Randall --
When I started getting involved with the Friends back in 1997 or so, Jack Campbell had departed as CMO (a real loss) and George Barthlomew eventually hired Walter Rosenberger an MIT graduate in Mechanical Engineering. Since my prior experience involved heavy doses of project management in complex businesses I was impressed to learn that Walt had used a PERT program to lay out what needed to be done to restore the C&TS loco fleet which was pretty run-down. First problem was that George had no money for such work, despite carrying 60,000 or so passengers that season, and by the 1998-99 off-season there were only three shop employees at work (to state the obvious, the PERT was useless under such circumstances).
Then those of us that constituted RGRPC were asked by the Commission to replace Black Bart. So we turned to the PERT analysis which exposed the second problem: the whole analysis was totally flawed because neither Walt not any of the shop employees had the foggiest idea how long specific tasks would take, what the real precedences were, who really did what, etc., etc. Absolutely useless -- sad.
Welcome to the world of steam locomotive maintenance in an era that no longer knows the standards and practices that Baldwin and major railroads employed in their heyday. As best I can determine the success of a tourist steam locomotive operation depends on the accumulated knowledge of an CMO that has acquired broad hands-on experience (the PERT chart is in his head). Back in the days of John Bush and Jack Campbell the C&TS had that kind of talent. Fortunately, by hiring Marty Knox for the restoration of 463, that locomotive and the C&TS crew working on it have all benefited from Marty's broad hands-on experience and knowledge.
