For most of my life, at least since I witnessed the almost overnight, early demise of steam on my hometown railroad, the Chicago Great Western, I have feared and expected to see or read about the very last steam locomotive operated in America. Fortunately, that last run has been postponed decades beyond my early expectations -- thanks to the (now) old timers who refused to let it die and to several generations of younger enthusiasts who have stepped up to keep them going. And thanks also to the fans, historians and general public who have spread the word, and encouraged the operations with stories, ridership and contributions of time and labor.

But is this a loosing battle? Are young enthusiasts stepping up in sufficient numbers to replace us older ones. Sure, there will always be a few attracted to steam, especially if they have exposure with positive experiences of their own – the more positive the better. I believe that the numbers are dwindling as old timers like me die off and new, potential enthusiasts are discouraged. Making the cab off-limit to all but the anointed will do nothing to perpetuate the love of steam.

For now, steam is still with us, but where will the enthusiasm come from to keep it going? Will the public even still be interested in seeing a steam locomotive run? I maintain that the up close and personal experience of a cab ride is one of the best opportunities there is for perpetuating a love of steam. No one can argue that with a ban on them, one more opportunity to turn a casual interest into a serious one will be lost. There is no doubt that there is danger involved, and I am not suggesting rides for everyone – just for the serious or potentially serious few.

As I see it now, opportunities are dwindling. In my youth, steam was everywhere; railroads were tolerant and open to non-employees – sometimes even openly friendly and encouraging toward them. With the decline in access, the essential, enthusiastic following is declining, as is the casual interest of the public. Places where steam still operates are declining, and where they still run, opportunities to promote enthusiasm are being discouraged and withheld.

Worse yet, in some cases, the professionals on tourist railroads appear to disdain a true enthusiast just as vitriolically as many main line crews and management personnel – an attitude I have never understood. When I was a boy, my father was sent from Chicago to New York City on business. The first time he rode the 20th Century Limited. I thought this would be an ultimate treat, but all his subsequent trips were on American Airlines prop planes. It was his choice, and I was astonished. I ask him why. He responded that the railroad employees were all old, surly, and bad humored – just the opposite of the people encountered in the nascent airline industry. Clearly, things have changed now in the airline business, but the lesson is there: there are many ways to turn away potential enthusiasts -- the very people who just might become valuable contributors given encouragement. Every museum or steam tourist employee or volunteer, who has any contact with the public, should consider himself or herself to be in the PR business.

My conclusion seems inevitable: I believe that contrary to what I originally thought, steam will probably outlive me after all, but not by much -- at least not in the United States. In the UK, I’m sure we can count on our friends there to continue for years longer.

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Kelly,

No, a cab ride isn't essential to make a dedicated railfan -- see my story above. By-the-way, Linn's father's writings and photographs helped lots in my case. But a cab ride can sure intensify one's passion.

You guys at Strasburg do wonderful things, and will no doubt persist much longer than many other smaller, less skilled operations. I hope there will be the interest in steam to keep things going for many years.

I don't see anyone in the group who is really young, however. Hard to guess, but I doubt there is anyone in the photo under 30.

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I must strongly agree with Mr. Brewer's remarks. My first cab ride was at age 6 with my Dad on the steamer pulling the Reading Co's Crusader. We rode from Elizabeth NJ to Phila. and I can recall it like it was 3 days ago. I remember how frightened I was when we hit a sharp curve somewhere south of Bound Brook,NJ at speed, thinking we'd never stay on the rails at that speed!!

It hooked me for life!!!

Over the years I've had the pleasure/privilege to carry countless guests both mainline and branch and I know in my heart that many of them became hooked during that experience just like me!!

Therefore I am and will continue to be a STRONG supporter of making the live cab experience available.

Let's not allow the ambulance chasers to ruin everything!!!

IMHO-Ross Rowland

I believe they are not the same at all. A tourist railroad is there to educate and entertain the public and usually done at the lower end of the speedometer. I do not feel freight and passenger railroads should open their cabs up to rail rans for rides.

I think the most important factor is to not limit the potential experience for the intended audience.

