Have any of your museums tried hosting events based around modern motive power including "state of the art" passenger locomotives? If so, would you be willing to share with this forum any observations you might have regarding interest level that they generated? I am asking this because modern topics seem to produce a very good turnout among some of the "independent" local railroad groups that do not limit their focus to railroad history.

This is not necessarily just limited to locomotives, it could include the scope of locomotive mounted equipment including communications, HEP system, and cab signals. One well attended recent event in my area featured railroad communications as the topic.

Thanks,

PC

At the recent "Roanoke Rails" joint VMT/Link Museum event (National Train Day) there was an interesting blend of old and new stuff. 611 was at Link, along with NS's "Southern" GP59 #4610.

http://kaback9.rrpicturearchives.net/sh ... id=2053990

At VMT, 611's usual track was occupied by NS SD70M-2 #2775 and NS Republic PR43C #4000, with motorcar rides on the west end.

http://kaback9.rrpicturearchives.net/sh ... id=2053987

http://kaback9.rrpicturearchives.net/sh ... id=2053980

Lots of people there. There was a line for cab visits to 2775 for most of the day.

Gary, thanks for your posting on that interesting event.

Some of the participants in this forum may be wondering why I asked this question and how it is relevant here. There are several reasons.

One is obvious, there is a segment of the rail enthusiast population as well as the general public that is interested in modern motive power.

But there is also a future for skilled individuals in the design and maintenance of the microprocessor control technology used on locomotives, in fact some operators and particularly commuter rail agencies are having difficulty finding enough people who have the necessary combination of training and skill to do these jobs. It is one of the growth areas in the industry and a lot of our colleges and universities have not figured that out yet. Right now some of us who are active in preservation as well as the railroad industry are having to point that out to academic administrators. There may be future opportunities for operating museums to make a more active contribution to education.

And a third consideration is that with the increasing difficulty of moving older equipment over Class One railroads, it is increasingly likely that "guest" locomotives at future events will be modern power rather than vintage equipment loaned by other museums. More groups may be in situations where modern motive power is displayed and "interpreted" to the public.

So it may help to plan ahead and share thoughts on how people are approaching this.

PC

Well, modern hybrid locos were part of Amtrak's National Train Day at Washington Union Station in May--they had a CSX 1300-series genset and NS's "battery-brick" 999, as well as a MARC MP36.

Frankly, museums seem to seldom get at what's under the hoods. Perhaps they need to do cross-promotion with EMD, GE, Caterpillar, etc. to promote a "Motor Weekend" or "Engine Extravaganza" weekend, showing off everything from vintage farm gas engines ("PUTT.........PUTT..........PUTT...........") to the Plymouth engine to the big microprocessor locos.......