Shouldn't your website have a flick like this for one or more of your locomotives and/or trolleys? Or a DVD in your bookstore?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7d7t_4dZko

It's a good attempt. Web video strategy is big part of what I do for a living, and I fully agree that it is a very valuable - and underutilized - tool... especially for marketing purposes. A video like this could be a key component of a strategy to get butts in seats.

Rob

Western Railway Museum has a video playing in the visitor center about the ride and museum. Copies are for sale in the bookstore. It is not available online although excerpts are on the WRM web site.

The video is about same length of time as a round trip ride, 48 minutes. It was designed for visitor family members who are unable to ride with the rest of the family because of physical disabilities or other problems. That way they are able to see what they have missed because they could not ride with the rest of the family.

Crew members mention on the cars that the video is available in the bookstore. Cost is $9.95. Profit is about $6.00. The video provide great free advertising.

That particular video should not be on a website, but I agree with the idea.
52 minutes is a lot to request of potential visitors. And how many times does the older fellow have to say, "I have no idea what that part is." It doesn't stir a lot of confidence in me. Before filming, he should have found these things out.

Criticizing an element does not mean it shouldn't be included; just improved.
I am not a webmaster, and don't know much about costs or bandwidth needs. But if anyone these days can take any camera to produce a short video of the historic, scenic or mechanical interest a place can offer, should do it. It is an educational tool as well as a sales tool. If used right :)

I'd like to give a nod to our fellow tractioneers up north at Halton County Radial Railway who have put this fine video together. It is posted on their home page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XEpGUhYrD_c

Wesley

They put a lot of effort into video production, but no script or dry run? Seems if they just spent 30 minutes doing a walk through of the engine before filming, they could have avoided those long "what is that?" sequences.

This vid should have been done with 3 people or a different person explaining. Person 1 - Interviewer/Host, Person 2 - Mechanic, and Person 3 - Engineer. If mechanic is also an engineer, then person 3 is not needed.

If you are going to ask what does this tiddly bit do, you want to make sure you have someone that might have a clue what it is, or just avoid the questions all together, but if you did that the show would not be called diesel locomotive basics, just diesel locomotive operation.

Rich C.

This thread is turning out very nice, much better than I could have hoped. Please keep the ideas coming. I thought of the video of this type as educational. But yes, it could be marketing too. And thanks for adding other videos.