Camp still under steam

SCRANTON - Like the other students attending RailCamp 2011 this week at Steamtown National Historic Site, Mitchell Smithbauer hopes to come away with a better understanding and appreciation of railroading past and present.

Unlike most of his fellow campers, however, he arrived with some hands-on, real-world experience - his family operates Bucksgahuda & Western Railroad Co., a two-foot-gauge railroad at St. Marys founded by his grandfather, Bill Bauer, and three of his brothers.

"I already know a lot of the stuff that people are talking about," Mitchell, 14, said Tuesday. "But there is still a lot to learn."

Now in its 14th year, RailCamp is intended to give high school students hands-on experience in railroad operations while introducing them to the principles of historic preservation and transportation career opportunities. It is sponsored by the National Railway Historical Society in partnership with the National Park Service.

This year's campers - 23 boys and one girl between 14 and 18 - hail from more than a dozen states.

Mitchell said the camp has become practically a rite of passage for members of his family, which started B&W with the acquisition in 1966 of a German-built Henschel locomotive used to haul military supplies in Europe during World War II. A freshman at Elk County Catholic High School, he is the seventh grandchild to attend RailCamp.

"I'm really here to learn more about how steam locomotives work so I can work more on them," Mitchell said.

Steamtown superintendent Kip Hagen said the camp lets students learn not only about what railroading was like during the heyday of steam locomotion but also about modern operations.

On Monday, camp participants toured the Amtrak locomotive repair shop in Wilmington before visiting the Amtrak control center at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, which dispatches and monitors all Amtrak movements from Washington to central New Jersey.

"The kids get a chance to see behind the scenes, and it really whets their appetite for railroading," Hagen said.

Barry Smith, senior vice president of the National Railway Historical Society and RailCamp program director, said some camp alumni have gone on to jobs in railroading. Others have returned to Steamtown as volunteers for the park service.

But a main purpose of the camp is simply to get a younger generation interested in railroads and the society.

"We've got a much older generation of members that is rapidly passing away, and this is one way we are trying to pass that interest on to these younger people," Smith said. "Let me tell you, some of them know more about trains than I will ever know."