I think it is unfair to say they don't use their brains; they are used to a sterile world of Walmart, computers, and shiny cars; where things they see like "Titanic" in the movie of the same name is nothing more than a prop, a mirage, a computer generated fantasy.
Few people have seen a steam locomotive in action, much less understand how they work. And when they are confronted with something like a geared steam locomotive which doesn't have big whitewall wheels on it and driving rods; they are even more confused. Especially when they then see the little CP Huntington train in their local park or zoo.
Steam is rapidly becoming what sailing ships are today. And yes, most kids growing up now think milk comes from a factory in cartons, along with corn and everything else on a farm. Because that is all they have ever seen; not only do they not know anyone who owns a farm, they have never been on one.
And don't count on today's regular television fare of reality TV and music videos to educate them. And channels like the History Channel and Discovery Channel protray it like a thing of the past, as dead a concept as the tall ship.
It is that lack of disconnect that will be the death kneal of the steam, railroad, and other heavy machinery preservation movement unless we talk a more proactive stance in educating the public. We are dealing less and less with kids and even parents who fathers ran or remember steam engines; all they know is the Space Shuttle and video games.
Below is a photograph of the Solvay Coke Plant compressor house, taken by Brad Smith this past weekend. We had a lot against us that caused us to fail; but one of the biggest was simply put, the town of Milwaukee couldn't care less whether or not it was torn down. Sure, us steam fans raised a storm, but without money and support from the city, county, and state level as well as donors, we were doomed from the start.
Will this be your railroad museum or operation one, two, five, or ten years from now? That is a very real possibility if you fail to connect with your patrons and your community. We will all pass on, the generations after us won't understand and won't care what it was all about; and before you know it, it will be all be gone.
I don't know a thing about what is going on with the WM; but one question I have to ask is does the railroad do anything for community besides generate a lot of drive-thru traffic and smoke? If not, the answer may not be to treat them all as tree-huggers and and idiots; it may be time to hand out discount passes to the neighboring communities or have an open house where they find out for themselves there is a purpose behind all that smoke.
And will I continue to say that we need more mixed-development projects where museums are part of a retail or comdo mix, not hiding in a station far removed from the general public. We failed in Milwaukee, but I hope the Chestnut Hill group succeeds in doing just that, along with some of the inner city station projects. As long as we remain hidden out of the public view, we will continue to become something of a freak show unknown to most of the general public.
-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a
Surviving World Steam Project
http://www.survivingworldsteam.com
> A lot of it has to do with people in
> general today,I think they are getting less
> able to use the brains God gave them. I was
> running our narrow gauge Shay in eastern PA
> and we were sitting at the station waiting
> to finish loading passengers. You get alot
> of questions from folks on the ground, some
> intelligent, some inquiring about what they
> dont know, etc. But this one guy comes up
> and yells into the cab "Is this
> real?" How do you answer a qusetion
> like that with out flat out being a wise
> a$$. People don't think about a lot of
> things anymore. I had a guy from work bring
> his kids to our farm to see where corn comes
> from, they thought it came in plastic
> packages from the grocery store!! I hope
> some intelligent minds gat involved in this
> WMSR case before it gets out of hand. Maybe
> we need to educate the public a bit more in
> the realities of our operations, but as the
> last fellow said, the lawyers run the
> country as they see fit.
Surviving World Steam Project
james@survivingworldsteam.com