Now one of the things I like is trains and a few years ago where I live in N. Ireland my mother rang up the Train Operating Company to see if it would be possible for me to get a run in the cab with the driver as a Christmas present but they said that “There were too many rules to do with insurance and health and safety” and !It was a lovely thought but it just isn’t possible". However, a few months later after the line to Londonderry reopened, they did a special run from Belfast Great Victoria Street to Londonderry in a Class 4000 DMU and on TV it showed the Regional Development Minister in the cab looking at a section of the coast near Castlerock and presumably there must have been cameraman with him and in L’derry when the train arrived was waving out of cab window and he wasn’t wearing a high visibility vest and this was 3 months after I was refused and I know that some companies film Cab Rides or Driver’s Eye Views and you only have to search on Google to find these so they would allow a cameraman in the cab so it proves that it is possible then. So what’s the Straight Dope on all this then? It’s not a case of whether it is or isn’t possible it’s how you go about it in fact? Possible case for discrimination here and in America if it was common for people to have cab rides or Driver’s Eye Views or what? Also need to find out what insurance and Health and Safety concerns are now then?
There’s a short-run touristy train running from Felton, CA (a small resort town nestled in a redwood forest) to Santa Cruz, a better-known touristy city just about 10-or-so miles away on the coast of Monterey Bay. Last I heard (admittedly, this was about 20 years ago), anyone could buy a day in the cab with the driver, including a train-driving lesson (probably just introductory and perfunctory, I presume). I don’t recall the price, except that it struck me as huge.
ETA: I suppose, to get a cab ride on the L’derry train, you should become a cameraman.
More serious response: I don’t know. But quite presumably, the train company did have to go through all kinds of special hoops to get a cameraman, or any other non-train-employee, into the cab. First, it sounds like they were doing some kind of special publicity event or promo or making an advertising video or some such kind of special event. If the insurance company has a problem with that (as would almost certainly be the case), the train company probably had to make special arrangements to cover that. They probably had to buy a specific one-person one-day policy addendum, probably at an exorbitant premium, to have the guy be insured. Same for anyone else extra-special who was there.
Likewise, if there were all kinds of health and safety regulations, they probably had to get a seven-foot-tall stack of special permits and waivers from two hundred different agencies, many of which probably had an encyclopedic list of special conditions they had to meet, like providing emergency response plans for every imaginable mis-hap that could occur while the visitors were aboard, with specific provisions for dealing with those visitors.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate just a wee bit, but in principle, I would suspect that the train company did have to make all kinds of extra-special arrangements and accommodations. They can’t just do something like that casually.
I would say if you want to push for it, the best bet is to contact the public relations department. Your Mother probably got in touch with one of the operating staff, who would only be inconvenienced by this sort of thing, and would want to put her off it. But PR is more likely to want to help.
Mind you, Senegoid may well be correct, and even PR may only be willing to go through the trouble on special occasions and even then only for special visitors who have a hand in deciding their operating budget. Still, it’s worth a call.
The Wine Train out of Napa, CA has an unadvertised option they call “Go Loco” that lets you ride in the Alco FPA-4. Not cheap… Back in 2012, it cost about $260 for a one-way ride up front or $350 for a round trip (about three hours)
The cruel irony is that you can’t have wine in the Wine Train’s locomotive.
I am quite sure that it would not be easy for a train company to allow civilians into the cab of a working engine. “Not easy” but certainly possible and it may actually not be all that difficult. The problem is, that the train company really don’t want to do it. It would cost them money and get in the way of the normal operation of the trains. I bet that most drivers (and the unions) don’t want members of the public, especially kids, in the cab with them.
As mentioned above, heritage lines often offer it. The Severn Valley Railway (biggest in England) will let you have a ‘taster’ on the footplate for as little as £125. http://www.svr.co.uk/Footplate_GeneralInformation.aspx
What do you think gives you a “case for discrimination”? I’d be surprised if there was actually a law saying that if a train operating company lets a politician ride in the cab on a special occasion or if a commercial filming crew is allowed in the cab, the general public gets to as well.
They don’t want to fool with it, so they use the insurance dodge, which is probably partly true. They would, under special circumstances, make an exception. My uncle was a railroad engineer, and he took my son in the cab, probably just had to clear it with a supervisor with a simple verbal notifciation.
I’ve been on airline flights, on which a flight attendant would invite children into the cockpit, to have a look-see, but that was in the pre-terrorist era.
The Nevada Northern Railway offers rides in the cab of their diesel and steam locomotives during their regular excursion runs, I think its about $100 or so.
