Thoughts on a bad weekend in railway preservation

Last weekend was a bad one for preservation railways in the U.S. We lost a 28-year-old conductor at Royal Gorge Route in an incident involving a shove move. And two preservation railways, one in the Northeast, and one in the Southeast, shut down when their landlords booted them. There are lessons in all three of these sad situations.

 First, in the loss of a life, our condolences go out to the family of conductor Leslie Cacy, who lost her life, and to the close-knit railroad family at Royal Gorge. My hope is that the railroad and the investigators will do a thorough job in finding out what happened and share their findings with us all, so that everyone can take steps to make his or her railroad as safe as possible, and so that individual crew members can take actions to protect themselves. To those who say that tourist and museum railroading is not real railroading, I remind you that it is: You can get seriously injured or killed just as easily and just as quickly on one of these trains as you can on the locomotives or rolling stock that belong to a Class I, regional, or shortline railroad. To my brothers and sisters on preservation railways, whether professionals or volunteers, please be careful out there. As my good friend Hayley Enoch observed over the weekend, “You are the softest thing on the railroad.”

 In regards to the two preservation railways that shut down last weekend, their specific stories are vastly different, but the root problem is the same: Lack of control of their track. Catskill Mountain in New York, whose plight is featured along with that of the Adirondack Railroad in our July issue, available soon, was on the losing end of a political struggle involving the creation of a trail. Southern Appalachian Railway Museum in Tennessee closed after its host shortline railroad got nervous about liability issues and cancelled the operating lease. In both cases, someone else had control of the most critical element needed for the trains to run: Track and right-of-way. Securing a place to run comes at a high cost and is usually a lengthy and difficult ordeal, but it is a price that must be paid to ensure continued operations. I never got to Catskill Mountain, but I had a couple of enjoyable visits to Southern Appalachian, and it’s a good group, well run, and a lot of fun. I hope both groups find a way to land on their feet.

 Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the tourist and museum season. Let all of us involved in railway preservation out on the front lines dedicate this season to Leslie Cacy’s memory and to safety. And let all of us involved in the management of these incredible historic resources redouble our efforts to take care of issues, whether they be track, right of way, or something else, before they pose a problem that can shut you down.