The comment on "special handling" reminds me of a situation that can come up in operating museums: Retraining volunteers who actually ran streetcars or locomtives for a living. When it was their "day job", there were probably plenty of "reserve" cars or "extra" locomotives back in the carbarn or yard. If something failed, call for another; your job is to keep the schedule or get the train over the road. In a museum setting, there are few (and maybe) no serviceable "backups". The cars and engines are a lot older and they probably don't make parts for them anymore. Preservation takes precedence over operation.

After 35 years of being around and involved in everything from tourist railroad operation, private locomotive restoration, amusement park steam, and NRHS/NS excursions, to actually drawing a paycheck from two Class I's, there are some observations I want to make.

When it comes to attracting younger volunteers, those who will hopefully someday be the back-bone of the organization, there is no better way of running them off than denigrating their contributions, holding secret meetings to decide they or their friends are cut-out of the operation, or requiring them to be near-master mechanics in order to even be considered part of a locomotive crew.

When I was young I wanted nothing more than to run a steam locomotive. Unfortunately, and it really took me years to fully comprehend it, I'm not much of a mechanic. On the other hand, I can hold a wrench on the other end of some piece the mechanic is working on. However, and it took spending thousands of dollars of my own money to become a Class I T&E employee, I found out I am a pretty good engineer, good enough to handle 10K tons at 50 mph and keep it in one piece, and good enough to run a live, steam-powered passenger train in a foreign country, in a foreign language that I really didn't understand, and be told in broken English that I did a fine job.

I realize that modern mainline steam operations require crew members to have a variety of skills to keep the beast functioning far from home. Not everyone on the crew needs to be a master mechanic though. Being young, eager and willing to shovel a significant tonnage of real estate into the firebox for several hours at a time should at least qualify you for some consideration when it comes to allowing volunteers "play time" with the engine. I have logged more than a few hours with a wire brush and pneumatic needle-scaler inside a firebox or tender leg (in my much thinner days) in hopes of being allowed throttle time later. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. You want to keep younger members interested and involved through their college years and getting established in life? Then they need some kind of tangible payoff for putting up with the typical "new kid" hazing that a lot of organizations put them through.

For me at this stage it's a realization that this whole thing is people driven. Without people it doesn't matter what else you have. And keeping that in mind is a good start.

Some good advice that I learned a long time ago---

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

Not a bad thing to keep in mind when dealing with people. And remember, this is all just rusty stuff (or nice, painted stuff) without the people. All of them: volunteers, employees, visitors, neighbors.

Howard P.

Mr. Davis;

what a insightful observation, in the example I detailed the person who wrote the new "special handling" rule was in fact a professional railroader who volunteered at the museum in question before and after he became such a skilled professional. He did indeed seem to apply a "Class One RR" mindset to a museum. Probably not the best operating model.

To AlderGulch12 and Howard P;

I suggest:

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice AND effective"

Cheers, Kevin.

I'll make one other comment, because my thesis here is opposite of what you'd expect.

It's actually easier to get crews if you run every week.

You'd THINK that if you run less, you'd demand less of your crews' time, and therefore ought to be able to get them more reliably. Nope.

People tend to be run by habits. And a lot of people stink at schedules. They don't use a scheduler outside of their 9-5 workdays (Outlook has a scheduler built in, and you pretty much have to use it for coordinating meetings, and most folks can't get to it outside the office.)

If you ask them to remember "It's the 1st and 3rd Saturday on even months, and 2nd/4th on odd months", then you're fighting an uphill battle. Every Saturday, they get up, have NO idea whether this Saturday is one of those Saturdays, and at best they may have to think about it, and all sorts of things can happen.

They may just plumb forget. Or they may be uncertain... and unwilling to drive 50 miles to find the place locked up. They may have gotten another offer (possibly a better one) for a Saturday activity, and they didn't remember (possibly conveniently) whether it's "one of those Saturdays", and the person is standing there expecting an answer, so they assent. It gets even more complicated when family is involved. "I need you to watch the kids" or "Well it's so few Saturdays I thought I'd take a chance."

So try "every Saturday".

For the volunteer, if it's a Saturday, the railroad is open. If you're a regular, you're going to the railroad. Simple - done. Habit sets in. Wife and family expect it and plan around it. In fact they push you out the door, because your family starts planning Saturdays without you, and get accustomed to it.

And at the museums I've served at, there's a core group of 4-7 people, in each department, any member of which is there 90% of the time. You can count on almost all of them being there on any given workday. Mind you it's not a clique; it's just who has made it a habit.

It has the biggest effect on the occasional volunteer. He no longer worries if this is "one of those Saturdays". He just comes down. Knowing he'll get put to work, will get help and will leave with a sense of accomplishment.