If you want to think of something frightening, it's Alzheimer disease. I am aware of one railroad museum where the state DMV canceled the drivers license of a long time valuable member for this reason. So his wife drove him to the museum where he operated as usual. Fellow operators were unaware of his diagnosis. In an attempt to catch problems, this museum had a rule that all operators must have a valid drivers license although not required by law. But this was not checked regularly.

If you go to National Institute of Health web site, look at the figures for how many people between 70 and 80 have dementia. The rate goes up rapidly with age. Then plug in the ages of some of your older operating crew members. By age 78, the figures approach 25%. Of course there are people over 90 years old who have no dementia.

All operating museum management should be aware of these potential problems.

Addendum to my previous post. The wife of museum operator who had Alzheimer disease stopped driving him to the museum after he no longer knew where he was when she picked him up after he had been operating. The amazing thing was that none of his fellow operators were aware of the problem.

If you can't lift 50 pounds, how are you going to swap out that broken knuckle? They do happen on occasion, especially when you get that engineer that really shouldn't be in that seat but he's there anyway because he's "one of the boys".

For the past three years, since retiring and moving to Lancaster, Pa., I have volunteered a couple of days a week in the restoration shop at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. I also make two or three annual trips to Maine to volunteer at the WW&F Railway Museum. For most of the past 50 years, even while working full time in the shortline railroad business, I have managed to volunteer at least a couple of days a month in one place or another. Even though I held an engineer's license, I stayed away from train service, simply because there are so many people who want to do that sort of work. I mostly did equipment restoration and track construction and maintenance. Now, as I approach 70 years of age, I find myself slowing down. I'm not sure I could handle 50 pounds, and I know for sure that 75 is beyond me. But as long as I can do the other stuff, I will. And if I can help steer some younger folks and teach them a few things I've learned along the way, I'm happy to do it.

I'm curious, how many people here have ever seen a broken knuckle on a tourist railroad?

I've seen plenty of crazy stuff. Had the wheel fall off an engine I was firing one day. Yes, I mean the wheel FELL OFF. Not derailed, we had a broken axle. Happened on both the leading and trailing axles of this particular 2-8-2 over the years. (Conversations you never thought you'd have... "What happened?" "The wheel fell off!" "AGAIN!?!")

I've seen a piston come lose from the piston rod and shatter the head. I've seen hotboxes and hot engine brasses and rods and running gear problems. Brakes that wouldn't apply, brakes that wouldn't release.

I've had a fair number of derailments, most due to packed flangeways. Some were a real bear, others were real easy. I had one where I used a trick from the D&RGW I'd read about in Trains. It's true, if you derail in snow and ice, back up and the wheels really do follow the grooves right back up onto the rails. Best derailment I've ever been involved with. The engineer says "What was that all about?" "We derailed the caboose, shoved it all the way over to the other rail. But it's back on now..." "What?!?!"

However, I cannot recall of ever seeing or even hearing about somebody "getting a knuckle". Not even with long trains and steep grades on deadhead moves.

I'm curious as to how often this happens. I know one thing for certain, with a 4 car train, I'm going to be barking on the radio long before he can bang us around enough to pop a knuckle.

Now I'm sure it's happened to somebody someplace. Let's hear the stories?

PS - From what I understand, the 75# is related to a rerailing frog, which I have put to use on rare occasions. But I don't lift them by myself...

For the record:
In the operation in the original post, the one that ran the notice:
Should a knuckle ever break on THAT specific operation, operated push-pull, they not only could push right back to the departure point without repairing the knuckle (well, the way they *normally* run), but they could probably get a new knuckle out to the train by pick-up truck or ATV in five minutes. This ain't no rural backwoods operation.

Related question... How many of you carry a spare knuckle or even a pin?

Because the facility that has the 50# lifting requirement hasn't been identified, every post I've read in this thread is nothing but pure speculation -- isn't this forum supposed to be based on facts????

That said, being able to do things like throwing a switch by hand, helping someone on and off a train, etc etc etc requires some strength and physical fitness.

Bob H

Oh, I could identify the operation in question, but then I would likely open up another "can of worms" by having discussion shift from the overall, possibly preservation-wide problem of crew staffing/standards to specific fault-finding of that particular operation. And I don't want this whole discussion to become criticism of that operation for criticism's sake, whether or not they might warrant it.

It's kind of like discussing the UP steam program without discussion turning into a slanderous insult-fest against the current leadership of the program. After a while, you can't take any discussion about it seriously.

Here's a fact for you. A local operation that has paid crews also has a job description posted. The requirements list, among other items, the ability to lift 75#. Other comments in the description imply that the requirement is based on being able to lift a re-railing frog. Also, as other have mentioned, changing a knuckle is a fairly common (on freight railroads) activity, and it requires that you lift about 50 pounds.

The only speculation involved is whether or not a specific operation includes these requirements. Some certainly do. Whether or not the West Wimberly and Tottering is the one that inspired the question really doesn't matter much to a general discussion of the ability to recruit crew members, does it?

The 50 pound lift requirement is not unreasonable for a museum or tourist train. Crew members frequently have to help lift auto car seats with a child inside. Some visitors bring some really heavy strollers. Also I have had to lift some fairly heavy picnic baskets when the elderly owners were unable to negotiate the coach steps when while carrying them.