I wasn’t going to comment on All Aboard thread, but now I feel the need to. As the current Executive Director of the most complete steam era railroad complex in the country I’ve been struggling with just these issues, do we have shoot outs, Thomas the Tank, and Polar Express. How does doing these events mesh with our mission?

Make no doubt about it; I view my principle job as preservation. And at the Nevada Northern Railway that is quite a job. But I believe that preservation encompasses more than just the artifact! It is the artifact and how it interfaced (or interfaces) with society. It is the people connection that must be maintained! For if we lose the people connection, then nothing else will matter. And that’s where I think we’re headed, if you’ll excuse the pun. The heritage railroad industry in this country is heading for a derailment.

It might not happen in the real near future, but it will happen. Why? Because we are beginning to loose our people connection. To paraphrase an old Ford commercial, “Our JOB #1 should be to insure that the people connection is maintained and grows!” I confess, I haven’t read the thread on Ross’s Legacy (I will soon) but there is a title of a posting that intrigued me, “Is it Showmanship or is it Preservation?” And the difference would be?

Preservation takes tons and tons of money. How many postings have there been on this site that says, ‘wouldn’t be great if such and such locomotive could run?’

Where does this money come from? While we’re lamenting the scrapping of another piece of our heritage, the people in the wooden boat field are building another replica. On the art museum scene they’re building a new $40,000,000 building (and not just one.) The Museum of Science and Industry just spent $40,000,000 to put the U-505 four stories underground.

Where is our big project? How do you think huge sums of money are raised? And make no doubt about it, it will take huge, enormous amounts of money to preserve our rail heritage.

As a first step, we need to drop the arbitrary division that we created for ourselves. We are not a tourist railroad or railroad museum. It is heritage railroading, period. The challenges we’re facing are huge and those challenges affect everyone in the heritage railroading business.

Do you think it matters to the public whether the coal smoke is coming from a tourist railroad or a railroad museum? It doesn’t. The media report would be about the same, ‘those old smoky locomotives have no place in our modern society.’

Meanwhile, instead of facing our challenges and working together, we’re overly concerned with whether it is appropriate to say, “All Aboard!” Or we grit out teeth at Thomas the Tank and lord, we run diesel powered Polar Expresses. Then don’t forget those hokey shoot outs!!! My god what is the world coming too? (I guess, I’m really guilty. To load the Polar Expresses, I say, “All Aboard to the North Pole!!!” Is that a double whammy?)

Meanwhile, we’ll have endlessly discussions on railroad minutia. Yes, that is important in its own right. But it’s a lot like the band on the Titanic. They did a great job of entertaining the passengers on the ship- but the ship still sank and a lot of people died.

Don’t get me wrong, the railroad minutia is important, but we’re missing the bigger picture. If we don’t engage the public, i.e. get mountains of money, then eventually they’ll only be a few operators left and the rest of us will die off.

Want proof? Google Titanic, you’ll get 27,200,000 hits. Google museums and you’ll get 77,600,000 hits. Google railroad museums and you get only 194,000 hits. Then do tourist railroads and you get even less, only 190,000 hits. Railroad museums and tourist railroads together are only 384,000 hits!!! So what do we do? We fight among ourselves and point fingers. If this doesn’t just scare the bejesus out of you, then don’t bother reading further.

There is hope. Google Thomas the Tank Engine and you get 4,230,000 hits. Polar Express 3,730,000 hits and those hokey shoot outs 1,050,000. (I just googled shoot outs, it might be police, basketball or what not. Don’t miss the big picture.)

See a pattern developing here? We have people that are interested in railroading. Do they care about whether the shade on a particular locomotive is correct or where it ran? No, of course not, that is our job, to inform and educate. Once we make contact with them, we need to begin the education process. Will all be converted, of course not, but some will be and that is a start.

We have our work cut out for us. We need to start with the museum front. Last June, I received a renewal notice for the Official Museum Directory™ printed by the National Register Publishing Company. The Association of American Museums is involved with this publication. I wanted to list the Nevada Northern under railroad museums. Guess what? There is no category for railroad museums; there was, however, a category for mappariums. (Since we’re doing this, mappariums only got 7,230 hits on Google.) I did fired off a couple of e-mails. People were going to look into for me, and I confess, I didn’t follow up. To my knowledge there still isn’t a railroad category.

