I grew up on Long Island so my early exposure to trains was the Long Island Railroad, the Route of the Dashing Commuter. It would not have been an exciting railroad to model. After I moved to the Boston, I was a suburbanite, although for a while I lived across the street from the train tracks, again it was a commuter rail line for Boston's MBTA. So, I never developed a real connection with a home road.
As a modeler, I picked the Milwaukee in the Transition Era, so I've stuck with that. I haven't really thought about joining a historical society, though.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I am a member of 4 socities the CGW, the EJ&E. the CC as well as the Milwaukee road. The CGW I use for modeling purposes while the other 3 are simply cause I like those RRs.
My thoughts -- speaking as a long term member of the Chicago & North Western Historical Society, as well as of the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. I am a modeler (of the C&NW) and a railfan with an interest in the history of the C&NW and the current operations on former CNW tracks, but also broader interests (hence my membership in the NRHS). I was a member of the C&NWHS well before I switched to modeling the C&NW (had been a Pennsy modeler before that).
So - why join?
1. Focus -- the organization, its website, its magazine (the C&NWHS "Modeler" is online only but the paper magazine, a quarterly, has some modeling content now and then) is all CNW and associated railroads. My back issues of North Western Lines (and I have acquired a complete set going back to the 1970s) are an incredible resource of information, photos, drawings, maps, track plans, informed discussion and important updates. I could wait 1000 years for MR, RMC, Trains, and R&R magazines to have that much C&NW content. Name the railroad -- and the same would be true for that railroad as well. And that is no knock on those magazines -- they exist to please a broad audience but for my favorite railroad and the one I model, I am a narrow audience.
2. Preservation. I am not speaking here of rolling stock and structures although railroad historical societies have played a role in that as well. I mean the preservation, archiving, and dissemination of information and materials. Timetables. Track charts. Authorization for Expenditures (an inportant resource for freight car and structure historians and modelers. A repository for photo collections. Employee records. Rule books. The list could go on. There are many individual collectors and specialists with incredible collections. And their heirs are going to do what with that stuff when the time comes, as alas it always does? One option is the dumpster. The other option is the historical society devoted to preserving just that stuff. Who knows what future generations will find interesting about the C&NW or any other fallen flag, but if the key stuff is not preserved in a central location, it becomes sort of a moot point.
3. Expertise. This is related to "focus." An historical society is a natural gathering site for those who know -- no one can know it all, but an assemblage of persons who know a lot can come close to knowing it all. Model manufacturers have benefitted from having historical societies that can provide them with the info and data they need to produce accurate and consistent models. Some otherwise fine models of the past had serious faults along those lines perhaps due to photographs being used from different eras to produce one model. I want accurate C&NW models, or stated another way, I'd like to avoid acquiring inaccurate models if I can help it.
4. Fellowship. I enjoy NMRA meets and conventions, but again I go to them without expecting much C&NW content. The C&NWHS meetings are both good information, often new (to me) information, and a chance to reunite with friends of long standing, and to admire some incredible CNW modeling.
In looking at my list I keep returning to this notion of "focus." My interests in trains and modeling are pretty broad, but I have a special interest in the C&NW and exactly ONE organization exists to serve that special interest and that is why I belong and am a contributing member.
I know the NMRA always struggles with this difficult issue of "the dues are too high given the value of the magazine." they are always creating lists of what more you get out of the organization than just the magazine. Well I think my dues to the C&NWHS are a reasonable price to pay for their magazine PLUS I know they do so much more with my money for things that I also support and benefit from.
I might add that from time to time I also purchase the magazines of the Soo Line, Milwaukee Road, Rock Island, and some other midwestern railroad historical societies, when the issue has something of interest, say a story about a town or city I have railfanned in and want to know more about. As stated earlier I could wait forever for a general interest magazine to get around to that story. It's more likely to be found in the publication of the specific railroad's historical society magazine or website.
Why NOT join? Well I do know some historical societies that have had leadership issues and internal squabbles and ended up no longer publishing their magazine for long periods of time, or have gone belly up. Fortunately that is rare, but they were historical societies devoted to some pretty major railroads. I think most people would be able to decide pretty quickly if the historical society they have joined is "worth it" to them -- but I'd advise them to take advantage of everything the society has to offer including annual meets and local meets before reaching any conclusions.
Dave Nelson
Up front, let me point out that I'm a member of the BoD of the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society. We are in the midst of trying to find out what brings new members onboard as well as what causes current members to allow their memberships to lapse. So I'm asking each of you who read this to share why you are or why you aren't a member of your favorite railroad's historical society.
The board of the NKPHTS feels that the future of most "fallen flag" historical society will be modeling so this forum seems like a great place to get some answers regarding membership. We obviously see that employees of a railroad that exissted sixty years ago are becoming more and more scarse. Even sons and daughters of those folks aren't really all that plentiful any more. So the connection to the NKP is through modeling that road. Many manufacturers have helped along those lines and today, there are more and more models being produced of smaller, older lines instead of just those larger ones. The NKPHTS tries very hard to cater to the needs of modelers as does other historical societies and, while model railroading still seems to be a popular pasttime, potential members for ANY historical society seem to be fewer and fewer.
So kindly share your thoughts on joining or not joining the historical society of your favorite railroad, past or present.
Thanks!
Dan Merkel, NKPHTS Special Projects Director.