Five employees at Steamtown were fired, along with lots more at other National Park Service locations.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250216235 ... 50216.html

"Probationary" employees are being fired everywhere in the Federal Government. Folks with less than one year - some branches two years - of employment are labeled Probationary. Also folks who have recently been promoted or taken another job no matter how long they may have worked for the Federal Government are Probationary for a year.

The new superintendent of Steamtown has been on this job for less than a year.

Brian Helfrich

Word on the street is that nearly all federal agencies will soon be melded into one super agency that will operate them all under one roof with nearly all functions currently run from Washington turned over to the states along with small federal grants to fund them.

Using this model they say they'll reduce the total federal budget by $ 3.5 Trillion and use the resulting surplus of $ 1.5 Trillion to start paying off the $ 36 Trillion dollar debt.

I'd guess that most of Amtrak's formerly promised billions will soon evaporate??

Welcome to the wild west. Ross Rowland

Typically, the use of quotes indicates a contrived designation. In this case it is unnecessary.

The way civil service systems work, a probationary employee is one who has been appointed to a position temporarily and has not yet received a performance review for a full period (typically one year). If a person is a new hire, they can be terminated at any time for any reason and they accept the position advised of that possibility.

If the person is is in a probationary status due to a promotion to the same or higher level position, they can typically be returned to their prior position-either at the new chain of command's election or their own (the latter is known as right of return).

If you are concerned that the new Super might be subject to that; I very much doubt it. It took the Park Service a year and a half to find a new candidate and they deviated from their normal incestuous promotion practices.

The title Superintendent implies a certain necessitous nature. Such an individual is more than a site manager. In the PA Department of Corrections, Superintendents have an on-site residence. It may seem like a "perk", but it more there to have immediate access to authority in the event a situation like a riot.

As an aside, that's why State Governors are provided with mansions-so they are at the seat of government in the event of a catastrophe-and why when a former PA Governor sanctimoniously refused to reside at the mansion-it was a bit of a dereliction of duty, rather than a public-spirited disclaimer of some perk. At least he didn't go AWOL on a tryst out of the country like the former Governor of South Carolina.

While I think the new Super should be afforded every allowance and benefit of the doubt in his new role, I am pessimistic about a ever seeing a healthier excursion schedule and special events that include visiting equipment, and a robustly maintained collection.

There's at least 20 years of accumulated mismanagement in the form of missed opportunities and expenditures on things like "bubble cars" that did nothing to enhance the site or the visitor experience.

Note this article from 17 years ago:

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2 ... -calls-pri

Cherie Shepherd destroyed a lot of relationships and public good will. A lot of volunteers were forced by the two year COVID closure to reevaluate the time, money and effort we were expending-especially now that many of us now get discounted Dunkin. (Most frustratingly, without requesting it)

As I've heard, two more T&E volunteers bailed after 2024, one like Oscar Madison-that request came from his wife (to vacate the choo choo game, not his residence) and you can certainly understand that when somebody is near 90.

The closure of the buildings to the public really crushed visitation, which improved markedly after the return of the BLW 26 2017. Visitation has always been driven by the ever diminishing pool of nostalgia seekers and children and well, the birthrate keeps probing new nadirs.

More recent stats here:

https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSReports/ ... dar%20Year)?Park=STEA

It's unfortunate some of the ridiculous expenditures made by USAID weren't directed domestically to the backlog of needs ands niceties.

Also, in as much as I was really happy to have the F-3's @ Steamtown, I'm beginning to wonder if they weren't merely a semi-reliable crutch that allowed the atrophy to continue.

There is good things and bad things going on in DC.

You have to admit that the level of waste and lunatic spending programs plus how overstuffed the government is has created huge debt, huge bureaucracy and a "nest egg" for the corrupt.

It doesn't matter who is doing the investigating and cutting, it is horribly overdue.

The project is similar to restoring a steam locomotive. Basically tear it down and rebuild and improve it.

My simplistic view of the whole thing will likely trigger some.

It is one of those jobs that has no easy way to do it.

Another take:

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/our- ... riencing-a

My daughter works in a high tech lab - think super expensive electron microscopes and similar imaging technology - at a large University which supports basic biological research. The kind of research that has lead to saving countless lives - oligarch, middle class and poor folks.

I expect the destruction of the federal agencies that fund such basic research will destroy my daughter's career.

Who knows, perhaps your children will die of a disease that such research would have found a cure for.

Brian Helfrich

A weak confederation with powerfulish military.
So, the former Soviet union countries.
Where %30 of the population died from break down of social programs.
I sure hope we don't have another pandemic, or drug resistant TB,
Or people stop vaccinating.