We are in a historical/entertainment business, and there is danger in not allowing that audience to see behind the curtain. It doesn't help to encourage the world to ride your train and visit your museum, but to shun them away from the real meat and potatoes. There's a reason we use steam locomotives as goodwill ambassadors -- they're people magnets. A visit to the cab of an engine, whether stationary or moving, gives them an inkling into how the operating work is conducted. This is where the front stage human drama takes place -- the shoveling, throttling, braking, watering, teamwork, and it's a place where people can find a context and just generally be awed. Does it present risk or inconvenience to have people visit the cab, or have one or two riders along? Sure it does -- but nobody works on steam because it's easy.

This kind of outreach should come with guidelines and practicality, sure. As for whether tourist operations and their prototypical counterparts are the same, I'd say it would be dangerous to try and minimize their differences. A 200-ton locomotive still weighs 200 tons whether or not it's pulling school children or Chevys. But what of the intent? To move freight, or engage hearts and minds? Can you do it without a cab ride or a step ladder to peer inside? Can you show people how engine crews work without a footplate on which to do it?

As far as securing a younger contingent, it's happening, although not as necessarily en-masse as it was 30-40 years ago, but this forum alone is populated by numerous under-30 steampunks, myself included.

Without runbys or numerous same-day operations, the public's exposure to the actual animal up front is minimal already. I cringe when I hear people say that "the public doesn't care what's up front," because I believe that if they don't care, we are failing to compel/educate them to do so.

Kelly Lynch

I agree 100% with you, Kelly. If Bill Purdie had not given a 13 year old boy a cab-ride for helping clean the engine. I most likely would have never gotten involved with working on steam for the last 30 years.

The other Kelly

Fear. Where have I heard that before?

Steam engines will run anytime there are enough people near one who want it to run.

Historic diesels operate only so long as serviceable life remains in their mechanicals. Once something serious breaks, they're done for good. However, there is no servicable life left in any steam engine, and has not been since around 1970. Only serious capital work keeps them alive ... if you own a steam engine, you have to do it. And because of this, the tradecraft exists to restore ANY reasonably complete steamer, even PM 1225 could be made to run again. Can diesel say the same? Heck no. In fact I expect steam to outlast historic diesel.

This isn't steam pride talking; I'm a traction guy. This is just obvious, when you look at what preservation has accomplished, and the fabrication techniques that went into each era's technology. You can make virtually any part on a steam engine in a reasonably well-equipped machine shop and contract foundry. But by 1950, industry preferred parts that could only be made with specialized jigs and tooling, and could no longer be made by anyone once the tooling was scrapped. Maybe kids with the CNC can figure workarounds.

This gets much worse with all the semiconductor electronics. Take me 50 years into the future, show me a carbarn with a 2-6-0 steamer, a 1970 BART train, a 1999 streetcar, and an SD90MAC. I'll tell you in a heartbeat which one is most likely to be operational.

Although who knows. Kids these days might surprise us all.

It didn't take a cab ride for me to "hooked". My problem is trying to get out of them now. I am not saying that no way, never should we give cab rides (on tourist roads). We must be cautious so that the ambulance chasers don't overtake us in our goodwill...

I could be wrong but last I looked PM1225 is still running I do beileave it is running every weekend for the next month and they have been selling tickets for trip at Trainfest. This past summer it was on some rev. freight runs.

Kevin Mayer

Don't forget that different people have different experiences and motivations. Maybe this doesn't happen for everybody, but open access - including cab rides - can absolutely be a dramatic inspiration for some.

I am a 29 year old tourist railroad engineer and mechanic. Like you, I'm lucky enough to have a good job on a very successful road. This allows me to support myself while making a contribution to railroad preservation. It really is great to get to do what you like for a living.

Without a doubt, having close access to locomotives and railroaders at a young age transformed my childhood interest in trains to working on steam locomotives as a vocation. I grew up close to one of the major - and first - tourist railroads, and as a teenager many of the enginemen allowed me to ride with them and watch them work. Looking back on it, they handled this very professionally and always made sure that it was a safe situation. This sparked an intense desire to follow in their footsteps, far beyond what I would have gotten from riding on the cars or watching the train go by from a distance. I cannot say how much of a positive influence this experience was for me, or how fortunate I am for having had it; if I had not, I most likely would not be doing what I do now.

