KC Transportation Museum

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:42 am

(Copied from Union Station thread. I think this topic should be discussed in both forums because it is a Union Station and a KC Transit issue.)

Here is a story in Pitch about Union Station and the train museum attraction. Amazingly, the article has a positive tone to it, rather uncharacteristic of the Pitch.

http://pitch.com/issues/2004-06-24/stline.html

I think this is a great Idea, although I do wish they would be a little more realistic with the attendance figures so it does not "fail" the original plans and I hope the â€œmodelâ€

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 1:17 pm

Where's that old street car currently located? Someone should fix that thing up, put it in Brookside or Waldo, and turn it into a milk shake/coffee shop!

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:09 pm

Why are we stopping with just buying some railroad artifacts? I'll agree that's a good place to start, but why not open a museum that highlights the impact of all forms of transportation on American culture? Transportation, and specifically cars, have changed the way Americans lead their lives.

I've never even heard of a transporation museum-- that's a good thing. KC can build one.

Post by **staubio** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:17 pm

trailerkid wrote:Why are we stopping with just buying some railroad artifacts? I'll agree that's a good place to start, but why not open a museum that highlights the impact of all forms of transportation on American culture? Transportation, and specifically cars, have changed the way Americans lead their lives.

I've never even heard of a transporation museum-- that's a good thing. KC can build one.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'm salivating. I'm a transportation freak. This thread is going to ruin my life. Must... think... about.... something else.

Also, do 10 or 20 of you want to partner to open up that ice cream shop in the trolley car? That would be awesome.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:22 pm

trailerkid wrote:Why are we stopping with just buying some railroad artifacts? I'll agree that's a good place to start, but why not open a museum that highlights the impact of all forms of transportation on American culture? Transportation, and specifically cars, have changed the way Americans lead their lives.

I've never even heard of a transporation museum-- that's a good thing. KC can build one.

Yup. TWA is a perfect local connection to leverage for the part of the museum that focuses on aviation.

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:28 pm

KC0KEK wrote:
trailerkid wrote:Why are we stopping with just buying some railroad artifacts? I'll agree that's a good place to start, but why not open a museum that highlights the impact of all forms of transportation on American culture? Transportation, and specifically cars, have changed the way Americans lead their lives.

I've never even heard of a transporation museum-- that's a good thing. KC can build one.
Yup. TWA is a perfect local connection to leverage for the part of the museum that focuses on aviation.

I just don't think we should aim for a KC transportation museum....the focus needs to be broader. What difference does the history of KC's transporation systems make to someone from Baltimore? We need something to draw more than just KC history and development freaks. It needs to be so compelling that it draws everyone.

KC0KEK · Post by **KC0KEK** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:13 pm

Right. But in the cases of rail and aviation, there are obvious local choices that can and should be highlighted. Otherwise, we're wasting the opportunity to show how KC has contributed.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:16 pm

We should create an attractive and entertaining, yet educational timeline showing large scale photos of metro KC transit and how it evolved, dissolved and (trying) to evolve once again. This would also be a great way to publicize the SmartMoves system and drum up more support for that by showing that KC can have a good transit system.

TK, I agree totally! This is kind of what I meant by â€œtimelineâ€

kcteen · Post by **kcteen** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:24 pm

it would be tons of fun to restore an old kc trolley car. there is no reason they should have one in front of/inside union station!

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:53 pm

trailerkid wrote:I've never even heard of a transporation museum-- that's a good thing. KC can build one.

They have a transportation museum in the Lohman Building at Jefferson Landing State Historic Site in Jefferson City. I've also heard of transportation museums in other cities as well.

staubio wrote:Also, do 10 or 20 of you want to partner to open up that ice cream shop in the trolley car? That would be awesome.

I'm in, staubio!

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 8:52 pm

Here's a list of 5 other museums in the Midwest that are considered transportation museums. This doesn't include transportation museums in the South, Southwest, West, Northwest or Eastern United States. It also doesn't include Midwest museums that are more specific such as train museums, automobile museums, boat museums or aircraft museums.

Anyhow, maybe KC could create the 3rd transportation museum in the state of Missouri!

Museum of Transportation (Kirkwood, MO - St. Louis vicinity)
Includes trains, automobiles, buses, street cars, horse drawn vehicles, aircraft and boats. The collection also includes more than 70 locomotives.

Minnesota Transportation Museum (Excelsior, MN - Minneapolis vicinity)
Includes streets cars and water crafts.

Wheels O' Time Museum (Peoria, IL)
Includes airplanes, steam engines, automobiles and trains.

Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum (Cleveland, OH)
Cars, planes, horse-drawn carriages

Detroit Transportation Museum (Detroit, MI)
Trains and automobiles

As far as I'm concerned, this topic shouldn't even be discussed anymore. Unless, of course, KC wants to join the other 30 transportation museums in the United States.

Post by **staubio** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:09 am

Now that you've enlightened us, I'm going to visit the one in Kirkwood and see how they treat topics like the evolution of transportation and its effect on communities. There are a lot of angles that such a place could have other than having a bunch of locomotives -- which is cool, too.

I'm trying to plan a trip to STL in the next month or two, so I'll report back.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 12:06 pm

I don't care if Raytown has a transportation museum, an exhibit like that would be a nice addition to union station (along with many others).

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 12:19 pm

GRID wrote:I don't care if Raytown has a transportation museum, an exhibit like that would be a nice addition to union station (along with many others).

I think a train museum would be a nice fit for Union Station, but I wouldn't ask the owners/operators to waste money on a complete transportation museum. They make even less money than Science museums!