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From: RJFlei AT aol DOT com
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 18:58:48 EDT
Subject: Erie Doodlebug In Musuem That Is Closed
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Railway museum slipping off the tracks
Worthington attraction closed as leaders ponder its survival
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 02:53 AM
By _Dean Narciso_ (mailto:dnarciso@dispatch.com)


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

(http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/local_news/stories/2010/09/08/railway-gone-art-gr69q52f-103-railway-gone-clh-jpg.jpg)
Courtney Hergesheimer DISPATCH
The Ohio Railway Museum has been closed since early summer after an
electrical mishap with a streetcar.


The signs outside the Ohio Railway Museum say it all.
"Due to technical issues we are closed."
For how long and at what cost have yet to be figured out.
The Worthington museum has struggled over the years, with too few
volunteers, uncertain revenue and the challenge of making hulking old trains
interesting and safe.
The problems came to a boil at the start of summer, when a trolley-car
pole, used to connect trains with power lines, snagged, bending the pole and
taking down the lines.
The 600-volt lines sparked and snapped, breaking a tripper switch in the
control building and smashing out the streetcar's windows.
No one was injured in the Memorial Day weekend mishap, but it caused the
museum's leadership to halt operations and reconsider its future.
"Trying to turn around 30 years of neglect with five or six volunteers on
the weekend is not going to happen in a day," said Chris Howell, the Ohio
Railway Museum's president for the past year.
Revenue from the summer and fall typically carries the museum through the
winter. And the popular "Ghost Trolley" in October is uncertain.
Howell said previous museum officials had not spent enough on cleaning up
the rail yard or protecting its historic cars, including some of the oldest
streetcars in Columbus.
The museum, along Proprietors Road just west of Rt. 161, is run by a
nonprofit board of directors.
A few years ago, "There were literally just piles of junk all over," Howell
said. "It's one thing to have people expect to see some rust - it's old.
But to have to step over piles - broken windows and heaps of metal - it was
just a safety risk."
Howell met with Worthington City Councilman Scott Myers and other city
officials this summer.
"The city has had some concerns about the deterioration of the site," Myers
said. "They left the impression that they were working pretty darn hard to
restore the site."
He said the group would like to extend its rail lines south toward
Indianola Park, making itself more of an excursion and less of a museum.
"They want to be able to run Saturday-morning lines up those tracks and
back," said Myers, who has a soft spot for trains, stemming from his college
days.
"If they can get a fundraising base or endowment in there, I would support
their efforts, personally."
But it won't be easy.
"It's a herculean task with the limited resources they have," Myers said


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