Quote:
Originally Posted by 62440
It's all about "Bums on seats" and if people are going to make return visits then the "Product" has got to be displayed in an as attractive as possible condition. To turn out locos (and stock) in as filthy a condition as I recall from the late 1950's-early 1960's is just going to send Joe Public home with a poor impression and an unwillingness to return, ever. Preserved lines are part of the Tourist industry nowadays, actual transportation comes a long way down the list.
Regards, 62440.
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I can't dispute that, but it is still, I feel, missing something to present an idealised picture.
Go to the black country museum, at Dudley.
It shows what the buildings were, very sanitized, but not what the life was .. look at photo's of the rubbish filled streets, snotty nosed kids with the arses out of their trousers.
I went to Grimsby the other day .. one of my earlier lives was as a sparks on Hull & Grimsby Trawlers .. there is a fisheries museum and exhibition, and an old Grimsby Ross Trawler (The Tiger if I recall correctly) .. all very good intentions .. but nothing really like life on distant water trawlers ..
I don't know how they could show the real 'reality', but they are trying ..
The railways aren't ..
Yes, they are part of the Tourist Industry .. But they do get grants for Education purposes .. I believe that is where a lot of funding for SVR's Engine House was sourced .. I am not sure how much education there actually is.
I don't have an answer, but if heritage railways are to be more than the icing on a cake, they need to show the dirt under the fingernails.
I know this has gone off my original topic, (before someone else raises that point.