Railroad Museum of New England and the Boy Scouts - 2008

[nanosphoto]

A dozen years ago today, Otto Vondrak asked me to lend a hand and photograph a Boy Scout railroading camporee at the Railroad Museum of New England. As a former Scout, I happily agreed and had a blast documenting a number of troops learning about various aspects of railroading, as well as earning their Railroading Merit Badges. Here's a few highlights from the day.

May 3, 2008, RMNE, Thomaston, Connecticut.

 

[Bob]

Nice series of photos Tom, thanks for sharing, and welcome to the forum. I'm a big fan of your work.

I seem to recall they have/had a railroading merit badge. Do they still do that? Was it part of the reason they visited? Looks like a great way to really introduce them to railroading.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good shots. I love old ALCo's.
Thanks for your volunteer work with young people. Waaaay back in the day, the Boy Scouts traveled cross country to and from their national jamborees in chartered trains or in extra cars of regularly scheduled passenger trains. I recall seeing home movies of such a train trip, I beleive on the NP's North Coast Limited in the mid-60's, that were taken by a high school class mate.

 

[Bob]

Thought maybe I could find some vintage video of a Boy Scout Jamboree train on YouTube but no such luck.

I seem to recall reading an article about them a few years back. They must have been quite the trip. I can only imagine the Conductor's reaction when he was greeted with an entire trainload of young boys. You know there had to be at least a few troublemakers on board!

 

[Bob]

Found one! From Valley Forge in 1950. Even has a shot of Horseshoe Curve!
Pretty dark, sure wish you could see things better, would be interesting to know what trains those were! Fun look at the train ride though, worth a view. One of the coaches, the only one I can read, is marked for New York Central. The locomotive is number 5370, which would make it a non-streamlined Hudson, if it's from the New York Central. The nose of the loco, with the air pump shrouds and centered headlight does have a New York Central Flavor.
A few moments later the film shows the train going around Horseshoe Curve, and that's obviously PRR territory. But it's a charter, so they could have been handed off someplace. It appears PRR 5370 would be a K4, and the loco in the first scene definitely wasn't a K4.

Jason Spangler Santeeswapper
http://www.scoutinghotfinds.com (turn up the volume all the way!) This great video was shot by the Boy Scouts and was released as an old strip on 1" magnetic film after the 1950 National Scout Jamboree. The original film was digitized by Scouter Rick Maples and he has given me permission to post it on YouTube for all to see. There are lots of great pieces of history here and any Scout who has had the Jamboree experience will appreciate this tale of American history. Watching this it makes you wonder how much have changed as the 2013 National Scout Jamboree at the Summit is coming up soon.
(Caption left as written, video was posted in 2013)

 

[nanosphoto]

Thanks Bob & Bill! It was a fun day, and a great way to give back supporting rail preservation as well as youth activities at the same time... I myself never made it to a Jamboree as a Scout (late '70s & early '80s), and we sure didn't do cool stuff like railroading...