"My current "boss" is my wife, The Lovely and Gracious Linda. I learned a LONG time ago that if I do as I'm told, everything will be just fine. 
She's the best boss I ever had. 46 years and counting. 
Rich Melvin, Publisher & CEO"
Well played!
Larry
You are right Larry.
I just modify 46 to 48, and Linda to Nancy. I certainly understand the logic.
My current "boss" is my wife, The Lovely and Gracious Linda. I learned a LONG time ago that if I do as I'm told, everything will be just fine.
She's the best boss I ever had. 46 years and counting.
Why can't Jerry run steam excursion trips anymore? Insurance reasons? New owner of OC not excursion friendly? It's too bad when railroads decide they can no longer host excursions because of the fear of lawsuits, now NS is ending it's steam program with TVRM and FWRHS but might continue excursions with the 611. 611 is now the only hope for an excursion trip on a class 1 railroad in the entire US this year and beyond. Provided NS gives the green light to VMT. No other class 1 is running steam at this point, including UP.
I suspect that Jerry will do what Jerry will do. After all, they're his locomotives, his roundhouse, he can do what he wants.
Rusty
but he doesn't own a RR anymore. He has to use other's tracks, so it all depends on that. I'd love to see regular runs like he used to do, but high insurance rates killed those IIRC
In today's world it's much easier to run a bus charter than a passenger excursion on a railroad because the highways are public access, but the railroads are privately owned and control who can and cannot run on their tracks.
Robert K posted:In today's world it's much easier to run a bus charter than a passenger excursion on a railroad because the highways are public access, but the railroads are privately owned and control who can and cannot run on their tracks.
And just who gives a rat's *** about riding busses?????
someone tell me what steam excursion trips have to do with the aosr ? its likely the last thing jerry j was thinking about when the roundhouse was planned.-jim
Jim Berger posted:someone tell me what steam excursion trips have to do with the aosr ? its likely the last thing jerry j was thinking about when the roundhouse was planned.-jim
Yeah, I've read all along that this was never intended as an excursion operation but I think generally, the public (and train fans) have a real problem grasping a huge locomotive roundhouse and shop facility... to nowhere. I showed the AoS site to a (non-railfan) co-worker once and his first response was, "Cool, where are they running trips to?" I think that says a lot because it would be a natural assumption. Kind of like intentionally building a new airplane hangar (for a collection to include a few flyable planes) alongside several buildings with no runway to fly the planes out. yeah, you can airlift planes in and out with a chopper, but you can't fire up and take to the active runway. And that was your intention all along.
Heck, I know several train buffs who don't 'get' what Jerry's doing there. Sure, his facility is almost exactly what most of us would say we'd do if we won the mega lotto but most of us wouldn't do even then.
I will always give mad props to the man for doing all this but I bet he often gets the questions on where he'll run trains to and confused looks when he explains why he really built all this.
Jack and all the 'insider' types can roll their eyes all they want but in the end, lots of people don't 'get' it. Not that they need to as that's no concern of Jerry's, but I sure wouldn't want to be the person who answers the phones there...
to me it's like this....ever been to an airplane museum? US Air Force, etc, see all the great WWll planes you've seen in the history books or the movies. Then go to The Planes of Fame, or Oshkosh, and see and hear the power. Jerry has done a magnificent thing with the AOS and saving some locomotives that may not have survived.
I think this is being compared with Steamtown which has a railroad to run excursions on. Steamtown has a roundhouse and turntable, but also has the rights to run excursions on over 50 miles of railroad. OC used to run excursion trips over the system over 10 years ago but not anymore. But the steam engines can use OC rails to get to other places to pull trips, or haul freight trains. And the bus thing, I was using that to show how hard it is to run excursion trips on a major railroad. Unless you have the blessing of the CEO. And a CEO's job is to make money and minimize risk, not lose money and increase risk.
Robert K posted:I think this is being compared with Steamtown which has a railroad to run excursions on. Steamtown has a roundhouse and turntable, but also has the rights to run excursions on over 50 miles of railroad. OC used to run excursion trips over the system over 10 years ago but not anymore. But the steam engines can use OC rails to get to other places to pull trips, or haul freight trains. And the bus thing, I was using that to show how hard it is to run excursion trips on a major railroad. Unless you have the blessing of the CEO. And a CEO's job is to make money and minimize risk, not lose money and increase risk.
