I have followed the GG-1 discussion with some interest. What stood out were several assertions that the GG-1 enjoys some high level of awareness and interest by The Public. A second line of thinking centers on statements regrading educating The Public about the accident at WUS. This causes me to ask if the collective "we" in railway preservation have any independent understanding of what is of interest to The Public in our belowed railway preservation field?

As an example, when we planned the new facility at NCTM we added two major next exhibits: Conduit Hall and Street Cars Go to the Movies. However, when The Public arrives they almost always want to immediately know the time when the ride leaves. If "The Ride" has already departed and a docent suggests viewing an exhibit, The Public will most likely ask if they will have time before The Next Ride. We do our best with education, but it is still all about The Ride.

Looking at Strasburg Rail Road as an example, does The Public have any passing interest in recent efforts to present the locomotives with vintage lettering and logos for their respective prior owners, or SRR's efforts to field a vintage consist?

If several of us were to do a traditional market sample by setting up a both at the local Mall, would The Public be able to identify a GG-1, or Big Boy or PCC and RDC from photos withou being prompted?

What might research such as a doctoral thesis tell us about The Public's awareness of transportation history and The Public's interest in railway preservation?

Wesley

Wes,

You're dealing with people who made the decision to come out of their way to a trolley museum. There's already some degree of selection going on there.

The actual awareness of the overall general public can be described as nothing short of appalling. I've long said that the average American public has the historical awareness of a tree slug (that quote has been attributed to Rogers E.M. Whittaker), and at times I believe that is being generous.

I have frequently used the analogy that the railroad industry did to American life, culture, and economics in the 19th century what the automobile did in the 20th century and the computer and Internet is doing for/to us today. Many people I talk to, after a moment's consideration, "get it." Others look at me as if I have three heads.

There are millions of Americans living in rural areas that have basically no comprehension whatsoever about urban life, the possible viability of mass transit, etc. Similarly, there are millions of Americans in urban areas that have an inability to comprehend having to harvest grain, ore, lumber, coal, oil, meat, or whatever in a rural area and transport the results hundreds of miles to "civilization," or to spend an entire day just reaching the site of said harvest or going to the store.

Why is this? We could argue for ages on the reasons and causes. The more productive discussion is, how do we handle that, and what can we do about it, if anything?

Ain't that the truth.

Here at WRM, riders enter the museum via a paved parking lot and the Visitors Center. To get the train, they walk to the north end of Car House 1. If the car is open, they will get onboard and SIT THERE. If the train is gone, they might take the time to explore Car House 1. We tried to herd them toward Car House 3 for guided tours of that facility, didn't work very well. What worked was stopping the train ride at CH3's door and saying "Everybody off" right in front of the tour guide. At that point 3/4 of the car takes the tour. You have to drag people by the nose. But then, as curators, that's kinda our job.

Just to give you an idea how unexpected this pattern was: Car House 3 was designed with the light switches on the northeast corner at the walking path from CH1.

The museum's master plan ultimately calls for tracks to be built right up to the Visitor Center, so you board the interurban there.
Guess what's going to happen then!

It's not just your visitors, it's the general public and the news media, too.

I recall, back in the late 1960s or early 1970s, when there was a freight derailment in my home city of Wheeling, W.Va. It occurred at low speed, but did involve some cars that rolled over, and blocked a major street at a grade crossing for three days. At that time, there had been a number of rail incidents involving tank cars loaded with hazardous materials, and Penn Central was notorious for derailments caused by poor track then, too (although this particular incident was on the Baltimore & Ohio).

In the case of this derailment in Wheeling, the local paper had a photograph of a “tank car” laying on its side, and took note that it was “fortunate” that this “tank car” was empty. There was just one problem–despite the car having curved sides, it wasn’t a tank car, but a covered hopper car. Its large bottom outlets were facing right at the photographer!

Now, those who know more about tank cars than I do can tell you those cars can be quite specialized. Some are for liquids that don’t require heating, others require an insulating jacket, some are equipped for heating to unload their cargo, some require special linings to handle corrosive loads, some (such as for handling lubricants) are smaller than normal but weigh as much as larger cars because of dense loads, and others are “pressure cars” for handling assorted gasses–but none look like a covered hopper.

There have been plenty of other things. The late David P. Morgan used to write about things like how electric GG-1 locomotives, about to be retired to museums, “chugged” into stations. Steam locomotives that were oil fired (and in some cases were built that way) were “converted to Diesel.” A motorman on a transit line in Chicago “steered” (!) his train into a rear-end collision (I don’t know which should have been more embarrassing–the collision on the transit line, or the goofy story).

The !!@#$%&!!! paper where I live now had a story about a derailment on a local shortline railroad a few years back. This involved an “express cargo” train, and fortunately the “engine cars” didn’t derail. Ha! This was on a railroad that had a speed restriction on that line of 10 mph and hasn’t had passenger service in almost 60 years! Ironically, the line has since been rebuilding its ancient track--I've seen rail in it with a date of 1917--and there has been some talk about reinstating passenger service on the line for commuter service between Hagerstown, Md., Martinsburg, W.Va., and Winchester, Va.

