Don Barnes has a ready answer for visitors who ask why he has an exhibit devoted to telephone equipment in the lobby of his museum of transportation.

"The phone company provides 'voice transportation,'" he explains with a grin.

	Shamim Ashraf, Post-Gazette Dan Barnes, retired pilot from USAir, still loves to play with trains, including four full-size passenger cars that are part of his collection at the Harlansburg Station Museum of Transportation. The museum, which also features ship models and automobile memorabilia, is in Lawrence County, about 20 miles north of Zelienople. Click photo for larger image.

A more accurate answer might be that Mr. Barnes, a retired airline pilot, has multiple passions: for collecting, for celebrating technology and for sharing the items he has found.

A visit to his Harlansburg Station Museum of Transportation in Lawrence County can last for several hours, once he gets caught up in describing the pieces of history he has collected.

He has grouped hundreds of items around various themes: automobiles, aviation, riverboats and, especially, trains and train travel.

Much of the collection is displayed in a replica train station he built 18 years ago in Scott Township. Other items are housed in railroad passenger cars parked behind the station.

Every three years or so, he rearranges his exhibits.

His 30-year career as a pilot with Allegheny Airlines and its successor company, USAir, offered him opportunities to poke around antique stores and attend auctions around the country, he said. In recent years, he has become a regular bidder in online sales.

Most items, including his quartet of passenger cars, come with stories about their history or acquisition.

"My wife always claims I told her I only wanted one railroad car," Mr. Barnes said. He insists it had always been his plan to park multiple cars behind the station.

His 85-foot passenger cars, which made the last part of their journey with the help of house movers, include two turn-of-the-century Pullman sleepers and two stainless steel Budd cars built in the 1940s.

He is still restoring the Pullmans, but the other two cars are home to his collections of model trains and British and American railroad memorabilia. Items on display in them include a working model of a 4-6-2 Pacific Locomotive, the headlight and throttle from a Baltimore & Ohio engine, and a "No Trespassing" sign from the London & North Eastern Railway. Other displays feature a selection of dining car menus, china and linens.

If his railroad collection is cosmopolitan, he sought to stay closer to home with many of the other items.

His automotive and oil industry displays show strong links to southwestern Pennsylvania. Treasures include a wall-sized Gulf Oil sign, 70-year-old calendars made for Dambaugh Service Station in Rochester and a dozen Quaker State motor oil cans showing design changes over the decades.

	Shamim Ashraf, Post-Gazette The model set in the Harlansburg Station Museum of Transportation. Click photo for larger image.

A well-used wicker basket is one of the larger items in the aviation area. Used to take two passengers aloft in a hot-air balloon, it was a donation from dirigible enthusiast Russ Parkinson, of McKees Rocks. "He is a personal friend of the Zeppelin family," Mr. Barnes said. German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who died in 1917, was a pioneer in the development of lighter-than-air vehicles.

Mr. Barnes also has on display the flying pants, hat and goggles of an American World War I aviator. One recent acquisition, purchased at auction, is the personal photo album of Akron flier Isabelle F.M. Chappell. A contemporary of Amelia Earhart, she is one of several women aviators featured in the museum.

Mr. Barnes acquired many of the items in his collection through estate sales, meaning the items were sold after the deaths of their owners.

Since no one else in his family is a collector, he anticipates the same fate for his artifacts and models.

"Eventually these things all will be auctioned off again, and they will pass into other collectors' hands," he said. "I'm just borrowing them for a while."

The Harlansburg Station Museum of Transportation is located at the intersection of Routes 19 and 108 in Scott Township, Lawrence County. The site is about 20 miles north of Zelienople. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for children. For more information, call 724-652-9002. The museum Web site is www.harlansburgstation.com.