Railway Preservation News • View topic

tomgears · **Posted:** Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:44 pm

Kelly,

Great stuff and thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas.

Chris Salmonson · **Posted:** Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:40 pm

I don't think that Sellers handle would fit on one of our 4.3 injectors.

Greenfield Village also has a 4-0-0 right now (actually 2), but there's only half the amount of drivers, driving boxes, shoes and binders laying around!

It's great to see how other people are spending the winter.

Mgoldman · **Posted:** Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:40 pm

Fantastic insight - thanks for sharing some of the scenes and doings within the shop.

/Mitch

Kevin Gillespie · **Posted:** Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:13 am

Thanks Kelly, and Merry Christmas to one and all at Strasburg. I know I speak for all of the RYPN people who attended the reunion in June when I say what a wonderful time was had by all.

Afboone · **Posted:** Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:27 pm

Merry Christmas to the folks at Strasburg! Hey Kelly what is the plan with that Cumberland Valley Engine?

Thanks again for the pics.

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

Nice to see the beehive of activity.

Was a decision ever made about the Reading Camelback??

Merry Christmas.

I must visit again soon.

Tim Botti · **Posted:** Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:08 pm

Hi Kelly,

I'm intrigued by SRR's use of CNC. While I don't purport to be much of a machinist, I'm wondering how it's precision stacks up with working on steam, where tolorances are sometimes difficult to determine. Do you use CNC to do a lot of the rough out work and finish by hand, or is everything pretty much programmed out nowadays?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas all!

Bobk · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:57 pm

Only thing wrong with this post is that there is too much time between the Latest from the Strasburg railroad shops posts. Alway excellent photos and information. Keep them coming.

Kelly Anderson · **Joined:** Tue Sep 14, 2004 7:52 am **Posts:** 2477

whodom · **Posted:** Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:22 pm

I concur. I enjoy seeing the shop work almost as much as seeing steam in operation.

superheater · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:54 pm **Posts:** 2605

If you would both make a point to come by and purchase tickets (along with several hundred thousand of your friends), we’d be restoring #972, as well as the several cocooned passenger cars stored in our yard.
Its too bad we don't really know what drives the decline in interest/attendence/ridership:

gas prices, an aging (and passing) last generation that remembers steam., ticket prices driven up by insurance, a lack of Class 1 excursions/programs that act as bill boards to the public..what am I missing?

Unfortunately, we don't really have the data to make the inferences.

Paul Carey · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 6:36 am **Posts:** 16

Kelly, many thanks to you and your associates for all your fine work (and for the highly informative postings here) - I was at Strasburg over Thanksgiving weekend with 2 friends - we rode the train and took the shop tour - which I HIGHLY recommend!

Back in the late 1960's I worked on a B&M coach with my friend Tony Hannold, which he later sent to Strasburg. We were surprised and pleased to find that car in service - now as "Marion!"

Keep up the good work!!

wesp · **Posted:** Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:13 am

superheater wrote:

[i]Its too bad we don't really know what drives the decline in interest/attendence/ridership:

gas prices, an aging (and passing) last generation that remembers steam., ticket prices driven up by insurance, a lack of Class 1 excursions/programs that act as bill boards to the public..what am I missing?

Unfortunately, we don't really have the data to make the inferences.

The following theory is based on the assumption that the general market in our industry is primarily children and families with some level of disposable income.

Based on observation and without raw data at hand to back it up, there was a baby boomlet in the late 1980s. I saw this wave move through a childrens summer program at my previous job in the 1990s. In that case we had a steady increase in registrations for a number of years followed by a steady decline as the boomlet children moved through the program. Picture a bell curve shape.

Enrollments in the summer program leveled off after those years. This is mirrored in our current attendance patterns at the Museum. Each year has its incremental increase or decrease over the previous year but we've not matched the peak years of the 1990s.

Somewhat related to the baby boomlet theory, I can also see the trend at our church where the last of this wave is now in high school and our Sunday school attendance is much lower in the younger age levels.

Wesley

dr dodge · **Posted:** Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:33 am

increase in minimun wage, devalued dollar, increased fuel & living costs, loans and intrest rates mess all add up to less disposable income
now and in the near future
and a lot of late babyboomers are paying for college for kids
young and middle age people can barely afford an apt on service pay due to "no full time" policies
then wack the orgs with insurance payments that would give Howard Hughes a heart attack

I think the next few years will be tough for everyone
We all need to pull together to save this crazy steam obsession we have
(and get some new people infected)

dr