On the morning of Monday, July 20, 2015, American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation
(APRHF) President Bob Cox and Vice-President Amy Cox officially
announced the launch of a brand new program. Rail Rangers is a special
long-term outreach effort that will be directed primarily at
individuals and groups that own and operate private railroad cars, in
addition to organizations planning private or public rail charters,
railroad museums, and other similar venues. By simply contacting the
APRHF and advising they are interested in the new Rail Rangers program,
a rail car owner or group organizer can now make all the arrangements
necessary to have experienced, educated docents aboard their train car
to present an informative, but yet entertaining, interpretive program.
(From left to right) Amy Cox,
Bob Cox, Robert Tabern & Kandace Tabern celebrate the launch of the
new APRHF Rail Rangers program
(Photo by Karri Cox)
Newly-appointed Rail Rangers Executive Director and Chicago Coordinator Robert Tabern explains, "Of course,
almost everyone loves to go on a train ride - especially in a private
rail car from the 1940's or 1950's. But, how many of the passengers on
these excursions really know what they are seeing out their window?
It's almost like watching the Travel Channel with the audio turned off.
You're not going to get quite as much out of your ride without having
live guides on-board that passengers can interact with. That's where we
will come in. The APRHF Rail Rangers program will work with private car
owners to custom-design a First Class program in the style and format
that they want for their passengers." Possible options can include
custom-designed route guide sheets or booklets and other handouts, live
guides aboard the train to provide narration, route guide book sales,
travel trivia contests with prizes, and even special activities for
children.
Robert and Kandace Tabern have been appointed the new Chicago Coordinators of the APRHF Rail Rangers program
(Photo by Kathy Bruecker)
While the formal affiliation
with the APRHF and group name were just announced, the actual concept
behind the Rail Rangers program isn't new by any means. Since October
2010, Robert has been entertaining and informing passengers on select
Friends of the 261 excursions with his unique brand of narration, route
guides, trivia, and wit. The Friends of the 261 is based at Minneapolis
Junction, Minnesota, and operates Milwaukee Road steam locomotive #261,
and more than a dozen private rail cars, including the Milwaukee Road
Skytop Cedar Rapids and Super Dome #53.
Previous Friends of the 261 trips that have featured Robert's
interpretive programs have included the following: Fall Colors
Excursions from Minneapolis to La Crescent, MN and Boylston, WI
(October 2010), Train Festival Excursion from Davenport to Homestead
Wye, IA (July 2011), Fall Colors Excursion from Minneapolis to
Boylston, WI (October 2011), National Train Day Excursion from
Minneapolis to Chicago (May 2012), Fall Colors Excursion from
Minneapolis to La Crescent, MN (October 2012), "Return of the 261"
Excursion to Duluth, MN (May 2013), Fall Colors Excursion to Willmar,
MN (October 2013), and the Windy City I Excursion from Chicago to
Milwaukee (May 2015).
Robert Tabern spends time
autographing his "Outside the Rails" book for two passengers on an
October 2012 Friends of the 261 Excursion
(Photo by Bob & Amy Cox)
After getting married to Kandace
(Owings) Tabern in 2012, the couple has worked as a well-matched
on-board team; Robert is often found in the upper level of the dome car
pointing out landmarks to Premium Class passengers, while Kandace roams
the rest of the train and gears her presentations and hands-on
activities more toward the children and teens who are riding. In late
2013, Kandace even developed a very popular children's activity book
and "junior conductor" program for the Friends of the 261; she is
hoping to do something similar later this year or in early 2016 for the
APRHF's new Rail Rangers program. Kandace, who has recently been
appointed Assistant Chicago Coordinator of the APRHF Rail Rangers
program, says, "Over the spring and into the summer now, we had been
looking closely at what we do so well on Friends of the 261 excursions,
and, with the APRHF's help and involvement, now hope to expand this
outreach to more rail charters across the Midwest, and possibly even in
other areas of the country. That would be really great to engage more
passengers and educate them about all of the sites you can see from the
train, but might not otherwise know about, if you didn't have a pair of
live and local guides helping out on the train."
Rail Rangers Assistant Chicago Coordinator Kandace Tabern entertains a dome car full of passengers
(Photo by Robert Tabern)
The APRHF Rail Rangers program will develop a "Junior Ranger" program for children; expect a launch of this in Fall 2015
(Photo by Robert Tabern)
Along with Robert and Kandace,
APRHF President Bob Cox and Vice-President Amy Cox will have a direct
role in co-managing the new Rail Rangers program, serving as the
organization's La Plata Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator,
respectively. Bob explains, "The APRHF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the role that
passenger rail played in the building of this nation. We feel that the
mission of the Rail Rangers program fits right in line with what we
have been doing out here the past couple of years. After much
consideration, we are going to try an outreach program to private car
owners. Amy and I will be managing a lot of the logistics with the
private rail car owners and working with them on planning out upcoming
trips. This will be a great way to meet more private car owners and
also share with them what we are doing out here in and around La
Plata." In addition to sponsoring Rail Rangers, the APRHF has been key
in supporting such other projects as the Let's Talk Trains Internet
Radio Show, the Silver Rails Events Center, the Silver Rails Gallery and
Memorial Library, the Exhibition of Amtrak History, and on-going
maintenance and upkeep at the current Amtrak station in La Plata, MO.
