Just wondering if any museums or tourist railroads have done any steampunk events.
Aaron Isaacs, editor
Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums

Strasburg has an upcoming one. Check with them for details.

While not railroad sponsored, there is a steampunk group in the Seattle area that regularly does trips to Snoqualmie, Mt Rainier Scenic and Chehalis. They seem to visit once a year or so.

They simply post a date on Facebook, buy tickets as a group and show up for a regular trip. They usually like to pose for photos, and from what I've seen the operations try to accommodate them.

Regular passengers seem to enjoy the fun too.

If any of the operations locally have done an actual "Steampunk Day", I've missed it. The current arrangement seems to work well, no extra work for the railroad, as they ride regular trips, and no financial risk for the organizers on the Steampunk side, since they aren't doing a charter and having to cover expenses with ticket sales.

While I don't dislike the steampunk thing (I do cowboy action shooting and historical re-enacting, having done various time periods over the years and I'm a big sci-fi fan), I don't really 'get' it. The public perception of history is messed up enough as it is...

Such a shame that a specific date couldn't be set aside at each venue. While I roll my eyes at the whole movement, I have to admit it's a good base for interest as it's a big thing in some circles.
That said, I've talked to pwople at a couple of operations in the Puget Sound area looking to set up a WW2 'stateside troop train' day/weekend (my primary hobby is historical re-enacting and I belong to decent sized living history/display group) at either. Nobody I've talked to seemed interested in setting up a dedicated (and announced) day or weekend for it. While I didn't get a negative response, the best I got from either was, "Great, why don't you guys just show up one day with your Jeeps and trucks, that'd be cool!" I got no response at all when I explained I was looking to set up a fixed and publically announced day or weekend for such a concept. One operation, the lady just stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I came close to waving my hand in front of her face to see if she was still awake.
I'm wondering if that's common, when a group is looking to allign themsevles with a RR operation for a scheduled event and instead get this response...

Well, the first question is "who did you talk to?" The ticket agent? The gift shop manager? You need to find the right person.

That said, railroads need to be careful when doing anything related to guns/war. I've been involved with Civil War re-enactments, and one was scheduled for a regular weekend, rather than an advertised special event.

Well, guess what, not everyone thinks guns and cannons are cool! Not everyone wants their kids to be involved in that sort of event. Grandma Granola Greenpeace will NOT be impressed by the authentic uniforms... She will notice the guns though. By the end of the weekend, their were several annoyed customers who demanded refunds, _and_ a group of civil war re-enactors who were awfully put out that the railroad didn't offer to pay them (via donation) for showing up to cover the cost of black powder etc.

That was long ago... Future events were handled in a different manner, and worked much better.

Yeah, I've been doing this since I was 5 years old, I know you always schedule something before you just 'show up,' which was the whole point. These steampunk people schedule these things among each other but not the RR itself. Wouldn't that risk a smiliar reaction? You can insert, "Hey, I paid to ride the train, not to also have to deal with _______" with whatever the concept.
I wasn't surprised by the lackluster reaction as I was with the whole, "Hey, just show up unscheduled whenever you want, everyone will love it," response, for the exact reason you stated. A lot of these steampunk folks are 'armed' as well, but with modified Winchester/laser hybrid guns. And a lot of people wouldn't know they don't work.
In my case, it was a moot point because my group would never dream of doing an 'armed 1940s flash mob' bit on anyone. If people don't want to schedule an event, it's their call. I brought this up because of the topic of this thread, where a steakpunk group just shows up like that. Not everyone is into that, and as anyone in the Pacific Northwest knows, finding people who are offended by something is as easy as finding people who drink a lot of coffee...

Not trying to sound rude or anything, but you're a fan of sci-fi and you don't understand the idea of steampunk? It's a form of fiction, just like sci-fi, anime, etc etc. The public generally considers history to be boring anyway, so we make it more entertaining lol.

You want to be confused by something, be confused by cosplay. That's the weird one hahaha

The key difference is there was no "dealing with" the steam punk group. They didn't do any reenactment stuff, no guns, real or simulated, that I saw anyway, (i am aware they like fantasy guns, and modded nerf guns at their events, but apparently they don't carry them in public settings, probably to avoid hassles) no involving the other passengers, except of course talking to folks who inquired about their costumes.

They were just like any other passenger, but these particular passengers wore simulated Victorian Era clothing. It's Seattle, folks don't much notice unusual outfits. After all, we've got punk rockers, grunge, green hair, etc, etc. Heck, I know a bunch of people who dress up as pirates and mermaids! The Victorian outfits are usually fairly modest, and no big deal.

They like to take group photos, and sometimes pose on the equipment, but that's not exactly unique. No different than the various other groups that show up really.

I'm not quite understanding the concept that a group of people who are in costumes must notify the railroad ahead of time of their presence. Does the same go for school trip or large family outings? Any group over say ten people must notify the railroad ahead of time. As long as these people are not interfering with the operation or other passengers, what right does the railroad have to say that they can't be there or that they're unwanted? How does having a costume on change things?

