Since it is currently very cheap to 'rent' VMs "in the cloud", with newer Microsoft OS VMs capable of running emulation software for older versions, would it be possible to run the relevant portion of the 'legacy' site code long enough to recover the article text and what remains of the photo content, and protocol-convert to an appropriate Linux 'native' package?

New articles could then be prepared and supported in a common format in the appropriate Linux instantiation.

One thing that I would like is online magazines where you could receive digital copy once a year on a disk. Your would still have a copy for your files but they wouldn’t take much space. And yes I would pay a subscription fee, as long as I knew I would be receiving a file copy. I have boxes of magazines I keep for the info in them, and one disk could hold them all.

I had a question recently asking why my RYPN articles have appeared on a couple other railroad hobby related websites subsequently to being posted on RYPN.

This was done by agreement between me and Hume. Shortly after I wrote the articles and they were posted, we found a "pay to view" site had stolen them and was charging people to view them. Since the articles had been intended to be viewed for free, we allowed several other sites to host them, diminishing their value to the "pay to view" thieves.

I no longer write large articles for the internet. The few articles that I do now all go to printed publications.

PC

Have you thought about just moving it to Square space?

It's at the sweet spot of cheap, good and quick.

I'll be happy to help since it's actually a thing I DO know about.

The offer – and efforts – to update RYPN's front and back end played out over many, many attempts throughout the years (RIP 2014-2017). The overall motive was to convert the primary site into a WordPress platform, retain the forum, use the articles to create topics/conversations/categories, and then adapt older articles and collect new ones under the RYPN banner, all very much in the spirit of Mr. Yarger's magazine efforts. There was additional thought given to soliciting content, highlighting regular posters like Mr. Anderson's posts from Strasburg on a recurring basis, etc.

Unfortunately, those new and varied attempts always foundered on a particular level of disengagement or disinterest by stakeholders/keyholders. There is actually an entirely separate RYPN forum visible only to a few participants and administrators regarding Redevelopment (see attached.)

Dozens of email follow-ups and attempts to bring RYPN into Web 2.0 were met with puzzling silence after initially being very engaged in the idea. David went so far as to set up a development site under a placeholder domain (edited to clarify) where I started working on the new front end: http://www.savethetrains.com/

KL

Now THAT is catchy. Damn shame.

I wish I had practiced speaking in tongues more diligently, so I could understand what was overheard in the Interchange.

Bahah. To put it more plainly:

- myself and others volunteered to create a new "front door" or landing page -- what you see when you visit rypn.org itself –– on a Content Management System (CMS) built with the WordPress platform (which is a popular, highly customizable, easy-to-use way to build a website)

– we also created a content strategy so it would be more than just a pretty new face, but function like a magazine/newspaper that would aggregate rail preservation news stories and also include original articles akin to what was previously being written for the site and what once was a part of the Railway Preservation News magazine. Political comparisons aside, this would essentially look/function like a barstoolsports.com or HuffingtonPost.com (or Drudge Report, though the latter is sincerely lacking in design.)

– we also found ways to auto-post some stories/articles to the RYPN forum, so it would automatically generate topics on some items and stimulate discussion on the forum

– we developed a template and placeholder/temporary site under a separate domain so it could be easily swapped over under RYPN.org when it was ready

– the RYPN forum would essentially be the same but wrapped in a new website

– the lack of follow-through/response definitely diminished those initial goals, so the forum function of RYPN remains its sole purpose, which is probably fine, and perhaps it is best suited to only that while other resources and sites have popped up.

To everything, there is a season...

What are the active railroad magazines in North America today? I searched online and I see Trains and Railfan and Railroad. Are there others?

For the industry, there's Railway Age and RTS (Railway Ties & Structures).

For the enthusiasts, there's also Passenger Train Journal, Railpace Newsmagazine (Northeastern USA/Canada focus), Classic Trains (nostalgia/history), and a multitude of special-focus periodicals usually tied to membership in a society, such as NRHS Bulletin, the R&LHS Railroad History, and the various "technical/historical/modeling" specific RR groups such as the PRRT&HS Keystone (the RR Passenger Car Alliance and AAPRRCO each have one).

If this is the same editor I'm thinking of, he'd go so far as accepting an article, then later he'd go to the same place, shoot his own photos and write his own version of said article.
It happened to more than a few people I knew, to the point that though I have a lot of writing/photos/art/cartoons published, I've never once thought of submitting to any "1:1 scale" train magazine.

I just wanted to add to my previous postings with a comment about a recent experience that was quite positive. NRHS Bulletin editor Jeff Smith invited me to submit an article for the Bulletin and I submitted a topic that I always had thought needed some detailed coverage even though it was a story of difficult times and it was somewhat challenging to tie it all together. He presented the article in exactly the manner I intended, inserted the provided photos in the right places to follow the story, and used all the relevant captions and footnotes exactly as I had submitted them. It was a very positive publishing experience.

PC

As an observation, after visiting the rypn home page this morning, 9 days ago marked the 6th anniversary of the update "It's been nearly 6 years since the last article/brief was published. Since then Railway Preservation News has essentially been running on autopilot. It's high time that we fix this." While the flimsies have been been getting posted recently, the last article was published over 15 years ago.

I have a question, and please forgive me if this has been covered previously.
Is there any connection between RYPN and the old print magazine “Locomotive and Railway Preservation?

Yes. Pentrex Video bought out the print magazine L&RP, and soon it went belly up. Some of the staff, notably Bob Yarger, were active in starting this website, along with the computer genius Hume Kading. RyPN became our default means of sharing news and expanded into a way we could talk to each other. Several of my articles on this site are re runs of my articles which first appeared in the magazine, but are presented here with greatly expanded photographic content. In the last years of the 20th century, Hume dreamed up and set up the features that we use today, although the early content of RyPN has been lost in several rounds of cyber confusion and server changes. I along with many other members whose profiles show that we joined in 2004, were here sometime considerably before that date.

From what I understand, Doug Bailey, and currently Bob Harbison, have provided hosting services for us since Hume left, but, as always, CORRECTIONS WELCOMED.