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Buy any one for $24, additional titles just
REVELATION DVDs! Free Postage
$15 each!!
MUST or MYTH?
America’s Past and Future with Fast Trains
One hour
MUST or MYTH- One Hour. America's Past and possible future with fast trains, plus the world scene, speed records and some fun. CASSANDRA, PA - Longest Day 2015, Norfolk Southern dawn to dusk on the grade from the old iron bridge. Two Hours. "MAKE NOISE !!" - One Hour study of steam whistles, air horns and locomotive bells - Learn, Look and LISTEN !! ADIRONDACK and D&H Laurentian - 77 Minutes. From Steam to PAs to Turbo, experience one of the most scenic day trips on Amtrak! CANADA OFF SEASON - 1 Hour 50 Minutes. Winter journeys aboard "The Canadian", plus MacDonald Tunnel & other visits along the snowy C.P. RAILROAD VIDEO QUARTERLY - Two Hours, Issue 93 includes TRIPLE CROWN, ROCKVILLE VIADUCT and many other segments. ($69 if you wish to subscribe for one year).
IRON ROOSTER New Year’s 2015
All Photos by Peter Bowler STEAMING INTO 2015 - COLD WEATHER ACTION!
And here are our three latest INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURES featuring the last operating steam in regular service! IRON ROOSTER NEW YEAR 2015 - Best of China's rapidly dwindling steam show - hard working JS and SY 2-8-2s, plus narrow gauge 0-8-0s. Two Hours. YUGO ECHO - Two Hours showcasing Bosnia's "Kriegsloks" 2-10-2s plus narrow guage, and modern trains and trams of Bosnia and Croatia. GULA RAILS - 2 DVD set (add $5 to your total if or- dering this title) 3 1/2 hours. On the island of Java, Indone- sia, you will visit over a dozen historic sugar mills and their narrow gauge lines. In all, 15 steamers are viewed along with a huge diesel variety, mainline action, and even sun- rise at Mt. Bromo. Recent video from August 2015.
Please ask for COMPLETE CATALOG with over a hundred titles, and ask about Railroad Video Quarterly back issues, via E-MAIL -
ronaldmcelrath@yahoo.com - or write. Please make check or money order payable to:
Revelation Video Box 129, Tallmadge, OH 44278 Credit card orders:
Call 330 620 9817 (9 to 9 Eastern).
Meet your typical museum visitors! Good museum displays need to communicate quickly and clearly to a range of educational backgrounds and interest levels. We are standing inside MDT No. 14053, an ice-cooled refrigerator car on display at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum near Rochester, N.Y. The exhibit housed inside relates the history of nearby Despatch Shops, where cars like these were manufactured until the plant closed in 1970. OTTO M. VONDRAK PHOTO
Interpreting the Foreign Language of Railroading Hours Two
TRAINS ARE FASCINATING. Doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s on rails, chances are we’ll go check it out. We also have enough shared experience that even if we don’t know the exact heritage and history of a particular piece of equipment we are looking at, some primal part of our brain registers TRAIN and GOOD and we’re happy all the same. Such is my experience at many railroad museums around the U.S. There are thousands of pieces of preserved railroad equipment scattered across the country. They were all saved by people who have an interest in trains or history or both. For some, a display is nothing more than an old locomotive with a fresh coat of paint and a sign identifying the piece as “Old 97,” for others it involves interactive pushbutton multimedia and a laser light show. What we are talking about is called “interpretation,” or how you present historic artifacts and explain them to your visitors. Usually you might associate “interpretation” with a foreign tongue, and you’d be correct. Think about the language of railroading that includes a world of boomers, brains, cinder dicks, hogheads, dynamiters, crummies, highballs, hotboxes, shoo-flies, and gandy dancers. Moving past the jargon and “inside” expressions, you already have the knowledge to help your visitors better understand the significance of the items in your collection. Remember that the average visitor knows next to nothing about trains and does not understand the difference between “conductor” and “engineer.” You won’t convert them into instant experts, but at least you can help unlock some of the mystery and share what makes trains so interesting and historically significant. I like to visit museums, learn about their collection, and discover what makes them historically significant. Some displays are
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very good about sharing information, others not so much. Some displays focus too much on the railroad aspect. Locomotive builder, date, location, model designation, lot number, horsepower, number of cylinders and bore diameter, rebuild date, unloaded weight, inside height, names of trains it pulled, name of the last engineer to run it, and so on. All fascinating to you and me, but guaranteed to make little impression on the average visitor. This begs the question of how much and
what kind of information are you supposed to share? Even if you could explain every single fact and figure, would that make for a good visitor experience? There is no one answer that fits all situations, but there are some good professional guidelines out there to help. After poking around the internet for a bit, I found a great outline from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the world’s largest collection of art with more than 4.5 million pieces in its collection. Their curators probably know a thing or two about engaging visitors, and I’ll paraphrase their advice here. 1. Write for your audience. Work with
the understanding that your visitors don’t have much railroad experience, but do have a good educational background. Don’t talk down to your audience, but don’t be aloof, either. Not every exhibit will have the same tone of voice. A display dedicated to diesel technology will have a different feel from an exhibit of vintage travel posters. Remember that your visitors are curious to
learn, but also have a short attention span. Parents visiting with young children or elderly companions won’t have a lot of patience for long-winded or confusing explanations. Avoid using jargon or other shortcuts to clear explanations. You have about 30 seconds to get your point across. 2. Organize your information. Your
EXPLORING THE COMPLEX WORLD OF HISTORIC RAILWAY PRESERVATION
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