When our current President made the trip by train to Washington for his inaugural, he rode in a “caboose.” That “caboose,” Georgia 300, is about the longest, heaviest, and most luxurious “caboose” you’ll ever see:

http://www.flickriver.com/search/georgia+300+rail+car/

It's in the customers in preservation, too. I recall being at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum some years back, and watching and listening to a kid's mother point out the controls in Philadelphia Suburban No. 66 there, which included, if my memory is right, a "gas pedal" (dead man), and "steering wheel" (hand brake)! I'm not good enough to make this up!

Now, we can laugh a bit at this sort of thing because we know what we do about trains and railroads, but I'll tell you about something that worries me--what do I read about, or hear about, or other people watch or read or hear about, that’s wrong due to lack of knowledge on the part of the reporter (who is fighting deadlines, managers, his computer, etc.)–and we don’t know it’s wrong because we don’t have the background ourselves?

I also worry about things we do know about but don’t get reported at all, such as what does appear to be a peak oil problem (yes, I know, not everyone believes this one, but no one can argue that "oil addiction" isn't a serious problem in America). What about what is now a large number of older drivers who are becoming unsafe to themselves and those around them, and who tie up the road system with their slow driving (and also help make the case for improved transit services)?

We hear and see little if anything on those and other subjects, but plenty on celebrity marriages and divorces, celebrity dating problems, weight problems, new movie projects, and appearances in embarrassing situations, sometimes literally caught with their pants down. . .

Do you worry about this, too?

I believe you - at WRM our rule book requires us to block wheels rather than relying on hand brakes because so many kids like to play with the "steering wheel."

Of course, one can also wonder why parents don't supervise their kids these days (such as training them not to mess with other people's equipment), but that's another topic.

From years of exposure at PTM and to the media, I've concluded that most Americans and unfortunately the majority of the media are as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to even the most basic knowledge of railroading, including public transit.

I have heard parents give some of most incredible explanations of rail technology to their offspring, thus perpetuating the lack of knowledge.

If we send our patrons away with even one kernel of actual knowledge as a result of a visit and tour, then we've made a positive contribution to society. I often wonder if this is actually happening......

[quote="David H. Hamley"]From years of exposure at PTM and to the media, I've concluded that most Americans and unfortunately the majority of the media are as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to even the most basic knowledge of railroading, including public transit.


Isn't that the truth!!! The thing i hear the most out of people after i tell them i work for the RR and am a engineer they then ask "Are you the one that drives the train" I then say "no i don't drive it there's no steering wheel!" I then get a puzzeled look and reply "well how do you steer it?"

My own mother-in-law of 30 years to this day still tells people i drive the train.The one's that irritate me the most are the news media when it comes to grade crossing accidents or suicides.We all know what they print in the headlines so i won't venture on that subject.

The other day i saw the attached photo on Ebay and i almost had to laugh when i first saw this.First off i've only had the pleasure of going up into 2 working steam locomotive cabs that were sitting during my entire life,so i'm not very familiar with some of the appliances inside a steam loco cab so forgive my ignorance on this one.What the devil is that large cast iron wheel in front of the seated engineer on the right? I don't recall seeing anything like this before in any other steam loco cab photo's or the 2 loco's i was up inside on.

If the geneal public and my mother-in-law were to see this photo they would probably insist that the engineer has a steering wheel in front of him and that they drive trains! Now i know it isn't,so what exactly is this wheel for and why is it such a large wheel? I'll be the first to admit even having 20 years class 1 RR experience i don't know it all and one can still learn something new everyday.

Dear FNK:
The wheel is a screw type reverser to control the direction of the locomotive. It is large because it is hand operated (not a power reverse). Many railroads liked screw reversers on passenger (and occationally freight) locomotives because the engineer could adjust the cutoff more precisely than with the more typical lever and quadrant system. Screw reversers were not well suited for switching: there were a lot of turns between forward and reverse.
I hope this helps.
J.David

I think the answer lies in the fact that the general public is no longer engaged with railroads or trolleys. Just as an example, I recently read a newspaper report of a derailment that took place in Harrisburg, Pa. during the 1930's. The accident took place, according to the reporter, when a journal burned off. He further reported damage to the track, delays to trains, and the railroad's efforts to clean it up, and named officials who were on the scene to supervise. Further down in the story, the reporter spoke with eyewitnesses to the wreck, civilians who were sitting on their front porches and saw the whole thing. They were able to accurately tell the reporter what they saw, including two different people who reported seeing "smoke coming from a journal box," one person calling that a "hotbox," and others accurately describing the cars derailed, damaged or destroyed as boxcars, refrigerated cars and coal hopper cars. One man even mentioned one of the derailed cars striking the base of a railroad water tank. How did these people know all this? They saw trains go by every day, they rode trains, they knew people who worked on the railroad. Admittedly, Harrisburg was (and still is) a big-time railroad town with many residents employed by the Pennsylvania or Reading, but even small town folks had that knowledge two generations ago.

