Let's think about this a minute:

The whole point of a "robbery" is to be surprised. The whole aspect of announcing everything in advance is sort of like a magician announcing in advance that he's going to pull a rabbit out of the hat, or that he's going to make the lady vanish, or whatever. Without the element of surprise, there's no amazement, no delight, no suspense. I mean, next you'll be handed route maps to the roller coasters and "Haunted House" so you'll know just where all the turns and hills, or strobe lights and spinning saw blade and jumping ghost, are.

<insert random predictable rant about millennials being "coddled snowflakes" or whatever>

On the other hand, the situation described above where a foreign family gets scared witless because they didn't understand what was going on is untenable, also. Let alone if they're really looking for real money, if only for charity.

I think the reasonable compromise is that you dedicate an entire day to the theme, as the Wilmington & Western does/did when they were doing "Wild West Robberies" or whatever. If you still get a few passers-by that didn't get the memo/ads, you can have a car or caboose available for them......

You absolutely have to announce it in advance. There simply is no choice these days.

When it happens and what happens can be a surprise, but the audience has to know that they are attending a performance that will involve weapons or replica weapons.

It's for the audience's sake, as mentioned, some have PTSD, others simply have no interest in anything involving guns. I still remember, from 30 years ago, a family that accidentally got on board a civil war re-enactment train and royally chewed my ass (I was Conductor) for quite a while, despite the promise of a refund. It wasn't about the money, or not enjoying the show. We'd exposed little Johnny and Susie to gunfire and scarred them for life. Now I don't care if you agree with that view or not, I can assure you that you don't want to deal with that at your event no matter what your point of view.

It's also for the performer's sake. You don't want to risk, no matter how small that risk may be, somebody mistaking it for a real robbery, and trying to be a hero. Or maybe they decide to "play along" and accidentally fire their weapon.

But you say there's nobody riding your train with a gun. Guess again. When concealed carry is done right, you don't know about it, that's the whole idea of "concealed". In most places you may well have passengers who are legally carrying a gun. Let's hope they do it safely, but no need to put anyone at risk.

So make it very clear that there's a theatrical event going on and that the passengers who are there understand and want to be there. When you attend an action movie, you know there will likely be gun play. Does knowing that ruin the movie for you?

Also, realize that there's a whole generation, maybe two, that have no idea "train robberies" were once nearly expected on a tourist railway.

Well Said Rick!

I was told that was exactly what happened during the Huckleberry's "train robbery" years ago. The "robbers" burst into a coach, shouting "This is a robbery!" prompting one lady to nail them and about half a dozen fellow customers with pepper spray. Future "train robberies" featured the "robbers" doing their thing outside the train rather than inside.

Possibly the only truly amusing anecdote I ever heard from a certain ex-employee.

I want to see the train robbery where a modern dressed man stands up and says "I am an air marshal. You are under arrest."
The robbers reply "they have air marshals on trains?"
The marshal answers "yes, they do."
The robbers say "we'll cut you in for half."
The marshal says "deal" and starts shaking down the passengers.



Anyone thinking about this really ought to have a conversation with Jon-Erik Hexum.

I always wondered about doing this and somehow working in a showing of the film The Great Train Robbery.

Actually, I think that having the Spanish Inquisition come in would be even better. Nobody would be expecting them, after all...

I love that!

Before my first/only train robbery experience, I suggested someone stepping up and saying they're a real-life cop, with a fake badge and my (blank adapted) M1911 .45 semi auto pistol, and that we're all under real arrest for scaring everyone. As the robber, I'd whip out my six shooter (from a safe distance for the blanks) and 'cap' him right there.
I still think it'd be a funny idea, but they didn't go for it.

Go ahead, make my train ride!

Seriously, you never know what has happened in someone's life that might trigger a horrible memory or flashback. I've had an innocent recounting of something that happened I was relating over dinner or a discussion suddenly send someone running out of the room in tears. I think making the "reenactment" not a surprise would probably be the better part of discretion.

I had an interesting experience playing the part of Deputy Sheriff on the BR&W. My part was to hide in the end vestibule when the train was approaching the site of robbery. The robbers were already on board. The train would stop, the robbers did their thing, and then the Sheriff and I would chase them off the train, and then capture them, and bring them in. Blanks and caps were fired, but ultimately no one "died". The children on the train were given BR&W money before the robbery, and that's what the robbers collected.

We were boarding the last train of the day in Flemington. A group of special needs children were boarding, when a young boy came up to me and said, "No guns, no guns, right?". He was visibly upset. I replied, "That's right, no guns." The boy repeated his request/demand several times and I reassured him. I was wearing a child's cap pistol at the time, but I got him to relax. I informed the Sheriff about what was going on, and we didn't have a robbery in the last car. With the end doors closed, and no action in front of him, the kid was okay.

There's a lot of things that could have been done differently, including not bringing a child like that to a train robbery, but being flexible solved the problem, and the boy got to have a train ride along with the other children.

-Mark

Wilmington & Western realized years ago that theming the trains put butts in the seats. As beautiful as their line was then and still is now, it didn't work just running trains. Same with tacking 1-3 cabooses on the rear of their trains - they may not be accurate on a passenger train, but those birthday parties pay the days operating expenses.

Strasburg is not immune. The Amish country just isn't as much a draw any more when most of the local metro areas that once fueled their ridership have now expanded into actually living in the once vast open farmlands that USED to be a getaway - the novelty of "escaping the city heat" in the country and taking a train ride is gone.

Then let's factor in how the modern information age allows the mystery to be gone from just about everything, and in particular, how some TV shows have blasted apart and completely mocked the uniqueness of the Amish life....they're not even considered that unique any more. That lack of uniqueness is both good and bad in some ways.

Overall, folks today think "theme park type setting" when it comes to train rides. They don't understand that the route they're riding on wasn't just built for tourists, the fact that it actually served a purpose in commerce and transportation history goes right over their heads... no matter how you explain it to them...they just don't get it.

Just look at some of the reviews of various operations....a common review I see is: "the train goes out and back over the same route through some trees and open fields, past some buildings.. the tour guide pointed out some historical points... it's ok for kids, but pretty boring for adults"

Where will the industry go from here to handle the super-loaded information age compounded with the extremely short attention span of today's society?

And the there is this - With some operations already at or quickly approaching 60 years of existence (amazing to think that), it's going to get to a point where the industry will have to start recreating its own history... Awkward?