I was never asked to leave, and I still talk to Bob on occasion. Its hard to get to Minersville when I work weekends.

That said, the fact that you think I was asked to leave informs me that you're not getting your information from anybody who knows what the hell they're talking about.

You were never asked to leave and the budget wasn't increased in 39 years.

Whatever.

2010 Final Budget: 5.861M

https://home.nps.gov/aboutus/upload/FY_ ... ok_508.pdf

See p. 255 of 596

2023 Final Budget: $6.412M

https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files ... book_2.pdf

See P. 66 0f 639.

I'm sorry your grapes are so sour. I'm not worried about what angry foamers made up about me, I know where I'm welcome.

Brian:

I don't know what your personal issues are, but they are significant.

Everything is emotion with you.

For your own well-being really need to stop treating any skepticism, disagreement or dispute as a personal attack based on some disordered antipathy. I'm under no obligation to offer blind acceptance of the assertions on those with "irrational exuberance" or a messiah complex. Borrowing a line from POTUS 44, YOU aren't the ones we've been waiting for.

Stop posturing like the guy who just got his first chevron out of boot camp, thinking that you are a better soldier and understand war better than the battle -hardened veterans or the guys in the cemetery.

Perhaps you traffic in emotion because you can't seem to get facts straight. Apart from statement on the budget, "sour grapes" means a negative attitude about things you cannot have-so that doesn't apply to me.

I started my affiliation in July 1995 (were you in grade school or high school?) and the last day I worked in Oct 2018 I was promoted, and I might have attained another the following year. I still have my evaluation from that day, and I still regard it as an accomplishment. I left with a good safety record-with a single infraction-a run switch in 1998.

Two days later, I received a revelation of my own morbidity and eventual mortality. When I was ready to return in 2020, I came to one class and then the world lost its mind. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but it also lends objective perspective. I'm not the only volunteer who decided this was time.

Long time denizens of this board will remember when I regularly battled skeptics with a different approach but the same degree of defense of Steamtown. The ultimate conclusion to the ongoing cyber-feud with Ross Rowland was a telephone conversation where we shared our perspectives, discussed the situation, realized we agreed on some things, but probably wouldn't agree on others. To his credit, he initiated the discussion and if we meet in person, I'll shake his hand.

So for the record (for others, I expect only tilting at windmills and ad hominens from you).

I really, really hope the place "succeeds" and I can be wheeled on to the 303 if I live long enough to be a guest at Shady Acres.

I'm on record here as saying that I am glad the NPS went outside and got a former Navy Seal as the Superintendent-somebody trained to define and understand a mission and to complete it under adverse circumstances. That is hopeful. Had he been the boss a couple years ago, I might have reduced my time, rather than departed.

However, I'm not under any illusions about the difficulty of the task at hand-he inherits a physical plant with a significant maintenance backlog, the intransigence of the bureaucracy and the inapplicability of many NPS protocols to an operating industrial museum; ongoing staffing challenges based on fiscal limitations which WILL get worse and the loss/absence of many people with steam/railroad experience; inherited reputational issues; the absence of a legislative patron, a diminished visitor market, etc.

I will post my idea of a ten-year success plan later. If it substantially comes to pass, I will eat a big plate of skeptical crow with a smile-assuming I'm around and so is this board.



 

The good news for the rest of reality is that your idea of a sucessful 10 year plan only applies to you. I'm sure that whatever is achieved will be ruled a failure in your eyes.

And there it is, more argumentum ad hominen.

Still the same old Wowak running the Chaski board.

viewtopic.php?t=18066

Respectfully, can the two of you take this fight elsewhere? I made this post to try and show what I hope is the start of a positive turnaround for Steamtown; I’d rather not have the thread locked because the past and the present are butting heads.

The facts are this: Yes, Steamtown’s budget has increased in actual dollars since its inception. Yes, the increase in budget has not kept pace with inflation (an item purchased for $5.9m in 2015 would cost $8m in 2025 per usinflationcalculator.com) so the argument that Steamtown’s budget has not increased has truth in it. Yes, the park was mismanaged and mishandled over the last 20 years or so. Yes, there are people there now committed to correcting those mistakes.