For about $900 they will teach you to run one of their locomotive and let you be the engineer for a run. (I don’t think you get to pull any cars, when I was there it was just the locomotive.)
And does Disney still let you ride in the operator’s cab of the monorail? I remember riding up there in the late 70’s anyway.
When politicians and other non-safety-critical people take a ride in a train cab in the UK they have to be accompanied by an official, usually an inspector, who watches their every move to make sure they don’t touch anything they shouldn’t. As you can imagine this is expensive so doesn’t happen very often.
You might get a ride on one of the Heritage railways - you might want to write to them instead. It would be much more interesting to ride on a steam engine, or even one of those antique diesels they have in some places.
Those various railways that offer paid rides in the cab are doing it as part of the commercial services that they offer, for a price, often a very substantial price.
As part of their regularly offered business, they would certainly (one should hope) have made all the proper official arrangements – buying the necessary insurance to cover it (probably very expensive and specially-custom policy), and dealing with all the regulatory requirements. It is then all factored into the prices they charge.
Sigh! The good old days. My son used to love to do that, and they even gave out little souvenirs. Alas, no more. Today they probably shoot you if you even go near the locked reinforced door.
If you are ever passing through Ely, Nevada you can be the engineer on a steam engine for some $800.
I got Ms Hook, who loves trains, this for our anniversary a couple of years ago. She loved it and they let me ride along in the cab also.
They’ll still do it, on the ground before pushback, if you ask. (It helps if you are a small child.)
Most of the time, people hate having strangers hanging around while they are trying to work. It makes it harder for them to concentrate on the job. Therefore, they will only agree to it rarely, and usually for some special purpose — or a special person. If you want to get rides in train engines, try to become the chief executive of a railway company.
@wolfpup, et al
We let kids in the cockpit frequently. While parked at the gate. I probably do that about once every 8-ish workdays. Most often it’s kids, but sometimes it’s overseas tourists, usually around college-aged. Or whatever.
Pretty much anybody is welcome to poke their head in and say " Hi". If we’re busy you might get ignored or politely brushed off. But if we’re just hangin’ which is usually the case, you’ll be welcome to poke in for a minute or two.
if you’re a parent (or hot woman :D) and really want pix, best to wait until after we’ve arrived and most passengers have deplaned. That’s when there’s no time pressure and no crush of folks crowding around the front door, galley, etc.
And yes, we have logo souvenir wings to give out. There is also a little passport-like logbooks the FA’s have for kids. A kid can keep it for years adding to it every time he/she travels. I’ve filled them out for babies on their first jaunt shortly after birth.
Conversely, in all the years I or my dad flew for the airlines, which is now going back 60+ years, kids in the cockpit *in flight *was exceedingly rare. Not impossible, but pretty rare. At least on the carriers we’ve worked for; others might have had different traditions back in the early 1960s and before.
The legal prohibition against outsiders in the cockpit of US airlines while the airplane is in motion dates from the hijacking craze of the late 1960s. 9/11 didn’t change those rules iota one. What 9/11 did do is armor the door and alter our procedures to (we hope!) defeat assaults.
I vaguely remember a recent news story about an airline pilot who got in trouble for inviting some pretty young women to sit in the cockpit for the whole flight.
Interesting. Most of the incidents I can specifically recall of my son visiting the cockpit were on Air Canada, although at least some of them were in US airspace, so it sounds like airline rules rather than FAA rules. My recollection from those days was that the cockpit door was often (but not always) open during flight anyway. I recall on one occasion he was up there so long that he sat himself down on the floor behind the pilots and had a grand old time observing the proceedings through most of the flight. We were in business class right behind the cockpit and there were relatively few passengers, so the attitude was very informal. One of the flight attendants even told me I should go up and have a look myself as he was having such a good time. 
ETA: Needless to say, all AC flights now follow the locked reinforced door rules of all other airlines.
I don’t know about the run from Felton to Santa Cruz. But you can be an “Engineer for a day” on the narrow gage steam train that goes up the mountain and back. The cost was $200 for the day.
Several years ago my family and I went to Roaring Camp for Father’s day. We got to the top of the mountain they had a drawing. My son won. the prize ridding down the mountain in the engine cab. I am an Old Steam Engineer (Greasy Snipe). My son turned to me and handed me his winning ticket. ONe of the best presents I have received for Father’s Day.
I’ve also ridden in the cab of the steam train at Knott’s Berry Farm. My son asked if an old steam engineer cold get a ride in the cab and they said yes.