While working as a docent at the B&O Railroad Museum, a bride to be who was inquiring about having her reception in the roundhouse asked me, "What do you do with the trains, do you lower them into the basement at night?"

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

> "What do you do with the trains, do you lower them into the basement at night?" <

If the B & O Museum thought as much of their exhibits as the Federal Government about 40 miles away thinks of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, you too would lower them into a basement vault at night!


104577.651@compuserve.com

> The Western Railway Museum is an electric
> railway museum dispalying street cars and
> Interurbans.

> A shile back a visitor asked me where were
> the steam engines?

> I explaines that the line was powered by the
> electric wire over there on top of those
> poles, they did not use steam engines here.

> Then the guy esplainde that they did not
> have electricity in the 1920s, his father
> told him about using kerosene lamps back
> then.

> Sometimes you have to say "Hope you
> have a good day" and walk away!

> Ted

You should have told them the truth, Ted.


teamzurg@earthlink.net

Some years ago a ca.50 year old man, standing in our steamers cab, asked: can this thing explode? Our older engineer, quick with words, answered before any of us understood his simple question:"of course - any time". The man "evaporated" just like that and we looked at the water level in the boiler with a smile on our.....

Ragnar Andenæs

During a trip on an excursion train (the railroad will remain nameless) I asked the young man who was the “host” in our car why the train had a diesel engine in addition to the steam engine on the front (yes I could imagine possible reasons, but wanted to know theirs instead). He told me that the diesel was really a steam engine, because he knew it made steam (referring to the steam generator, of course).

During a recent visit to the Lomita CA RR museum, I was in the cab of their (non-operational) SP 2-6-2 (or whatever) when a docent was trying to explain the locomotive's method of operation to a 35-40 year old woman. She asked question after question about the boiler and such but just did not understand.
After listening to this for 5-10 minutes, I began to realize that to her, a "Fireman" was someone who EXTINGUISHED fires!!! I thought it was so funny I left without enlightening her...

> During a recent visit to the Lomita CA RR
> museum, I was in the cab of their
> (non-operational) SP 2-6-2 (or whatever)
> when a docent was trying to explain the
> locomotive's method of operation to a 35-40
> year old woman. She asked question after
> question about the boiler and such but just
> did not understand.
> After listening to this for 5-10 minutes, I
> began to realize that to her, a
> "Fireman" was someone who
> EXTINGUISHED fires!!! I thought it was so
> funny I left without enlightening her...

Milwaukee Road #261 was in Lincoln, NE, a couple of years ago and the local newspaper came down to do a story and take a few photos. Jim French was in the fireman's seat when they arrived and the requisite photo of Jim manning the injector and stoker was included in the story. Jim went from being a "fireman" to being a "firefighter" in the story. I suspect that "fireman" was determined to be not politically correct so the term was changed to "firefighter" and the writer (and editor) assumed the terms to be interchangable. Jim still takes flak over it, particularly when the stack gets smokey and we accuse him of trying to put the fire out!

Don C.

http://www.261.com
milw261@sbcglobal.net

I once had someone from where I worked ask me "On the 1522, how does the fireman in the cab throw the coal all the way up underneath the smokestack"?
Where to begin......

frisco1522@sbcglobal.net

The Museum of Transportation's secretary gets calls like this several times a year: "My kid has a school report due tomorrow. Can you give me everything you have on railroads."

I also encountered the visitor who pointed at the UP Centennial and asked if the space behind the cab was where the passenger's baggage was carried.

A favorite, if it's true, is the GM celebration at the La Grange plant where the UP had its 4-8-4 (#8444 at the time) on display and an employee was heard to ask "What's under the long hood?"

rdgoldfede@aol.com

> What is the weirdest or most unusual request
> (informational or operational) your
> operation has ever received?

I just run the www.steamlocomotive.info website, but occassionally I get some relatively strange phone calls (if you look around, our office phone is on the website, probably not the best idea I ever had).

One irate woman called us, and frothed at the mouth because we didn't have a photograph of the locomotive displayed in the park in her small Louisiana town. After she finally unspooled a bit, I asked her..."So do you have a picture of the locomotive we could use?" Her response was "Oh" followed by a long silence and a hangup.

TVRM has had and fulfilled several requests to spread ashes of deceased members (and others) along our right-of-way. One of our more beloved members had a curve named for him (Hunziker Curve) where his ashes was spread. Many of us whistle for him upon each passing.

G. Mark

Look at our Revamped Website
aw90@comcast.net

> on an excursion train the “host” told me that the diesel was really a steam engine, because it made steam (referring to the steam generator, of course). <
Do you mean that the Diesel was being towed along only because it had a steam (heat) line and the steam loco didn't?


104577.651@compuserve.com

A lady visited our museum once, and was insistant we could get alternative funding from Bill Gates, as he is in the information technology business, and "every one knows the RR's followed the telegraph lines while going west." Glad those telegraph engineers thought ahead about grades and curvature......

rudd@cogdellmendrala.com

> Do you mean that the Diesel was being towed
> along only because it had a steam (heat)
> line and the steam loco didn't?

No, steam heat wasn’t needed because it was a beautiful day in August. The diesel was there, I was told, in case the steam engine developed problems and couldn’t pull the train, or in case extra power was needed because of the length of the train. I think the “host” sensed my disappointment that the steam engine wasn’t considered to be dependable or sufficient and thought he was helping by pointing out to me that the diesel was “really a steam engine too.”