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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:48 pm 

Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2016 3:42 pm
Posts: 34
It was the “under 29” crew, I believe, at IRM. I was firing that day.

I was very active in my 20s. I stopped actively volunteering at IRM after I turned 30. I was newly married, living 600 miles away, and the wife didn’t want me gallivanting off to Union on a regular train crew schedule. I now have two daughters, and they take priority over any volunteering. Though there are two operations closer to me, I do not have the time to volunteer due to my family obligations. It took a while to accept this, but I love my family more than trains.

When I started volunteering at IRM I literally showed up on a cold Saturday. I was given a grinder and told to go to town on some coupler parts. I had some brief steam experience at another outfit out east, so I was eventually made a student fireman. The rest is history. I loved my time at IRM. And sure there were cliques, but there were far more folks who welcomed me with open arms.

As for how you attract new blood? Be patient, engage their curiosity, and be glad they’re there. Showing up as a newbie can be intimidating.

And of course, don’t have arbitrary positions against tatoos. One of our best crew members and mechanics had tatoos, and he was able to become a CMO at an operation out west. If you are too blind to see your prejudices as an issue, you are part of the problem.

Honestly, I think that organizations that make zero effort to welcome new blood deserve to disappear. I’d rather see a handful of well run organizations with active recruitment of new volunteers than a multitude of places with a bunch of stubborn curmudgeons staring at a derelict locomotive and complaining that they don’t have money or labor, when they drove both away.

This very well may be the case with C&O 614. I have little hope for that locomotive.


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:53 pm 

Joined: Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:06 pm
Posts: 126
What I’m curious about is have the demographics really changed? Is the percentage of younger volunteers less, the same or more than it was a decade ago, 20 years ago, 1980’s, 1970’s, etc. The fact is, any activity requiring free time is going to skew towards an older crowd. I can’t tell you how many hobbies/pastimes I’ve heard are dying because the participants are old. But then slowly but surely the old people move on and the young people grow old and the cycle continues. It sure seems to me like the number of young people getting involved and rising to prominent positions is growing….but maybe it just seems that way because I’m getting older.


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:06 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:19 am
Posts: 6399
Location: southeastern USA
All of the people I learned from and most of my peers are dead. I have worked with many younger people when I was in the industry, and did what I could to pass along what I knew...... hope it's continuing to be passed along.

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“God, the beautiful racket of it all: the sighing and hissing, the rattle and clack of the cars over the rails. These were the sounds that made America the greatest country on earth." Jonathan Evison


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:01 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
My story is about the same as Frisco 1630's, my buddy and I showed up at IRM in February of 1970 when we were seventeen... a couple of high school kids looking for something to do. We were immediately put to work building track... but then again, everybody on the property that day was building track. I was active for about ten years before work and family took all of my time. I always figured I would become active again once I retired, but such is not to be. My buddy has remained active, and now holds a management position. At this point most everybody on the campus, as it is now referred to, is a comparative youngster.

The thing that kept me coming back is IRM is the type of place where a kid was handed all the responsibility he could handle - maybe even more. It was a great environment in which to grow to manhood.

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Dennis Storzek


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:11 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:48 am
Posts: 1531
Location: Byers, Colorado
Yes, the cycle continues. Most of my old railroader friends have marked off forever, but I'm pleased to report that I've made a number of new railroader friends that are 40 or 50 years younger than I am. These guys not only understand the traditional ways, but they also know how to take good advantage of the new cyber craziness, resulting in them knowing way more than I did "when I was their age".

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Ask not what your locomotive can do for you,
Ask what you can do for your locomotive,

Sammy King


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:24 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:24 pm
Posts: 113
Quote:
This very well may be the case with C&O 614. I have little hope for that locomotive.



I imagine one day it will be recycled into something else


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:26 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:24 pm
Posts: 113
QJdriver wrote:
Yes, the cycle continues. Most of my old railroader friends have marked off forever, but I'm pleased to report that I've made a number of new railroader friends that are 40 or 50 years younger than I am. These guys not only understand the traditional ways, but they also know how to take good advantage of the new cyber craziness, resulting in them knowing way more than I did "when I was their age".

Some things never seem to change between the generations...
Examples
The Rumor mill, at csx we said there were three ways to communicate, telephone, telegraph and tell a railroader

Complaining about management

Complaining in general, railroaders sure are a complaining bunch


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:32 pm 

Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:48 am
Posts: 1531
Location: Byers, Colorado
Those sayings were not confined to CSX, and I bet the following isn't, either:

"A bitching railroader is a happy railroader." (This is not intended to make light of the long standing, worsening labor dispute with Class I carriers.)

