Jim Cullen, Revelstoke Railway Museum’s (RRM) executive director, pointed to the business class train car that greets guests entering the main exhibit room of the RRM.
“I won’t have a business car much longer,” he said, when asked where to hold an interview discussing the news that he will be retiring from the executive director position April 30. “I always wanted one, since I was a kid.”
The business car was lined with glass tables and two chairs each. At first glance the place seems immaculate.
“There’s always something to do working at a museum,” Cullen chuckled, adjusting a table cloth and attending to a light that needed the deft hand of someone who knows exactly how to wrangle it back in place while showing the care a relic of history requires.
That initial love of trains which led Cullen to Revelstoke was fueled in part by a model train that showed up under the Christmas tree when he was six during a holiday spent at his grandparents house in another rail town, Kindersley, Saskatchewan.
“You become keenly attuned that everything is connected with trains.”
Four years of creating spaces
Similarly, Revelstoke offers a unique spirit of connection Cullen saw from the time he moved here.
He started his position right as the pandemic shuttered most of town. Still, he was determined to pull whatever advantages he could from the situation. Plus, Revelstoke’s community spirit stepped in, and Cullen knew then things were going to be okay.
“All these lovely community organizations were saying ‘we’re here for you, we want to help,’” he recalled.
Local businesses offered to pay for equipment for provincial health requirements, asking where they could assist the museum and taking a moment to welcome him to town. But it was the dedication of museum volunteers that really highlighted the community Cullen was stepping into.
“The day before we reopened to the public in June, one of our hardcore volunteers showed up at the door. I was in the office working away on stuff when he showed up, and I said, ‘what are you doing here’? He said, ‘we’re opening tomorrow. I thought you might need some help’.”
That spirit of Revelstoke has been in the foreground of every project Cullen has overseen. Projects like restoring the REVELSTOKE. train station sign that now hangs in the mezzanine floor of the museum, a sign Cullen said was seen by everyone who traveled via train, whether British royalty visiting the region or residents looking for the sign to know they were back home.
He also worked with Indigenous Student Advocate at Revelstoke Secondary School Lisa Moore in the marathon process of decolonizing the museum and the rail history in Revelstoke.
“Decolonizing and railway museum do not rhyme at all,” Cullen admitted. “That’s a long journey of relationship and trust building with Indigenous educators in our community.”
It’s one of various projects Cullen will hand off to the next executive director, a move he refers to as passing on the baton in a relay race. Museum directors, he explained, should not expect to see the first and the last day of the museum while they’re leading. Which means accepting that not all the projects one starts will be completed.
One of those projects in the works is the sheltering and restoration of Engine 5500. Part of the SD-40 locomotive line, Engine 5500 and its descendants were key diesel locomotives in rail service for the Revelstoke region. Steep terrain and harsh winters make the area a prime spot to test the latest locomotive technology. Engine 5500 now calls Revelstoke home, but the local elements have not been kind to the engine and the museum is in a race to erect a pavilion that will allow complete restoration of the machine to its glory days.
A key part in that project was an anonymous community donor stepping forward to fully fund the building of the pavilion. Now RRM is working to raise the funds needed for the restoration of Engine 5500, including the iconic red locomotive paint. A project this large will take a while to complete, and Cullen said it was in his mind as he announced his retirement.
“It is weird to leave before it’s done, but it is very satisfying to put the steps into place.”
The engine restoration project is just the latest Cullen said puts RRM on the radar for other museums across North America.
“We kind of punch above our weight,” Cullen said. “We’re a small but mighty museum in a small but mighty city.”
RRM’s role in the community
The core of Revelstoke is travel and trade, Cullen said, always keeping this in mind throughout his time as the museum’s director.
“For thousands of years this place has been a hub,” Cullen explained. “The first nations of this region traveled here to meet and trade, using these water systems. We became a major railway hub when the rails were built in 1885, and now the Trans-Canada highway makes us a hub spot.”
He sees RRM as vital in keeping that part of Revelstoke’s identity alive and accessible to all. Not just for the tourists that make RRM one of the top visited locations in town, but for the families whose roots lay in Revelstoke’s rail line history.
“We get to provide a place for those stories, let them see their connection to this town’s heritage,” Cullen said when asked how the museum has been built into the community. “For the newcomers in town, and there’s a lot of them, we can show them what Revelstoke is about. We can be one of the ways they learn about this town’s history and then that makes them more engaged.”
Community engagement is a core part of the goals Cullen set out with when taking RRM’s director position in April, 2020. These goals were all connected to one core endeavor of making RRM one of the front porches of Revelstoke.
“Everyone’s welcome to the front porch,” Cullen explained. “It’s intergenerational, a comfortable place, come as you are.”
He wanted to see RRM as a corner of the community where folks would feel welcome the first time they entered and also come back for more than just the latest exhibit. Cullen saw the museum as a key Third Space in Revelstoke, a way to give back to the communities that built RRM.
“We are a creature of our communities,” Cullen said. “Our communities built us as a grassroots effort. A few really civic-minded gutsy, Revelstokeian’s built this museum.”
That goal may have been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 health restrictions that saw the museum, along with much of the town, shuttered. But recent programs spearheaded by Rachael Lewis, RRM’s manager of visitor experience and retail are helping get things back on track. RRM is open Thursdays for Throwback Thursday with $5 general admission. The museum stays open late that day to host a board games club open to all levels of gamers.
“We can make the museum a place where people can just meet and hang out,” Cullen said.
LUNA Rail, Holiday Trackside Party and Family Day are some of the other ways RRM provides space for the community to connect and enjoy the space. RRM also provides space for organizations to book for holiday dinners, team building and more. Cullen said it’s part of a way to give back to a community that not only supports the museum year round, but also stepped up to the plate when he took on the role.
As for any advice he might have for the next executive director and anyone connected to the museum world?
“You’ve got to be a radical optimist to be a museum director.”
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