Let's hear your storys of dumb people at railroad museums, I have quite a few myself one time this group of people (middle aged adults) came to our museum and one of the first things they did was climb into the trolley and start messing with all the controllers! Luckely another member said "You need to wait for a motorman".

We have several threads on the forum relating as such. Why keep dredging up the horror stories? Let's tell good stories of people at museums. Although I will admit a thread like this does make for some fine reading.

Because we occasionally need a bit of humor! But I suspect our humorless moderator will lock this thread in short order.

I would like to comment on the general lack of education in the US, and its effect on creating stupid people. A visitor last week thought a mile was 1,200 feet long. Don't you think that there would have been an extra 5 minutes during 12 long years of public education where that fact could have been taught? Its my opinion that the number of "stupid people" will rise in the coming years, the consequence of low expectations and the resurgence of the nanny state.

This moderator will not delete any posts as long as they do not attack other posters on this board. I've posted my own best stories in the past, and would enjoy seeing some other peoples' good ones.

Although it was live steam, we were located at the Southeastern railroad Museum. One of our engineers was asked by a father for his son what fuel was used to make the train go. The engineer was busy stoking the fire and the firebox was open. The questioner saw this but apparently thought it was a prop.
After the engineer told him coal, the father moved the boy away to the mother and returned and asked "Now really, what do you use as fuel?"

Doug vV

If you want to collect blank looks from your younger visitors try using the magical term "internal combustion engine."

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
—Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
—Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)

"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."
—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

"It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid."
—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
—Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."
—Frank Zappa (1940-1993)


Compiled by Gabriel Robins
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/quotes.html

Ok - this is not a flame, or anything. Just something that is an observation.

I had three adults come to me, and seriously ask me to end an argument. The argument was "how many inches in a foot?"

The adults were in the netherlands; and were serious. I answered their question with a serious answer.

For any Canadians here, ask teenagers, with the pretext that the answer does not matter - how many inches in a foot. If they get it right, then ask them how many feet in a yard. If they get that right then...

Most kids will not get the first one right - AND THEY ARE NOT STUPID. I metricated my workshop when living overseas; when I did work on steam here in Canada, I did work in my workshop in metric measurements; there is a crane around with a steam driven compressor with some boring done in mm units. The compressor still works, although in hindsight I should have given the rings more space.



I don't know where your adult was educated, but probably 95% of the adult population in the world could not answer that question, and me, myself, had to figure out "how many yards in a mile" just now - I could not remember the answer.

So, I think you have to put yourself in other peoples shoes before you judge whether they are "stupid" or not.

Again, no flame intended. (read my next post)

JohnS.

Ok - here is a story for you, that sticks in my mind.

I was working in New Zealand, and I had to go up into one of those "drop ceilings". A New Zealand colleague found an aluminium ladder high enough to do the work.

I take the ladder, "unfold" it, on the tile floor, and notice that it does not have the drop arms (you know, the ones that pivot down) required to keep the two sides of the ladder looking like the letter "A" from the side. It looked like an inverted "V" from the side, and it looked like I was going to break my neck trying to climb up into that ceiling.

I'm looking at this ladder, wondering how in the world I'm going to survive this, and wondering why New Zealand ladders don't have the cross bracing, when my colleague wanders over to me, cooly, unfolds bracing from the extruded sides of the ladder, swings it down and attaches it, instantly changing the (inverted "V") to an "A".

I had never seen a ladder without the automatic arms; from the look he gave me, he had never seen anyone who had never seen the drop down arms...

I hope the story comes across correctly;

JohnS.

This goes back many years, when I first went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad in its New Orleans, LA, sales office. One day an elderly African-American lady came into the office and asked for Mr. Long. I told her there was no Mr. Long working for the PRR in New Orleans. She said she wanted the Governor (Earl Long at the time) and that "his name was on the door".

Technically, since the PRR still owned the LIRR then, the PRR Sales Department represented it, "Long Island Rail Road" was painted under the "Pennsylvania Railroad" on the door to our office in the Natl. Bank of Commerce building. It took a few minutes to convince her we weren't the Governor's office.

Many times when I am on the property, people arrive in the morning and ask when the next train is due to leave. If it is after the 10:30 a.m. run leaves, I always say "noon". Unbelievably, many adults will then ask, "What time is noon?" I guess it is the digital age we live in.

I do not know if this fits as stupid but is sure does reflect the fact that technology is not something that most people are aware of these days.

My story comes from the Colorado Railroad Museum. It seems a mother and child were walking around the yard and the kid asked waht that big red thing was. Refering to the water tank.

She said, that is a water tank; it was used in the old days when steam trains burned water for fuel.!!

One can only hope!

And from my maritime park i was taking one of our new managers who has thankfully moved on to greener grass on a tour of the Walking Beam engine room of the ferry Eureka. I was telling him about the design coming out of the early 19th century and our engine being a late example built in 1890.

He asked about the steam pressure and I told him it was 60 pounds. He said, " That's not possible nothing can move at such a low pressure" I said that the tug boat across the pier was even lower at 30 pounds. He just shook his head and walked away.

Ted Miles

Back during my halcyon youth in the early 80's I was firing the ten-wheeler at the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista, CA. We allowed cab rides for those who asked. A young couple came up to ride with us, and almost immediately the fellow started looking at me with indignation. I could see he was getting increasingly "steamed" at me. He eventually worked up the courage to get up off the sandbox and walk over to the left side to ask me "Can the lady have your seat!?" I replied "Does the lady have any experience firing locomotive boilers?" I guess he figured I was just along for the ride. The trick is to educate these people when they least expect it.

Chris Allan

If we can be even the least bit charitable towards our fellow humans, we could observe that many of these legendary stories will stem from one of two human flaws:

1) Mental illness. This is not a snide remark; it actually became the only way we could explain a woman I witnessed one time at a DVD rental kiosk that couldn't get her DVD to dispense. I leaned over after five minutes of this futility and pointed out to her that she needed to swipe a credit or debit card in order to pay for her rental, and she was righteously indignant at the suggestion that she would have to pay actual money for a DVD rental. It also does much to explain legions of "America's Dumbest Criminals" and the like.

2) A stunning inability to say those simple nine words: "I don't know; I'll ask somebody that does know." This foible manifests itself in many forms, of which the most famous is the cliche of the driver that refuses to acknowledge being lost and ask for directions. In our cases, it's most likely the harried parent either making up any answer that will satisfy the overly-inquisitive kid for another twenty seconds until the next "But why?" question, or simply the unwillingness for the parent to be seen as fallible.

Does anyone remember the Bill Watterson "Calvin & Hobbes" comic where Calvin asks his dad how they come up with weight limits for bridges? Dad said they drove heavier and heavier trucks over the bridge until it collapsed, then they rebuilt the bridge. Mom retorts with "Dear, if you don't know, just tell him so!"

I don't know about the general public, but I have seen railroad officials being dense as well. We have one location where we have to build 7000' trains, but there is only about 4300' until the first crossing. Company brass has asked us many times why they are getting complaints about the crossing being blocked for more than 5 minutes at a time. I dunno, how long does it take to pump up 7000' of train and then move it off the crossing?