Noted steam entrepreneur Ross Rowland will be Bob and Elizabeth's guest on Let's Talk Trains. Ross has had a number of accomplishments with steam locomotives including founding the High Iron Company to restore mainline coal-burning steam engines, the American Freedom Train Foundation and Iron Horse Enterprises. Ross has been a licensed steam locomotive engineer since 1964 and has logged nearly 250,000 mainline miles behind the throttle of his locomotives.

Please join us Saturday, April 24th at 1:00PM Eastern/10:00 AM Pacific Time. The show can be heard at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/letstalktrains, by calling (646) 716-7106, or in the chat room at http://www.railradio.com/lttchat.

Elizabeth Alkire

Now that sounds cool! Go Ross!

Yes, I'm looking forward to the opportunity of making some new friends and the chance to share some fun moments from the past and some exciting prospects for the future of mainline steam.

Should be interesting!!

Ross Rowland

It was nice listening to the interview, you answered tons of questions that I never even thought of. Should have called in and said "hey!" ☺

Thanks Aaron. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it and hearing from so many old and a few new friends. It's good to know that there are lots of us train lovers in all parts of this great nation and that there's plenty of "youngins" coming along!!

I was a little sorry that none of the NNN's got through but then again maybe they don't do live radio!!!

Thanks to all who called.

Ross Rowland

I caught pieces during a lunch break at work - server was a bit flaky. What I lost that I wished I had heard was the end of the Amtrak story, and probably what I don't even know I missed was a lot of practical information about the nuts and bolts of how to keep producing mainline steam excursions during the changing og the guard at the operating levels of railroad management, from railroaders up from the ranks into MBAs. Wasn't enlightened by all the "Hi Ross, its been 20 years I'm OK hope you are too" calls, pleasant though it must have been to those on both ends of the line, that might have best been done after the program rather than using every listeners time. Wish the hosts had kept things tighter and more focussed, mostly, and the company net was more reliable.

dave

Actually, I think if you go the the website next week Saturday, you will hear Saturday's (24th) episode.

The show is available for download from the link above. It is a good listen.

I have to agree with Dave's post. At times it turned into an "old homes day" kind of event, with guys I had not spoken to in decades calling in. Obviously I had no control of which calls went on the air but I do agree that for the average listener it got a little old. I must also admit that I had no idea how wide spread the audience for Let's Talk Trains was.

I've been asked to do a repeat performance in a few months and I'll ask the hosts if there's a way to screen the calls so there's not so many from the good 'ole boys network!!

Thanks for the constructive comments.

Ross Rowland

The way the system is set up all the host sees is a phone number. We have no idea who is calling in. Let's Talk Trains is a live show and during most of yesterday's show, the phone lines were occupied with people who were just listening. There is a feature that allows us to see who wants to talk and who is just listening.

Upgrades to the system to be able to screen callers have been discussed but at present, they are cost-prohibitive without additional sources of revenue - meaning commercials.

As hosts, unless we have significantly more callers who want to talk to the guest, when we do have a caller, we have few reasons to restrict the conversation.

Elizabeth and Bob Alkire

There were two examples during the time I was listening where Ross was in the middle of commenting on a topic based on a good, interesting leading question asked by the host, when the host stopped him in mid-stream to take a random phone call, and we never got to the end of the commentary on the interesting topic. Choosing the right time to interrupt - like when it is no longer an interruption - with a call is possible with no technological intervention. Frustrates me as a listener, who wants more than sound bites from knowledgeable interesting people. OTOH you could have interrupted the foamer on the phone before Ross got on board any number of times and it wouldn't have bothered me a bit. Maybe I am just more serious than the listener you have in mind.........or have other priorities.

dave

Dave: First, as far as interrupting the guest: when a call comes in, these people are calling on their dime. There is no toll-free number. As a host, we are not going to strand a caller out there for 15 or 20 minutes when they are calling on their dime.

As for the callers at the beginning of the show, both of them have been contributors since long before we started hosting. We have one that understands the necessity of keeping his reports brief and is more than happy to do so. The other caller, as many times as we have tried to keep him brief, doesn't understand the necessity of brevity when major guests are on the show. Cutting him off would create more problems than it would solve, so we live with it.

May I suggest you host a show to understand all of the various aspects we have to deal with when putting on a live broadcast.

Thanks for your comments.

Bob and Elizabeth Alkire

A very enjoyable listen -Best of luck with the YRE, Ross.

Stephen

Thanks to Bob and Elizabeth! I din't get to hear all of the show, but it was facinating to hear from Ross Rowland. I'll get to hear the entire show later. Please do invite Ross back, and Ross, best of luck with YRE! I'm looking forward to seeing one of Lima's finest storming the rails again!