I sure hope we don't have another pandemic, or drug resistant TB,
Or people stop vaccinating.[/quote]

Too late.

Texas is currently dealing with the largest outbreak of measles in decades. It's in an area where the anti vaxers are in the majority.

This is going to get worse.

Of course this was a thinly veiled political rant. Turnabout is fair play.

Are you really quoting the guy who told us that the internet would be no more consequential than the fax machine and that our economy is bettered by digging holes and filling them up again? Really? That's your go to guru? Thank you for that candor.

Tell you what. How about we stop spending on things like the notorious $59M to house illegals in high end NY hotels (crowding out NY's tourist and business travelers) and create an endowment for your daughter.

Actually, we can endow a 30 year career for her and 9 other lab researchers @ an annual compensation cost of $197K. That's not counting the time value of money, so maybe we can get a few more in there and some COLAs and it's a premium over what my wife makes as an RN trying to mitigate diseases that are the result of obstinate stupidity such as going on benders as a morbidly obese amputee. "I thought you could have a few beers, I took my Metformin". Then there's the local Nepali community many on MA that refuse to use Turmeric in moderation, so they are frequent fliers for GI issues.

It is unfortunate that you think your daughter's livelihood is dependent on an unending stream of government money for two reasons.

One it is going to stop, because if doesn't stop, because the $36 trillion of acknowledged government debt-it's more when you consider contingent obligations will unnerve creditors and make the government subject to creditor pressures. The seemingly endless appetite for Treasury bonds will come to a halt, first as a whisper on CNBC that the rates seem to be rising in order to obtain a full subscription. It's sort of like where I work where my constant warnings that flat revenues demand cost containment fall on deaf ears, even though we're burning through cash. One dimbulb said "your cash is wrong"-apparently never heard "earnings are estimates, but cash is fact".

The second reason is you don't think she's employable in any other capacity-that's a horribly disabling message to send a young person-especially since it's not true and I know it because my wife was worked in a biotech lab, until witnessing a Philadelphia stabbing made her acknowledge she was a country mouse. Lucky me, she had to work as a bartender and I was a customer eager to help her in order to finance her BSN. Of course this does mean working on President's day. Then again, per Krugman maybe we can pay her to dig holes and fill them up again.

We will likely have five times the debt this coming September as we did 20 years ago.


9/30/2024$35,464,673,929,171.69

9/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50

That's a compound annual growth rate of 8.37%

Plug this into Excel.

=1.0837^20

This cannot continue unabated.

Too late.

Texas is currently dealing with the largest outbreak of measles in decades. It's in an area where the anti vaxers are in the majority.

This is going to get worse.[/quote]

You mean the entry point for this? How many of these hundreds of thousands sneaking in do you think are coming unvaxxed and infected? Hint: It's a lot.

https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/texas-r ... -migration

Perhaps if the government didn't call an experimental genomic treatment a "vaccine" and coerce and threaten people, enlisting its corporate shock troops to use it-people wouldn't be so distrustful.

Perhaps if the government didn't issue a "food pyramid" that is laced with lectins and high glycemic grains, that has apparently made us fatter and sicker, people wouldn't be so distrustful. posting.php?mode=edit&f=1&p=349614#

Perhaps if we weren't subjected to the "anti-sun" campaigns that have rendered millions Vitamin D deficient; putting them at risk for cancer, diabetes, immunological issue, people wouldn't be so distrustful.

Perhaps if Dr. Fauci didn't receive a pardon for unspecified crimes, people would be less distrustful. I'm sure it was only for his little experiment with Beagles and sand fleas, clearly he's otherwise an infallible, incorrupt genius.

Please, tell me Ted Lieu is a right-wing anti-vaxxer.

https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/in- ... xperiments

Perhaps if Biden didn't peddle fear porn about a winter of death, people would be less distrustful.


Anybody who was an adult living through the last five years and still worships the god government has to be a real cultist.

Without getting into any specific political rants, I would like to suggest that our avocation did a good thing in NOT making its existence dependent upon government support (as a general rule). It's times like this that you start to understand why so many of us--including most specifically the Kovalchik family--was at best wary of, and at worst virulently opposed to, any "takeover" of the East Broad Top by either Federal or Commonwealth agencies. It's also why some of us say to "look and learn" at the few government-run rail preservation operations out there: Railroad Museum of Pa., CSRM Sacramento, Cass Scenic, North Carolina Transportation Museum, Texas State RR, Cumbres & Toltec, Britain's NRM, etc. And, of course, Steamtown NHS. Indeed, some projects are notorious solely because of their UNsuccessful application of government money--PRR 1361 being a prime example.........