And it isn’t better on the web. Go to www.museums.org and guess what? No category for railroad museums. The print world is just as dismal. Every time I go to the big city, I stop at a B. Daltons and count the ratio of tattoo magazines to railroad magazines. The tattoo magazines are winning.

Where is our ‘Wooden Boat’ magazine? (And yes I read the posting about how many marinas there are etc, etc, etc. But go back to those marinas and count the numbers of wooden boats, can you find one? I recently received a subscription offer from Wooden Boat on the front it said something like, ‘One the best magazines in America claimed some critic.’ High praise indeed.)

Where is our glossy magazine like Heritage Railways in Great Britain? Would such a magazine work here? Yes, I believe so and I also believe that it is vital to our long term well being. And please don’t say there isn’t a market for it, there is. Want proof, I submit the History Channel Magazine, it is kind of a feather weight but it is out there with 250,000 plus subscribers. How about the History Channel itself? Twenty years ago would you believe a television channel devoted to just history would work? Of course not, but it does.

Every year about 2,000,000 people ride the big 4 (White Pass, Strasburg, Durango and Silverton and the Grand Canyon.) What are we doing as an industry to reach out to these people? A glossy magazine would be a start.

If you’re still reading, you might think that I’m pessimistic about the future of heritage railroading. I’m not pessimistic, but I realize that we need to change our attitude and embrace the hokey, the Thomas and the Polar Express. While at the same time we do our “real” job of preserving railroad heritage. Why embrace? Frankly for the money!!! The rather legendary, and quotable, bank robber, Willie Sutton, when asked why he repeatedly robbed banks, supposedly answered: "Because that's where the money is!"

Growing up, I had an ongoing argument with my father. One of his favorite sayings was, “It always boils down to the all mighty buck.” I would strenuously disagree with him, but as I have matured, I’ve come to realize that he was correct. I have a busted locomotive and no amount of wishing will get it back in service. It will take cold hard cash, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars. I can’t wish I had this money. I need to go out and raise it. And to do that, I will take advantage of the people connection (read the public) that we are developing here. For it is only by tapping into the public wallet that we’ll raise the millions of dollars that we need. (And I don’t mean government help, but individual fund raising.)

Yes, we do have shoot outs. And yes, they are hokey, but the public loves them. (And as a side note to Alexander D. Mitchell IV, we do these at our turn around point, not on the historic property.) And yes we run the Polar Express. And yes the public loves it. How much so? 16% of our annual ridership rode between Thanksgiving and New Years. 95% of these passengers made a journey of over 250 miles one way to ride the Polar Expresses. (We even had people from Delaware and Mississippi come to Ely to ride the Polar Express this year.)

So we may think that our challenge is, ‘how are we going to make railroad heritage so enticing that people will drive 250 miles through a snow storm to participate?’ Obviously it can be done. But we have to work together, (what a concept) and we need to educate the public on why railroad heritage is important.

And for this to happen we need to add a dash of showmanship to our recipe, better yet, make it a rather large dash at that. For we may think that we are only in the preservation business but we are really in a race to capture as many dollars as we can, so we can do the business of preservation. (It’s a lot like the chicken and the egg, which came first? In our case, does preservation come first or does the dollars to do the preservation come first.) And make no mistake it is a business.

So when you visit the Nevada Northern Railway National Historic Landmark you just might witness a hokey shoot out or visit Santa at the North Pole. And if Rail Events Inc puts together a Hogwarts Express program, I’ll be standing in line to sign up.

But at the same time, we’ll also offer you a walking tour behind the scenes, so you can see a steam locomotive being repaired. We’ll explain the difference between a steam and diesel locomotive. We’ll talk about time and time zones. We’ll explain what a highball means to a railroader and how train crews communicated before radios and cell phones. We’ll explain how railroading touched all aspects of society. And during the year we’ll offer RailCamps for both adults and teens.

