LMFAO Sammy!!! Yeah, the fossilized remains of what were once proud young men...

Late to the party here, bit here's my two cents.

You have to make it a valuable, positive experience for them. They have plenty of other, cooler, more exciting ways to spend their free time. So if you don't make them feel like their time is well spent, they'll take it elsewhere.

My first foray into the steam preservation world started with attending a meeting, then volunteering for track work. You couldn't just jump right on the engine, so why not? Gotta start somewhere. There were a few other people my age just starting, and we had a decent time doing hard work a few weekends. Then, the full crumudgeonliness came out of the guy in charge. He talked way too much about how lazy our generation is, tried to make it seem like we should be grateful for being able to spend our day off from construction labor to do more, even harder FREE construction labor, if we wanted lunch we should have brought one instead of going out for lunch on HIS time, etc etc. By then it was almost summer, and it was apparent that the train crew was a good ol' boys club and those with no prior experience wouldn't get there. It didn't take long to realize our days off would be more fulfilling doing whatever we wanted. Turned out to be an epic summer!

My next attempt was at another, higher profile organization. Operating opportunities were far less, but they were friendly, didn't mind teaching those willing to learn, and just enjoyable to be around. Work and family take up most of my time now even before COVID-19, but I had a fantastic time volunteering for them. And if I find myself with more free time aligned with their work days, I'd be honored to spend it there.

Bottom line is younger people are hungry for experience. Not just job or work experience, but fulfilling, enjoyable experience. If you can make them feel like their time is valued and appreciated, and maybe throw them a bone once in a while they'll show up to clean smokeboxes, handle ties, scrape rust, and be happy to get their hands dirty.

Cool, this thread just roped in a new member!!! Welcome aboard, Thundarr, and thank you for your response!!!

Well, if there are any places within an hour or two of southern bucks county that will teach me some stuff, I'm all for it!

Z

I can't say for now, but three decades ago or more there was a prospective volunteer that lived mere minutes away from the New Hope & Ivyland who wanted to volunteer in rail preservation.

I'm not sure whether it was the "professional" (i.e. "no volunteers") nature of the operation then, or the fact that they fairly rudely brushed him off for his youth; I think he said it was the latter. But he instead ended up volunteering for the Wilmington & Western, an hour or more away, which welcomed him. I recall his parents drove him for the first year or three before he got a driver's license.

That guy still lurks here...............

Has anyone mentioned Black River & Western? I'm sure they could use the volunteers (and they're well within your driving time window).

cab ride in a steam engine seems to work pretty well...

I am what you all would probably consider “young.” I’ve only seriously worked with one organization already named in this thread, but I fully intend on becoming more involved with rail preservation when I return to Philadelphia next month.

This started because my parents were kind enough and smart enough to see that I was into trains as a young child, and took me to places that I could experience them. Whether it was just an afternoon at Wynnewood Station or a drive out to Strasburg, they realized that it was my biggest interest and fostered it.

As I got older, it certainly faded a little, but never dwindling too far. When I got into high school and attended a school in the city, I was able to commute home and slowly found myself becoming more interested in what was surrounding me. What killed the PRR? What killed private passenger rail? Why does the infrastructure look like that? And so on.

I found myself reading extensive Wikipedia articles on the topic. SEPTA has an amazing Wikipedia directory and I was able to learn more and more about the heritage of the lines. This further got me interested in both transit in the United States, and simultaneously rekindled the fire of interest that I had felt when I was young. I started going to more Railfan events, began looking for steam excursions, and the rest is history. I’m now working in the railroading industry.

How do you rope in young people? Show them. Now that railroading has once again begun to enter the American zeitgeist, younger people will naturally take at least some interest in railroading. If they can be shown preservation, if they can see and touch and hear a functioning steam locomotive, you will have their attention.

At that point it becomes a matter of retaining it. And the answer is still the same. If a younger person wants to know how something works, show them. If they’re anything like me they’ll start researching on their own and begin to nurture an interest. Generally preservationists are getting better at this with the advent of sites like Reddit and YouTube. Some of the content that has come out of young people on those sites is astounding.

TL;DR, if a young person asks to see how something works, or why something is/was a certain way, engage them!

Let's put a different spin on it. When I was young, working railroaders were mostly the ones to help me out, and they often did so by giving me stuff. Before I started school, I had an Official Guide and an employee timetable, and was learning to read from them. I still have them. As the years went by, I received all kinds of cool gifts from the generation before mine, or maybe the generation before that.

Now it's my turn. For some time now I have been giving away stuff from my collection to deserving "kids" --- young folks who have demonstrated that they would care for and appreciate those items.

Thirty years ago, the first time I had to move a steam locomotive by truck, I was in a very tight spot because the locomotive was in a very tight spot. A private locomotive owner from Trafford, Pennsylvania, Mr Jim Arnold, came to my rescue by showing up bright and early with a winch truck and donating a full day of his services. When I tried to pay him, he refused to accept anything, but he did ask me one thing:

PASS IT ON. Don't pay me back, help the next guy you meet who needs it instead. (And, if anybody knows Mr Arnold, PLEASE put me in touch with him again.)