The kiosk would be marketing to future return visitors basically. If you think it’s good marketing/ PR to put up a sign like the one in the picture... well I just disagree with you haha.

As for people thinking the “mule train” is a train... well we have the Skunk train don’t we?

A somewhat separate comment but many families want to enjoy a train ride together and talk among themselves and not hear constant narration. Pointing scenic and historic highlights is of course a good idea, but constant narration can be annoying to groups who want to talk to each other and “experience” the train ride.

I like how Durango does it... they have specific cars for “historic narration” that you book and pay extra for. Obviously that’s not practical for every operation but I like the idea.

It wasn't an idea; it was a reality. It occurred sometime before I started there in August of 2010, typically using 1105 and a handful of those Harriman coaches. From what I understand, NPS bright the axe down on it because that train did not contribute to the reduction of automobile traffic in Grand Canyon National Park, unlike the Williams-GC trains.

A few years ago I was on the train at Dollywood in TN and the family sitting in front of me were talking about how disappointed they were that the train didn't leave the park and run through TN. A short time later I happened to be behind this family in another line who had now met up with some other people in their group. They were still discussing their disappointment and someone added they run the train back and fourth to Bryson City so why cant they have rides from Dollywood to Bryson City. It now made sense to me. They believed that the Dollywood Express and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad were the same train. At this point I did step in and educate them a little. They understood that an authentic steam train was rare and they just hadn't considered that there would be two within a couple hours of each other. They had also clearly ridden both but for whatever reason couldn't distinguish between the two. Oddly enough, this wasn't the first time I heard someone claim an affiliation between Dollywood and Great Smoky Mountains Railway simply because they both had a steam train and are in the same general tourist region.

As for the Grand Canyon Railway I think a marketing kiosk makes plenty of sense. People may see the train, be interested and want to take the ride on a different day or a later visit. Also, assuming a train ride at a tourist attraction would offer a tour of that attraction is not an unreasonable assumption. If people are interested enough to come up to the station then that's potential customers you have a chance to interact with.

Years ago, I was told that some of this confusion routinely arose at the Wilmington & Western, because the tracks of the railroad cross the same major highway (Del. Rt. 41) at both Greenbank (the station) and Hockessin (several miles up the road). If you ever had the chance to see it at both places, you'd see the train pointed in the right direction for making a round loop............ "Trains don't run backwards, do they?"

I don't think less of people who ask these kinds of questions. Just think of all the times that YOU (yes, I mean you) are the one walking into a situation with no clue. What would you think of someone who rolls their eyes at the most basic (to them) questions?
My only issue is when someone come around declaring things that aren't right and won't accept anything from the folks who are there to do it every day. Had a guy telling me the brakes are hydraulic and not pneumatic. I simply said, "No, they're air brakes," and he lost his mind, yelling. I finally looked up from holding onto the air lines and saw he had a kid with him and wouldn't accept he was wrong in front his boy.
I held up the end of the hose and said, "wouldn't this be dripping with fluid if it were hydraulic?" and then asked where the puddles of hydraulic fluid were from all the connections and disconnections if it wasn't air, and then asked what that swooshing sound was when we uncoupled?
His son leaned forward from the end of the car, saw what I meant and turned to his dad with a scowl. I just turned back to hooking up the lines while trying to keep from busting out laughing. The Dad wouldn't look me in the eye for the rest of his time there.
You also encounter a comical amount of wishful thinking. Our 2-8-2 is down for probably another year and almost every weekend someone will show up ticked there's a diesel on the head end, declaring our website says steam is running, and it really doesn't (in fact, the first popup clearly says the steam loco is down for a while).
Not a day goes by that some dejected person, upon watching us do the run-around at the end of our runs, will look down with weepy eyes and say they thought we went in a loop.
"Nope, you normally just see that in park trains," is all I'll say, adding sometimes that it was a logging railroad first.

Keep in mind, that the closest many people today have ever been to a "train" was the one that ran - in a circle - around their grandfather's Christmas tree. So far as they know, that's what trains do.

Fortunately, our line has loops at each end, so people see different scenery on the return trip. As plus, people are fascinated when the trolley car goes around a loop.

I find that many, if not most visitors to our trolley museum have never been routine riders of public transit. If they ever routinely rode a bus, it was painted yellow and was taking them to school. A farebox has to be explained to them. A timetable might as well be written in Cyrillic letters. They are astonished to learn that public transit hasn't always been the ward of municipal government and that private investors built trolley lines not out of some altruistic benevolence but rather for the single purpose of making money.

These folks aren't stupid, they're merely uninformed. It's our job to educate them, hopefully while providing some entertainment along the way.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

Let’s not forget that doecents and tour guides sometimes say pretty silly things as well.

I was once reprimended for saying “steam engine.” “Please don’t call it a steam engine, that’s a locomotive.”

Ha! Technically the steam engine is the cylinders, rods and drivers.

That said, riddle me this: Train Orders referred to trains by using the term "engine" for the propulsion: "No 614 Eng 117..." or "Eng 2124 run extra from Emmaus Jct to Perkiomen Jct"

Phil Mulligan

I had never thought about it before but I wonder if the the “round trip loop” confusion isn’t caused by the way many rides are marketed. For example you have 8 miles of track and call it a 16 mile trip. In every day life we don’t talk that way. If someone asks how far it is to the store I say 4 miles because that’s the distance from my door to the store. I don’t say 8 miles because the 4 mile return is implied. I can see where someone could assume the advertised mileage would all be original, non-repeated track.

Yeah if I didn’t know anything about trains I wouldn’t expect a “4 mile round trip” to go 2 miles in a straight line and then 2 miles back.

Funny. No one seems to have this misunderstanding with airlines..............

I admit to having made some kind of misunderstanding like this back in second grade, after buying my first copy of the Steam Passenger Service Directory..............

The term is still used when booking air travel, you are correct. There are probably some other terms railroads could use in their marketing to make things a bit less confusing for guests.

I have been giving tours at the Western Railway Museum for the past 30 years and more and it still amazes me how many people tell me that a trip to the museum is their first train ride.

I always treat questions seriously; but the person who knows a little is the most dangerous! Like the Father who told his son the air tanks under the Interurban were the gas tanks. Or the person who asked if the Sacramento Northern had any water tanks.

we do have WP #94 on display and people ask what the WP stands for. I explain what a Fallen Flag is and you can expect to see a lot of them in museums.

And if your museum has an archives you can always refer the visitors to them.

Ted Miles, Library & Archives, Western Railway Museum

OR:
The train in the amusement park.
Or the roller coaster.