3 summers in the business behind me and I have the following to offer

While working at Cass,

"I remember when all these trains burned wood"
(I just thought to my self how fun it would be to handfire an 80 ton shay up a 9% grade)

"When will the mill reopen?"
(while looking over the large pile of rubble and explaing why it shut down)

"Why doesn't the state fix all these engines?"
(explination on state funding and why the state can't/won't get rid of them)
"well then why don't they just give them to SteamTown they're the government and they fix 3 a year...."

"Can I ride in the caboose?
(sort of puzzled, it was pointed out that we didn't have a caboose on the train)
"Oh, well what ever that big black thing is at the back with all the smoke coming out"

While working at the Durbin and Greenbreir valley

Young kid standing by the Climax explaining to all of his 3rd grade buddies that this was NOT a steam engine, he was interrupted by the saftey lifting and never said another word

"who moved the cylinders?"
(I gave a gentle explination of why a climax is what it is)

"How do you make that wheel touch the rail?"
(points to the crank shaft)

The best ones came from the Salamander conductors...

"Who put all those rocks down there in the river?"
(points to the locomotive sized bolders in the Cheat River)

"Who planted all the rododenron(sp?)"
(as they sailed past the 40 some odd miles of mountain laural)

"Has the river always flowed this way?"
"It wasn't last time we were here it flowed that way!!"

"Which way is down hill?.... Good I am glad the river is flowing the right way then"

"How old is this river?"
(our conductor senstive to religous belifs ponders the creationist verus eveoultionist debate for a minute and then answers....
"Well ma'm some people say millions of years others say thousands...."
"Good I just wanted to know is it's older than 200....."

The best comment I've heard in the 8 months I've been at Link:

"Do you all pipe in those train sounds for effect?"
(live NS lines run right outside the building)

Yeah, they keep coming, eh?

As mentioned prior, I can deal with the questions from folks who just don't know. Its the supreme know-it-alls from other museums and especially, sorry!, MODELLERS that get me going.

Portola had just finished painting a WP locomotive (our CZ engine, FP7 805-A, IIRC) when someone caught a modeller popping paint chips off the nose with a pen knife so he could copy the color for his model. That man darn near got himself lynched.

I remember a couple of museum volunteers from a trolley museum in the midwest who came to Portola back with Feather River Short Line 8 was there. They insisted that all the diesels were electric and we should string wire.

One I hear a lot that makes me smile isn't a dumb question really, just funny in context. A kid goes running up to one of our diesels and starts pulling on a door handle or pushing on a coupler and a parent says, "Don't do that! You might break it!"

Folks, if they do, they'll get their picture in the paper. TRUST me.

Hi all, My whole family is having a good lol at this topic. Now to add one.

Two years ago I was to the 113 birthday of the Middeltown & Hummlestown Railroad. They had just restore No. 91 and had it on the train. Well this Dazy Picker was taking a picture of the front No. plate as the engineer blew the whistles, The Dazy Picker never moved he was still right in front of the locomotive. The engineer got out of the engine and ask him to please move . The Dazy Picker " said why?" The engineer said well sir we are ready to go on our next trip, and with you standung there we can`t move. The Dazy Picker said " how come ? " The engineer said well sir if we would move you be under the locomotive. The Dazy Picker said " O" and then moved.

The funny thing I got this all on video tape. Insted of funnest home video`s, its Funnest Railroad video`s.

Len.

The story I like the best does not come from a museum experience, but rather from an evening standing next to the "Eureka" in front of Dan Markoff's house.

It was back in 1889 or 1990 while the engine was under restoration. Most of the engine was completed, but work had yet to start on the tender. This was the same weekend that Nevada State RR Museum was operating on the Boulder branch. Arrangements were made for the NSRM support truck to come over to Dan's and pull the oil bunker out of the tender. To accomplish this we built track out of through the gate to the curb and then ran the "Eureka" (without its tender) out to the curb. This allowed the truck to access the tender.