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Ask not what your locomotive can do for you,
Ask what you can do for your locomotive,

Sammy King


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:26 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:14 pm
Posts: 135
co614 wrote:
Folks are certainly within their rights to have their body host a tattoo if they wish and I'm certainly within my rights to not want them on my team.

I have long felt that tattoos speak to poor judgement and their owner is to be avoided.

Ross Rowland


How about all those sailors and marines post WWII that had tattoo's?


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:10 pm 

Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2019 4:41 pm
Posts: 32
Ross, you're 83 years old. It's time to grow up. People like you with your mentality are part of the reason why young people do not want to participate in rail preservation, or really any environment, where the population is predominantly elderly. Nobody wants to put up with old bastards who perpetually complain about the younger generation or pass instant judgment based on appearance.

My opinion is the older generation(s) have no right to gripe when they are the ones who raised the younger ones and had 80+ years of opportunity to steer the country in the right direction.

What is a fact, however, is the people of Ross' generation and all the knowledge they have are rapidly dying out. If they want their work to continue, they'd better learn to be more accepting and less judgmental. Or they can let everything rot in the ground with them because some 18-30 year old's have some tattoos and that somehow equates them to a drug addict or a criminal.


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:13 pm 

Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2016 3:42 pm
Posts: 34
Furthermore, the next generation does not want to put with curmudgeons with a terrible track record of racism and sexism.

It utterly baffles me that Ross cannot understand the problems with his worldview. I am honestly shocked that any of the organizations he still works at or for tolerate his presence. I am equally surprised that a user with a racist and sexist track record is still allowed on this forum.


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:17 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:19 pm
Posts: 2557
Location: Sackets Harbor, NY
I'll repeat an often expressed opinion. If you don't think enough of what you post to sign your real name to it then it's really not worthy of further discussion.

IMHO-Ross Rowland


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:43 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:46 pm
Posts: 2667
Location: Pac NW, via North Florida
BM765 wrote:
What I’m curious about is have the demographics really changed? Is the percentage of younger volunteers less, the same or more than it was a decade ago, 20 years ago, 1980’s, 1970’s, etc.

I was born in 1969 and as a teen, became active with a small NRHS chapter in my hometown. I was the youngest member by almost 20 years and as far as I know I was the only member ever to join in that age range (I was 14 when I first joined).
Not long after, I tried hooking up with a couple other museums (neither of them RR oriented) and was told in no uncertain terms that they didn't need or want any new help. That, coupled with the same reaction when I asked at two railroads neat where I was later stationed in the Army, led me to the inevitable conclusion that nobody new of any age was wanted and I didn't ask anyone again until I was in my early 50s.
But anyway when I was a teen, I knew of nobody anywhere even close to my age range wanting to do anything to help, but it's not like any of then would have been wanted anyway, in my experience.

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Lee Bishop


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 11:35 pm 

Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2021 9:10 pm
Posts: 13
co614 wrote:
I'll repeat an often expressed opinion. If you don't think enough of what you post to sign your real name to it then it's really not worthy of further discussion.

IMHO-Ross Rowland


Well, that's kind of a childish way to try to end the conversation when you're getting dragged... The discussion of what you say is going to continue regardless of what or who you seem worthy. Here and wherever else it's been screenshot and spread to. Most people on various Facebook groups where it's shared and laughed at by young people in preservation are discussing it with their real names on their profiles. If you feel so strongly about your opinions and reputation, why not go discuss it further with them with a far larger audience?


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 Post subject: Re: Young People and Preservation.
PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 8:54 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
co614 wrote:
I'll repeat an often expressed opinion. If you don't think enough of what you post to sign your real name to it then it's really not worthy of further discussion.

To be completely fair about this, we have no way to prove that this all hasn't been a decades-long campaign by an imposter to besmirch the reputation of the real person with that name.

Journalists take certain measures to verify the identity and veracity of individuals being contacted for interviews or quotes. The old adage is "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." (And in some cases, people being contacted by "journalists" are wise to verify the identity/representation of the supposed "journalist" as well.)

Of course, all that would be an awful lot of work just to try to go up and (falsely) claim ownership of a certain 4-8-4 and have it shipped to someplace else.........


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