Bethan Maher - Barter, Borrow, and Steel
Behind the Throttle: Edition 2, Installment 3
“We have to run the train and see if people will come.”
The bug of a railroad fixation takes more than one form; People are drawn towards trains in many ways and their interests manifest just the same. While many people will exhibit a different level of symptoms once infected with a love of railroading, most everyone who finds themselves working in the industry goes to feel a sense of pride and a drive to see accomplishments happen in their field. If you combine this paragon with an ambitious and zealous person, you’ll get a force of railroading. Today’s spotlight proudly features one such example of a railroader who gets it done. Today, we meet Bethan Maher - Barter, Borrow, and Steel.
Transcending the typical archetype of railroading being a “lifelong passion”, Bethan’s youth was spent without much of a railroad influence. Though she can recall one vivid memory of her young-self onboard the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in upstate New York, and a few other times of riding Amtrak and Subways, trains seldom got more than a passing thought. Her interest in history as a whole is what eventually led Bethan down the railroad track.
Following the completion of her undergraduate degree (studying, incredibly, underwater archeology!), Bethan found herself returning to the Adirondack Scenic with a resume in hand as she hunted for an applicable career to last maybe a year, soon to take her first job with a railroad. Bethan then told me: “What a slippery slope that’s been!”. Fulfilling the role of office manager at the tourist line, Bethan’s dangerously enthusiastic personality clashed in a beautiful battle against the status quo within the railroad. She would quickly take on much more than the roles outlined in her job listing, organizing and managing special events, dipping into operations, and pretty much any other role that needed filed. In Bethan’s words, “There was no fear of failure”, and her lack of this fear governed her ballistic approach to managing the railroad that soon became her second home.
Bethan’s first three years at the Adirondack Scenic quickly revealed that the railroad and it’s managing nonprofit organization needed more structure and leadership, and naturally she sought to raise the issue before long. As more and more work fell under her umbrella, she approached the board and spelled out that there was a need for one central leader with an established chain-of-command. Expecting to be removed from the room, the board instead took her message and appointed her executive director at just 24-years-old. With no sign of slowing down, Bethan continued to climb the railroad out of debt and begin making a profit on their excursions, all while empowering the various departments of the railroad to get ahead on upkeep and maintenance, setting the railroad up for success in the long term. With every victory came a handful of hardships, but for a young executive director with a limited knowledge of the nitty-gritty of railroading, these challenges proved to be opportunities to learn and grow into the industry. Though, personal and sexist whispers made their way around the railroad and the surrounding communities - not an easy thing to manage in any circumstance. Bethan persisted, spinning the “you’re a girl and you don’t know how to this” type comments to “If you tell me I don’t know what I’m doing, then teach me”.
With an motivated and determined team of staff and volunteers Bethan found herself among a successful tourist railroad that offered safe, professional, and enjoyable experiences through a beautiful part of the country. The journey was far from easy, but every struggle was a lesson, and served as a plan for when a similar issue surfaced. The Adirondack Scenic’s greatest feud came when a battle with New York State (owner of the right-of-way the railroad operates on) opted to remove the tail end of the railroad that joined to the tracks to the popular tourist destination of Lake Placid. The dramatic and messy legal battle that followed dragged on for several years, and by the end Bethan was burnt and ready for a new chapter. She began to look outward for new opportunities, leading her to the opposite side of the country in 2016.
The Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad operates just outside of the namesake national park in former logging railroad territory. It’s first iteration as a tourist outfit was spurred on by a private individual who ran the railroad as his personal museum. By the time Bethan had arrived, the site had been bought by American Heritage Railroads, a tourist railroad operator that had hoped to continue and expand on operations through the redwood forests. Bethan made the move out to Washington state and was on-site with her new prospect just a few short month after leaving New York, yet fate would have it that her world would be turned upside down yet again. A devastating fire broke out in Durango, Colorado - home of AHR’s largest operation, the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. With an uncertain future and momentary shutdown of AHR’s operations while the fire raged, Bethan found her first actions in charge at then MRSR to be placing the railroad into” survival mode” through what would be a huge revenue drought. They were able to resume operations for the 2017 season and onward, but financial woes stunted the growth efforts that Bethan had hoped to achieve. In 2020, obvious events that this author does not feel like recounting caused the railroad to shutter once more.