The smoke, etc. caused a number of people to come around. I remember a policeman coming by to check out the smoke. But there was this guy who was in his mid- or late-20's whom I talked with. He had been in the Navy and the ships he was on used steam turbines and now his hobby was racecars.

He stands there and points at the cylinder and asks, "Is that where the turbine is located?" No, I responded; that is where there is a double acting piston. I don't know if he believed me.

The evening ended with a short ride (100' or so) in the tender for all who worked that day.

The best one I heard was while riding this past Fall on the New Hope & Ivyland with my family (all railroad people). While traversing the area just past the crossing in Ivyland itself, there is a brand new houseing development complete with unfinished landscaping *read: pure mud* a woman (in her mid 50's) commented to her friend, "now why on earth would they let them build the railroad so close to those new homes?, I wouldn't want to live next to the train!"

I had thought I heard it all when the trip began out of New Hope, just past the area of Hood where there is a small private drive that crosses the line. This time a couple in there 60's commented to each other: wife to husband "wow, look at that, the train crosses their driveway!" to which the husband responds "yes, they must have given the railroad permission to build the tracks over their driveway"...to which the wife agrees and questions: " do they have to stop for the train when it goes by...I mean, that's an inconvenience!?"

I just bit my toung and though to myself, I guess all these folks never learned about ...1, Common sense and 2, the nature of physics.

[I do several EBT RR/FEBT promotional displays at NE regional trainshows each winter, BTW I've got one coming up this weekend at the Allentown PA show]

This seems to happen at least once at every train show I do...a kid will drag his parental unit over to my display, pointing to the tv and saying "train!!"....this in an environment where there are hundreds of 'trains' in every direction.

Perhaps the kid's perception is that what's seen on tv is reality? This gives me an excellent opportunity to say to the trailing parental unit 'you ought to take your son to go see this train for real !!'

I was taking a trip through the NY Catskills a few years back, and stopped off at the gift shop of the Deleware & Ulster RR to look for any new reading material. As I walked in, there was a woman with three kids arguing with the ticket agent. From what I overheard, she was demanding her money back because the brochure lied to her. "This train didn't go up any mountains!"

And, a non-RR story, but one I'm sure y'all can understand:

Attending an antique steam engine show out in the Hamptons, Long Island, I was looking over the display of hit-and-miss engines and admiring a restored water-pump that was connected to a huge galvanized washtub that was circulating water. Up walks a 30-something blonde and her boyfriend, and says out loud "OOH! Honey, look! That machine is making water!"

I wish I was making it up!

Chip O.

Sitting in the right hand seat of our Shay waiting for passengers loading,a man with a really inquizative look on his face shout up "Is this real?". I was about as dumbfounded as the person making the inquiry. I said take a look here, and opened the firebox door for him to take a peek inside,he then decided that the engine was indeed "real". I'm glad to see we're not the only ones who get these questions, and seeing the "firebox peek "is used by others, must be a steam thing.

Tom Gears is right, there is no point in making people feel bad about thier lack of knowledge or an bout asking questions. Try to explain what you can to answer them, bit remember in this push the button,turn the key, computer driven world, the workings of a steam locomotive is beyond the grasp of most folks.

I've decided that most people just don't read signs. I don't know how often people have asked me "where do we buy tickets?" when I'm standing next to a sign that says "tickets" with an arrow pointing to the depot. Next most popular is, "Where's the bathroom?" -- I usually answer, "It's that building over there with the big 'restrooms' sign on it."

Lets see I have a few.
1. My friend told me this one. Him and a bunch of other Pine Creekers were down at Cass. While they were in the station they started talking to the fireman. My friend then said a man came up to the fireman (who was not a rookie) and pointed to the air compressor and said
"that's the water pump that puts the water in the boiler"

""No that's an air pump we us an injector to get the water in the boiler""

"No your wrong that's a water pump"

and he went on until the fireman just agreed with him to shut him up. He really thought it was a water pump.