Mr. Kuenzel is correct, of course -- but only here. Our friends across the Atlantic drive their locomotives, and as far as I know, always have.

It is becoming the goal of many museums, including the Colorado Railroad Museum, to educate its visitors about the importance of railroads to regional, national or even world history.

Glen Brewer
Is this any way to run a railroad museum? A second look.
http://RailroadGloryDays.com/CRRM2

I think one of the problems is getting the people engaged enough to understand what’s being shown to them. I’ve seen some excellent displays with well written text, photos and artifacts, but regardless of how well it was done, getting the people to take the time to go through it seemed more of a challenge.

I’ve observed a Docent giving a really good explanation of pieces of equipment to about a dozen or so people, some who actually seemed to be listening to the words, but based on their actions afterwards I still feel majority didn’t really get engaged into what was being presented to them. One of the items described was a tender, and after the tour was over I overheard one of the visitors ask a family member to stand next to the “boxcar” for a photo.

With short attention spans and the need for instant gratification, people don’t want to spend a lot of time learning things and make their own incorrect interpretations based on the things they can relate to like steering wheels and gas pedals. Same goes with reporters who don’t delve deep enough to get even some basic facts correct and perpetuate the problems and it certainly doesn’t stop with just railroads. I know a guy who travels by jet almost every week, but has no clue or cares how it works as long as it gets him to where he needs to be on time.

Look at the current crop of programming on The History Channel, Discovery, Learning Channel, etc and you see that a lot of the programs are edited with short bursts of some interesting information and history, but integrated with the personalities of the shows. Some people might not think it’s effective, but when you get into the “water cooler” talk at work or wherever and people talk about what item they saw or how something was done shows that at least some of the facts are being delivered.

A women I work with was channel surfing one evening and came a across a show on Nicola Tesla. For as important as his contributions were, he is certainly not a household name and like a lot of people, she never heard of him before. It’s been over two years since she saw that Modern Marvels episode, but she still remembers his name and some of the things he did and she’s not a history or technology buff by any means.

Similar screw reverses and "steering wheels" are common on many foreign steam locomotives, and another North American example is in the CP "Royal Hudson" class. The Royal Hudson reversers included solid wheels that more closely resembled steering wheels, and air motors that allowed the wheel to be spun more rapidly through major changes. And, yes, it permitted many a practical joke about the "steering wheel" to the uninitiated.

And, yes, I'm very familiar with engine drivers as humans, not wheels. But I also have money in several British locomotives. >:-)

I would suggest that part of the problem is systemic.

We rail enthusiasts, as a broad-brush stereotype, are geeks and nerds. Not just the Slobbering [Fill-in-a-RR-Name] Foamers and rivet-counting modelers, but all the way to the top of many of the museums and operations.

Geeks and nerds, by definition, are terrific at facts, data, trivia, and minutiae, often to the point where Asperger's Syndrome is a possible diagnosis. This is not restricted to railfans--it is commonly seen among sci-fi/Star Trek fans, sports fanatics, movie fans, racing fans, you name it. This hyper-focus often comes at the expense of an inability to see "the big picture," or acknowledge the non-enthusiast viewpoint. (The most famous exposition of this syndrome? William Shatner's famous "Saturday Night Live" sketch where he finally bellowed at Star Trek fans at a convention to "Get a life!!! Move out of your parents' basements! Have any of you even ever kissed a girl?!?")

Far too often, I've seen little or no attempt to make railroading relevant to modern folks. I think we need to show a laptop with an Amazon website on it and Amazon box beside it, and segue this to "100 Years Ago"--a Sears Catalog, a rolltop desk, a Railway Express Agency wagon being loaded from a boxcar or baggage car.......

J. David, Thank you for the explanation of the screw type reverser as to what the wheel in my attached photo was.I would have never guessed or known that without asking.ADM IV, i also wouldn't have known that some were air motor driven.I'm curious now and don't want to hijack the thread to a discussion on screw type reversers but are there any in use on tourist or other RR's that still operate steam locomotives in the US?

Perhaps the title of this subject should have been:

What do our visitors and railroaders really know about rail transportation?

You'll never know if you don't ask!

When working with the public at National Capital Trolley Museum, I have shifted my entire talk to focus on how street railways built communities.

I take a show of hands to ask who lives on a farm (no one). I ask who lives downtown, in urban DC (usually no one, maybe 1 or 2). I ask who lives, like I do, in a suburb (everyone).

The rest of the talk explores how streetcars--not automobiles--first allowed people to live outside the dense city, and still get to work.

Kids really like it if we start off discussing how you would get to work in 1860. Car--no. Bus--no. Horse--no, not unless you were rich. No, you walked--until the streetcar came. We also have fun discussing what streets were like in 1860--much giggle-inducing nose-holding discussion of horse poop.

Streetcars changed all that. In short, streetcars created "your"--meaning my audience's--way of life. Kids get it, moms and dads get it.

Only if a visitor asks so I discuss anything very technical, and then, in as much loving detail as the visitor wants.