Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hello, I'm Callie.
And I'm Sara.
And this is Community Spotlight.
We are students in
the College and Career
Studies program at UK.
This radio segment
will spotlight
different things in the local community
each week.
Thanks for listening.
(00:31):
For today’s
Community Spotlight,
we have a student spotlight.
Boris Buchheit is a student
in the College and Career
Studies program at UK,
and in this interview,
Boris talks with Adam Potter
from the HDI Media Team about his love
of trains, photography,
(00:52):
and other interests.
Thanks for listening.
My name is Boris Bucheit.
I live in Lexington, Kentucky.
This is my second semester
here at UK.
Tell me a little bit more
about what you do at UK.
What are you studying here?
Right now, I'm studying History 121,
(01:14):
so from 1914 to 1945.
And then I'm also doing a
second course
of HDI for Universal Design.
And I’ve been taking -
I've been loving that class since
because I work with a lot of people
(01:35):
who have disabilities
and me who has disabilities as well.
I think that we’re
really helping out in the future,
and with others.
That's really cool.
Yeah, thanks for telling me about that.
So,
tell me a little bit
how like a little bit
about how you first got into trains,
like what was that
(01:56):
first moment that made you be like,
“these are really cool
I want to dive in”?
Probably Thomas the Tank Engine,
probably.
Man, so long ago.
I remember seeing a; I was watching
typical kid’s shows and Thomas
the Tank Engine popped on
and I mean, you can just get
(02:17):
hooked in because I was di-
I have ADHD, and just last year.
And trains,
just something about trains
with the -
they have so many moving parts
with on trains,
and I guess me, I was like,
“Look at all that go,
look at all these –
all these wheels moving.
Look at them go!” And that was like,
so probably
Thomas was the start
of my start up making into trains.
(02:44):
And then
moving into when I got
into the real thing,
the big stuff; that was
probably down way back.
First time
I went to see my Nonna and Papa
who live up in New York State.
And they live right next to a busy
train line.
And it's just like a five minute
(03:05):
walk to tracks from their house
– from their house to tracks.
And you could just stand there all day
and watch the trains go by.
And it was amazing.
I just loved it.
I wasn’t a big fan of the horns
at the time,
because it was loud, but over time,
I got used to them.
Then I decided;
I started taking videos of the trains
(03:25):
with -
I had an iPod at
the time
I started taking videos of trains.
And I would just always
go back and watch them every
time I was bored.
Then I
started – then I started
a few years later down the line…road.
I started using social media
(03:48):
to post those videos.
So, I Instagram.
And Instagram has a lot of train
enthusiasts as well.
And I saw their work
of train photography.
And I was like,
that sounds that looks a lot
a lot of fun. I want to do that.
So, I started do it with my iPod.
I didn't have a
(04:09):
high quality camera
like everyone else did back in the day.
I just had my iPod.
So, I just took pictures off my iPod.
It was just simple and easy.
And I would just sort of crop
the things I didn't want in the photos,
and I just posted on Instagram
with like nothing, just.
“here’s a train!”.
I kept on doing
(04:30):
that for a while until
I got - I got my first camera,
a DSLR - DSLR camera.
And I went to try it out and
I immediately got hooked onto it
like wow, this is amazing.
I can see why people do this.
So over time, I've been taking many
(04:53):
- I've been still taking photos of trains
and editing them and posted them
online and social media
and just look at all the likes going up
and that motivated - that motivates me
more to get out
and take more photos of trains
because people really like the work
(05:15):
I put into them.
And that's basically where I am today.
I'm still doing what I do.
And I still love it.
I'm probably going to do it
till I get into old age.
That's awesome, man.
That's really cool.
It's really cool to see
you like enjoy something
and care about it
because I can tell you're
passionate about it.
You have love for it, like a memory
(05:38):
like that,
you know,
spending time at your grandparents
house like makes me
think about spending time
at my grandparents’ house
and the memories that I had.
But yeah man that's really cool,
you know, living right there
a couple minutes from the trains
and just being able
to step outside and check them out.
That's awesome.
So how many Instagram followers you got?
Oh man,
(06:00):
I don’t even know.