Railroading has a fabulously, incredible story to tell and preserve. But to tell it, and to survive, we need an audience and the almighty dollar.

Mark -

Well said! To which I can only add; "ALL ABOOOARRRRD?"

Les

AMEN!!,AMEN!!!!!,AMEN!!!!!!!!!
HE'S SAID IT ALL!!!!
I would kindly recommend that this posting be MANDATORY reading for everyone and that the NEGATOIDS be required to memorize it verbatium!!!
Great job Mark!!! Thanks, Ross Rowland

Amen! Well said!
My 2 cents...
If it wasn't for Thomas' 20,000+ riders last year or Polar's 12,000+ and the revenue they generate we would not survive. Do we convert all of these riders into members and supporters? No. However, we do convert a few. Better yet, they spread the word to others. Futhermore, when they come for Thomas or Polar many take the time to visit the displays and historic equipment sitting in the yard. Exposure, Exposure!

As for "All Aboard!", people want to hear it so I give it to them. 99% of our visitors don't have a clue about pure RR history. However, as has been said, we have the opportunity to educate those who are willing to listen.

Its indeed a fine line we walk, but necessary for survival.

Bill Houston
Heart of Dixie RRM
Calera, AL

While we're talking about getting it right, ah, it was Willie SUTTON who was the bank robber Mr. Bassett was referring to. Willie Horton was the two bit Massachusetts hood that Lee Atwater hung around the neck of the honorable and much maligned former Gov. Mike Dukakis during the 1988 Presidential campaign. (And if you take issue with that statement, just consider how much better off Amtrak - and transit in general - would be if the stars had aligned just a little differently that year.)

I generally agree with the rest of Mark's post. Probably every tourist operation that runs a Thomas or Polar Express finds it is a major part of their revenue for the year. Unfortunately, we don't have the RR culture of the UK, where "train spotters" aren't viewed as mostly more than a little eccentric by most of the rest of the citizenry. Where running an authentically restored small engine on a branch line excursion is a viable enterprise without the need for an "angel". That is not the case here, so compromises to "purity" will probably have to be made. I still hear criticisms of painting a Reading T-1 yellow and orange 30 years after the fact. It was just paint. Just try not to do anything irreversible.

We learned several years ago that a preservation effort such as ours cannot survive on "a family outing every few years to enjoy beautiful scenery aboard vintage cars pulled by a steam locomotive". In order to generate the cash needed to employ adequate staff to restore, maintain and operate vintage equipment, the railroad must become a stage, or backdrop, for recreational activities and family-type entertainment. People in a relatively small market such as ours must visit the railroad multiple times throughout the year, in order for us to survive.

In addition to Thomas and Polar Express (which, in 2007, brought in 46,000 of our 94,000 guests), we partner with local attractions, outfitters, entertainers and caterers to offer Tube 'n Train, Raft 'n Rail, Sleigh Bells & Whistles, Reins 'n Trains (horseback riding), Comedy Murder Mysteries, Hoedowns, Hay Trains (wagon rides & cowboy poetry) and barbecue trains. We also invest very heavily in Photo Freight trains. By themselves, none of these activities are significant money-makers. However, each contributes toward connecting with a particular segment of the population that would otherwise not come to visit a railroad such as ours.

When people ask about the fuel used to pull the train, the response is usually "Cash". Mark Bassett nailed it with his posting. Those who say otherwise don't have any "skin in the game", and most likely don't make a living in this "industry". From 1971 to 1990, the old Heber Creeper operated a pure, matched set of Harriman Standard coaches (and locomotives). We now operate a mixed bag of D&RGW, DL&W and UP coaches (since the Harriman equipment was sold off by the previous operators), and nobody really notices or cares! They want an experience! They want to make a memory. They love the thrill of stepping on the fire-door treadle and gaping into the jaws of Hell (the engine crew's equivalent of "Pull my finger!", especially when the folks jump back, almost into the coal pile). They love the uniformed conductor, and EXPECT to hear "All Aboard!" They love the annual trip to the North Pole in their pajamas, and the visit with Sir Topham Hatt (or seeing how much their grandkids enjoy it). Our industry has more opportunities to connect the generations with family activities than many other venues. In order to exploit these opportunities, we have to set aside provincial thinking, look outside the box, partner up and work together.

