This is where tourist railroads get a chance to shine. I know from friends that most of the Georgetown Loop crew is in the 20's and 30's. Mind you some of these people are not just workers, but experienced hands trusted to make decisions about the general direction of work.

The loop, thanks to high ridership (250k last year from what I heard) has the opportunity to pay their workers decently, so they can get young talent and maintain those workers for many years.

I know this isn't the case everywhere. And some places can't justify the expense. But in the world we live in, where money does not go as far, and most people struggle to even afford a roof of any kind, paid employees go a long way to keeping people around, but it still takes a special kind of person who wants to work on this old stuff and is OK not being rich.

It just seems the loop gets forgotten anymore that people don't even see their achievements. there isn't any major drama, but yet they stable 2 operable steam engines, with a 3rd in process.

Now, TGB 4th. knows the answer to his question. It's ALWAYS best using OPM !!

Everyone knows that.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

The answer I got was "All of us officers and directors (the founding members) participated in that event and we don't need any more photos. Besides, some of us work for the company and could ride or visit any time and bring a few friends for free."

Was just reading the Trains article on the Royal Gorge Scenic and came across something interesting.

The passenger that was interviewed discovered the railroad through TikTok.

How many of you think TikTok is a stupid waste of time?

The question is not whether we "think TikTok is a stupid waste of time".

The valid question is to consider the viability and durability, or indeed the validity, of "investing" time, resources, and manpower into a specific online venue.

Let's count down the various potential venues just online for public engagement:
"Newsgroups" (functionally extinct)
Websites
AOL Chat rooms (extinct)
Online forums (railroad.net, trains.com, TrainOrders, this one here........)
YahooGroups (gone)
E-mail chain groups (seemingly on life support)
Friendster (gone)
YouTube
Myspace (gone)
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook (now considered "uncool" because "grownups" and "parents" use it!)"
TikTok
Whatever just came about last month we haven't heard of yet...........

Every last group I've talked to, mostly non-rail, that has done a survey of the "how did you hear about us?" nature has found that there's simply NO "magic bullet," no one stream of engagement that does it all. It's everything from brochures to flyers to Facebook to newspaper/online news mentions to paid advertising to free "events listings" both online and offline. The closest I can find to any successful trend is the concept of abandoning a formal website in favor of simply maintaining a Facebook page--which can work for a donut shop or small restaurant or garage-run business, but not likely for a formal, professional operation with staff.

If your website gets 80 visitors a month (of which 50+ are search engine bots checking on you) and your Facebook page gets 10,000 "reach" and 600 "engagements," it's time to rethink your online presence.

The investment on the young volunteer who disappears after getting a job/family likely pays back later when they first bring their kids to the museum and later when they have the time to get back to what they remember was good, fun and rewarding.

Young people today organize in completely different ways then we did. Gotta say Sandy's list of "stuff" is almost as out of date as a NHRS chapter.

The young man who is behind this:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/RAILROADS_Online/

Also has a youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/Hyce777

That is very attractive to my 18-year old if not because it isn't his boomer Dad who doesn't know anything explaining things. The game also has a discord channel. Discord is not only a "chatroom" but is interactive with the game and allows players to voice chat. I suspect there are other "channels" that are also related back to the game, which builds a semi-organized community that I sometimes find challenging to understand.

Bob

As Nevada northern proved, it doesn't matter the medium, as long as it has
Cats.

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." --paraphrase of Margaret Thatcher quote

For the person here making that response, that happened around mid-1985.

If it were only a waste of time.

It's much, much worse.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/03/tikto ... iceprints/

https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/ne ... HR-systems

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... k-privacy/


https://www.newsweek.com/21-dangerous-t ... al-1573734

https://www.makeuseof.com/is-tiktok-dangerous/

https://parentology.com/16-dangerous-ti ... h-out-for/

Another problem with newer and younger members at a railroad or trolley museum is that they are more or only interested in fixing modern equipment that the officers and directors don't know how to maintain.

First of all, that's not true across the board, not even close.

And even in those instances, how is that a problem?

-Sam

Its' a problem if you have youngsters whose interests and abilities are different from the older people who are in charge.
And I agree that it's not a universal situation.
It's similar to the debate about whether wooden or metal equipment is better for the long term.
That opinion may depend on if the person in charge of making the decision is a carpenter or a welder.

In my experience it's not a problem at all. If anything.. the problem is that new volunteers of any age gravitate towards the steam locomotives or other "famous" pieces of equipment when lots of work needs to be done on coaches, stations, signals, etc.

Also.. calling a new volunteer a "youngster" is not particularly endearing and does not make them feel part of the team.

Sounds to me like in that circumstance the older people who are in charge need to come to terms about accepting newer equipment and the younger one's enthusiasm for it just as much as the other way around. If you can't compromise, adapt, and improve you are doomed to fail for sticking in your ways.

Failing to identify and utilize young/new volunteer's interests and abilities because it's not "what the old heads want" or is out of their wheelhouse seems like a good way to ensure they won't stick around. This doesn't mean let them do whatever they want, either. Just my 2 cents.

-Sam