Hi,



By and large, you are correct.

I am an exception to that general statement.

I was born in 1955 in St Louis, MO. We moved to Jackson, MS not long after. My 5th birthday (November 1960) was in Atlanta GA.

Before moving to Atlanta and after starting 1st grade in Jackson, Mom (PRR family) saw a news story in the Jackson news paper about a short line still running steam.

As it turned out, this was the Mississippian Railroad with about 40-odd miles of track and running two ex-Frisco (?) 2-8-0s. Mom wanted me to see steam hauled freight and she and Dad took me out of school for one day and we went up there.

A lot of 8-mm movie film of the loco was taken. We got to ride in the cab of one of the steamers in the yard. We went to the north side of town to watch the steam train leave for the other end of the line. Instead of just crossing the road, it stopped just before the grade crossing and the crew asked it I wanted to ride to the other end of the line.

Mom said it was the first and one of the only times I did not ask permission first.

I rode some 40-odd miles in a steamer hauling freight for my first ever train trip (passenger or freight - full sized or amusement park).

I was a very lucky person that day in 1960. I was then in high school (1968-1973) in Atlanta and saw a lot of the Southern's Steam Program's action.

Thanks for triggering that happy memory.

Doug vV

That explains the decline in STEAM.

The multitude of specific-diesel-model preservation societies in the U.K. and elsewhere--notwithstanding the British Rail ban on the operation of preserved diesels on their lines until the de-nationalisation of BR, even though the diesels in question ALL came from BR themselves--demonstrates that the issue in question isn't that steam is the only thing to fascinate and draw enthusiasts, the curmudgeonly allegations of steam-loyalist dinosaurs notwithstanding.

British Rail's obstinacy with such matters was dealt with, worked around (with road transport of diesels, in many cases), and ultimately nullified. Rail enthusiasm and preservation have thus continued to flourish in the U.K., though admittedly with many of the same problems as American fans/preservation (generation gap, disposable income, etc.).

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the "Big Seven," Norfolk Southern's steam and heritage programs notwithstanding, have by and large increased their open hostility to outsiders, "foreign" equipment, and anything that dares to differentiate itself from published cookie-cutter norms in the rule books, because litigation has replaced baseball as the North American pastime.

Being in high school, I am probably one of the youngest people in the country that is involved with a static museum and rail preservation. I do not own a smartphone, I do not play rail simulators.

The issue is not phones or technology, it is that everyone gets involved in a different way, and as such they enjoy it differently. Kids don't remember mainline steam of the "golden age" so they're not as drawn to protect it once it is "stuffed and mounted".

I started volunteering because I remembered visiting my museum at age 3 or 4 and being fascinated by all the "forgotten" rusty stuff in the back. I didn't think about trains for 10 more years, until I went back on a trip with my grandparents (Rather unhappily, I'll admit). And when I saw that rusty stuff in the back again, I was taken back to that one memory of me visiting 10 years prior. I learned all I could about those rusty relics and once I was old enough, I became a tour guide. I'm still not old enough to work in the shops, but through talking with the volunteers who have been there for 50+ years I developed my views and opinions on rail preservation. My worst fear is that most of them will be gone before I have the chance to work next to them.

My friends, on the other hand, became involved in a much different way. They remembered a certain excursion locomotive making its last couple seasons of runs around the same time I first visited my museum. Standing trackside, watching it thunder by is their earliest memories, much like some of you. They do not take interest in a static museum, instead they work on and run scale live steam.

Others, younger and older than my age group, enjoy it in other ways. YouTube, railfanning, model railroading, ect.

I see this, I know this, because I am that generation you talk about. I see modern-day teenage train enthusiasts and know how they enjoy their hobby and see the preservation community.

My friends, the number of kids who like trains has not changed in the past 30 or 40 years. What makes us think it has is that fewer of them find themselves drawn to static museums and preservation where most of us hang out, and dearly need their young blood.

Even museums that do operate have age limitations that restrict their involvement, or don't have involving and friendly crew. Not to mention internal politics and affairs that either A) prevent their entry in the first place or B) Give them crap jobs that drive them away. (It is not uncommon for static museum to be guilty of this, either.)

I may only be in highschool, but it is already my mission to learn what I can from you older guys and start to try and get younger kids interested. I know, and you should to, that all it takes is one memory, one expirience to create that spark. In my case, it didn't catch for 10 years, but it caught! (From a single memory!)

When I can, I let that 3 or 4 year old sit in the seat of my live steamer (With a close watch and parental supervision). I let them blow the whistle! I give them a smile and wave! I unlock that passenger car that they've been looking into through the windows, and let them walk through to see, smell, and feel the wonderment of a bygone era. It is about being welcoming and seeing yourself in that child. Maybe they won't remember it in a few years, maybe they will! You can't get them all invovled, and those that do won't neccisarily get involved in preservation. It's a one in a million that they do, but that one would make all my efforts worthwhile a thousand times over.

And it's not that hard to do! Taking the extra five or 10 minutes to improve their visit is the least we as volunteers can do.

Just think, that one thing you did could be what makes them get involved years from now! I am thankful every day I volunteer that I am given the chance to possibly be the reason they have a life-long passion.

I am evidence of this. They are never to young for you to try and get them to realize the history they are expiriencing around them.

Sometimes it can be hard to show up at "the sinking ship" but when I am given that oppurtuninty to possibly be the one who helps inspire the next Ross Rowland, Jerry Jacobson, ect... when I know my presence there inspires the older guys that there is hope, I drag myself out of bed, and I fill that gas tank up and get out there!