2.I have been a volunteer for three years at NJMT. Our line only goes in a circle. I had one lady ask (after she was on the train) "so other then the circle where dose the train go" I told her that if she could find us where the other track was we would go somewhere else.

3. I get the people all the time that ask me "where to you put the coal in" (1942 25ton GE) or this is the best " are these real trains?" " No they are just paper cut outs"

4. Finally you get the people that come out and tell you "why are you letting that car just sit around you should restore it" or "why don't you have more track?" I have to try hard not to say "Well why don't you get up off your butt and come out here and help us!"

Well that's all I have and I must say that some of these stories are funny as hell. I love the one about the smoke generator. lmao

-Eric

Well, i'm throwing my comment in on this one, it's just too good to pass up.. I was hoping someone would relate some of the stories out there. Our museum does not yet have a permanent home, as we are dealing with the City of a number of issues. Currently, we do about 12 displays around the Niagara area each year. Our displays include artifacts, photos, and 2 display cases with the various brochures related to Niagara Falls. One of our bigger displays is our Great Gorge Route items, which include borchures, maps, tickets, post cards, etc. The GGR ran along the top of the Niagara Gorge on the Canadian side, and along the waters edge on the American side.

Now, thats a brief outline of our display, now the story. When we first started showing off the GGR, we had (and still have) a lot of people who didn't even know that it ever existed. THose are the people you educate on the history. Then there are those who come right up to you (true story) look at the items, and look you right in the eye and say "that never existed, it's impossible" Ummmmm, yeah, right, and all this is a brilliant forgery. It's all fake, the GGR book, the photos, the artifacts, etc. all fake. You can't explain anything to them, they know it all, and that didn't exist. After a while, you just nod your head, smile, and agree with everything they are saying, even though you know they you really want to just call them a moron..

Then there are those that tell you some incredibly boring story about how they took a train ride from Niagara Falls to Halifax (which actually is impossible) and along the way, blah blah blah....I could go on, but many of other stories i have are fairly similar to those that others are posting....

My favorites, from our Huron Lightship and Bramble:


LIGHTSHIP

1.) (A visitor after being told a lightship is a floating lighthouse) "That's impossible --- How would you get to it from shore?

2.) (On not understanding that the lightship was not always dry-docked, and being told its fog-horn could be heard for many miles) "Wouldn't you upset the neighbors when you blow it?

BRAMBLE

1.) (Buoys) "Boy, talk about government waste --- why would you need something this big to put a little buoy in the water?" (Admittedly, this will probably end when we get our demonstration buoy on deck this year.)

2.) (My taxes) "My property taxes paid for this, I should get in free." When we explained we are a separate 501c3, and receive no property tax-aid "your lying to me" --- and would hear nothing different.


3.) (My favorite: Myopic Michigan powerboater) "Hey, I'm telling the Coast Guard your illegal --- where's your MC numbers?"

TJG

About 10 years ago I was involved with the operation of an RDC. We did a lot of Santa Claus trips, Easter Bunny trips, etc. All short out and back type trips for the general public. Without fail on every trip at least one person (and sometimes many) would get on, look a little lost and then ask "How do I get up to the dome?"

When at Steamtown in VT many years ago, my dad and I witnessed a brand of stupidity that was new to me in my pre-teen and pre-museum years. While riding on the first car behind the tender, a woman in her upper 30's was looking out the door window at the tender capacity stenciling. I could see the wheels turning in her mind as she asked a man who may have been her father "I know what the coal is for, what do they do with the water - do they burn that, too?"

Needless to say myself and my dad (who grew up with steam on the BAR) had a good laugh.

A friend of mine, whose son works at the Cog RR in NH relayed these questions (they get their fair share also). There seems to be great confusion about wildlife in the north woods. One person asked, "what time of the year do the deer turn into moose"? Another asked "At what altitude do the deer turn into moose?"

To think, these people can get a driver's license and vote!!!!!! A lot of dumb questions come from dumb people, not just those who are new to a technology wanting to learn.