Here is another very important topic that has gone south.

I'll remind everyone before I lock this thread.

The INTERCHANGE'S primary purpose is to facilitate the exchange of information, advice, and suggestions, not to serve as a forum for debate.

Defining what constitutes uncourteous, uncivil, or unconstructive speech, and deciding when continued discussion of a subject is no longer constructive, shall be within the sole discretion of the moderators. They may choose to issue a back-channel warning, may delete posts without warning, or may close threads to new posts.

Tom Gears
Moderator

My point here was to make people of the older generation aware how their words affect the younger crowd. I see however a lot of doubling down on the rhetoric and throwing some new things in the mix.

This is exactly the kind of stuff that pushs people away from the industry. I'm more at the point in my life, I feel the 15 years I put into it. I cannot do this forever, and there are some things, some positions I can't get into anymore. I want more people to come in, if they come in at our before I did, that's great. I started at 18.

I've worked with people with tattoos, they have been great people. I've worked with people who have been convicted of crimes, they turned their life around. I've worked with people who used to smoke pot, they were some of the most motivated and dedicated people I know. This snap judgment is part of the problem. I want people to see that.

Now that you have wandered into it, I would suggest to you that as one of those people who used to be called "colored" that I find the term offensive and I know good and well what the NAACP means. Your phrasing that you have heard older people use that term without malice would not be said in front of a person of color, and you know that. Having been around this business for almost 40 years now, I have had to deal with things you would find it hard to believe, and I still have to deal with them. I suggest that should you hear someone say that, correct them, and for good measure, don't use the term yourself. Oh, it's Black History Month. Perhaps you should educate yourself on the roles Black Americans have played in the railroad industry. You will find it good reading.

That's what I've stated in my other thread and in threads before most of these museums are old folks we just want to preserve the equipment they used to watch with their dad back in the old days. It seems anything after 1970 no matter how historically relevant to railroad history is too modern and "doesn't fit the collection." This reminds me of the worst rare museum I've been to. Basically we paid to get a tour around a junkyard And I could tell everyone including myself was bored. People come to the museums to see TRAINS not only trains that pertain to the Such and such railroad between 1900 to 1945. I'm sure those turbo liners in New York would have made a fantastic story about politics and policy as well as be a really cool train to display on the property. If you have a good group of people something interesting fun and relevant then the visitors and young volunteers will come.

No, I don't use that term myself, and every time that my late father would use the term "colored person", I would always ask him "What color is he?" But believe me, he and others that I knew, would definitely say it right to the face of somebody who was black, and not think anything about it. It used to be acceptable, and in their minds, it was just a descriptive term.

As a middle-aged white person, I'm pretty amazed at how late segregation lasted in the United States. Last year, I read about the Green Book (black travelers guide) and related stories dealing with the difficulties of black Americans traveling within the US, even through the late 1960s. That's something that I had never thought about before reading about it, and it really made me think.

With regards to black Americans and the railroad industry, I've only really read about the Pullman Porters, and the influence that they had.

Jim, check out Erasmus McCoy.....

Listen I'm a religious person who goes to church every Sunday and tries to practice my faith. But that was the most damned obnoxious sermon I have heard in a long time (then again my faith also has a couple extra books behind the Bible, a fact that seems to have ticked off mainstream Christians ever since they tarred and feathered my great great great great great grandfather in Jackson County Missouri and burned his printing shop to the ground, and then murdered his then son-in-law (and also the founder of the faith) in a prison cell in Illinois, forcing my great great great great grandmother to remarry and travel with her new husband (and my family namesake) on a cross country evacuation from the east to out west in what was then Mexico to escape the violence... so my thoughts on mainstream Christianity being bloodless and having clean hands in this country is already pretty dim when my family tree is littered with acts of violence American Christians wrought upon other American Christians).

However seeing that somebody could say "our problems in choo choo train land would be fixed if we all came to Jesus" with a straight face unironically as if its somehow the ultimate "gotcha" card, is the ultimate demonstration of why many young people stay as far away from preservation as they can.

The above may not fix "choo choo land" but it is offered as one approach to finding a better way of life for everyone.
Yes, I wrote it with a straight face and with the best of intentions.
Not sure what you mean by a "gotcha card?" It was written as one world view. One can read it, rebut it, delete. Nothing you have said addresses my main points. Sorry you find my worldview "obnoxious."
The people who committed crimes and violence in the past, or still do, were/are not true Christians.
As for young people, they have to make their own way in life, and make their own decisions. I know two young men (teenaged) who hanged themselves recently. They did not come to that place in their lives because someone preached religion to them. The anti-Christian (and anti other Faiths) worldview brings darkness and nihilism.
The current Canadian federal government has brought in doctor murder of the old and sick. There was talk they were going to allow teenagers to opt for doctor murder. Hopefully, this was struck down. This is what happens when dark, evil-possessed people are given power. I sure hope we can overcome this darkness and return to a brighter time.
Show people respect and love. One might be surprised where it leads.
Give your young people in your museums and operations a chance to show what they can do. Give them even handed and honest correction if they make a mistake. Trust them. Learn from them. Encourage them. Cherish them.

Rick, I know you mean well, and I can at least agree with the last two lines of your most recent post. However, many railroaders do not accept any of the name brand religions, instead:

RAILROADING IS MY RELIGION.

This doesn't mean that we can't all get along, old and YOUNG alike.

Good, good; only took seven pages before we are talking about make believe sky daddy.

Never change RYPN....

We were all “young people”, once. Each generation is different, but the passion is the same. There’s a chance if the “old people” can get past the differences with the “young people” and focus on what’s important (trains, railroading, preservation, etc). They’re hungry for information and experience. Share it with them. I didn’t say GIVE it to them. SHARE it.

We at RMNE/NAUG, have an absolutely wonderful group of “young people”. They are passionate, dedicated, and talented. They’ve been set up for success and they’ve flourished. Good things are happening in CT.

Yes, and most people forget what it was like, once they cease being young.

Yes, I know Sammy, religion is sure to get peoples' nerve ends tingling, especially the materialist, atheist types. One can see how violent they become when presented with an opposing worldview.
It is what it is. That's my world view, and it is no less valid than all the dark worldviews I am forced to endure every day. I felt compelled to write that this morning.
I am too old to worry about the blowback from the other side. It just seems odd that many of the people who come on here and bitch about the older folks, are more than willing to be rude and obnoxious to anyone they disagree with.
This thread is just another of the same style that come through here regularly. They all go the same route -- the stub siding to oblivion.
My apologies to the moderators if I have stirred up too much here.
By the way Sammy, please get in touch when you are coming up this way. There are a few interesting rail items to see in the area. There are some private individuals doing some interesting things, plus some real gems that do not get much exposure.

7 pages and I'm still not convinced there is a problem. Again, I ask, have the demographics really changed? Is the percentage of active young people in railway preservation less, the same or more than it was in the past?

Volunteering in any meaningful way requires free time, and that's something most young folks don't have much of. It's an activity that's always going to skew to the older population. Maybe the real question is whether or not your active volunteer base is stable regardless of age. A newly volunteering 60 year old can be taught and mentored too. There seems to be this notion that the 70 year olds need to hurry up and educate the 20 year olds to ensure this industry can run on auto-pilot for the next half a century and that's just not how it works.

I’ve been at this for 14 years. I didn’t learn everything I know overnight. I’m STILL learning and fortunately, from most of the same people that I started under. A few have passed on and those who remain, haven’t ceased to age (much to their disappointment and mine). So, how long do you wait to start sharing with the next generation?