I'm dancing this line myself with a group that wants to show up at one museum on a day in the summer. They want to go, ride, and have a catered picnic on part of the grounds, and keep out of everyone else's way. There isn't a category in the "events rental" for that. And they're planning it on a weekend of a major event that distracts most folks in the area away from the place or discourages others from even trying to go to the city.

We've also seen this syndrome with ethnic family gatherings that carry out a cultural tradition of gathering at a city, county, or state park unannounced for a "family" or church picnic--not ten or twenty, but 100-300 or more, moving in with everything from a food truck (or several!) to games and even entertainment. Even though they may have a perfect right to do so, and may pay whatever admission fees in advance, the large gatherings, particularly when unannounced in advance, create considerable friction with others who may have planned to use the park facilities or sought a peaceful day only to find what amounts to a gigantic festival. (I think it's on par with visiting a museum or excursion line during a Day Out With Thomas event...) On top of that, when park officials point out pre-existing rules (for registration for group use of a pavilion, for example), they can claim "well, we didn't know; this is the way everybody does it all the time in the old country...." and can claim a degree of "discrimination" (they don't tend to be English speakers, if you get my drift).

As far as I would be concerned, my only questions would be "Are they abiding by normal decorum/regulations and not interfering with other people?" and as a subset of that, "is there any way people will mistake this group as some official museum representatives or event?" Imagine the scenarios if a large group of the following showed up on your line:

*A group dressed up like vintage engineers, conductors, and gandy dancers--look like employees or volunteers, no?
*A group posing for photos in lingerie or bathing suits, or even fetish wear
*A large group of motorcycle riders, riding loud Harleys and wearing black leathers
*Two busloads of Japanese/Korean tourists, all in business dress with cameras around their necks and marching behind their pennant-toting leader/interpreter
*A photography class from the local university
*A day care group showing up to buy thirty children's/free fare tickets
*An evangelical group that wants to ride to your picnic ground and hold a worship service
*A group of homebrewers that charters the diner for a beer-tasting party and shows up with cases of homebrew
*A busload of birdspotters intent on seeing that rare bird that's been reported nesting at your line's halfway mark, near the middle of nowhere
*A group of World War One re-enactors that want to pose for photos beside your equipment during the layovers, oh, and also ride your line.....

I've seen most of the above and more, most of them unannounced in advance to the operators. Trust me, you'll get variations of the above and then some if you're close enough to civilization and have a nice enough place. Be prepared. Have at least some consistent policy, so the motorcycle group doesn't sue you when one volunteer tries to ban them just because he doesn't like bikers.

The Civil War re-enactors I spoke of did a lot more than just ride. They showed up, guns a-blazing (well, as much as a musket can blaze) and did a "re-enactment" on the train. When we arrived at the destination, we encountered sniper fire, made it through that, found there was an "enemy" encampment, and more troops. Of course a battle ensued, complete with cannons.

They actually had permission from the railroad, that part was handled. The faux pas was doing it on a regular weekend. It was promoted and announced, but if you and little Johnny happened for a train ride that day, and hadn't seen the promos (this was long before Facebook and Twitter), well "Surprise!" free gun and cannon battle, no extra fee. Don't like gun battles. Well, life's gonna suck for the next two hours...

That only happened once. The management thought it was a good idea for a slow time of the year and it was. However, I suspect they under-estimated the impact on "normal" riders.

Things have long since been changed so you cannot get on board the civil war trains without realizing what you're in for.

Speaking of Cannons... One of the more humorous events of the weekend.

The locomotive had some minor problem with the boiler, the blowdown may have been dripping or something, can't recall. The crew wanted to address it, but not make matters worse. For example, open the blowdown and then find it leaked more when they shut it again.

So they called the shop on the radio. It's about a mile from the layover area.

The engineer says "Can you come over to the loop? We've got a small problem with the boiler..." No sooner had he said that then there was a very loud cannon blast.

Long pause on the radio, then a rather meek "Hello? Uh, is everything OK over there?" Poor shop guy nearly had a heart attack...

Several years ago the Western Maryland Scenic did a steam punk wedding as a special night charter. The charter cars were decorated with bits and pieces of what we thought were junk from around the shop. When completed the cars looked great.

The Bride, Groom and quests had a great time and thanked the scenic for making it a successful event.

Through I don't get steampunk, what matters is this was a successful and paying event for the scenic. The scenic is always open to new and enteresting ways to utilizes its resources.

Oh god kids ride free and a daycare shows up how does one address that?

You provide the free ride you said you would provide and smile nicely and wish them well......and your BOD has a few chats about policy changes before publishing a new set of rules. Integrity and professionalism toward visitors trumps inconvenience.

SteamPunk isn't hard to "get"........same sort of people do renaissance faires, dungeons and dragons, society for creative anachronism, military reenactments......and put on railroad uniforms and play with trains on weekends. They simply prefer a world that resembles the old Wild Wild West TV series.

Do you suppose there's a group of people who dress in bad suits and pretend to be accountants for personal enjoyment?

dave