Eastern Railroad Discussion > Pioneer Scenic Seeking Volunteers in Gettysburg

The Pioneer Scenic Railroad, operating over the Gettysburg & Northern, is looking for railfan volunteers to help extend the reach of the small paid staff. General Manager John Garner conducted a meeting for area fans at the line's former Reading Depot in Gettysburg on Tuesday night.

He needs help in virtually every area, including mechanical, carpentry, painting, electrical, ticket sales, as well as train operations. He says that people willing to devote the time and effort on the operational end will receive formal training beginning as brakeman, working up to conductor and to FRA certification as locomotive engineers.

Garner says he's hoping to build a team of friends and volunteers who want to enjoy the fun of passenger railroading. He's looking to grow the passenger business into a high quality operation.

Garner is also responsible for the freight end of operations, but that's handled exclusively by regular employees.

Garner can be reached on line at pioneerlines@internet.net or through the ticket office phone number (717) 334-6932.

Isn't this a "for profit" company? You don't see people working for free to help someone else turn a profit.

Tom

Same could be said about the current situation with the New Hope & Ivyland using volunteers to restore equipment....it's a matter of do you want to see it go, or rust away. Let's face it, yes they are for profit companies, but the passenger ends of both of these operations must make ends meet or they shut them down and concentrate on the freight service. IN reality, there are very very few tourist operations today that make a profit.

Another Example: A certain operation in a small state operates two entities -a Railroad and a Railway. The "Railroad" part of the operation is non profit, but the "Railway" end of it is indeed a for profit company that pays dividends to several share holders. The freight service (under 200 cars yearly) is operated by volunteers as realistically, the operation could never support a "paid staff" to operate the small amount of revenue freight service. In return, the freight end leases locomotive equipment from the non profit, maintains the right of way, seeks out grants for imporvements and handles all signal repairs, keeps everything up to par with the FRA, supplies funding for the non profit to help maintains their paid staff... all the while still paying a dividend to the shareholders.

It's a difficult line that you can tetter todder over and over again. Truth be told, do you want to see those daisy picker runs or not?