I got to know.
Let me see here.
634 followers.
Man that's - I mean, that's, that's
an accomplishment on its own man,
that's really cool.
Like, you’re getting close to a K [one
thousand] just posting trains
and doing your thing man. Yep!
That's pretty awesome.
So hey,
tell me a little bit
(06:21):
about some of the inspiration you felt
when you first found out about that
Bluegrass Railroad Museum.
Um, so
when I found
I bought
first found out, it was probably during,
think I went there for my 20th
birthday, and I went with my father.
And we went -
(06:41):
we were going out to Versailles,
because they had a lot
of historic train artifacts, there.
So, we went to this, this old railroad
depot
that was turned into a model
railroads motor train store,
and it had a huge
train display,
motor train
display
with a bunch of motor train artifacts.
(07:03):
And we went there,
it was, it was very cool to see.
The owner told us about the, “Hey
you should – hey,
this kid really loves trains,
you should take him up to the Bluegrass
Railroad Museum.
It's just about like a 10 minute
drive from here.” So,
we decided to do that.
Fortunately, they were running
that day, because it was a Saturday.
(07:25):
But it was,
it was amazing, amazing to see.
Getting up close to these big machines.
Because you usually just see him
either on a model railroad
or from a video,
but when you're actually close
to them, it's a whole different ballgame.
And I was like,
(07:46):
Hey, Dad, let's stay here,
I want to get a video of the train
pulling out and he said, “Sure.” So,
we waited for that.
Then we,
then
that was
basically the end of
my trip to Versailles.
But then
how I got started with the museum.
I, we - I went there again back
(08:07):
in ‘22 with a friend of mine,
we both are huge train enthusiasts.
We went over to Versailles, to
just bruff the train, which is just
foam over
it, as a lot of people,
a lot of railroaders like to use.
(08:28):
We chased
the train from Versailles
all the way down to Milner.
So, it's, it's a, it's a - it's
kind of like going, it's like…
so the trains do
push and pull operations.
So, we can't go that far.
Because they stop at a place
we can't get to.
(08:48):
So, we would usually
just stay at a good location
and wait for it to come back
and get our photos and videos.
And then we went back to the museum,
and I had a chat with
one of the conductors there.
And he mentioned that, hey, we need -
we need conductors.
If you're interested in volunteering,
please send us an email
(09:10):
or send us a check.
And we can teach you
how to become a conductor.
So, I was like, that sounds like fun.
I sat on it for a few weeks,
until I decided like,
you know what, I'm just gonna do that
because I'm usually bored
every Saturday sitting in the house.
Like I want to have something fun to do.
(09:31):
What more fun is playing with trains?
So, I sent in my check,
and then I got an email back saying like,
welcome aboard.
So, I got up, so I met with a one of
the conductors
and he would
teach me
the basics
of becoming a train conductor.
(09:52):
It's my first day
so I couldn't really touch anything.
I just had to shadow him.
But yeah, that was the first step of me
working my way up to
becoming a conductor.
So, it was I was mainly a car host
where
you would just have to observe
the passengers,
watch out for their safety
(10:13):
and tell them facts about the train and
where we’re heading to.
All that stuff.
It was pretty
fun, especially when you have a lot of
you have a lot from the kids
onboard the train.
They're a little bit hectic,
but it can be a lot of fun.
So, then I started getting into the
going into the maintenance
(10:34):
away gang on my - I met there.
So, they do track work.
They work on locomotives, machinery,
all that good stuff
and I thought that was very interesting.
Because I like work with my hands a lot.
I was like
this is more fun
than just being on the train.
So, I asked if I -
(10:55):
if they need
any help with anything
and they said, ‘Oh, absolutely,
we have a lot of work for
that needs to get done.” So, what we’re,
so I was taught how to use power tools
and hand tools
and how to be safe
around moving equipment.
And those skills can really help me out
in the future, which they are,
(11:16):
you know,
I recently bought a few of my own tool
sets, with my own money.