With no timeline on the railroad’s reopening, it seemed that the rails would be silent in Pierce County for a while. Physically unable to give up hope though, Bethan and the railroad’s staff worked to find a new way to operated the railroad. Now with an established nonprofit, in 2022 they were finally able to work out that the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad would be released from American Heritage Railways and given to the new NPO. Knowing the time and dedication it would take, she was persistently eager to give the railroad the try she felt it deserved: “We have to run the train and see if people will come”. In the meantime, Bethan and her husband welcomed their first child to the world, but motherhood did anything but slow her down for this exciting chapter that was unfolding. Joined by the now superintendent of the railroad, Rowdy Pierce, they would go and established an executive board from members within the community and got to work on the new foundation for what would become the third iteration of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. A united and enthusiastic base of volunteers and employees working well beyond 40 hours in a week got rail-bikes running and people on the property before long, and steam was on the horizon. Success was not a guarantee, but that stopped no one - especially Bethan: “Maybe if we failed someone else would learn”.
In September of 2023, the railroad officially reopened with train rides - while Bethan was going into labor two months early. Dispatching calls from the emergency room and making sure the railroad was thriving in her stead, her twins came into the world on the same day that the railroad reintroduced itself: “I gave birth to twins and to a railroad in the same day”, she said with a laugh, but then cited that her team was more than capable of managing the place on their own as she was busy with slightly more pressing matters. A proud-parent moment occurred just a few weeks after when she returned to the workplace with her three children, husband, and parents, and found the railroad humming along to great success. Still recovering from childbirth, Bethan was able to enjoy a train ride with her train-obsessed son, knowing that everything was under control. The railroad continues to thrive and grow under Bethan’s leadership and the team she has amassed, and she takes great pride in that she has hired back most everyone that she had to lay-off in her first few months. As a leader, Bethan exudes positivity and optimism to her workforce, and maintains that the job - while taken seriously - should be fun, especially in an organization that needs volunteers. Bethan also perpetuates that her crews look after one another, citing that this industry needs steady communication and well-being of employees to prosper.
For those who follow the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad on social media, you are surely aware of the unapologetically-transparent and somewhat absurdist presence they hold online. The brains behind this approach - you guessed it: Bethan. In discussing her tactic, she recalled the first post with the blunt wording that came from before the railroad’s rebirth, where she posted about a volunteer work-weekend where the team painted up a passenger car with Rust-Oleum, lacking funds for anything else. This post generated an immense amount of traction and attention for the page, and donations spiked. From there, the rest is history. “We’re not classy people,” Bethan explained. “There’s no masking anything, it’s just unapologetically us”. Walking the line of maintaining a “professional” (as in safe and responsible) image, but not taking themselves too seriously, the railroad has seen lots of support from the public, with Bethan feels comes from the sincerity and transparency in the page. Plus, the humor makes her job and her coworkers’ jobs much more fun: “If we weren’t having fun we would have killed each other”.
Taking the railroad - and herself - into the future, Bethan hopes to see the organization grow and her employee/volunteer base continue to thrive. The team at MRSR is a rather young force, with Bethan (at 36 years young herself) often referred to as the elder of the tribe. Throughout the industry as a whole, she hopes to see ego take a backstage to progress, and competition among tourist/historic outfits disappear: “We are competing with aquariums, zoos, hiking trails, and movie theaters, not each other”. Bethan also feels that the industry does have work to do on being a more inclusive space, citing her own experience rising in the ranks. More discussions across different railroad sites, along with people and organizations being accountable to their actions and their own betterment is her vision for success, and she hopes to emulate all of that within her organization. Optimistic for the future and hopeful for a better industry, Bethan Maher will continue to lead a dedicated team that enjoys the ride and promises a better tomorrow.
Thank you for reading this edition of Behind the Throttle, and thanks to Bethan for sharing her story with us. Tune in on April 14th for our next story - featuring Chris Colohich, a lifelong enthusiast about to start a career with Wabtec. In the meantime, I am Max Harris, and I’ll see you all down the line.
fantastic story and writing Max!! It's great to hear that the tourist railroad industry has such enthusiastic and intelligent young folks taking charge!!! Sounds like a visit is in order. Cheers!