If a Highschool student can try and inspire the next generation, and learn what he can from the last, what is your excuse?


A lack of younger people getting involved in rail preservation does not mean trains as a hobby is dying. It means we see them as the screaming ticket sale that brings the money in, not as potential for being the gaurdians of rail preservation for the future. We should treat them as such, and maybe we might see them coming back when they are 15 or 16 to ask about painting that locomotive in the back.

Just two cents from a member of that "next generation" you're talking about.

Respectfully,
as12

Here is a video with a speech about youth in railroad preservation at a ribbion cutting ceremony with one of our youngest motormen "cutting" the ribbion https://youtu.be/uk1JMtU8doQ

Hi,

Something like this is already done in the Live Steam hobby. It is called "Each one teach one." The older ones help out teaching the younger ones how to machine rolling stock, how to build track, how to lay track, etc.

Doug vV

When someone does somthing stupid they have only themselves to blame. However when somebody calls the fire department because the building next door partially collapsed and they're worried about a possible gas leak ( which turned out to be a valid concern because there was a high pressure gas line going through that section of the building) and then gets yelled at by the GM and told he had no right to do that ( keep in mind the building was not part of the railroad organization in any way and said member who called Fire Department was not on duty). Or when you see an Indian family posing on the tracks during a switching move and knowing in Indian culture telling someone they can't do something it's considered rude instead intervene by showing them a display locomotive they could take their picture in ftont of thus getting them off the track. And instead of being congratulated for smoothly resolve in an unsafe situation being yelled at in front of the family being told you're not supposed to do that. And thus starting your "has been" status. Thues complaints are perfectly justified, unless if I'm remembering the incidence wrong witch I'm pretty sure I'm not

I don't think its fair to blame their indifference to their surroundings on electronics. Fifty years ago you would have found similar scenes, only the iPhones would be replaced with books, newspapers, or some other distraction.

Um, yeah.

Lately, nekulturny seems to be as much of an epidemic as obesity and diabetes. People simply aren't able to deal with each other civilly and respectfully as they might've in the past. Like all of us in this society and the frog in the cookpot, I didn't notice the change... until while searching for Youtubes of the Republican primaries, I accidentally found the 1980 primary where Bush and Reagan went straight into fairly complex issues and disagreed with utter respect.

Today, the candidates are teaching the population nekulturny, as surely as is the Youtube comment section is.

And it's boiling down into our railway museums, where a few members treat the place as the lowest common denominator of a union workplace and a clubhouse. It's to the point where volunteers are at each other's throats, often with a sense of entitlement that is totally unjustified... and with "loyalty to the organization" and "service to the shared goal" utterly forgotten in all the egotism.

And of course this drives most sensible volunteers away, leaving behind the nasty people with the sharp elbows.

Now... close your eyes and imagine what each of our organizations would have been if we each could just get along.

I want to say that as my previous post may have incorrectly implied, not all people in the rail community are crotchety. I've met some people who are welcoming and more than willing to pass on all the knowledge they have to younger generations. I still maintain though that the majority of the people I've met through the hobby are at best grumpy and at worst outright mean.

The attitude that people are stuck with their noses in their phone and won't be bothered so why bother is defeatist attitude and the wrong approach. I have a friend who puts it this way: "People aren't boring because they are always looking at their phone. They literally have everything of interest in the entire world at their fingertips. You need to stop being the boring one, and grab their attention from literally everything else they're using their phone to learn about." If you're going to take the approach that everyone with a phone out is already not interested in what you have to say or show them, and then ignore them, the world is in their hands and someone else will gladly put more effort into getting their attention than you were.

That's what the Old Guard is scared of!

Hi,

Among other items, the POLITICAL CORRECTNESS path we have been pushed down for many years basically wear you feelings on top of your skin so you can feel harmed at any time.

I watch John Wayne movies (with railroads in them) and most of the time the Indians were shown as a dying way of life but a very honorable one. One that Wayne's characters lamented that it was passing. I admire the Indians and found that many passages in Wayne's movies were actually one sort of Indian dialect or the other. I would say them from time to time to honor the American Indian. My Sister would jump me incorrectly claiming I was belittling the Indian. Communications is the problem and wearing your feelings in the outside is the problem.

Many old and young do not seem to understand common courtesy. Did this come from the children of the Flower Power era? How do we counter it?

FWIW.

Doug vV

Back in the day hobbies were more of a novelty then the norm like it is now. Of the hobbies in the 'old days' rail fanning was almost free (minus a camera and bicycle to pedal down to the local roundhouse) and ask your neighbor for a tour of the roundhouse. Baseball cards, coins, and magazines was about it for kids. Now the list goes on plus time has also gone on and the connection most people have for the railroad is long gone so fewer minds to be pulled into the hobby. I myself spent several thousand dollars on 1 just ONE pc game called train simulator 2016. Its as close to real railroading as you can get short of the real thing (hauling a coal drag up Sherman Hill with a 4000), or hauling a express on Horseshoe Curve in a K4 pacific. Some may see it as more competition against the museums and current volunteers, but without ways to connect to the younger generations the hobby wont last. Virtual railroading is a great bridge to bring younger guys into the organizations and museums. That is also part of the problem though. With all the hobbies people can get into (I myself am into post war Buicks, and steam era railroading) it makes less money and dedication toward just the 1 hobby. Railroading especially steam era is hard work and without that extra dedication stuff doesn't get done. Railroading needs hands and lots of them and trailers of cash to work properly. That means getting into the mainstream and minds of the day to day people for stuff to really change imho.