For museums who don't have regular steam in service, I'd like to recommend that you consider renting Flagg Coal 75, an 0-4-0T owned by John and Byron Gramling. Byron is the master mechanic on PM 1225 in Michigan.

In February, the Florida Railroad Museum held it's first ever "Month of Steam", which I proposed and managed. I had contacted John Gramling last year to see if he was interested and, with that indicated, I proposed it to the museum's directors. They approved the project so we made plans to bring the engine to Florida in February, 2007.

In short, an extensive marketing and advertising campaign was implemented and produced very favorable results. It is very important to do this to gain publicity and sell tickets. We held a press day prior to the event where every member of the press who attended got to run the engine. That got us a LOT of publicity!

We had to buy a truckload of coal and have it delivered from Virginia. Then we paid for trucking the engine from and to Michigan. And the Gramlings were paid a very reasonable fee for the engine. The Gramlings provided mechanical maintenance and lubrication supplies from their fee. It was overall a reasonable expense to get the engine but it still was a challenge for the museum to cover the expense. Some directors got cold feet but we went ahead and the engine was delivered on time.

John and Byron Gramling are professionals at this, with experience doing similar but shorter events in Michigan, Indiana and North Carolina prior to our event, which was to be for an entire month. As it turned out, it was so successful that we held it over for an additional weekend so we ran for 5 weekends, all together.

When the engine arrived, it was unloaded and on the rails within two hours and steamed up the following day for trials and museum crew training. Although it is a small engine, we found that it can easily handle a five to six car train on our nearly level track so we had a train capacity of over 400 seats. We charged $ 16 for all tickets.

With the publicity, which included extensive coverage on the Tampa Fox 13 morning show and two big articles in the Tampa Tribune plus many other articles in various local newspapers in the area, we were soon running several sold out trains each day. We covered expenses for the whole month in three operating days.

The engine is pretty economical, too. We used only about half of the coal we had bought. However, due to it's small saddle tank, we could only run about three miles each way and then had to take on water. So, we ran four trains each day (Saturday and Sunday), on two hour departures with a running time of around 50 minutes. This gave us time to unload, service the engine and re-load for the next trip.

In addition to the steam engine, we added extra events each weekend. Three of the weekends had train robberies with a local group called the "Hole in the Head Gang", one weekend had antique farm tractors and equipment on display with hay rides and one day with antique fire trucks from a local collector's group. These added more interest and helped fill the seats. We carried about 7,000 passengers during the five weekends.

The Gramlings are extremely fine people to work with and the museum hopes to repeat this again next year. What is so good about this arrangement is that it gave our museum the opportunity to present real working steam without having to undergo the expense of restoring and maintaining a steam engine on our own. They trained our engine crews who normally run our GP7 or RS3 diesels, oversaw the operation and provided maintenance, all at a very reasonable rate. The museum gained a lot of favorable publicity and made badly needed money which it will use to upgrade track and restoration projects.

I'm submitting this to show others something that can be done at reasonable cost to further your public awareness and to generate revenue. The Gramlings have a second engine, an 0-6-0T, that will be finished soon so they may be able to expand their offerings in the future.

One thing I said in our press releases and ads is, "This tank engine is REAL". I emphasized the fact that, although this engine is not representative of main line steam power, it is very representative of America's industrial history and thousands of tank engines served at coal mines, quarries, along docks, at factories, and many other industrial applications in the past. Aside from that, it's billowing exhaust, whistle, and escaping steam provided all the steam atmosphere one could expect.
It truly brought a lot of nostalgia to the museum's visitors during the weeks we ran it. We're still getting calls asking when it will run again.

-Jim Herron

Jim-
I have to agree --- although I'm a bit partial, I'd have to admit. After bringing the #75 twice to Port Huron in 2004 and 2006, the professionalism and downright fun shown by the Gramlings in the operation of their locomotive is amazing, bar none. Now working at SRI, where the #75 will now be running from Memorial Day through the end of August by the way, I've also learned that the skills Barney honed on the #75 work on the big engines as well ---- and #1225 is in the best operating shape in years becuase of it. The Gramlings are two of the greatest guys going in the steam biz --- and this father and son show what steam should be all about.

Big steam in a small package --- you can't beat it!

Thanks,

TJ Gaffney

http://www.mstrp.com/

What a great idea and story! And I wouldn't worry about the size or type of steam lcoomotive you use. Interview ten people attending the event and eight if them couldn't even tell the wheel arrangement much less the style of loco. All they now is that they are riding behind steam! Thanks for posting.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Thanks, Jim -- great story and post! Though you clearly enjoyed the advantages of "renting," I'll bet there's talk among your membership of permanently having steam on the property! :-)

saw the 75 at Train Fest at Dennison. Great engine, and a class act.

Reports like this are what make me think it is still important to have steam running in 2007.

John Bohon

I saw them at Whitewater Valley in Indiana last summer. They are a Class act, and run a nice little engine.

