New nonprofit aims to arm next-gen job seekers with rail industry knowledge — and connections

By Bridget Dean, Associate Editor 

Like companies in many industries, railroads are seeking younger employees to backfill an aging and retiring workforce. Yet for job seekers, it can be difficult to find an “in” to the world of rail without having personal connections to it or any knowledge of how rail works.  

Enter Next Generation Railroaders (NGR), a nonprofit organization that, through a series of virtual educational programs, aims to equip people with critical connections and information about all industry segments: freight, passenger, intermodal, preservation and other rail-adjacent sectors. 

Online discussions online in railfan and industry groups in the early 2020s led to the creation of the organization, says NGR Vice President and Treasurer Hanna Brooks. Mostly, the conversations surrounded the topic of inclusion — or lack thereof — in the industry and railroad companies’ struggles to recruit young employees, she says.  

Around that time, “The Roundhouse” podcast host Nick Ozorak released an episode featuring a discussion on how sexism and harassment can be a barrier to younger people (especially women) entering the railroading and the hobby rail industries.  

The discussions that episode generated prompted several people — including Brooks and Ozorak, who now is NGR’s president — to take action, Brooks says. What they came up with was NGR, which in late 2023 was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a board of seven directors.  

By design, the board comprises people who historically have been underrepresented in the rail industry. All seven directors are under the age of 45. Some are women. Others identify as LGBTQ+, and some as disabled.  

NGR’s mission is to provide programming to young railroaders that connects them with industry experts. NGR uses 45 as the break-off age they are targeting with programming, Brooks says, although anyone is welcome to attend webinars, for example. 

The organization also wants to encourage accessibility and inclusion and help close the gender gap in rail industry employment. Women made up just 8.9% of the U.S. rail transportation workforce in 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The board has been meeting every other week for over a year, planning webinars, screening mentors and conversing with industry leaders to create the best possible resource for young people interested in rail. 

Next Generation Railroaders

The first program development step was to establish connections with railroads and industry organizations so NRG could recruit advisors and mentors. Currently, nine railroad leaders from across different industry sectors are on board to help ensure the programming is relevant and helpful to career-seekers. The advisors meet with the board regularly. 

“Older members of the industry have important knowledge about how things work, and they have pull in different organizations,” says Brooks. 

NGR is in the process of screening established railroad industry leaders to serve as mentors for young people interested in railroading. In March, NGR plans to launch the first of its monthly “deep dive” webinars, which will be led by the mentors and moderated by a member of the NGR board. The informal discussions and presentations will feature a mentor talking about their career and sharing advice for working in a particular sector. 

The webinars will also serve to document the knowledge and expertise of people who may be retiring from the industry, saving it online so it can be accessed by future generations. Brooks says it’ll be like “downloading a piece of someone's brain.” 

“We understand the responsibility we’re putting ourselves in of being this repository of information and really trying to figure out how to curate it, how to save it, how to work with it in the future,” says Brooks.  

The organization also intends to host virtual coffee hours with mentors and launch an individualized mentoring program later in the year. NGR has recruited mentors across a number of rail or transportation industry sectors from across the country, says Brooks, whose passion for railroading sparked when she began volunteering in 2019 with New England Steam Corp., which restores historic steam engines, educates people about their history and revitalizes aged-out methods of train maintenance. While pursuing her PhD. in geochemistry from the University of Maine, Brooks said she needed an activity outside of her studies to “give her brain a break.” Rail preservation proved to be a good fit, she says. 

In the meantime, Brooks and the NGR team are eager to make a difference on rail’s next-generation front.  

“I want to make sure that we do our due diligence,” Brooks says. “There’s a certain amount of respect for both the people whose knowledge we're gathering and the people who we are dispersing that to.” 

Spreading the word about NGR events — be it via social media, word of mouth or partner organizations — is in full swing. 

The first monthly webinar is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST on March 4; it will feature mentor Ed Lecuyer, a volunteer rail preservationist.  

Interested parties can sign up for NGR’s mailing list to be notified of the event link and Q&A information by visiting the organization’s website: nextgenrr.org.