Aviation museums don't need their airplanes to function to draw the interest of the public, so a comparison of operating hours is really an apples to oranges comparison.

Similar railroad games I've experienced with don't even come close.

Compare the visitation numbers for a museum with static planes to the attendance numbers at airshows and you'll see that having functioning airplanes really does matter.

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Very much harder to do with rail operations. Fixed in one place, marketing to the same pool of prospective visitors. Requires a very focused marketing group. IMPO.

Dennis.

Much harder to do so in the United States-not the UK. In the UK, most operating steam locomotives are free to wander about the country since the railway is a open user system. Anyone who meets the standards to operate on the national network can go wherever they want as long as their movement can be fit in. Therefore, locomotives can move from one heritage railway to another at will. You can also have all operating locomotives of a certain class appear at special events. Therefore, they can draw repeatedly from the same pool of prospective visitors for different events very easily.

Not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid.
For locos/stock to be moved or operate on the National network, they have to be certified as such, with ultrasound tests on axles etc, even if they are not operating under their own power.
If they are not certified, then they have to be moved by road between sites, but, having said that, there are specialist trucking firms that move stock between lines on a regular basis. Railways also collaborate on co-ordinating moves, which minimises unloaded trailer moves around the country and therby reduce transportation costs accordingly by eliminating "dead" mileage.
The same trucking firms also move stock around by road for the Main rail operating companies as well, so they are a significant player in the UK rail scene beyond just the preservation side of things.

And you don't even have to drive to get to most of them. Even the 2 foot gauge Ffestiniog interchanges cross platform with mainline passenger service.

But I think the #1 issue facing railroad preservation today is that groups are not getting where the action is when it comes to recruiting a new generation. Nobody wants to hang around with unpleasant cranky old men. If your group seems like a bunch of said cranky old men then younger people will simply go find other people to associate with. You've got to be welcoming, open minded, and maybe leave that MAGA or Bernie hat at home.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. PLENTY of younger guys into the stuff, but nobody has the time to, or care, to deal with the club hierarchy BS

I did go by one on a day I was down the street from it on a job and asked about working on train crew (i.e. engineer). Got told I could be a car host for two years and then they might thing about it. I turned around and NOPED the hell straight out the door.