Well, the very first thing I'd do is start hitting up the secondary and post-secondary vocational and technical schools. That's where you're most likely to find those with the aptitude for this sort of stuff and chances are quite a few of them like trains also.

What sayeth you?

Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is a 2-year accredited technical college in Lancaster PA, with over 1300 students. It awards Associate Degrees and Certificates and is owned by the Commonwealth of PA.

Phil Mulligan

Pete, when it comes to hiring good help, I'd for sure pass the word at technical or trade schools, truck stops, etc before I tried the hobby shops and model clubs. (Bet I get hate mail for saying that.)

As someone who goes to a technical high school machine shop course and already has tried to get involved, my biggest suggestion is good communication. The amount of emails and phone calls that I've sent out and never got a response is rather disappointing.

One of the things that made me want to get involved in preservation is the hands on work that I've seen up close, or in a few rare cases done myself. Strasburgs shop tour and Wilmington & Westerns summer camp to name two.
There were other things that made me want to get involved too, but I'm forgetting what they were right now.

Outstanding school, Phil, and Sammy, some of us are going to get grief from the penis gallery no matter what we say. LOLOLOL

Corey, since you're the first young'un to respond, the second thing I'm doing is appointing you the master of this thread. Gather up your buds and and tell us FOG's WTF we need to do.

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I'd like to see FMW Solutions run workshops. Their most recent 1361 video was amazing from an engineering standpoint and highlighted their process on how they are approaching the restoration.

If all you want is more shop workers you’re not going to get very far. You need kids and adults who are interested in social media, video editing, writing, communications, graphic design, etc.

Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?

Seriously, this is an incredibly important statement and something ALL groups need to pay attention to.

We can say that it's "we need to create a product people are interested in", but it goes beyond that.

We have to be ready to be welcoming not only to the votech guy who shows up with his Packout ready to wrench but also the non-binary kid with the green hair and lip piercings who just saw that steam engine come through town and was curious what the local museum was about.

If someone's wondering about the future of their organization, they need to take the hard look at if their organization going to great them the same way.

As far as venues to target, I'd add things like farm machinery shows, race tracks, tractor pulls, demolition derbys, etc. There are a LOT of younger people attending these events and most have an interest in things mechanical and many are accomplished machinists. I attend a few antique tractor/steam shows and I'm surprised at how many young people are involved. Steam tractors were gone a full generation before the steam locomotive and yet the following is still very much there.

Once your targets are established, make your communication informative, interesting and relevant. Don't preach a history lesson. "Help us work on a one of a kind, 400 ton, 5,000 horsepower machine." is going to be more intriguing than "Help us preserve train that ran during WWII." Regular video updates with in depth looks at whats going on including talking to the people doing the work would go a long way. Something like Jay Leno's Garage would be outstanding. So many projects seem to operate behind closed doors and a veil of secrecy. There are good reasons for that, but it does nothing to curb the impression that its just a bunch of old guys reliving their youth playing with their choo choo trains.

Progress Rail is running employment ads on WRFY right now, Corey...

https://y102reading.iheart.com/

Honestly I think the way you get kids interested is to just give them opportunities to be interested. Take them to museums, let them ride a train, see a steam locomotive in operation.

I wonder just how many kids and young adults have been inspired from simple tourist trains to big mainline excursions.

It’s not complicated. Just give them a medium to allow them to experience rail preservation and many of those people will keep coming back.

Can someone tell me what a “Penis Gallery” is? Is this apart of yet another one of his conspiracy theories? LOL

I can, '6770. LOL Yeah, must've been one of those Freudian slip thingies. I'm pretty sure I meant "peanut gallery".

Third, I'd recruit ex-United States Navy sailors for reasons that are redundantly obvious to both me and Phil also. "If you can't fix it, paint it. If you can't paint it..."

If they're under 25, supposedly by today's convoluted standards, they're still considered "kids" also.

I had an enquiry from a local home schooling parents association, they want to visit the silo and see the before, during and after results of the restoration process. I welcomed them with open arms, looking forward to spending time with them all.

Be welcoming not a closed shop. I was always welcomed into local BR shops in the 80s in the UK as a teen, and this is what brought me into this sphere.

Mike