Unless things have changed, it's very easy, you pay for membership, which provides them with a insurance policy for you, and then you tell them when and where you would like to help out.
So easy in fact that I rember a big foamer fan that was a little "gifted" who hung out and played conductor all the time, and ran his mouth non stop, much to the anoyance of everyone else.

Sweet, 2 steamers up and running in one year, sounds like a great deal! (if everything goes as planned.)

John,
Let me state 2 obvious things. You do need to be a member, and while the shop slogan is "It can be done", you don't just walk in and start doing things as implied by other comments.
You did not mention whether your interest was shop volunteer or train service, or both. If its train service, that starts with rules tests, which are now aligned with the GCOR rule book, our timetable, etc. Then, if you don't have a prior background in op's, it will start w/ observation hours, then multiples of that for brakeman trainee time. Then if your at the back end, more time as conductor trainee, while the head end will be fireman trainee. Then it will be many hours as a fireman before you can get a student engineers card. You go through the same qualifications for it as a class 1 road. And they prefer some shop volunteer time as well, to help the museum, and so you get to know the equipment better. And one-size does not fit all, so what took say, X days of training for one person, may be more or less for someone else. There is some "evaluation" always going on with your progress. Between a personal schedule and working with assignment openings, this does not happen in a vacuum or overnight. It will happen, just expect it to be a significant amount of time, even if we had steam 7 days a week(head-end).

As for shop work, it's a little complicated. Right now, there is no weekend steam restoration coordinator with a clipboard of things to do. So unless you have direct contact with the shop foreman or someone he has coordinating the week-day crew working on 630, I don't know how you would be assigned to do things. On the E8, we have such leadership, task assignments, and a list of things to do, big and small. Once you are a member, I can get you on our email list used to let people know when/who might be out on a given saturday (or otherwise) to help get you started on something (and have buddies around for company or in an emergency). That is unless you are a diesel-phobic person. :)

IMO: Regarding other pieces of this thread, speculating on resources, commitments, unsubstantiated information, etc, could be just as detrimental to the announced 21st Century Steam activity as that seen in the CSX vilification thread. It would be wise to stick with official channels for what/when/how for 630 or 4501 activities. We have nothing to hide, but need to be professional in what we do to obtain the outcomes we all hope for. You can't stop the foamers, inside or out, but just maybe we can teach them a little that will bring them back to earth a bit. Just the facts are what I plan to stick to and I don't have any that the pictures don't already show.

Mike O.

^what he said...
I didn't mean you can just sign up, walk in, pick up a wrench and start working on 630. I just meant they have an open policy of accepting everyone and letting you train towards what ever you want to do

Thats really great to hear. I've hear too many horror stories of museums who basically discourage people from doing the fun things (engineer, conductor, fireman) until they've been around for years. Must be the secret to TVRM's success.

Actually, being Conductor wasn't as fun as many people make it up to be. When I was there, you could make Conductor in one year of operations but only for the local. The guidelines for promotion required that to work the Downtown Arrow as Conductor, you had to have had a minimum of one year as Conductor on the local plus a minimum number of observation trips on the Arrow (in addition to passing the NS Rules Examination). To make Conductor on the Chattooga and Chickamauga, you had to have a minimum of one year as Conductor on the Arrow plus a minimum number of observation trips.

The biggest thing that varied was the workload. Running the Arrow or the local was pretty easy. Running the C&C was work-constantly monitoring the equipment, making out the reports, etc. There were at least two Conductors I knew who gave promotion a try and then said just to leave them on the local. As for me, getting promoted wasn't an option-I was a part time employee.

Haha.. That's true as well. It's more fun than being the engineer though, at least on a Class 1. LOL!

http://tvrail.com/SC4-09.pdf

See the final page which can be printed and mailed in with check, money order, or CC info. All tax deductible donations are acknowledged with a receipt letter and listed in TVRM's newsletter "Smoke & Cinders" (unless anonymity is requested.)

BTW: The title of this thread is a little (lot?) misleading as all paying patrons at TVRM can view the same scenes on a daily basis. Spy shots? I think not.

Hey Steve, long time no see. Yes I know anyone can see this if they visit, thats why I put a wink ;) in my title. It's been a few months since TVRM updated their photos, I was just sharing my weekend. Thanks for the ride, fun as always.

It's to bad that this steam program will probaly never go up to the Northeast where I live. It's also to bad that although these locomotives are beautiful these engines have seen lots of running time while a certain 4-6-2 in PA which had an extremly short excursion season is again being ignored about and will soon be rotting away in Altoona just like the rest of the beautiful surviving Pennsy steam locomotives. May god help the 1361.

I wouldn't say that. Who knows where things will be in 4 years? I think when the line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh comes up for a vote in the High Speed Rail deals, the steam program may make an appearance.