







Getting ready for our opening was a big shift from our previous work: we went from carpentry to marketing in the space of a week. Naturally, it was time to make some more mistakes and learn some hard lessons.
We had a significant body of email addresses gathered during the previous Christmas period to alert the public to our existence and purpose, and a very enthusiastic response from the local media. The Frederick News-Post, The Gazette, WHAG television, and Frederick Magazine all covered us and gave us needed exposure.
We opened our doors to the public on Fourth Of July weekend 2011. Attendance was good, but without adequate publicity and the beginning of vacation season (late July and most of August here in Maryland) we found it tough going, and even tougher when school started.
Word of mouth was our main form of advertising, and this is a slow method for building an audience. One of the good signs going forward was the number of return visitors and regulars. Clearly we had something people did not tire of after one visit. But getting greater numbers of visitors was going to take a while without a real advertising effort.
It is an interesting phenomenon to open a business to the public, have money coming in, and suddenly becoming aware of every penny spent versus what is coming in. Before we had customers we certainly thought about expenditures and tried to save money, but after we saw the receipts we became even more tight-fisted. This tightening of the belt cut off any chance of a sustained advertising campaign.
While some things really work well off of motion detectors, when in doubt we go with the button. Buttons give visitors a sense of control and allow interaction with the layout. We bought lighted LED buttons that are generally used for rebuilding old arcade machines. These are truly designed for punishment, and the variety of colors on the black surface of the side panels look great. We have kids (most notably my nephew Marky) who run around pushing the buttons, hardly standing still to see whatever the button activated! We could have started a button museum (or a volcano museum) and made just as much money for a fraction of the price.
Most of these buttons activate timers that control the animation and ensure that they are not working when not being viewed. The Altronix company makes timers and controllers for various industrial purposes and their 6062 model is the one we use. We buy them by the bushel.
One of the most enjoyable parts of working at Roads and Rails is the creation of animations and unique attractions. The best ones use Arduino(tm) , an open-source platform for creating sequences of activity, including LED lights, motor movements, and operating relays. I enjoyed the programming, and the great animation sophistication this little chip made possible. The first thing I used it for was the rebuild of the Mel’s Diner from MTH, which we had broken by constant running. We ran it constantly due to the fact that, like many off-the-shelf animations, it was too slow to be put on a button or motion detector and maintain the attention of the viewer. By rebuilding it with new motors controlled by an Arduino, we made this animation fast enough for our public. Now the waitress comes in out reasonable time, gets the order, and the car moves quickly.
Our popular scavenger hunt may seem like an obvious development, but we didn’t think of it. It was suggested to us by two different lady visitors on two different days, and I’m glad to say we didn’t miss the hint. Listening to customers and taking them seriously is important in the retail amusement business.
I was in a retro-toy store in New York City during the 90s and saw a sign: “Anyone who says ‘I had one of those when I was a kid’ will be asked to leave the store. I know it was NYC, but what an attitude! One of the great parts of working at Roads and Rails is hearing the stories of customers about that special train set that came out at Christmas long ago, when they were just children. Persons with a different temperament should find some other career: listening to visitors and taking an interest in them is key in our business.
Birthday parties are a big part of our business, and we seem to be doing a good job, as we have had return business. One of our ‘birthday boys’ was an 88-year old model train enthusiast; his family set it up as a surprise and everyone enjoyed themselves. It’s not just for kids!
We buy and sell used equipment, and when a particular woman came by at the end of one of our maintenance days, I assumed she wanted a bid for her box of train things. I was wrong: she gave us some old transformers and buttons, and told us of her late father, a Lionel train hobbyist of many years. He had to stop railroading, but had visited the museum just before his death and had apparently enjoyed himself greatly. Her family had distributed his engines among themselves, but gave us the remainder as a thank you for her father’s happiness. He was an engineer by trade, and the items we received showed that he was a fellow spirit: a tinkerer! I repaired his tranformer and it now runs trains here at the museum.