Just got an email for an “early renewal” of my subscription. Can you guys wait another 9 months so there’s at least some desparation on my part (my subscript expires 10/18), plus not only that, I’m only on the April issue. In my own humble opionion, the magazine has gotten very boring. I’m not into steam, preservation, passenger or any railroad over seas. I like good ol’ American freight trains! Don’t mind a few pages of notes for the other stuff but not articles.
Ok, I’m stepping off my soapbox
Oh, and the pop-up crap…really? Leave it for the porn sites
The name of the Kalmbach magazine is Trains, not American Freight Trains. Some readers are interested in the subject areas you feel the need to disparage.
you know what makes it even worse? this years 10000 dollar “presrevation award” from Trains was given to a passenger car! not even the big boy, or Maine Central 470, or steamtown or anything! [N][banghead][soapbox][:(!]
What’s wrong with that? Cars are just as much a part of trains as locomotives, and equally deserving of restoration time, work and money. Like locomotives, passenger cars may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore, but a $10,000 grant would be enough to seal and repaint the exterior, to prevent further deterioration.
Union Pacific and Steamtown (National Park Service) are perfectly capable of funding their own restorations.
If memory serves, past awards have gone to steam from time to time.
While I appreciate freight as much as anyone, restoring a box car to as-delivered condition means it’ll look good sitting on display in a museum yard. There are some unique examples of freight cars that deserve attention, usually for a specific historical reason.
But the true interface between people and the railroads was the passenger car.