors, new and old, but feedback from participants is essential in order to make them enjoyable to everyone.
Car House 3, as some have mentioned, is closed to visitors quite often. The reason for this, as at least one person pegged, is that we do not have enough active volunteers to supervise the Car House while it is open. As a result, it is usually only open when our "Interurban" returns from its 12 Mile Round-trip ride back to the museum, and riders are let off at the Car House and led through the building. The doors are often only open during that short window when the car is stopped at the Car House to let people off, however if you ask one of our volunteers on-duty, we may be able to open the doors and allow you to either look inside briefly, or join a tour.
To try and address the lamenting of the Wildflower Trains powered by diesels in the past, there are many reasons why we can no longer operate these trains; this is a shame, as it was an excellent experience for visitors back then. One reason, although not an enormous obstruction to future excursions heading to Dozier, was removing the larger diesels from the collection. Many of us do not necessarily agree with this decision, but on the bright side we did receive a few "Diamonds in the rough", in the form on Sacramento Northern 44-ton diesel 146 (which we are currently overhauling for limited service) and SN caboose 1632, which we have since restored, and occasionally used to give rides behind SN motor 654 around our museum's loop. Secondly on that subject, the track North of the museum is in deplorable condition, to say the least. While we do have a good, competent track crew that is doing exceptionally well maintaining our serviceable Six miles of track to Pantano, we cannot afford the expense of servicing the railroad North, or thinning our active track crew by working on two sections of the railroad. Anyway, while we are no longer able to give rides North to Dozier or even Creed, we do still have many enjoyable happenings at the museum, and we hope to better the experience in the future.
I will leave you all with these last "words of wisdom". I acknowledge the mistakes of the past history of the museum and we are still struggling to remove ourselves from these problems. However, we do still have a few new volunteers, as well as longtime volunteers with only the best of intentions for the museum at heart, that are actively seeking changes to provide a better experience for the public and our members. This is a very difficult thing to do whilst combating the ghosts of our past, maintaining a working museum for visitors, and improving our image. I hope I have shed some light on our museum's current state and possibly bettered our image for some. If I haven't, I apologize and hope that one day Rio Vista Junction will get back to the Glory Days from years ago. To anyone doubting my words or with their own words of wisdom, I welcome criticism as I myself am learning how to best do my part to lead our museum, one day in the future, and I would appreciate any advice or insight you may give.
- Mike Ninneman,
Volunteer Member, Bay Area Electric Railroad Association/Western Railway Museum
