Well if some of us had something to post about, we would! But the majority of this forum do not live in Pennsylvania and are not involved with the EBT so we have nothing to contribute. A lack of bandwidth does not equate to a lack of interest, but rather a lack of resources - in this case, the resource being people involved with or close to the East Broad Top who can provide relevant and interesting news on this website specifically out of all other social media and forum sites that they could post to.

There are a number of organizations that we hear little about on RyPN because:

A. No one from that organization posts about what is happening there or,

B. No one visiting that organization posts their comments.

A shame, but true.


Les

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I'm not here to represent either group, actually, it's just that I live near enough to keep watch on the goings on. I figured I'd just pass the discussions on Facebook along for the benefit of those who don't want anything to do with Facebook (can't blame anyone really, it's a very divisive platform). I believe there are a few FEBT folks who post here (or at the very least lurk), but it's up to them if they want to comment.

Back to the discussion:

Looking in Google Maps, I counted 17 grade crossings south of Rockhill. Only the first (Odd Fellows Rd) is passable. At least 5 cross state roads. 2 of them are in the local high school's driveway. As to what signage and safety devices will be required will be up to the powers that be.

Thinking about the expansion further, it would make further sense to break up the Saltillo project into sub-phases based on the existing passing sidings along the way. Notably, this would be Pogue (for which the station/post office/general store still stands as a private residence whose owner has kept the exterior looking mostly as it was when trains still rolled by), and Three Springs (the siding, as I recall, is right by the community pool). These locations give, at the least, a runaround for the locomotive, and in the case of Three Springs, a community destination.

I do recall photos of one of the speeders on the rails in Three Springs very recently.. I also recall that the Foundation has already opened dialouge with both the community leadership and adjacent landowners about resuming operations and were given a positive reception.

Time will tell on that front.

In other news, you may have noticed a $10,000 discrepancy between the Teains Magazine reporting and the fundraising goal. Dr. Lee Rainey posted the answer in the Fans of the East Broad Top Railroad group on Facebook:



Enhanced interpretation of the RI&C No.1 Mine site south of the Robertsdale station will help complete the story, and it's starting to look like the 1989 NPS study of alternatives is acting as a set of guidelines (currently following Alternative 2, which was the restoration of service to Robertsdale).

It's worth noting from the Trains reporting that the EBT also has a tunnel contractor lined up for eventual work on the two tunnels (both of which have partial collapses and standing water inside).

If true, a bad move.

There is NO "magic bullet" to reach all those interested in the news you want to promote.

Not Facebook or whatever other social media.
Not e-mail lists.
Not "newsgroups" (what few are left on life support).
Not railroad magazines or their websites.
Not subject-specific online forums (in this case, pages like Railroad.net, Trainorders.com, Trains.com, RyPN.org, you name it).
Not your own website.
Not your newsletter.
Not press releases.
Not paid advertising, or billboards, or flyers.

For the people you will reach via any of those media, there will be many, many more that won't see or hear about it, because they don't use or get or see that particular media. Just like--as hard as it seems to believe in people's insular bubbles--not EVERYONE reads the newspaper, or watches the TV news you do (or at all), or listens to that radio station even on the morning after a snowstorm to hear if school is cancelled.

Facebook has become a bit of a lazy default because of its ability to post from a cell phone from the field, and it appeals to the short-attention-span audience.

In the case of Kalmbach and White River Productions, the EBTF/FEBT are a bit lucky that not only do the editors obviously directly support the preservation of the EBT, but that there are at least three actual trained pro-grade journalists within the state willing and able to intensively cover the RR for them while not necessarily being PR promotion for the same.

The staff (or volunteers) who are willing to post on/promote such operations, either with official sanction or unofficially, are just as important in a truly diverse media environment as the docents, the mechanics, the train crew, or the grant writers. Promoting such an operation is a ceaseless, thankless job, but it has to be done. 97% of us don't have the budget for a public relations person or agency.

I have told the tale here in the past of an elderly, retired educator who worked the phone from her retirement village apartment to promote school visits to the museum/excursion with which she volunteered, speaking to educators in their language on their terms. It was estimated that one year, without leaving her apartment, she was responsible for 24% of the operation's revenue income...........

A couple of points.....With Facebook, one does have some control over the comments section, same is true of one's own web site. That would be a VERY useful feature here on RyPN as the comments can ultimately derail a rather useful post.

