I currently belong to three RR historical societes: the Burlington Route Historical Society, the Chicago & Northwestern Historical Society, and the Milwaukee Road Historical Association, and I revel in the information I get from the various magazines (MILW and C&NW both put out quarterly slick magazines) and softcover books, and I wish I could afford to beling to the ICRHS (and maybe another one or two!) as well. I’m building O scale equipment for my Dream RR, based on the Mineral Point RR and the later Mineral Point & Northern–with an altered history.
If you model a specific road, I’m sure you either already belong to its society or plan to do so, but maybe if you’re freelancing you haven’t thought of it yet. Years ago, I’d built a standard gauge Rocky Mountain Railroad with a narrow gauge flavor, “borrowing” the Colorado Midland’s herald and their distinctive car designs produced by MDC/Roundhouse, but calling it the Colorado Western. I later decided I wanted to build a slightly more modern RR (the CW was 1895 era, powered by six little Porter Moguls and dinky 4-4-0s built over Mantua “General” mechanisms and tenders) following B&O prototype of about 1904. The B&O had always had a place in my heart and I’d bought a couple of books on its history, but I wanted to avoid the 1898 receivership to the NYC&HR (predecessor to the NYC) and the Pennsy. The NYC had somehow dropped out of the picture, leaving the Pennsy to improve the physical plant of the B&O–and most locomotives bought for the B&O were of Pennsy prototype. (Also, the real B&O used bobber cabooses rather more than I liked; I wanted a fleet of the beautiful MDC/ Roundhouse “Old-timer” 8-wheel cabeese, which roll elegantly along behind freight drags.)
I joined the B&ORRHS and thoroughly enjoyed the society’s newsletters and the information gleaned from them. I enjoyed the research I did, including
I’m a member of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo historical society, the Toronto Railway Historical Association as well as the Ontario Northland Railway Historical and Technical Society.
The local county chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society recently disbanded due to a lack of membership and their inability to attract new members. Their enrollment went down from around 40 members to fewer than six within a five year period.
I’ve been a member of the Santa Fe and the Illinois Central historical/modeling groups for well over 20 years. The periodicals, books, and other informational items available from them has made my modeling efforts much more enjoyable and prototypical. I highly recommend them - and the other RR groups to anyone interested in specific RRs or geographic areas.
By the way, MR publishes a listing of the groups annually, and of course you could always “google” them to get internet access.
I belong to the Kansas City Southern Historical Society, which has been a great wealth of information for my modeling. They are great people too and I have enjoyed several of their conventions. I model the KCS in the Kansas City area. Several years ago the KCSHS had a convention in Kansas City which included a tour of the prototype KCS operations in Kansas City.
A lot of my MRR friends model the ATSF. The Santa Fe group in this area has an annual mini convention each fall in Kansas City. I have been to several of these gatherings. Nice people, good modeling information and layout tours.
Yes! Because my chosen line and era is GN in the Cascades circa '47-'50 I joined the Great Northern Railway Historical Society several years ago. Their news letters, modelling info sheets and new products list are invaluable, to say nothing of the access to their tremendous archives, which are a treasure trove of information. I heartily recommend anyone looking for info on a specific type of operations join a prototype railroad Historical Society that mirrors their interests. I have also gotten a lot of good information from my membership in the OperationsSIG regarding differing practices on different railroads. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
I belong to the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society. They send out a magazine 4 every year which has a wealth of info. Most of Magazine is about the SOO (Duh), but it also contains articles about the Wisconsin Central Railway and Wisconsin Central Ltd, along with the DSSA.
Yep, the New York Central System Historical Society (NYCSHS)…but only for a couple of years now. I joined in 2006, let my subscription run out in 2007, then just renewed for 2008. I’m hoping to get more involved with the Society this year.
Just as a railfan, I find that it’s great to be in these groups and get their publications, which are excellent for the most part. As a striving would-be modeler, it’s even better.
I’m trying to model part of the UP, so being in the UPHS is a given, but I’m also in the societies for some other western roads (SP, SF, WP). Their magazines are a great read.
Some of the societies also publish reference books which have some amazing details and represent some really serious research. For UP steam fans: a whole series of books on different classes of locomotives. The SP society has now published three huge books loaded with details on various classes of the Friendly’s passenger equipment–real labors of love on someone’s part.
If you have a thing for ANY particular line, check around and see if there’s a society covering it, and inspect the publications. Unless your finances are really tight, you’re likely to find a spare $30 or $35 for a membership and subscription.
Yep. I’m a 15+ year member of the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association (NHRHTA). We have a pretty nice website over at: http://www.nhrhta.org/
The NHRHTA was the very first Special Interest Group (SIG) dedicated to one railroad. The NHRHTA can trace it’s roots back to 1961, when it was started as the New Haven MODEL Railroad (sic), and was started by and for model railroaders of the NHRR Soon, it changed names to the New Haven Technical Information Group (NHRTIG), and became officially associated with the New Haven RR itself. In exchange for the NH’s Public Relations Dept. printing of NHRTIG documents and newsletters, the NHRTIG would handle all modeling questions sent to the railroad. NHRTIG newsletters were printed in the city of New Haven at NHRR headquarters, then placed on a caboose of a westbound freight. The bundle was then kicked off the caboose at Bridgeport, where a NHRTIG member had a bulk mailing contract.
After the disappearance of the NHRR into Penn Central in 1969, the NHRTIG changed names to the New Haven Railroad Technical Information Association (NHRTIA), and soon started up their magazine, the “Shoreliner” which is still in production today.
There was apparently a merger with a rival organization in the 1970’s/early-1980’s that was called the New Haven Railroad Historical Society, which is where the NHRTIA picked up the “H” and became the NHRHTA.
I belong to the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society (http://www.cohs.org/ ) and consider it invaluable for prototype info on buildings, freight and passenger cars, locos, scheduling and operations, etc - all of which is factored into my modeling of the C&O Hawks Nest Branch.
Just this month joined the Rochester (NY) chapter of the NRHS. They own and operate the Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. It works in co-operation with the New York Museum of Transportation that runs track cars and trolleys. The R & GV RR Museum runs several transition era Diesels Sundays during the summer on a demo track set up between the two museums.
This reminds me of another thing about historical societies, Fritz: they’re an invaluable source of information on the “Fallen Flags!” If a guy (or gal) is modeling a RR that went the way of “Clementine,” and there’s a HS for it, the enthusiasts have pooled their information and are adding to it, so you can find out things about it that you might not be able to find on your own. Their newsletters are chockful of info that would probably have been lost because they loved that road. And, unlike other situations, the members seldom–if ever–regard their gleanings as “Trade Secrets” (see my latest thread, please).