The technical challenges of operating steam locomotives and vintage equipment in the 21st Century are many, but the answers are out there. The interest in our "industry" is there, but we have to continually market ourselves properly to reach out and GRAB the business (they won't just come on their own). The talent (young and old), skills and "fire in the belly" are also there! All of this costs a lot of money, but the industry can be viable as long as we utilize available technology, lose the "not invented here syndrome", and run our respective organizations as a business and not upon emotion. There's plenty of time for positive emotion at the end of the day, when we reflect (privately) upon what we have accomplished.

Whenever Mark and I converse on the phone, at some point we say, "Now, remind me again why we do this!" (followed by insane laughter). Neither one of us really has the answer, but thank goodness we stick with it!

Craig Lacey
Heber Valley Railroad

Showmanship and hokey don't have to go together. Showmanship can be quality and sophisticated. we now have a golden opportunity to get some very good writers from the film and TV industry at cut rates while they are on strike - why not develop some very good stories based on railroad history that will provide the visceral mental and emotional experience our audiences want?

If we aim low and hit the target consistently we are simply prolonging the process of creeping irrelevancy.

dave

For the public, it needs to be relevant to their lives. Not just old trains, but why it's important to them. So, having fun with the family is what they want.

We run trains to bring them to our Museum, then educate them when they arrive.

Paul,
Thanks for the correction.

Long and short of it in my mind is that those with steam locomotives need to do everything they can do to get little kids on steam locomotives in droves.

They say when a kid is little that certain things form in their brain and stuff they learn to love at a young age can stay with them through the rest of their lives. Preserving steam takes people with dedication, I was 6yrs old when my parents took me to the Strasburg railroad I never saw a steam locomotive before but I was hooked!!! 15years later, I have built a live steam locomotive, voulenteered on full sized locomotive restoration, and look foward to a career as a mechanical engineer hopefully specializing in pressure vessels and boilers, all from a seed those guys at Strasburg 15 years ago. So get as many kids as young as can be when they are still impressionable when steam locomotives are still fire breathing monster fasinations in their eyes on steam however you can, inspire them young and plant the seed for tomorrow.

My generation isn't priveledged with steam locomotives running through everyone's back yard any more. As kids grow older unless they have fond memories at a young age attaching them to the locomotives, they could likely be the next NIMBY's who frown upon dirty, polution and want none of it in their backyard.

When the few who grow to love steam get older, then they will help on the preservation side of things. I think that the only thing that can keep steam running into the future is STEAM itself!!! That will likely be the only way to get the future generation involved. Seeing a rusty hulk, just doesn't have the shock and awe factor for the majority of society as much as seeing a fire breathing powerful locomotive.

Adam

THIS is the gist of my whole earlier thread, or at least my intention.

Compare, if you will, the typical "renaissance faire" with a living history presentation at a historic site or one-day cultural festival. Paid hokey entertainment versus reasonably accurate history. (Yes, there is overlap--I know wonderful musicians who derive much of their living from renn-fests.)

I don't for one minute expect that--just to pluck some examples I happen to know very well--the Strasburg should go all-authentic to the point of losing the wheelchair lift and having gravel platforms and privies, or that the B&O Museum lose that island platform they've built for their passenger trains. But, just to brainstorm another example, how about one car on the train where you could step back the the "bad old days" if you so chose? Complete with, say, a farmer taking chicken wire back to his farm, a sack of mail, etc.?

Passengers might well expect the "All Aboard!" dramatics and Wild West shootouts. You know, maybe they expect air conditioning on a wooden coach, too. I'd like to think that there's room for more discrete education, via handouts, examples, or maybe audio tour.

At how many excursion lines or museums exist the opportunity to literally step off the train into another world, if even with blinders on to ignore the modern SUVs blazing over the crossing a hundred feet away? If you've ever done that at one of the British lines--say, walked down from a platform to the signal box to find it not only manned, but manned by a volunteer in period attire, reading an old book, actually brewing tea in his teapot while awaiting the next telegraph dispatch from down the line--then you'll know what I'm talking about.