I wasn't planning on getting in on this one, but you hit the nail on the old proverbial"Head" Robert K.
JJJ still can use the OC to move engines in or out, as well as, pulling some freight for them, when they get something ready, and work out a run schedule.
The Passenger excursion thing is dead because of the insurance involved....This info supplied to our club President, who is a close friend of Triple J.
Jim Berger posted:someone tell me what steam excursion trips have to do with the aosr ? its likely the last thing jerry j was thinking about when the roundhouse was planned.-jim
p51 posted:Yeah, I've read all along that this was never intended as an excursion operation...
You guys are absolutely 100% correct.
The Age of Steam Roundhouse's mission is to, "Preserve the steam locomotives, historic diesels, passenger cars and other railroad relics in the collection of Jerry Joe Jacobson. " That quote is taken DIRECTLY from the AOSR web site. There is no mention of passenger excursions ANYWHERE in that web site. That is not now and never has been the mission of the AOSR. The only area where OPERATION is mentioned is this, "Fire-up and operate the steam locomotives on non-passenger carrying freight trains." Again...no mention of passenger excursions.
Most of you have absolutely no idea of the costs and logistics are involved in order to run a steam passenger excursion. Gearing up to run only one or two trips in a year is a money-losing proposition. As an example, our insurance premium to cover the 765 on Norfolk Southern last year was well over $100,000...just for insurance! And then there is the train...where is it going to come from? Sure, JJJ has a small fleet of passenger cars at ASOR, but almost all of them have not run for many years. Every car would require work to get the air brakes re-certified, electrical systems working, AC systems working, plumbing systems working, etc. Again... for only a handful of excursions it is simply not worth the time and effort to do this...especially when it is NOT your stated mission in the first place!
There are dozens of aircraft museums around this country that contain airplanes that will never fly again. How is the AOSR any different?
Then how does the CVSR, Steamtown, and other outfits operate trips for the public? Do they have their own insurance to cover operations?
Robert K posted:Then how does the CVSR, Steamtown, and other outfits operate trips for the public? Do they have their own insurance to cover operations?
Absolutely YES!!!!!
Robert K posted:Then how does the CVSR, Steamtown, and other outfits operate trips for the public? Do they have their own insurance to cover operations?
Of course they do! And it is a MAJOR expense.
OGR Webmaster posted:There are dozens of aircraft museums around this country that contain airplanes that will never fly again. How is the AOSR any different?
Yeah, I get that but in most cases, those airplanes aren't serviced for flight and then never flown (although in England, where the certification process for an airplane is a nightmare, there are several museums with mechanically - but not legally- airworthy airplanes that don't have the proper permits, so they just taxi them back and forth for crowds at special events).
The point for me is that people have such a hard time grasping that anyone would go to the trouble to build all that, adjacent to a RR Jerry can't (for whatever reason) run trips hauled behind the steam he owns. It's beyond many people to grasp the reasons. I get it and some of you here do, too. But really, can any of you say this would be easy to explain to someone outside the hobby?
If train fans don't understand that, what chance does the public have? I think we can all agree that the public sees any gathering of RR equipment in one of the following concepts:
Jerry's operation doesn't appear to fall under any of these even though it's mostly the third one. A private individual restoring some locomotives for operation (not by a RR) but never running them anywhere for the public? People just don't get that.
There's also a current trend among wealthy people that these days, people just think they should share their wealth or stuff with others. Many museums started out as one rich person's collection. Frankly, I think it'd be hilarious if Jerry put up a massive wall around the place with guards walking around and then told the world, "It's mine, you can just keep out and leave me alone!" He sure earned the right... literally.
LLKJR posted:"My current "boss" is my wife, The Lovely and Gracious Linda. I learned a LONG time ago that if I do as I'm told, everything will be just fine.
She's the best boss I ever had. 46 years and counting.
Rich Melvin, Publisher & CEO"
Well played!
Larry
Good answer. ��
Hot Water wrote: "And just who gives a rat's *** about riding busses?????"
I wouldn't mind riding busses to chase a steam powered "photo freight"!
Kent Loudon posted:Hot Water wrote: "And just who gives a rat's *** about riding busses?????"
I wouldn't mind riding busses to chase a steam powered "photo freight"!
Also, there are bus fans out there, believe it or not, who foam out as much as the worst train fan, over a new or different bus type on the road. I work with one.
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