Since threads are getting a little long and mixed up, I'll start a new one.
Reading John West's response to Acedemic Rationale.... brought these thoughts to mind.
Most museum organizations that run a "tourist train" have a delicate balance to achieve. How to you maintain the historic integrety while providing the "tourist" experience? Without tourist revenue most of our organizations could not survive.
I agree with John that the most important thing we can do is TEACH. As a tourist who rode the CATS last Sept. I can assure you that, while I was a tourist, I was taught a lot. Just riding without any other input teaches a lot. One can only imagine what it was like in the "old days". One can ponder what it was like to live in a section house,fight the snow,maintain the equipt,etc.
That being said, the ability for the venue to provide learning experiences is very important. You cannot have a future unless "new blood" learns, becomes interested, and involved. It may be less 1% than of the "tourists" whoever achieve that. However, that's more people than there were before.
Where I volunteer we have a museum in the depot. When I talk to people in the musuem,almost always tourists waiting for the train ride,they always comment on the "story" told by the displays. It is an interpretive center. We have volunteers in our organization whose first contact with us was as a tourist just coming to ride the train.
Car hosts, of which I am one among other jobs I do, can also add much to this teaching experience just through casual coversation with passsngers. I think they are called docents at the CATS. I learned a lot from the one on the gon I rode even if I had to sacrifice the loudspeaker not being "authentic." I also learned a lot from "Ticket to Toltec" which I purchased long before I arrived to take the ride. Then I re-read it after I rode the train and learned even more.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is not easy achieving the right balance, but as John said its the TEACHING that's important. Otherwise there is no future.
MY 2 cents
Bill Houston
Safety Director,Car Host,Interpreter,flagger,cleaner,painter,etc,etc.
Heart Of Dixie RR Museum
Calera & Shelby RR
Calera, AL
