(The following story by Christopher O’Donnel appeared on the Sarasota Herald-Tribune website on December 13.)
WILLOW, Fla. — Most days, Glenn Miley carries out routine checks of the Florida Railroad’s powerful diesel electric trains or lays new railroad.
But on Friday, Miley’s big worry was Christmas lights.
Some of the lights failed to work on the first run of the museum’s North Pole Express the previous evening. Before the next run that evening, the North Manatee resident had to repair the lights and carry out maintenance on the 1951 train engine that hauled about 350 parents and excited children to meet Santa Claus.
Whether repairing trains, laying track or just cutting the grass, Miley is the man who keeps the Florida Railroad Museum ticking over. As its only paid employee, Miley works about 50 hours a week either at Parrish or the storage area at Willow.
With about 90 percent of its funding coming through ticket sales for train rides, his role in keeping the museum’s two 1951 diesel electric engines running is critical to the museum’s survival.
“If I want a job done, Glenn is the person I’d ask to do it,” said William Maddox, museum treasurer. “He loves it out here; he lives and breathes the railroad museum.”
The museum runs two trains on Saturdays on Sundays on a seven-mile stretch of track between Parrish and Willow. Because it carries passengers, the museum is required to maintain its engines and rolling stock to the same standards as commercial railroad companies like CSX.
That is a tall order for Miley, whose only experience with engines was working as a car mechanic.
Repairing trains is “the same idea, it’s just a lot bigger,” he said. “A lot of it is trial and error.”
When the museum’s volunteer drivers report problems, most of the time it is something simple like a faulty relay, fuse or coil. Other times, it takes hours and even days of investigation to find out what is wrong, Miley said.
“The old saying is with steam engines it takes you two minutes to find what’s wrong and two days to fix it,” Miley said. “With diesel electric, it’s two days to find it and two minutes to fix it.”
Miley first got involved with the museum in 1999 when he brought his family to take a ride. A train enthusiast since he was a boy, he then joined as a volunteer and helped fix old train cars.
Along with his father, Miley was then asked to work one day a week for the museum. Father and son were both self-employed — Miley ran his own lawn-care business — and could spare the time. Together, they built the museum’s wood pavilion in Parrish.
One day a week soon became two and then three. In 2004, the museum offered Miley a full-time position.
Since then, his responsibilities have kept growing. He coordinates the handful of volunteer workers who help at Willow on Fridays. He also prepares the trains and land for special Halloween and Christmas events that are crucial money-makers for the museum.
On top of that, Miley must find time to work on transforming what looks like a half-finished railroad yard at Willow into a future attraction for the museum. The museum has grand plans for the former sawmill town, including an old Florida-style train depot and a historic exhibition, where passengers can disembark and walk around.
Most of all, though, Miley enjoys keeping the trains running. He spends hours lying on his back between the ground and the bottom of the train to replace traction motor brushes. Once, he even made a detour en route to a vacation in North Carolina to repair a train.
“You take an engine that’s leaking oil or water and not running and you get it working. That’s pretty cool,” he said.