You also need to look at the clientele (paying customers) that an organization is trying to attract. The clientele of interest here probably surfs Facebook far more often than RyPN. For that matter, there is a lot going on in the world of preservation today that never shows up on RyPN but is highlighted on any number of Facebook pages. Even with the N6b cabin car I have been working on, as the folks helping out have gotten younger, there has been a move to Facebook when posting updates rather than here on RyPN. It's just simple reality where RyPN, and similar sites, are as antiquated as the equipment we work on. Not monitoring Facebook is no different than refusing to move from steam to diesel power in the 1950s, or refusing to give up on the horse versus buying a tractor. Facebook has taken over, that's all there is to it.

J.R. May

My gut is that JR is spot on.

I have so far resisted becoming involved in Faceplant as I've witnessed how addictive it has become to others in my COI especially my daughter. That plus all the negative publicity of late makes me glad I've stayed away so far.

I figure that everything that matters will eventually surface here or on TO and I can live with that. I also guess that if I were around during the transition period from horse/buggy to automobiles I'd have been a horse/buggy holdout??

Ross Rowland

Ross and others, I have “adjusted” my facebook use over the years to really focus only on hobby and business interests. I do not use it for news, family, and friends where postings can indeed run off the rails. In other words, you select what feeds you want to see. Granted, some will sneak through and if they do, you can select not to see that feed or user/friend in the future. You do have control.
J.R.

I do see what I want to see of Facebook….of course that is nothing.
If outfits choose to not make their information available on those sites that I do read…..I assume that I am not their target audience and they don’t want my business.
And they are probably right about that.

Keith

The Saltillo depot, first photo just after the common carrier era, second photo after the town had ordered its demolition in 2004, if the roof could just have been crudely covered before it started leaking the depot might still be around. Apparently the Friends org salvaged quite a few items from the depot just prior to demolition, including all of the ticket booth, and the train order signal is still in the hands of a Friends member. Second photo Todd Cornelius, first photo unknown.

Sure will be great to see steam back on the EBT this winter and be able to watch them wye their trains on both ends of the Rockhill-Colgate Grove trip.

No doubt in my mind that they'll soon be running south and will get to Robertsdale in due course.

Great progress. Ross Rowland

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Given the condition of the Como depot before it was restored, and how that building has turned out, I believe if they were able to get work on it in say 5-10 years earlier, it’s probably still around today.

But I don’t think that’s a fault of anyone. When you have so much to care for across the entire line, it’s surprising that several of the structures still survive today, whether that’s protecting them against nature or other people to preserve these buildings.

This is faulty reasoning.
If you don't see Trains or Railfan & Railroad or Passenger Train Journal on the magazine racks at your grocery store or WalMart, or brochures for the excursion line in racks there, should we then assume you're not the target market for such a publication/ride?

The reality is that "everyone" is, or should be, your target audience, or at least everyone that would have any possible interest in a train ride or museum visit, or even just a nice day out.
This is not a butcher shop marketing to vegans, or a rock opera "school" marketing to the deaf or cellists.

My larger point in my previous post is that there's NO way to assure that any publicity or marketing reaches said "target audience," or even a blatantly obvious sub-segment of said audience. About the only tactic that assures some success is a mailing list (electronic or postal) or Facebook account for people that have signed up for it--and that amounts to "preaching to the converted," assuming Facebook even lets your audience see it. (On average, only one in seven people that "like" or even "follow" a Facebook page will even see your post, according to Facebook's own data--unless you pay them to "push" your post.)
What happens when you start up something totally new, like an Easter Train, a "living history" event, or a dinner/beer train event? Unless you have hired staff and a promotion budget beyond a photocopier and some paper, good luck with that promotion. Fewer self-professed railfans buy rail magazines; rail club membership is a figment of what it once was; and the hobby shops that used to have bulletin boards are all but gone. Heck, decades ago NRHS Chapters used to post flyers for their trips at major intercity and commuter stations--I can't fathom that this would be allowed in the Amtrak and government-commuter-agency era! Maybe market the "Rails and Ales" event to beer geeks with flyers at the local craft beer bottle shops and brewpubs?

I have often worked with festivals, concert venues, musical groups, and the like surveying attendees to find out how participants found out about said event/concert/etc. Absolutely every time I've been involved in the surveys, there was NO "magic bullet" to focus on--they all heard about it from every imaginable place almost in equal numbers: ads, brochures, advance magazine or newspaper coverage, the band's own mailing list, the venue's mailing list, you name it. The only thing that proved a big advantage was being a 'cover story" in the major city's "weekend" section or a major article on the band or festival--and that's not usually something you can buy or bribe your way into.

I may not have been clear in what I wrote. I was referring to places that ONLY advertise on social media. If you want my business you need to find me. Yes, most rail attractions probably do get the bulk of their attendance from social media. But if you want to reach a wider audience you need to seek out other venues such as TV ads, newspaper ads and advertising in the rail oriented print publications.

Keith