I have a question about the 75 operation. SCRM is looking into the feasability of bringing the locomotive to SC. Nothing definite yet.

One comment made during the last Board meeting, which I foolishly attended, was that the owner of the engine doesn't want to be at the controls -- the "renting" organization is responsible for operating the engine under his supervision. One of our resident PPDs (Paranoid Prophets of Doom) speculated that the owner doesn't want the liability of being at the controls should something happen. Another PPD then commented "well then, we don't either!" Does anybody have the straight poop on this?

How the heck do you counter those PPDs? I've heard all sorts of doomsday scenarios. The smoke is going to kill all the hawks, rabbits, squirrels (who'd miss 'em?), and turkeys (never mind what the morning stench from the turkey farm does to my stomach); cause cancer, birth defects and miscarriages in everybody living within a hundred miles; and soil laundry while it's still in the washing machine. The cinders will erode the paint off of everyone's cars overnight and blind every passenger who rides the train. The engine is going to set fire to half the state. The boiler is going to explode and kill millions. Etc., etc., etc.

God forbid anybody should ever enjoy themselves and risk getting a paper cut!

“One comment made during the last Board meeting, which I foolishly attended, was that the owner of the engine doesn't want to be at the controls -- the "renting" organization is responsible for operating the engine under his supervision. One of our resident PPDs (Paranoid Prophets of Doom) speculated that the owner doesn't want the liability of being at the controls should something happen.”

The owner of the engine doesn't want to be at the controls. This is true if you met being the engineer. Each place that #75 has been has had engineers that are qualified on their own track. We are not. The train handling of the engineer in #75 is much the same as in the trains that they run on a regular basis. The person firing the engine is of greater concern to us than the engineer. It is much easier and safer to not be pulling the throttle or shoveling the coal but watching everything that is going on in the engine. At least one of us ride on every trip either in the cab or in the car right behind the engine where we can see and hear what is going on. We believe, along with the FRA, that this is the best way to run a safe event. Everyone understands that the person wearing the burgundy shirt (thats the color of our shirts) is GOD when it comes to what is happening with the engine. This has worked very well everywhere we have been with #75. As for the liability (responsibility) of operating the engine the way we are doing it is taking more of the responsibility than it would be if we were just running the engine. Everyone has been great to work with and I believe enjoyed the engine being at their place.

John

I'm so glad I'm not the only one dealing with people looking for the way not to do things.
Our F.R.A. nazi (not a real F.R.A. person) actually perfered the fact we'd have our "properly trained" engineers running it under supervision. He claims there is no possible way to let them run it on our line till they were properly certified and he wasn't going to put the time into that. hope that angle helps.
Our big stumbling block was all the track damage it would do. Steam is so much harder on track than the E-8 we currently run on our F.R.A. class 2 track. The other bone headed thing I'm trying to overcome is the board's asking why we need to lease a coach or 2. We have 3 fine ex Long Island commuter coaches sealed windows and all.
I'm tring to bring the engine to our railroad to coniside with an steam tractor and old truck show at the fairgrounds where our railroad stops. This event is a 3 day event and a few of our board memebers aren't sure if a steam train would increase our ridership that weekend. Even if we do alot of the advnced public relations they did in Florida.

Thank you for setting that matter straight. That actually makes a lot more sense than our PPD's theory.

Jack, Matt- Our 5 week operation of the 75 had absolutely no negative effect on track what so ever. We ran at 10 mph and at that speed there is little chance of any such damage and our track is also class 2.

One thing we did that I didn't mention before is that we ran a fire control train ahead of each steam departure. It then followed the steam train back. This train had a diesel pulling a tank car full of water which we rigged to both spray the track and also was equipped with a pump and two water hoses. The crew on that train was responsible for putting out any fires caused by ashes dropping from the ash pan or from cinders. I required all of our steam engineers and firemen to take turns running the fire control train so that everyone got to run both. You may want to designate only a few to run the steam engine but for us, this arrangement allowed more guys to get involved and that was better for us. The fire extra, as we called it, did extinguish several fires and so it was a good idea to run it.

As for cinders, the coal we bought is a special grade that produces very few cinders. I rode the train a few times in an open car behind the engine and didn't get any cinder fallout at all. We had no passenger complaints about cinders, either. The engine carries a very light fire and steams very well.

Our board also had a few PPD's but they were all in agreement that this was a great event for us once they saw how well the operation went. If you want more specific information, contact me off the list.

I want to emphasize again that John and Barney Gramling run a professional, well thought out operation. We simply followed their directions and all went very well. I can't say enough to compliment them on the opportunity they offer. Actually, working with them is probably cheaper and better than having our own engine restored and running and we have one that could be restored.

-Jim Herron

Hehehehe

Well, there's two guys who don't embarass easily!!

Who are those two "good sports"? One of them is Mr. Gramling, I presume.

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way
I can't wait to look in the mirror
Cuz I get better lookin each day

To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man
Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
But I'm doin' the best that I can

;)