Of course, a new journal is nothing without people writing content. How many content writers are there among us?

For me, I write a lot, but it's almost all forum postings like we all do on RyPN. That's a far, far cry from writing a well researched article.

Let's assume this is an electronic publication - not a print journal (unless someone spends $4 extra for the print-on-demand version.)

The sad part is, you're going to get what you pay for.

There are projects and causes where I'm willing to donate my time and labor. But the reality is, to produce a competent, quality article complete with the research, leg work, photos, etc. that make an article great takes work and time, plus both the background and training to be a competent writer/photographer and the knowledge necessary. (I'm a paid beer writer also; I joke that it was a rough 18-year apprenticeship that got me to the point where I had enough knowledge to be able to write about beer the way I do.)

I could compare the situation to a do-it-yourself steam restoration versus the restoration work performed at places like the Grand Canyon and Strasburg. Sure, anyone can do it themselves with enough research--but there's a reason Strasburg has a waiting list of work even when it's expensive work.

With a printed publication once the article is in print you are pretty much done with it forever. There are hundreds or even thousands of identical copies of the article in existence, and it does not come back as an emergency, needing more attention because somebody hit the wrong key on a computer while they were editing something else. There have been numerous times when information I provided for the internet had to be redone, due to server crashes, problems with site backups, etc. And there have been a few times that things written for the internet were lost completely due to the website being disbanded. I have very little spare time available to write, yet I manage to write a lot. After some bad experiences with the internet I prefer to write for printed publications. As General Patton (or was it George C. Scott...) once said: "I don't like to pay for the same real estate twice".

When an article is in print in a magazine it has some chance of surviving for a while, particularly if it is a widely circulated popular magazine rather than the limited scope specialty publications that have a very small press run. I agree with the basic premise of Robert's question on the poll, but I have a slightly different perspective. Preferring printed publication isn't necessarily a matter of prestige. Well researched and well written work that took a lot of time and effort to write deserves the opportunity to be "preserved" so that it is around for a while for more people to see it. It is like the difference between being able to see preserved equipment first hand in a museum vs. looking at photos of the same equipment posted on a website.

PC

The question is, would anyone want to read what I have to say?

An additional observation on this interesting question that Robert asked. I have found from my own experience that the amount of time and work needed to do a customized PowerPoint or ProShow presentation for a special event or convention is just about the same investment of time as what is required to research and write an article for one of the railroad enthusiast or model railroad publications.

But once you do a presentation, you have the additional time and expense of delivering it at the event, or events. And that ties up a lot of your time for travel, standby at the event, and presentation. Most of the time it reaches a relatively small audience and all traces of it are erased from the organizations website shortly after the event is over. In contrast, sending it to a printed publication does not require individual personal delivery, it preserves the information for a long time, and in many cases you get paid for your effort.

Perhaps a reflection on why, in this troubled economy, several newsletters from historical groups planning upcoming events that came in this month have urgent requests for members to volunteer programs and clinics?

Yes, I would occasionally write... Maybe updates about activities, maybe reviews of museums, and small "how to's".

We have a place for briefs and articles here...

I would suggest that there is already a preservation journal. It's the Association of Railway Museum's magazine, Railway Museum Quarterly.

There have been several good preservation articles in recent issues of RMQ, especially the continuing series written by Master Restoration Specialist, Donald Curry of Seashore Trolley Museum, chronicling the progress on Atlantic Shore Line Railway electric locomotive No. 100. If you want to know, and see, how restoration is done right, this project can be considered a textbook case.

I am very confident that if any of the folks here on RyPN submits an article or news item to the RMQ editor he would be most happy to run the piece.

In fact, if you are a practitioner or just a student of railway preservation you should be subscribing to RMQ by joining ARM as an associate member. The cost is a ridiculously nominal $20 per year.

Thanks!

I would write.

Looking at the ARM site, the organization seems streetcar focused.

Au contraire, mon ami. ARM has as members just about as many railroad museums of one stripe or another as there are electric railway museums.

ARM's annual meeting this fall is hosted by the West Coast Railway Association, located in Squamish, British Columbia. Except for the pre-meeting excursion to several preserved electric interurban cars in the Vancouver area, all the activities are railroad oriented. Take a look at the topics in the up-coming meeting. They're pretty generic.

Preservation is preservation. Except for the obvious differences in their mechanical equipment, rail preservation techniques are pretty much the same regardless of the motive power used to propel the rail-borne vehicle.

Thanks!

There seems to be a lot of steam coverage in the recent ARM newsletter. Which, by the way, is the best rail preservation journal out there in print, IMHO.
http://www.railwaymuseums.org/RMQ%20Spring%202009.pdf

I attended the ARM/Train convention in Sacramento, and found most seminars to be rich with information that would be useful to any group.

More a case that their roots are in streetcars. Look at the oldest museums - Seashore, IRM, ORM, OET, BAERA etc. These are all traction museums, or were at the time, and they're who started ARM.

Just a minor clarification - IRM, ORM and BAERA/WRM are not cleanly classified as "traction museums."

They are, or have been over the years, operated as fully across-the-board railroad museums. The traction element has a significant representation, and for the past few years it might seem that the last two are primarily traction groups, and WRM is in a gradual process of becoming traction-only, though the steam train has taken a prominent position in their new display building. Other old groups that have both steam and traction as a focus are NMOT, ITM, and NORM.

ARM is a very diversified group. Recently the organization has embraced the little station museum with one piece of rolling stock. There are probably more of these than we know of, and they play an important part of reaching the American public with telling the history of railroads. Some may grow in size over the years, too.