Transportation Museum Should Hold A Yard Sale
The local papers have been filled lately with articles and letters bemoaning the sad state of the Transportation Museum. Many writers place the blame directly on lack of funding from the city and state, while others seem to suggest that contributors to the new Taubman Museum of Art are somehow responsible, since they haven’t supported the Transportation Museum in equal measure. Since when does contributing to one cause obligate you to support another?
A recent commentary in the Roanoke Times written by a VMT volunteer went so far as to suggest that “the area needs a comprehensive strategy for supporting its aesthetic institutions.” Is the writer suggesting that private citizens should not be free to support the causes of their choice? Should all of our donations to cultural institutions be funneled through city council so they can determine which organizations are most deserving of our contributions?
Like many in Roanoke, the last time I visited the Transportation Museum, I was 5 years old, and it was still in Wasena Park. After reading all of the recent negative articles, I decided to go and see for myself what all the fuss was about. My 3 year old son is a big choo-choo fan, so he was eager to join me. After paying the $14.00 admission fee, we entered the dimly lit space, and the initial impression was even worse than I was expecting. The museum claims that it attracted 20,000 visitors last year, but if they were anything like me, 19,000 of them probably wish they could get their money back.
What we saw was not so much a museum, but a random collection of old junk, haphazardly displayed with no thought given to a cohesive theme or presentation. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really considered a rusting 1970 Oldsmobile to be museum worthy? I felt as if I had paid a big admission fee to wander around a used car lot. The railroad displays were not much better. The overwhelming majority of the locomotives and rail cars are unrestored rusting hulks with no historic connection to Roanoke. It’s clear now why the museum lacks support from the community: There simply isn’t much there that deserves our support.
There are two items in the museum that are worthy of public display. The J-611 and A-1218 locomotives were both manufactured in Roanoke, and represent significant milestones in railroad history. Everything else in the museum is a distraction from these two gems. The best course of action for the transportation museum would be to sell off everything else in their “collection” and use the proceeds to restore these engines to working order. An excursion service featuring these historic steam powered locomotives would draw many more visitors than a static display of rusty junk.
While we’re holding a yard sale, go ahead and sell the building too. It’s an ideal site for unique retail spaces, offices, or lofts, that would do more for the cause of downtown revitalization than the current VMT. Proceeds from the sale could be used to construct a new display pavilion for the restored locomotives at the Link Museum, enabling visitors to get a better view of Roanoke’s railroading past in one location.