When we talk about what went wrong, we miss how a lot of events went very right. I’ve been part of both kinds. After this past year or two, people will understand “nobody could have foreseen THAT!” a lot better than they once could.

What I want to hear about are the times when great planning, and great contingency planning, saved what could have been a major mess with unhappy visitors (or worse.) Great saves that don’t show are no less valuable and may be the best kind, since the public never catches on that the whole crew isn’t psychic enough to know there’d be a derailment up the line and have an alternate route in mind.

How have you dealt with

—weather? A big music festival that used to be in our area set its date by what used to be the driest weekend of the year, only to have things shift and cause a mud bog half the time. Extreme heat or dangerous storms are the most obvious problems, but winter events can be way too interesting if snow does decide to drop in.

—food supply and a place to eat it? The note about the alleged Dutch lunch and the four picnic tables for hundreds of people could have been even worse were it hot or rainy.

—medical emergencies? It’s hard enough for me to remember to drink what seems like a stupid amount of water that might almost be enough. Anyone can dehydrate and overheat, but those with dementia or autism (hyper focus on the trains!) may need to be reminded, a lot. Nobody plans to have a heart attack or stroke, but it can happen. How have you dealt?

—last-minute political tantrums? One of the non-rail events planned for months nearly sank when a local politician decided they didn’t want it because it wasn’t their idea.

—last-minute equipment failure, inability of something to travel where it needs to be, etc? It seemed hard for people to understand that 611 needed spring repairs, but would be back in service relatively quickly. Is there a way to let people know that today’s run won’t go but tomorrow’s will be fine?

—housing for crews and others? It’s a heck of a note in a hotel-poor environment if the people who need to put on the show can’t get a place. Forgetting to check for other large events in the general area can also set up trouble, like the Altoona rail fest whose usual date fell on Penn State’s alumni weekend.

What have you done about anything else—water main breaks, fires, floods and general confusion? When you’re dealing with excursions, the problem may be so far away that most guests don’t realize it’ll have an effect. I want to hear about “wow, we got away with that one.”

A few years ago we were gifted with 13" of snow three days before our Easter Egg hunt. All hands on deck shoveling a quarter acre of ground resulted in sore backs but a nice patch of green grass by train time.

- Alan Maples
Everett Railroad

Eggzactly what I meant.

In weather forecasting, most services use either a 90 or 95 percent probability to gauge risk. Trying to predict beyond that can cause overwarning, which makes people assume nothing will really happen. In your case, over a foot of snow must have cruised the upper limit, but it happened and you were able to react without undue upset (even if a snow blower would have been nice; I’d bet most of them were busy elsewhere.)

One of my favorite Steve Lee stories was the time an excursion was badly delayed and ran out of food. He called ahead to a large barbecue place and ordered up a trainload of dinners. He knew the place could handle that much traffic relatively fast, had the authority and audacity to take action and had the option in the back of his mind just in case.

All right, here's a good one that's recent in memory.

Earlier this summer, one of our regular passenger trains on Grand Canyon Railway had just left Williams and was headed down the 3% grade near MP 3 when one of the dynamic grids on the F-40 burned out and caught fire. The crew pulled up to the nearest crossing at MP 4.5 and the local volunteer fire department headed out to assist. Of course, as soon as the electricity was shut off to the grids the fire extinguished itself, so the Fire Department was really only needed to mop up.

Once the fire was safely extinguished and the fire crew cleaned up, a rescue locomotive was sent out to tow the train back into town - about 3.5 miles to the shop complex. Once there, the bad order engine was set out and the spare was added in it's place. The train finally departed to the Canyon for a second time, 2 1/2 hours late. The passengers were on this train the whole time, so their 2 1/4 hour expected trip to the Grand Canyon was doubled.

Luckily, we operate several other restaurants in the National Park and one just outside the entrance gate. We had those operations put together 300 box lunches in a pinch and deliver to the train station at Grand Canyon, so when the train arrived, the guests were handed a complimentary box lunch as they disembarked. This saved them the time and headache needed to find an open restaurant (much at the National Park is still under Covid Restrictions). We gave them 3 full hours to explore the Canyon (only 30 minutes shorter than advertised) and brought them back later in the day so they got to experience sunset over the high desert.

Amazingly, we had almost no guest complaints, and actually quite a few compliments. Other than being stuck on a train for 5 hours, they got to experience the Canyon later in the day when the lighting was better, temperatures were starting to cool off, and the crowds were diminishing. It worked out so well, we are considering changing the schedule for 2022 from a 10:30 am departure to a 11:45 departure and including a box lunch.

Eric