that). It will both celebrate and encourage improved quality in such productions with a juried awards feature. Plus, a core group of model railroaders are building the tentatively
named West Virginia & Atlantic Railroad. This display will depict how railroads moved natural resources from West Virginia to market. Un- dergraduates enrolled in the Railway Heritage Tourism minor at D&E will eventually assist them. After all, one of the minor’s electives is “Model Railroading in a Museum Setting.” This does not mean an end to equipment and facility restoration.
Quite the contrary. But it does mean making hard choices. How and where do we deploy precious assets? To restoring another caboose? To stockpiling rusting pieces of equipment that may turn off rather than excite our audience? To static exhibits of items that, out of context, have no meaning? Or should we be building interpretative exhibits, creating interactive situations, applying technology and data-driven activity to what we already have? And if so, what? It’s big challenge. But our response to it will determine our future. If you are still with me this far into this reminiscence, know I have
long valued this opportunity to connect with you, hear from you, learn your thoughts on these matters. I know my beliefs are not universally shared. But we can surely agree that railroad heritage preservation is an environment in transition. From its founders to their heirs. From static displays to experiential immersion. From hard sites and rigid planning to gamification and connective interaction. How we navigate this transition, and facilitate the work of others who are making it, will determine how our community — collectively and as individual sites — perseveres. My money is on those who don’t just work hard to preserve a piece of railroad history, but who select the projects and do the work with their eye on why the work matters to those who’ve never experi- enced railroading in the manner we did who grew up in the presence of an industry in its heyday. My contact information is below. Note: As I lay the groundwork for the next 23 years, I am indebted
Echoes in the Holler, a work created by J. Craig Thorpe to dramatize the 2016 Sounds of Railroading conference and concert, depicts the Western Maryland Railway moving 50 loads of coal through West Virginia’s Black Water Canyon. It required as many as six WM H9s, the heaviest 2-8-0s to operate in America, to traverse the Canyon from Hendricks to Thomas up a 3.05 percent grade.
to Jim Boyd and Henry Carstens, and especially Steve Barry and now Kevin EuDaly and White River Productions, for allowing me to indulge my interests here. And I am grateful to those among you who have responded recently — unsolicited, mind you — to note your satisfaction with the modest changes being made in the scope of my topics here.
PLEASE SEND QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS on railroad dining, art, and other trackside treats to Jim Porterfield at P.O. Box 3041, Elkins, WV 26241, or email
onthemenu@railfan.com.
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