I was wondering if fellow Nattering Nabobs of Negativism ("NNN" and/or "NNNs") would be interested in a meetup at the 2015 ATRRM convention, hosted by IRM? Maybe a night meetup for pizza and beer would be in order? If interested, let me know.

David M. Wilkins
Nabob, Utah

I'll be at ATRRM, but I will be busy sourcing parts and pushing back against unnecessary regulation. The car fires in Memphis almost got all vintage trolleys put out of public transit service due to negligence on the part of the operating agency.

I'm attending the Rational Representatives of Reality elsewhere, but hoist a pint for me.

dave

From my point of view, the RRRs and the NNNs have a lot in common.

Jeff

I'll be buying stock in "Zantac".

David,

I have not been to the fall conference in many years and am tempted to make an exception for the proposed NNN social hour. Please remind me of the dates for the conference.

Thank you.

Wesley

I take that back. Zantac and Prozac.

I shall have to send this duly appointed mascot in my stead.

Maybe we can get Dick Gruber to present a program or seminar.

He is/was founder and first president of the Brotherhood of Underappreciated Rail Preservationists. Which does/did have some pretty distinguished members.

They tended to be those who did the myriad behind-the-scenes dirty little jobs at railroads, museums, and tourist operations that the glamour crowd could not be bothered with.

a/k/a BURP.

I'm pretty sure beer was involved in the founding of this august organization. Or was it September?

Well, then, THAT meeting will have to be at the brewpub in the CB&Q Roundhouse in Aurora, naturally.

With someone pirating a few growlers from the Flossmoor Station brewpub on the Metra IC line.......

I was at the Tyler conference and it ran quite well, aside from the horrible weather that hit on the night that the dinner train ran. It was scheduled to get back to the hotel at 10PM and was two hours late.

The trip to Dallas to visit the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority and the Musuem of the American Railroad at Frisco was well worth it. MAR is in a position that most of us envy-having a community that embraces its railroad heritage, wants the railroad museum to be a big part of the community and is giving them the resources they need to do just that. The City of Frisco has a fairly new Heritage Center, which currently houses the MAR offices. They have exhibits on the second floor and will be expanding to other parts of the building. Their new permanent site is well under development and the plans that they have for the various stages are really something to behold. They gave a presentation on the move from Dallas to Frisco that had some good information.

The street railway group had a lot to talk about-specifically the Memphis Area Transit Authority car fires that nearly killed vintage trolleys operating on any Federal Transit Authority funded line. From the American Public Transit Association representatives who investigated the fires, the word was that FTA was ready to put in place a 50 year rule similar to the FRA rule for freight cars. It was only because of the intervention of reasonable industry representatives that historic streetcars are not now restricted to operating in private museum settings. The maintenance session focused on the MATA fires, what caused them and what we as an industry need to do to prevent ruinous regulations from being promulgated upon us. Memphis had virtually no maintenance controls in place. Parts were not labled or tagged, what maintenance records they had were incomplete, basic information that was needed to properly maintain the cars was not available. One example was that they had no wiring diagrams for the cars that were burned.

Another disturbing thing was that there were changes made to the MATA cars that literally turned them into death traps. MATA had had problems with high school kids pulling the door override valve handles so they changed them to a mechanism that the operator had to insert a key to operate. The presentation showed us the full on board videos, seeing the passengers struggling to open the doors as the fires raged. In one instance, they managed to literally force the doors open. On the other car, the video showed passengers climbing out the windows to escape the fire. The new MATA director requested APTA to investigate the incidents and accepted APTA's recommendation that the trolley services be suspended indefinitely until the system can be brought up to par. Those of us who operate vintage streetcars and deal with the FTA are now aware that FTA is going to be looking at our cars under a microscope and that failure of any operator to maintain best operating practices could well have dire consequences for our part of the industry.

There was good news as well. Some of our members are successfully employing social media to enhance the experiences of visitors and a few are findiing social media very useful in marketing their museums. There was a seminar on successful use of social media in marketing presented by the marketing director for the Texas State Railroad.
She had hard numbers to demostrate the success that they have had using social media to market to their local base. Ridership has steadily increased since Iowa Pacific started operating the railroad and they are adding new product such as beer and wine tasting trains. The marketing has been so successful that they are having to acquire new equipment to meet demand.

Also, FRA had representatives presenting to the group on updates to the CFR. Most of the proposed rule changes are logical and will relieve the tourist railroad industry from parts of the rules that do not apply to us. They also provided clarification as to who is subject to certain requirements.

2015 will be at IRM September 18-20, but attendees will want to arrive well before the 18th as a number of pre-conference trips will be offered. The spring conference at York, Pennsylvania will also have a number of trips including one to Steam into History. Steam into History is operating seasonal event trains, as they have discovered that train rides now require more to fill seats than just the ride itself. Repeat business is key to keeping the doors open-TSR demonstrated that in their social media marketing presentation. Many people they interacted with at various tourism industry events had ridden the railroad as a child, but didn't see any value to taking another trip on the railroad-at least until the TSR rep told them about the new trains that they were running.

Basically, folks who are not attending the ATRRM conferences do not realize what they are missing out on. What they are missing out on are opportunities to steer the direction of our industry and connect with the folks who are the upcoming moving and shakers in our industry-Ed Ellis and Allan Harper were both there.

I certainly agree, even without a NNN gathering, the opportunities to meet and learn at ATTRM are boundless. I am glad, Alan, that you had a good experience.



September 18-20 at the Illinois Railway Museum in beautiful Union, McHenry County, IL.





I'm more than willing to hold a NNN/RRR/BURP joint social hour, pizza eating and beer drinking meeting one night as an "extra" non-official gathering. I think these three organizations have a lot in common.



Richard, you should know better than that. When one lives in reality, no prescription drugs are needed as there are no delusions. The only "drug" that will be consumed is alcohol, of course in compliance with Rule G and its modern descendants.

So if there is interest, let me know. Mr. Delhaye and I are already working on a t-shirt design.

Can I buy a shirt in absentia?

dave

David, maybe you need a theme song.

I suggest "Du Hast" by Rammstein.

It's everything you'd expect from the country that pioneered thick beers darker than Anthracite. and gave us Belsnickel and Blitzkreig.

Certainly.



While I like the idea, I think the song is a little too dark, even for me. Anyone who knows me in person knows that I'm generally in a good mood, mildly cheerful and possess a decent, if sick, sense of humor. Doesn't stop me from being direct when need be.