A controversial topic a few years ago was the issue of ISTEA and TEA-21 grant monies by various rail preservation outfits. On the one hand, these grants were a welcome addition to the budgets of various operations at the time. but on the other hand, ANY rational human being can plainly see that utterly nothing in rail preservation really amounts to "improving surface transportation efficiency," and it was simply a false name given to a barrel of political "pork" being made freely available.

I will challenge anyone reading these words: Can anyone here point to a major rail preservation project that existed because of ISTEA or TEA-21 grants? I'm not talking that station platform or a particular trolley or passenger car; I'm talking the entire Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington, the entire Grand Canyon Railway, an entire city "heritage trolley line," the conversion of a static museum to an operating line with miles of track, etc.

This started as a valid conversation for this forum. It has degenerated into a political discussion. We all have strong feelings on the topic, but that's not why we are here. Moderators, could you please close it?

It was a thinly veiled political rant from the start.

I fail to understand why people who object to these tempests in a teapot, can't simply find the point where they are disinterested and move on. Instead they demand censorship, because they can't walk and chew gum.

Nobody is forcing anybody to read any thread. If you don't like it move on.

The simple fact is the original post was about Steamtown and the Park Service.

It was political when it was considered.

It was political when people like John White called it a third rate collection.

It was political when Bill Withuhn became an ally and advocate.

It was political when McDade used a measure from his position on the Appropriations Committee to authorize the transfer of assets.

It was political when Vento spent the rest of his career trying to frustrate operations because he felt slighted because McDade didn't go through the Interior Committee

It was political when Sam Donaldson, who otherwise never met a federal expenditure he didn't like, stopped by to ambush the staff at the time.

It was political in the 1990's when the original legislation was amended due to a procedural defect that meant a new NHS wasn't actually created.

As long as it is dependent on Federal recognition and funding, it will be political. If it is decommissioned, that will be political.

If the site is transferred to PHMC (the typical decomm is transferred to a state or county, not closed outright)-that will be political.

No political matter can be considered apart from all other appropriations, authorizations, declarations, encumbrances, expenditures, funding, legislation, resolutions or statutes.

Inevitably, we have to decide how much is spent, where and when. Now that we have third world debt to GNP ratios we have decisions to make that will be better made now than later, and they will be of course guided by every drop claiming not to be a part of the flood.

In 1996, Congress and Bill Clinton passed a law called "The Small Business Job Protection Act", which landed on our groups desk for preliminary review, because as "pension consultants" we were tasked with regulatory analysis.

Now in those days, the internet was in its infancy, so the law came from a company called Commerce Clearing House. It was a small book about the size of typical paperback, and had all of the deletions and modifications "lined out" and it was in about six point type.

Despite the title, it had damn little to do with small business, jobs or protection. I think there was a minimum wage increase, a simplification of the term "highly compensated employee" and some reference to a trade deal called the "Uruguay Round" agreements.

There were a lot of references to the phrase "The Secretary shall prescribe regulations" (the hard part bores or confuses us, so have at it, unelected bureaucrats-yeah "democracy")

The fact that ISTEA and TEA-21 expended money in fashion that was even peripherally related to the title and putative purpose of the bill is actually miraculous. Most laws(beware of anything with omnibus in the title) are hodgepodges of thoroughly unrelated provisions with a cutesy title that allows Congressman Doubletalk and Senator Blowhard to say things such they are for giving every little girl a pony because it's an investment in child development.

I always enjoyed how Nancy Pelosi was correct when she made the famous quip about passing it to know what's in it.

Word processors that allow the assembly of multi-thousand page bills that aren't read cover to cover except after passage are 90% of the problem with the DC sausage factory.

Maybe if we require all laws and regulations to be handwritten like the Interstate Commerce Act was, we might cut down on the swamps' txt tsunamais.

Well, we're living with the results of a 4 continuous year political rant. There's no ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room now, is there?

It's anarchy. Anarchy to distract from the corruption infiltrating the entire right wing of the government.

They're doing no "auditing", they're just searching key-words for anything that goes against the current regime's narrative, which is then cut completely off. No attempt at rational thought.

To illustrate~the NNTA (National Nuclear Security Administration) was wholesale whacked. Now, they're trying to woo them back with a "What'd you quit for, we didn't mean right now?"

Wild rumormongering from one on here about "millions spent on lavish apartments for immigrants in NYC"~ prove it, I say.

Yes I'm quoting the guy who made a mistake and OWNED UP TO IT.

Unlike the rest of your claims.

I'm still waiting for the twenty economists who claimed that the economic policy back then would "Debase the Currency". Remember that fiasco?

Brian Helfrich