Agreed, and WAY too much foam on here in general lately. Aren't there enough websites for "when are they restoring #XYZ and running her from New York to LA?!?!!??!!"

These sorts of questions are quickly becoming the height of tedium... thus I propose:

If one truly seeks an answer to such a question, one ought to become a member of the organization responsible for engine no. XYZ, thus enabling one to learn first hand when and where engine no. XYZ will run...

The website is called "Railway Preservation News." I'm pretty sure restoration, be it cosmetic or operational, is a big part of that.

The problem is, in this SPECIFIC situation, that public accessibility to becoming a "member of the organization" is severely limited. As I am led to believe, there are but a severely limited number of opportunities for "public" membership in this operation. (That's not a complaint, mind you, just an observation.)

A few years ago, I had the highly coveted chance to ask a bunch of entrepreneurs in a business field a question. I asked the panel "If you had it to do all over again, what, if anything, would you do differently, and why?" Ten hands immediately stroked ten furrowed brows. Finally, after 30 to 40 seconds, one of them spoke up: "MORE MONEY, FEWER SHAREHOLDERS!!!!! The other nine heads slowly bobbed in agreement.

Let us not spank those who are young (or who are simply "green") too severely. After all, I can think of a number of people who came into this board with "foamish" questions and having listened to us cynical geezers, have gone on to become active and respected Rail Preservationists.

I agree with Gary, I am new and being 20 years old I might not know as much about Railway Preservation as most of the people here on this forum but I am willing to learn to become one hopefully one day in the future. I have been studying the history of railroads for a while now although I am still not as good as most of the users on this forum but I am willing to learn from the best to be the best.

Cracks me up...... They do "have" to run steam at this point, it is part of their branding, part of their established product. Were an operation to change such an aspect for which they are known then their $7,000,000+ gross passenger revenue would begin to decline at a notable rate.
What would happen to a theme park if they suddenly did away with all of their most popular roller coasters? When you have an established product on which you have built your business you can only add to it, not detract.
Could they get by without passenger operations all together, or at the least without steam? Perhaps, but I doubt the share holders would appreciate the accompanying drop in dividends.

Cheers, Jason

[quote="Gary Gray"]Let us not spank those who are young (or who are simply "green") too severely. [quote]

No, let's when they clutter the board with crap. There's a way to learn; keep your mouth shut and your ears open. On boards like what this one was, it is to keep your eyes open and your keyboard unplugged, and research previous threads on this and other pages to get your legitimate questions - NOT random passing foamy inquisitions - answered. If, after learning enough to have a legitimate question, frame it and post it appropriately or PM somebody you have discovered is in a position to provide a real answer.

I'm seeing an unfortunate decline in the overall quality of information as RyPN becomes more of a generalized hobby thing and less a real forum for the sharing of information of elgitimate value and use for those actually working in the trenches. A thread starts; a coup-ole decently informative comments are added, than some foamy reaction that encourages for emotional reaction, then the thread is lost to meanderings and little of any factual informative value is contributed any longer.

I miss good sharing with truly knowledgable people. I'm sorry to see proportionally less of it here. RyPN doesn't need to beome another lowest common denominator hobby site.

dave

Hit the like button! But from the people who I've met, like Howard Pincus and Al Polmeroy (hope I spelled that right), there's no such thing a cynicism in railway preservation. I would describe it as cautious realism connected to questions such as funding, economic and mechanical problems and solutions. But maybe the niativity and lacking experience of the 17 year old psyche clouds my judgement.
Dylan Lambert

It's statements like that that detract the younger generation from getting involved in railroad preservation to begin with. Unless your some 90 year old man who was forced to work for the railroads in the 30s, everyone on this forum was a foamer to some degree at some point in their life. The younger generation isn't going to learn to appreciate railroad preservation if they aren't excited about it when they're younger. When I was 12 or 13, I foamed so much I could barely breathe. I'm approaching 21 now and, though I'm still a foamer, I'm more knowledgeable and more willing to learn due to the knowledge I attained as I grew up. This is why shows like Thomas the Tank Engine and Chuggington are actually useful and why railroads have "Days out with Thomas." Kids get interested that way. Then they find sites like this, as I did, and join to learn more, only to have the older generation belittle us, talk down to us, and push us away for our excitement, which, more often than not, turns us away from it. Every one of us saw our love of railroading as a hobby at one point, be it the Lionel trains under the Christmas tree, playing with model trains, or school trips to a railroad museum. It's not right that the older generation talks down to us because of our excitement. You want to see railroad preservation die out and all these pieces disappear? Keep pushing the younger generation away and it'll happen real quick.

Dave,
You hit the nail square on the head! Why do the foamers need to take over another board? This use to be a great place to exchange information for people actively in the preservation field, now a days there are way to many foamer posts.

Mark,
Yes, most of us were foamers at one time, Dave's comments were not meant to be harmful, they are just a statement of truth, this board use to be so so much more about hands on preservation with so much more useful info than most of the drivel posted in the last 6 months. The railfans have their boards, they need not take over this one. As far as encouraging youth to get involved, my wish would be for those same youth to get out of the house and start putting those fingers to use scrapping paint or other useful tasks in preservation than clogging this board and the Internet with their drivel. The best way to learn is to get involved hands on, not with the hands on the keyboard!

Mike Tillger

I second that. I remember the days when I was 12, 13, 14. I could not stop talking about steam trains and I remember I joined a few railway forums back then and just being so exicited about the topic of railroads, they could not handle the excitment I had and they blocked me from their forums. Now some years later when I am now at the age of 20. I have learn alot (and I am still learning) about Railway Preservation and how it works that the same forums that blocked me during my yonger days have invited me to come back and I come to appricate the hard work the people who have been working on Railway Preservation longer than I have (Heck I am still trying to find time to vollenter at the Illinois Railway Museum but first I have to get other things out of the way like a full time job and stop part time jobs to give me money to support myself) Then I would do what you say, get out of the house and pick up a paint brush or tool and working with railroad equipment. So I do respect the way how you guys want to talk about things that I am still trying to learn and I am willing to learn, just remember, if you want to see Railroading live on in the future, let us learn and we will keep it going so that our next generation can take over for us, just like whats happening now

8.5 years later and she’s being evaluated for an operational restoration! She’s currently in one of the shop bays and is having all of the remaining appliances and such removed. This evaluation will determine the steps that will be taken next. This is from the Age of Steam Instagram page.

Wonderful! Finally some good news :)

I can see future age of steam tours now -

“Here’s the #3, TVRM didn’t want her... here’s the #1187, Strasburg didn’t want her...”

A whole fleet of rejects happily steaming away!

“Here’s the #3, TVRM didn’t want her... here’s the #1187, Strasburg didn’t want her...”

A roundhouse of misfit toys?

Who has a caboose with square wheels?