"you've got a nice railroad!"

[dipeedo]

That's what he said. I'm talking about the guy was gonna ride our train, and he appeared envious of me and my job.  I was working as rear brakeman on the Sumpter Valley Railroad (www.SVRY.com ). 
I was heavy into model railroads in my tens and teens (the fifty's and sixty's) then it got left behind when I went off to college, and war, and then got married and worked my butt off. But now I got a different wife and found the SVRY is in our neighborhood and she said "let's volunteer there and find out what it's like!"  SO, off we went and and got trained up and qualified to do brakeman duty, and it's a blast working on a real railroad, just like it was done 100 years ago on steam and narrow guage.
Anyway, we also dug out my stash of HO stuff left from my dad's estate. Yes, he save all my stuff when I left home for college and work and I collected it from his estate and put it into storage too.  Now I remember - I was into O-guage, but had given up on it and wanted to convert over to HO, and had bought some stuff but never got it running.  Now we got a portable layout working and are using DCC to run two trains on a dual-loop 4x8 table. This is a winter time activity to last us intil the SVRY starts up again in the spring.
The point of this post is:
You, too, can get involved in real railroading, for very little cash, just by volunteering for work on a tourist railroad. They'll train you and you just have to show up.  I know we, at SVRY, have folks from all over the Northwest, and as far as Alaska, that show up to work the train weekends. You start as Rear Brakeman, progress to Head Breakman, then Conductor, then Fireman, and finally Engineer.  Never thought you could drive a steam locomotive? this is how you can !
Sorry for getting so wordy and thinking backh to how it "used to be", but sometimes newer just doesn't seem better.

[Michigan Railfan]

Same way with the tourist "railway" at greenfield village here in Dearborn, Michigan. When I get a little bit older, I plan on volunteering there. I may eventually get up to driving thier 4-4-0. I hope.

[Jim Banner]

At a model railroad show last weekend, I ran into a fellow who was a young teenager, mad about trains, and modeling H0 when I first met him about 15 years ago.  He is now an engineer, driving trains for the Canadian Pacific, and is still an avid modeler.  He introduced me to his friend, another engineer who is also interested in model trains.  For them, it was kind of like having your cake and eating it too.

We don't all get to be mainline engineers, but if we are willing to do the work to qualify, we can still be part time railroaders.  I took a different route to qualify to drive our province's only operating steam locomotive.  I studied, wrote exams, and did practical work to qualify for a steam traction license.  That license allows me to drive that last remaining operational locomotive, a narrow gauge 0-4-0 that was originally used to haul salt at a salt mine but is now used to haul passengers on a short line.  The same license lets me operate steam tractors, of which they are quite a few still operational in Saskatchewan.

There is a lot of camaraderie among steam engineers, and while most of us are quick with a joke, we are trained to be deadly serious when it comes to safety.  Operating a steam machine is a bit like sitting on top of a ticking bomb.  As long as you keep it ticking along smoothly, everything is all right.  But making mistakes is bad for your health, and for the health of everyone around you.

Jim

[pdlethbridge]

like don't run low water! Baboom!!!!!!!!!!!

[Doneldon]

Jim-

You must be on the Prairie Dog Central.  Great railroad.

D