What is the cancellation policy of runs that are scheduled to be operated by museums? The policy at our museum is that even if just one person shows up to ride a train that is scheduled to operate, we run that train. Of course, I am not talking about an equipment failure which would necessitate a cancellation. Just trying to get a consensus of rail museum policies.

Thanks.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Les,
That's our policy also. I've run a train for just a mom, dad, and junior before. It usually happens on the last run of the day. One time we had a man and his grandson as the only passengers on the last run of the day.I asked if they would like to ride the locomotive. Of course, they said "yes." We uncoupled the engine and just ran it.

We've never had such instances with special occassions like Thomas, Pumpkin Patch, or Christmas trains.

Maybe we should have a Galloping Goose on standby for such occasions.

Bill Houston
Heart of Dixie RRM
Calera, AL

It's a tough call. You're adding wear and tear to historic equipment. Depending on the museum this has one or two meanings. At many museums, the operating pattern is "wear it out, then park it and get something else". At other museums it's "Wear it out, then spend a lot of shop resources rebuilding it." Either way, you have to ask yourself what's more important - the "customer satisfaction" of giving that rider a ride; or the durability of your resources. The answer "annul the trip" isn't necessarily wrong.

Of course, all that goes out the window if you operate between two towns and you may have pax standing on the platform in the other town.

I would say this too -- if you have one passenger, sure it happens sometimes, but if it happens at all often, you REALLY need to work on either your schedule or your publicity. I know a lot of museums that do "publicity as usual" or even "less publicity than usual" because the volunteers doing it have lost heart or moved on. That leads to the slow decline in ridership which is the death knell for an organization. Fix that - urgently and newly - and NO, it's not "the economy", it's not "the decline of traditional media", or whatever. Well, I'm willing to buy "swine flu", but only if numbers come back up soon.

I know about 8-10 years ago, NH&I would only operate a train if it had 10 people or more on it. This often led to the cancellation of the last train of the day and some times even more than one train that day if it was a crappy day weather wise.

Their savings not only came from less wear and tear, but crew costs were cut as everyone went home early.

Figure, they staffed the Station, Gift Shop, Parking Booth, at least one Trainman, the engineer/conductor (one in the same) and Fireman.

6 paid staff for under 10 people was just not worth it. I believe however, they have different arrangements now.

Of course, with volunteer museums, there is less payroll cost, but still other factors to present.

It really does help if your operation has a way of reducing cost on low attendence days. Wilm & Western runs their Gas Car on slower weekend days and some weekdays when numbers don't warrent a full consist. Not every place has that option though.

More than 25 years ago, when I was managing a struggling tourist operation, we would often substitute a motorcar for the first or last run of the afternoon when only a couple of prospective passengers were around. Most seemed to get as much enjoyment from the novelty of the pop-car as they would have from riding the train. We always offered them the choice, and the majority opted for the motorcar.

Not exactly on topic, but not too far from it, either, considering the mention of cab rides-

Back in the early seventies, I rode along as brakeman on Black River's freight on the day after Thanksgiving. We were just about to put the engine (SW-1 400) and caboose away in Ringoes, when an old airport limo pulled up to the station. It turns out it was a church group, and they wanted to know if the steam train was running that day.

Porter Collins, who was the GM (and engineer that day), quickly came up with a price to make a caboose hop to Flemington and back. We wound up with about twenty-two people, between the 400 and the ex-Reading caboose.

As Porter put it, we would have had to run around the caboose anyway, to get ready for Monday's freight, so why not do it in Flemington? Everyone had a great time, and we put a little extra money in the coffers, with very little additional fuel or crew expense.

My favorite "accommodation of late-arriving visitors" story is from the 1970's. This was in the days when Orange Empire did not have a fence around the property, but did have the rotary converter substation in service. This was probably in November, when it gets dark early; work had halted for the day, and members were standing around having the usually Saturday evening "where to go for 'beans'?" discussion. Out of the darkness, two figures emerged. They were railway enthusiasts from England, with some layover time en route to New Zealand. Unfamiliar with Southern California distances, they had made their way to Perris, not knowing how long it would take. Did we say, "sorry chaps, the power is off and we're done operating?" No way! One of us went to the substation and put the rotary on line. Fortunately, one of the cars in service that weekend was all-electric PCC LATL 3165, so as soon as the wire was hot, the operator closed the battery switch and gave our visitors a ride around the loop. This gave us a chance to get the air up in PE "Hollywood car" 717, so they also got a ride in a legendary Red Car. As a bonus, one of the volunteers was going home to the Torrance area, and gave them a ride back to LAX for the next part of their adventure.
(admittedly, this is easier with trolley cars than with diesel locomotives, and a heck of a lot easier with trolleys than with steamers.)