Everyone has their opinion on the subject; can we please stick to what’s happening now and what hopefully will happen in the future?

Amen.

MZ, 'm not interested in a fight, but apparently one is interested in me. I'm trying to respond as objectively and factually as I can, with relevant citations, and my evaluation based on relevant professional experience as well as my time at Steamtown. So, to the extent you are offering basis for discussion, thanks.

However, my responses are being met with a series of ad hominems such as "hater", (how many times to I have to say I want Steamtown to succeed, but I recognize the tremendous obstacles to "success", however one defines that), "sour grapes" (inapplicable, I got to experience the glory days of doubleheaders and three operating engines) and "foamer" (having been in t&e service from 1996 until my last day in 2018, not accurate).

The comment about people being retired or dead is creepy and disrespectful. I knew most of the deceased, some of whom had absolutely no control over things or vigorously opposed some ideas.

Bob Patterson for example, vigorously opposed the transfer of CN 5288-and trust me-Bob and I didn't always see eye to eye- but I measure the validity of something on its merits-not the person making the statement. Would it have been better to have pulled 5288 out of Tobyhanna and restored? It might have presented fewer operational issues at the expense of an initial restoration outlay and 13K pounds less TE than 3254. The answer? Maybe, but it wasn't evaluated, and it has a new home now and there's no definitive answer.

Willie Sturdevant managed to keep a demoralized train and engine volunteer group together and in fact was building it up when he qualified new folks including two new road conductors in 2018. As Maintenance Manager, Jessica Weinman authorized training trips that assisted in that regard. Life being what it is, our resident former fighter pilot took a job under a former CO abroad, and I acquired some interesting new knowledge about hematology. Willie's retired now, but anybody involved with operations now owes him a debt of gratitude, not derision and dismissal.

It's also important to understand that what is often considered "mismanagement" is merely the result of fiscal or administrative limitations imposed on the Superintendent, who then has to select among lousy choices. You can only stretch limited dollars so far. The Superintendent has a lot of authority; but it's often severely limited by those factors.

As for the money issue, he said it hasn't increased since 1986. Even if I wasn't a 30 plus year financial professional, trust me I'd understand inflation. Although it was crap, I bought a brand new Dodge Omni for $7,000 in 1987.

I restated the assertion as inadequate to keep pace w/ inflation, so on that we agree. My guess is that adjusted for actual purchasing power, it was "less inadequate" and grew somewhat faster from 1987-2002, because that when the site development was occurring and Joe McDade was in Congress for most of that time-but I don't have those numbers.

Which brings us to the core issue. In the now 38+ years of Steamtown's existence, under Presidents and Congresses of both parties, in good times and bad, in war and in peace, the legislative and budgetary apparatus is not providing sufficient $ to avoid persistent diminution. When you want to discuss what will "hopefully" happen, you have to be realistic in the face of a pervasive pattern, where there is little or no chance of changing dynamics. Government budgeting simply tends to be Markovian.

I'm fully on board with dismissing those that claim "Steamtown sucks" without being able to define or measure the purported deficiency. Likewise-success or adequacy must be defined or measured. No "new generation" is going to avoid their own mistakes or overcome fiscal or administrative limitations. Unless you see the shop crew roster increasing another four or five at minimum, with benefits at least $100K per FTE, it's going to be difficult to make a dent.

From the perspective of the visitor, in talking to thousands of visitors over twenty years; the sine qua non of their satisfaction is the presence of operating steam that they can observe, photograph and ride. Its presence covers a multitude of sins, its absence exacerbates petty dissatisfactions.

Note the visitation here. Guess why visitation dropped in 2013 and jumped in 2016:

https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSReports/ ... dar%20Year)?Park=STEA

What I see in the future is increasing budgetary pressure limiting the operating budget of the NPS.

Note the issues with bridges and highways in this article:

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articl ... 14171.html

Finally, the most recent deep dive on the status of Steamtown is the 2018 Foundation Document. There's an awful lot of critical stuff that is of utmost importance, and yet addressing those items will be invisible to visitors. Now seven years old, COVID certainly impaired any efforts to put a dent in that list.


https://www.npshistory.com/publications ... d-2018.pdf

Everybody is entitled to an opinion, and one of them is that some opinions are uninformed.