Never doubt the influence of a large fire breathing machine on a little boy. While I don't currently work or volunteer in preservation groups (college and football take up all my time) I hope to be involved one day. I was able to see the Atlanta & West Point 290 run down her home rails as a little boy and from the first time I was hooked. I remember it like it was yesterday and I couldn't have been more than five years old. I remember the details around the trip. 290 was returning from somewhere in southern Georgia to Atlanta.

She was supposed to come up the former ACL line from Manchester to Atlanta that went right by our farm in Union City. I sat on my grandmother's porch all day waiting to see her. See was suppose to come by in the afternoon, but I waited and waited and she hadn't come. I had an uncle in Tyrone who told my mother he'd call when he heard her come through. Well he called late that evening, well past a little boy's bedtime. My father took me up to the tracks and we waited and finally heard the whistle. But...she had switched right below us from the ACL line to the A&WP. My dad realized this and he grabbed me up and ran as fast as he could up to the A&WP. There in darkness my father and I watched her go by, whistle blarring, bell ringing, then the firebox door opened and it looked as if God Himself had turned on the sun for a moment. What wasn't there for a little boy to love?

The men who made it possible for 290 to run made me a steam fan forever. I've since visited Strasburg, the Great Smokey Mountian Railroad, and the Durango & Silverton. I can't pass a steam locomotive in a small town without stopping and reading the brass plaque covered in bird droppings and thinking 'One day....'

This is exactly why all heritage railways must strive to remain relevant in the minds of the public. We control the keys to the destiny of our organizations. If we succeed, generations to come will be enriched by the history. If we fail, we have no one to blame but ourselves and the loss will be immeasurable. Good public relations is a must, even if we must occasionally make slight concessions to draw the public in.

Here in Tucson, we have what has been a grass roots effort to bring back the streetcars. We actively participate in community events, are a member of the local merchant's association and are very active (and vocal) where public transit is involved. We have reached out to the community and local governments and their support is the only reason that Old Pueblo Trolley operates to this day. Back some years ago, liability insurance premiums almost shut us down. We brought this to the attention of the city and their response was "We don't want to see the streetcars disappear. What can we work out to keep them rolling?" Through this cooperation, we agreed to meet the requirements given us by City of Tucson Risk Management and they in turn assumed all insurance responsibilities for the street railway operation. If not for the good public relations, they could have said "So what or that they were not interested" and that would have been the end of the line.

Ensuring the future of a museum is not just getting people in the door. What's more important is getting the community involved and gaining their support. Old Pueblo Trolley is the only rail preservation organization that I know of where the majority of the Board of Directors is not from the organization's membership. In fact, OPT members and volunteers make up only about half of the Board. The remainder of the seats are occupied by representatives of the Neighborhood Associations that border our route, the University of Arizona Transportation Services, the Fourth Avenue Merchant's Association, merchants from downtown Tucson, the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson Electric Power (and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and probably one or two organizations that slip my mind at present. We don't have any representatives from the Tucson Police Department, Tucson Fire Department or University of Arizona Police but they know the valuable service the streetcar provides by hauling inebriated students back from 4th Avenue/Downtown-keeping these students out from behind the wheel (we run until 10PM on Fridays and midnight on Saturdays). Think about that. Without the support of these organizations, we would be hard pressed to continue. Long term public support is something that we cannot afford to be without.

The danger with these large special events like Thomas, etc. is that they bring in so much of your annual revenue that you become dependent on them to survive. The museum can quickly grow to consume and rely on this formerly extra income. But what do you do when the events become too much for the founding members and other insiders to pull off by themselves? You can't turn something like that over to newer members, you'll lose control. At least, that's what the old timers tell us youngsters when we ask silly questions about why we don't do those crowd raising events any more. They also mutter about the danger of loosing our Museum Accreditation if we engage in too many profit making activities that stray from our Museum Purpose.

It is imperative to remember that the means employed--whether Day Out with Thomas events, Polar Express trains, steam operations, western shoot-outs, etc.--are only the means to the end: education of the public the role railroads played in the lives of the people and the development of the local, regional, and national fabric.