We usually start in; so,
every Saturday,
I get up at six o’clock in the morning,
I drive out - drive out there
on the gate,
I usually get there around 6:45am
(11:38):
to inspect our museums rail line,
and we use a high arch truck,
which is a truck that has some special
on wheels that go into the rails,
and you can just
drop the truck down the line
without even
having to use your steering wheel.
And our line is 5.5 miles,
(11:59):
so it takes a while for us to go
forward and back.
And we usually had to have
to stop
sometimes to fix problems on the line.
And we have to get back before nine
o’clock before our train does leave.
So that was a lot of fun.
I recently got to learn
how to drive that -
the truck which it wasn't as fun
(12:20):
as it sounded. So
yeah, I
thought it was going
to be much more different.
Like oh,
you just first got gas and go – it’s not.
Talk to me
about some of the other members
of the museum
that you hang out with [and]
that you communicate
with on a regular basis.
Oh, man,
I've met so many good people
(12:41):
there at the museum.
That was one of many reasons
why I started volunteering
there was to make friends.
And have people
who are interested in trains, like me.
I like to say they’re
my - my teachers in helping me with that,
and with a lot of things,
(13:01):
because they've been
at the museum longer than I have.
And I've made so many great friends.
And over time they
let me do more of these
things with
moving parts and hand tools around.
You know, last year, I had the up here
and you've been involved
with restoring a diesel locomotive.
(13:24):
It was a locomotive
that was used during the Korean War.
What we had to do was take out these
400 pound batteries
and put some new ones in.
So, we had to either use my, my
muscles,
but we had some machinery on standby.
But I was loved helping move
(13:46):
- moving, moving them out
the locomotive that put the new ones in.
Taking out the engines and helping them
start it up.
And it was probably one of the most
memorable moments of the Museum - of me
being part of a locomotive restoration
project.
(14:07):
Yeah, that's really
cool that that has to make
you feel like you're part of something
that's like,
you know, like bigger
than just yourself like
you're adding to something
that you know needs your assistance.
You know what I mean?
Like that's really cool.
We have a lot of signage at our museum,
around the steam belt and railcars –
they’re easy to understand.
(14:28):
We have safety features
on our railcars that we’d like to add.
We added a walkthrough
between our coil
cars on the knuckle couplers.
So instead of having to step bigger,
take a big step over, you just have a
bridge across the two cars.
(14:49):
You can just walk over with ease
without worrying about falling in
between the cars, which
I like to call;
that's pretty good use of
Universal Design
because it’s simple and intuitive.
Becoming a conductor
took a lot of trials and error;
and lots of studying.
So, every year the museum has a safety
(15:11):
training course
that teaches you
from the classroom; classroom
to hands-on training
and how to safely operate
a train
and how to use proper
communication skills.
When I started my hands-on training,
I was to complete three
certification runs
as an assistant conductor,
(15:33):
where I was being observed
by a certified conductor.
And then they would
fill out
forms
on things I could improve,
and they would used to give me helpful
tips to complete my certification.
I had a lot of fun, a lot of stress.
I was stressing out
because I
(15:54):
really had to work
on my communication skills.
Because I was little -
I was talking a bit fast
the engineer was like,
“You got to slow down there, buddy.”
and I was like, “I’m sorry.”, so,
I've been working on that,
and it's gotten a lot better over time.
That was my journey
to be to
climbing the ranks
to become a railroad conductor.
(16:16):
I've been a row conductor
now for two years.
I've been loving it since day one.
I like to call the
Bluegrass Railroad Museum
my museum because I am improving tracks
and trains
and safety
along with the other volunteers.
You know, I'm very grateful to -
(16:37):
for meeting new members
and learning lots of new skills
I can put to use.
That’s really cool, man.
Yeah, like,
I like
how you take ownership of it
to a little bit
like it's like, I'm
a part of this
and it's a part of me and like,
it wouldn't be the same without me.
And that's really cool.
That's, that's a cool thing to highlight.
So yeah, Boris,
do you have anything else
(16:58):
that you wanted to mention about this,
or you feel like
we got it all pretty covered.
Think we got it all pretty covered.
I want to
thank you for doing this for me.
I appreciate it. Of course, man. Anytime!
This has
been Community Spotlight.
Thanks for listening.