Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have a co-worker who is also a railfan, and is interested in learning how to operate a steam locomotive. He is willing to pay for instruction if the location is not too far. (He lives in the Baltimore area.) Unlike myself, he is very mechanically inclined, as he teaches auto mechanics where I work.

Thank you for any help. I shall forward any responses directly to him for action.

Kevin

kevingillespie@usa.net

Maybe he can help George the enginewright at B&O museum finish the Porter and learn there?

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

I've heard Pine Creek Railroad in NJ will help their volunteers work towards steam certification, but I'm not sure to what extent you have to help out before starting steam training. Anyone here have more info?

> Thank you for any help. I shall forward any
> responses directly to him for action.

> Kevin

> Ladies and Gentlemen,

> I have a co-worker who is also a railfan,
> and is interested in learning how to operate
> a steam locomotive. He is willing to pay for
> instruction if the location is not too far.
> (He lives in the Baltimore area.) Unlike
> myself, he is very mechanically inclined, as
> he teaches auto mechanics where I work.

> Thank you for any help. I shall forward any
> responses directly to him for action.

> Kevin

Valley Railroad in Connecticut used to run a session on how to run steam engines. Not sure if they still do it, but might be worth checking into.

Kevin

rrchas2@yahoo.com

Nevada northern and the Golden gate rr museum both have a pay to drive program. Both naturally have some instruction prior to actually moving the engine. Beyond that I don't have any other details.

Robert@trainorders.com

Kevin,

The Wilmington and Western RR in Delaware has been running steam locomotives for over 30 years with people just like him. He would have to become a member and then start showing up on weekends, most folks start in train service to learn the ropes and before you know it you are marking up on the steamer. He can work his way up to engineer, timing depending on the time he wants to spend and how quickly he learns.

Tom Gears
Wilmington, DE



Wilmington and Western Volunteers
tgears1@home.com

> Kevin, I would highly suggest that if your friend is seriously interested, he get involved as a volunteer with a reputable line near him.

However, After many years at Steamtown, I can tell you I arrived with wild-eyed dreams of taking the "right seat". I'm a lot more patient about that now. I understand what I do is potentially deadly to me and to others. Its one thing to go for one of those engineer for a day things, but to really learn takes years.

You have to learn first to check your ego at the door. The engineer who runs an engine well, first had to learn humility. There's no place for arrogance, pride goeth before a fall and a fall on a railroad could mean the end. Everybody wants to be the engineer, nobody wants to start closing hundreds of windows on 7 coaches on a 90 degree day-but thats all necessary. Finally, although they do a nice job, a subscription to trains magazine isn't qualifying you for anything. Assume you know nothing when you start, you'll probably be close. If you can't suppress the railfan in you, don't bother attempting it and don't be embarrassed, a lot of people can't shut it off.

The second thing is to understand that this requires total focus. Its a job. Work as a train/brakeman conductor for a couple of years. Learn the way it is and the way it has to be-there's no place for cameras, scanners or any other foaming. People do stupid things due to ignorant exhuberance (apologies to mr. greenspan) when a steam engine is near you need to see that a lot to get good instincts. This is especially true in a world where most people are conditioned to having "back" and "undo" buttons help them through their work. There is no pause-rewind-replay on the railroad, you're either focused lucky or dead.

Finally, he should think of it as a "martial art".. the engineer who runs an engine well, first had to learn humility. There's no school for this and requires dedication and patience. If you aren't going to be involved @ least once a month, don't aspire to running.

Lastly, show up when you promise to, be there on time, keep your rules and timetable up to date, carry a good lantern and basically be willing to do the little things, the dirty work. Make sure the wife is really understanding of being a choo-choo widow and filthy overalls in her washer.

Of course this assumes your friend is drug/alcohol free, has good eyes and ears, a strong back and good agility and likes getting coal dust in his lungs, food and water.

This is a great pursuit, don't get me wrong. I just can't stress how serious a matter it is, especially when lawyers might have the ultimate say in dumping every fire in the country.

This is the link to the Valley RR in Essex, CT.

Valley Railroad

Hi;

Up here in Ontario Canada, people running on provincial lands need to be "certified" as of June 2002.

This is actually a really good thing, IMHO, as I have noticed that people do different things (some good, some bad) at different railroads that I have volunteered at.

We will be obtaining certification for quite a few of our volunteers; we run on federal land, but the museum that we are associated with has recently decided to follow provincial rules.

The required outline shows what is required to (hopefully!) pass the test (See web link below). It outlines "steam", not "train operation". (you'll have to find the steam stuff on the web page frame)

John Stewart
Ottawa.

Ontario TSSA
john.stewart@crc.ca

>Please check out our "new" (year old) web site: www.essexsteamtrain.com (the old site still works). The Valley Railroad does indeed offer a program: "Your Hand on the Throttle" each spring (this year in April) and in November. Our last session had 59 participants who paid $350.00 for: a home study course, one hour of classroom instruction and approximetly one hour operating one of our locomotives under the guidence of the crew. Some people "get the hang of it" very quickly and require little instruction, others not, but it matters little as everyone gets to operate the locomotive. We get rave reviews of the program from virtually everyone who has done it.
J. David

Essex Steam Train & Riverboat
jdconrad@snet.net

As the airlines have closed their flight simulator programs to the general public and there's a new concern over rail terrorism, have any museums had to terminate their "engineer experience" courses?



bobyar2001@yahoo.com

Here's another place to try out the righthand seat as well as other tasks. See link below.

Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR Co.

> As the airlines have closed their flight
> simulator programs to the general public and
> there's a new concern over rail terrorism,
> have any museums had to terminate their
> "engineer experience" courses?

Let me get this straight:

In an effort to learn how to run Amtrak trains (which now seem to mostly run with single-lever "joysticks" and computer screens) into the Pentagon or hijack subway trains to Cuba, terrorists are going to try and get on board "engineer training courses" at STEAM railroads?!?!?!? Even operating a GP9 or E8 is so far from modern-day railroading that it would be like trying to learn to fly a crop-dusting biplane or B29 and then hoping to take the controls of a Boeing 767.

Then again, never underestimate either the gullibility of government people trying to "do the right thing to protect us" or the stupidity of terrorists or common criminals (the crack above about hijacking a subway train to Cuba? It actually happened in NYC several years ago......).

lner4472@bcpl.net

> Let me get this straight:

> In an effort to learn how to run Amtrak
> trains (which now seem to mostly run with
> single-lever "joysticks" and
> computer screens) into the Pentagon or
> hijack subway trains to Cuba, terrorists are
> going to try and get on board "engineer
> training courses" at STEAM
> railroads?!?!?!? Even operating a GP9 or E8
> is so far from modern-day railroading that
> it would be like trying to learn to fly a
> crop-dusting biplane or B29 and then hoping
> to take the controls of a Boeing 767.

> Then again, never underestimate either the
> gullibility of government people trying to
> "do the right thing to protect us"
> or the stupidity of terrorists or common
> criminals (the crack above about hijacking a
> subway train to Cuba? It actually happened
> in NYC several years ago......).

With all due respect to the above posting...

We at the Heber Valley Railroad are not just letting anyone onto the property with the upcoming Olympics. Security discussions/training(pun intended)/decisions have be going on for over a year now.

Last year at this time, we were looking at starting a "rent-a-loco" type program, but have decided to delay any additional plans for such a program until after this February.

'doc' Lewis

Heber Valley Railroad
utweyesguy@aol.com