Mr Cook, if you search on several of my past postings when this subject has come up you can get a full narrative of my views on the matter. And I believe I've responded similar questions/observations from you directly about these questions before, most recently on April 14:

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31063&p=157030#p157030

But in a nutshell, and for other readers:

1. Of course nothing gets answered: as I explained in April, there is no one there. There isn't any RyPN. There has not been any editorial function at RyPN since the demise of the Board and dissolution of the corporation. This website is, basically, The Flying Dutchman. No point in being angry at it--there is no one there to be angry with. They're not ignoring you or the issues you raise--they don't exist.

2. The links are broken because Hume Kading was a novice to html when he began the site and he coded many links as full URL links rather than relative links. As the site has migrated among servers, these hardcoded full links inevitably became broken. The only way to restore most of them is to go in and recode the links as proper relative links in the source HTML. And then see above--no one there.

Mr. Cook, just as you were there at EMD, I was there at RyPN when it existed and at its demise. Please, take my word for it--the editorial and corporate aspects of the site are defunct. I am sorry we failed you and did not prove to be a worthy custodian of your content, but further remonstration at a staff that does not exist profits us nothing.

Erik, thanks for your posting. Perhaps I should have worded that better, it was not intended as a criticism of the past staff but rather as an observation that in the present situation there is really no sense calling for new articles until the site can be maintained.

Yes there are a lot of us who have experienced the empty building with the papers strewn all over the floor.

PC

I would agree with others who have mentioned the Trainline & Railway Museum Quarterly publication. Its an already existing channel for this sort of material.

And the problem with this is that, by design and mission, it's an "insider's" publication for members only. Now, certainly, "membership has its privileges." There are any number of organization periodicals that have set the bar so high that people join the organization just to receive the newsletter/magazine, and never attend a meeting or lift a finger. Among these are the PRR Technical & Historical Society and its Keystone, the RR Museum of Pa. and its Milepost, and many NRHS chapter newsletters (it only costs an additional $10 or so a year for some of those additional chapter memberships, if you're already a member of another Chapter and the National NRHS).

If TRAIN/ARM wants to expand its publication to a magazine that publishes photo collections, history articles, railfan guides, and the like--in effect, L&RP--then it also has to market itself (and its publication) as something to join for the benefits. At the moment, it still looks like a trade organization, much like the Association of American Railroads, of machinists, steam engineers, trolley operators, and museum directors. Where does the armchair enthusiast, the foamer, and/or the academic historian fit in this? (Probable answer: Trains, Railfan & Railroad, the NRHS, and/or the R&LHS.)

Well, maybe Trainline-RMQ doesn't fit all those categories completely, but anyone can subscribe to it for $20/yr. You don't have to be linked to a member organization:
http://www.railwaymuseums.org/Static/documents/RMQSubscriptionForm.pdf

Shhh! - Back issues of Trainline-RMQ are available FREE online.

The Quarterly covers a great number of the recurring preservation topics here, which are very often relevant to the armchair crowd. In addition to the technical side of operation/preservation, recent issues have included road trip reports from Aaron Isaacs and others with details of visits to railway museums of all sizes.

Wesley

The editor of Trainline/RMQ posted earlier in this discussion, and I would just like to comment that he has been excellent to work with on the projects I have done for them, and I would encourage readers to consider contributing to their magazine. This is not ignoring the magazine project that Steven described in his postings here, but that product does not exist right now, Trainline/RMQ does exist and is viable and useful.

A remaining issue that authors may consider on an individual basis is whether writing articles about practices and procedures, however in demand that might be by the readership, is the best use of their time and effort. Authors who have unique perspectives on topics of local history usually prefer to concentrate on those areas of interest first, as there may not be others out there who can write about those subjects.

There are many publications already in print that deal with shop practice and techniques applicable to preservation. Several that are particularly pertinent to 1930s through 1950s work are the U.S. Navy correspondence courses on the use of basic hand tools and the superb correspondence courses on aviation metalwork produced by the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton Pennsylvania for the Bureau of Aeronautics. These publications are very useful "distance learning" tools that are well illustrated and get right to the best ways to do specific repair and restoration tasks. The fact that they are already in print and frequently are as good as anything a modern author is likely to produce, diminishes the urgency for covering these subjects again. And for authors who want to write about doing restoration, they are a "must" for checking your information and making sure that the way you are instructing others to do tasks is the best approach to the work.

PC