- Operations Department
- From Rail & Wire Issue 68, June 1971
Classes for new operating personnel which began in March were completed successfully by most of those who
began the spring program. Training chief Frank Jur reports that 27 members answered the call to help out by
beginning safety car instruction during the spring and most had passed into line training by July. Some had also
been certified as fully qualified motormen. Superintendent of Operations Frank Jur arranged training classes for a
new group in July.
Four members volunteered for the lengthy and demanding task of qualifying for steam locomotive operating positions.
The number was deliberately kept low to insure small classes for steam instructors and because of the number of
steam operations is much lower than electric and fewer hands are needed at the throttle.
Weekday operations began in. mid-June and were handled by four members hired by the museum to care for
vacation visitors. A new timetable was issued ill July to accommodate busy weekend traffic and Schwabenfest
schedules.
General passenger traffic increases were promising. Totals for the year through the end of July showed that more
than 38,000 persons had been carried on the museum's rails. Frank estimated that traffic was up about 40 percent
over 1970 and said the chief difference increased traffic made in operations is that heavy interurban cars such as C.
A. & E. 431 were being used more frequently than last year.
