Live steam and youth, February 2015

[BobbyT]

During my association with the BCRR I have had the pleasure to get to know a couple youngsters that have a true love of live steaming. David Griggs shown here servicing my 0-6-0 along with his brother Donald has run any and every steam engine they could.

[BobbyT]

Donald Griggs on Bruce Teerlink's Pacific

[BobbyT]

Clayton Long on my 0-6-0.

[BobbyT]

This photo illustrates how much these young men are trusted and respected as live steamers. This is Hunter Fay, grandson of Gordon Fay, Pres. of the Seminole Gulf RR, running Peter Bialecki's Hudson. This was Hunters first time operating a live steamer and he was being coached by David Griggs.

[keyrouteken]

Looking back some sixty-six years, I was introduced to the hobby of Live Steam by one of the members of the Golden Gate Live Steamers in Redwood Regional Park-- Oakland, CA. So I guess I was considered one of your youth in this subject we are discussing!

If you look closely, you might be able to see the locomotives I brought along that day long ago !

yours in Live Steam,

Ken Shattock

[Mike Walsh]

At the WF&P we have a rather young group of volunteers that maintain a fleet of steam locomotives for weekly use in revenue service.

A number of us are in our mid-late 20's, but we have one member who is 20, and quite a few that are 10-18.

I've been with the railroad for thirteen years now and Brad joined up not long after that, and Andrew is now 16(ish) and he joined up when he was seven or eight. We've worked together to teach the younger guys what they know, and they are more than capable of operating the steam engines over our railroad.

We currently maintain four operating steam engines, and have another coming back online this summer. We undertake our own rebuilds at our facility, except for two small teakettles which were shipped off to a locomotive rebuilder for new boilers. They should be back this year, and one will be receiving more running gear work upon return. We anticipate up to six, maybe seven, operating steamers within a few years....

If you look closely in the photo with everyone standing up -- we were preparing for a quadruple header which hasn't taken place in YEARS at the WF&P. It was quite fun, too!

[PeterCraymer]

Here are a couple of photos of my middle son. One photo shows him at the ripe old age of 8 running John Harms 10-wheeler at a friend's house. His first actual experience running this engine was on a 30' length of track John had setup in his basement and was charging the boiler with compressed air! Scared me to death letting my 7 year old run the thing back and forth by himself! The second photo is him at 16 running our engine. He will run after he cleans the flues, fills the boiler and tender, oils around and builds/maintains the fire. Half the time, he does the dirty work and then lets me run some! I really think he has more throttle time at our engine than I do! He and my older son argue over who is going to inherit the thing if/when I pass. I told them to come on to the shop and we will build the 2nd one together too (same as the first one) so they don't have to fight! I am sure there is a future for the hobby!

Peter

[SCBryan]

I think it is great to see young people involved in our hobby. It is only through getting them interested at a young age that our hobby has much of a chance for survival. I think kids can be very responsible when properly trained. I recall an incident a few years ago that took place at a Tri State Locomotive Club meet at Hesston. We pretty much had the track to ourselves and no public was allowed in. My grand daughter (about ten years old at the time) was sitting in front of me on my interurban. I had my arms around her holding the control pod and she was running the speed nob. Some geezer (older than me) came up and gave me a ration of crap about kids not being allowed to operate. Period. I don't think I have ever been back there.

[Harlock]

Thank you all for continuing to add to my thread with your pictures. Very enjoyable.

-Mike

[Marty_Knox]

Two summers ago my nephew, Stephen Pomerantz, interned at my shop. He was a Mechanical Engineering Major at Temple University. For his project I gave him my Tom Artzberger Plymouth kit. He put it together, learning how to drill, tap, and deal with misaligned holes. We laid 60 feet of track in my shop for test runs, then took it to Bill Hayes' track for a real run. When his father flew out to drive home with he asked if we could put the track down again, so he could take his father for a ride.