Not every railroad has operating circumstances that allow for an experience like mine, and not every person would be affected in the same way that I was; but speaking from experience, open access can make all of the difference in the world.



Unfortunately this is indeed a plausible scenario. It should not be ignored, and steam operators should not take lightly the issue of cab riding. But a rider in the cab of a locomotive is only one aspect of our business that poses this type of threat - it just happens, because of recent events, to be the one that is under scrutiny at the moment.

There is a risk versus benefit ratio to railroad preservation in America. A certain level of risk is undertaken simply by pulling a locomotive out of the enginehouse. When do we say that some of the risks associated with railroad preservation are simply necessary? Obviously there is more risk associated with allowing access, but if it is handled responsibly, the benefit that the industry sees through increased recruitment, education, and quality of historical interpretation can be worthwhile. In some cases, even cab rides - if handed responsibly - can have a tremendous benefit.

The industry should consider the fact that some reasonable level of open access to steam railroading is important and take preemptive measures to manage this access and the associated risk, rather than immediately viewing restrictive measures as the inevitable only answer.



This brings up another point, which I do not think has been touched upon yet in this discussion...

During my time in the business - including recently, on some of the major steam operations - I have witnessed a lot of flagrant activity which unnecessarily invites the demise of both the steam locomotive and responsible open access programs. I have seen things such as way too many people in the cab of a locomotive. I once counted 9 people on a steam locomotive pulling a train with hundreds of passengers up a heavy grade. They were packed into the cab itself, with some even riding on the tender. I have seen passengers riding on tenders else wear, and climbing from tender to train while the train was in motion. Though I will spare the specific details, I have even seen people riding on locomotives - with cab ride tickets - who were in many cases completely unprepared and/or in absolutely no physical condition to do so. The examples of cab ride abuse could go on...

The problems with these situations are obvious, and if the industry is going to retain the ability to have open access programs and/or cab rides of any sort, then managers are going to have to put some serious thought into how they're going to keep activity reasonable and safe. Free-for-alls are of no benefit to the industry, and threaten responsible open access programs which are.

I agree with this. It takes effort for the public to "get it," but we certainly should want them to.

Often I think historical interpretation is lax because many of us do what we do primarily to satisfy ourselves. Subconsciously, the primary purpose of the public is to justify and finance our train hobby. Not that this is always the case, but I think it's to some degree true.

We know how important company archives can be for preservation work, in the future it will be just as important to also capture and archive computer source code and related documentation, both for programs that might run in some central computer as well as that which run in embedded subsystems. Where the actual computer hardware might be unrepairable, operating systems of the day lost, with copies of requirement documents, API interface documentation and source code, it would not surprise me to see some smart kid firing up a SD90MAC from a PDA/cell phone device one day using software to emulate dead hardware.

I suspect the real challenge here is chasing down all these different components, many from overseas locations, or assuming some of these places are still in business, first hoping they've bothered to archive and keep these documents, but also be willing to part with them. Working in the software industry today, the rapid pace of change and need to "get it out door" usually means little effort is spent on keeping documentation and code around once a product is off support, which suggests unless we know how good of a job GM and GE (in the case of today's road engines) are doing with software version control, this data may be lost sooner than we all might suspect.

Bob Bunge

I was once on a tourist railroad and saw a little kid get in the cab of the locomotive that was hauling us (later found out he was the engineer’s son). Just before the train reached the last station (where the locomotive would turn around and bring us back) it came to an unexpected stop, and then started moving again after a few minutes. When the train was getting ready to take us back the little kid came into the car I was in and sat next to me and started asking me questions about my handheld GPS, I asked him why the train stopped unexpended and he said “my daddy had to stop because there was a flair on the tracks” I am guessing by that statement that it was an F.R.A. break test. So the engineer was able to pass the break test (I assume) even with his son in the cab so I don’t see the big deal. I myself have gotten cab rides in steam locomotives when they were switching ends and I found it very interesting.