Very good synopsis of the industry (?). Take the big hatchet and divide us in two. Qualified Museum, MA&PA. The bottom half of all these messages were all wondering where this or that went after so & so went under ...the dustbin of history is infinite ... and has withdrawn a whole bunch of "clubs" from the running for economic absurdity or natural causes and the beat continues to weed out the clubs. Despite the fact that the stench of dead horse has driven most members and all but a handful of volunteers away, these small mutual admiration societies probably don't even notice that the crew on the train outnumbers the passengers, after all they are running a genuine Honest-To-God CFR49 qualified RAILROAD!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> Strasburg has attempted to find employees
> from the rail enthusiasts in the past to no
> avail. A notice on this board brought three
> responses, none of which worked out. The
> same post in a local paper brought over 70
> responses. It is a puzzle to us. Granted we
> were looking for people with certain skills
> but it still surprised us that so few people
> were interested. We pay a lot more than
> minimum wage and have excellent benefits. Go
> figure.

> Having read all of these posts, I must agree
> with Erik that a bigger problem may be
> funding our preservation efforts. The recent
> downturn in the tourist industry has hit us
> very hard and I know it has hit others as
> well.

> Most business models that I have seen from
> consultants base their predictions of
> success on the entirely erroneous assumption
> that everyone wants to ride a train. When so
> many vendors of mainstream wares are
> competing for a finite amount of disposable
> income, it is pretty tough for special
> interest outfits like us to compete. For
> instance, the new Cabela's that opened in
> the middle of nowhere about an hour north of
> us, gets as many people on their busiest day
> as we get in July!

> Sustainability is the key. Living within
> your means and not flooding the market with
> tourist railroads. A friend in the industry
> once told me that he got one train ride per
> vacation and it didn't matter which train it
> was. He felt this was pretty typical of the
> general public. There are only so many
> people who will pay money to ride a train.
> That number of people will support X-number
> of railroads. More railroads than that and
> you weaken all and it becomes survival of
> the fittest which is fine if you are one of
> the fittest. But sometimes our most
> historically valuable railroads are the
> weakest economically and when the market
> becomes saturated with "pop-up",
> "flash-in-the-pan" railroads we
> increase the risk of losing some worthwhile
> entities. I guess as long as everyone wants
> their own railroad to play on nothing will
> change.

> We get all excited when a new railroad gets
> started. Personally, the WW&F really
> trips my trigger - really neat! For rail
> preservation, that is a battle won, but it's
> the war we have to win. Does winning any
> particular battle contribute to winning the
> war. That, in my opinion, is the question we
> are not asking. And if we did ask it, we
> probably wouldn't have the answer - I know I
> don't. I believe long term survivability
> means we better find that answer.

> We are such a small industry that the
> regional impact area per railroad is quite
> large. Until we look at the big picture and
> find some reasonable way to
> "regulate" ourselves, survival is
> a more a matter of politics, personal
> agendas, and economics and less a matter of
> worthwhile historical preservation and
> overall health of the industry. Survival of
> the fittest has led to many extinctions.

Well Mr. Moedinger I've wanted to be a part of the stasburg crew my whole life but with 2 small soon to be 1 opstacle in my way. First being that I am 16 years old and not of proper age. The second being I live about 200 mi. away in New York. I'll find a way to get around both of them I just wanted to let you know that if at all possible one day that i would love to join the strasburg team. Not just myself I have plenty of friends who wanted to work their since they were kids and still do today, and not just them they're are lots of folks my age who are rail enthusiasts and would kill to have that kind of job.

Regards
Brian

>Not just myself I have plenty of
> friends who wanted to work their since they
> were kids and still do today, and not just
> them they're are lots of folks my age who
> are rail enthusiasts and would kill to have
> that kind of job.

> Regards
> Brian

And its to continue the interest that guys your age have in steam and rail preservation that I made the comment that started this thread. Brian, hang in there --- if your not employed at Strasburg, find something that gets you close enough that you can volunteer, or train in one of the specialized trades that they need. That way,
maybe there will still be steam in operation in, say, 2050, and historic cars that they can pull!

TJ

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org