(From left to right) Kandace
Tabern, Robert Tabern, Bob Cox & Amy Cox celebrate the launch of
the new APRHF Rail Rangers program
(Photo by Karri Cox)
APRHF Rail Rangers will reach
out to private car passengers, like the woman pictured here watching
the sunset in Illinois from a dome car
(Photo by Robert Tabern)
Thew decision for the APRHF to
throw its support behind the new Rail Rangers program also comes out of
the immense success the organization had from creating and
co-sponsoring a Trails & Rails program on the Southwest Chief
between Chicago Union Station and La Plata, MO. From December 3, 2012
through July 19, 2015, this partnership between Amtrak, the National
Park Service, Texas A&M University's Department of Recreation,
Park, and Tourism Sciences, and the APRHF, featured 32 Chicago-based
Trails & Rails volunteers, who provided educational programs to
more than 50,000 Amtrak passengers traveling through Illinois, Iowa,
and Missouri. Robert and Kandace served as Trails & Rails' Chicago
Coordinators, while Bob and Amy served as Trails & Rails' La Plata
Coordinators. The APRHF contributed more than $25,000 in goods and
services towards the program over three years, including being the
primary partner to fund overnight accommodations for Trails & Rails
volunteers in La Plata, and providing funding for the use of a new
wireless speaker system by volunteers. Despite being the least funded
of all Trails & Rails groups in the country, Chicago to La Plata Southwest Chief
volunteers always came in at number one in the country in terms of
volunteer hours for non-daily Trails & Rails programs; it also had
one of the strongest social media and outreach presences. In early June
2015, Trails & Rails National Coordinator and National Park Service
Ranger James Miculka, based in College Station, Texas, advised that he
felt having the APRHF continue on as a co-sponsor of Trails & Rails
presented a "conflict of interest" for him and the National Park
Service. Despite the APRHF pointing out how everyone, especially
passengers, benefited from the partnership, Jim refused to change his
stance. The last APRHF-sponsored Trails & Rails program on the Southwest Chief
between Chicago and La Plata, MO took place on the weekend of July
18-19, 2015. Sadly, the program is now in a "suspended status" and is
no longer offering on-board educational opportunities to passengers on
the Southwest Chief. This
decision also leaves Chicago completely without a Trails & Rails
program on a long-distance train; the remaining Trails & Rails
program, sponsored by Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, operates on a
short 62-mile stretch of the Wolverine and Blue Water
between Chicago and New Buffalo, Michigan. The National Park
Service, nor Amtrak, will not have any affiliations with the new Rail
Rangers program; it will solely be operated by the APRHF, in agreement
with private rail car owners.
Kathy Bruecker is just one of
the 32 displaced Chicago to La Plata, MO Trails & Rails guides,
after National Park Service Ranger and Trails & Rails National
Coordinator Jim Miculka decided to ends the NPS' partnership with the
American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation
(Photo by Robert Tabern)
Despite the very recent loss of
a Trails & Rails program between Chicago and La Plata, Missouri,
the future already extremely bright for APRHF's brand new Rail Rangers
program. Robert explains, "We are looking forward to working with
private car owners to provide new opportunities and a true First Class,
but also fun, experience for their passengers. If a private car owner
wants route guide sheets or maps -- we'll head out, drive the route,
and do the research for them, and have them ready to go at the gate,
complete with being there with a smile on our face to answer any
questions. If they want us aboard to do live narration and kids'
activities -- we and the APRHF have them covered there too.
Personally, I really look forward to the creativity we will have now;
we didn't get much of a chance to be creative with the cooky-cutter
format and regulations imposed on us by the National Park Service as
part of the Trails & Rails umbrella. We also look forward to doing
our program on more than just one route."
Rail Rangers Chicago Coordinator Robert Tabern provides live narration in the upper level of a private dome car
(Photo by Kandace Tabern)
Private rail cars, like the full-length dome car pictured here, will be the setting for future Rail Ranger programs
(Photo by Kandace Tabern)
For now, the APRHF Rail Rangers
program, consists only of Robert, Kandace, Bob, and Amy. However, if
current demand for interpretive programs increase from private car
owners and groups, Rail Rangers and the APRHF will consider holding
interviews for new docents. You can learn more about the
APRHF Rail Rangers through the organization's brand new website, and
follow them on Facebook as the program develops (the links to both
sites are below).
Rail Rangers will be co-manged out of La Plata, Missouri and Wadsworth, Illinois
(Photo by Karri Cox)
