The Model Railroader thread got me thinking....

Who may have a set of Railway Age magazines from 1924? In the June issue, Railway Age had a Baldwin Locomotive advertisement featuring the new "Pacific" class locomotives built for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

To save space, the bounded Railway Age set at CSRM-Sacramento had been truncated by cutting out all the advertisement. :-(

Nonetheless, we would like a copy of this particular Baldwin advertisement for our records on SP2479.

Ken Middlebrook
California Trolley and Railroad Corporation

Ken,

I just requested volumes 76 & 77 (1924) from Kent State, contact me offline next week if you still need a scan.

I may be able to check Wednesday at the Md. Rail Heritage Library. Make sure they were being published monthly, not biweekly, and get back to me with specifics if possible. Will a scan do?

OK, to expand on this subject, what's the best source out there where you can find copies or originals of any of the issues, old and new (other than the sporadic lucky find of a vintage copy)?

I read a fascinating article one time in one of the old magazines (circa 1910) on the merits of the emerging technology of tie plates, and the great results that various railroads had experienced by trying them on experimental track. Some of that kind of early development stuff (the stuff we take for granted now) is really interesting, and I'd love to read more, if I knew where to find it.

When I researched my term paper on the Gainesville Midland and the Gainesville Jefferson & Southern narrow gauge predicessor, I was attending Georgia Tech at the time. They had a column of current constructions and abandonments. The Railway Age had about 5-6 different titles going back to about 1870. I was able to trace the monthly construction and surveys of the lines I was interested. Very fascinating. The Ga Tech collection started about 1870 (if I remember correctly) an continued to the current time. As a student, I had access to them and although there were issues missing, it was a fairly complete set. I think some of the others were available at other system libraries and could be borrowed for a while between institutions.

There was a gap of about 5-10 years circa 1900.

I am sure there are others out there. I suspect that the Library of Congress may have them also.

I hope this helps.

Doug

Aside from rail-specific museums and libraries, I've had extraordinary luck hunting down such stuff (including, say, the most current Jane's World Railways when needed) at state university libraries and libraries at other "federal depository" universities, specifically the engineering department libraries.

As but one example: I examined the website for the University of Maryland library system. Within four minutes I had the following:

http://catalog.umd.edu/F/XKQR9XHRNE9CQJ ... format=999

The record indicates that your elusive June 1924 issue should be there, either in microfilm or hard copy. Of course, someone then has to travel to College Park, Md., or do Inter-Library Loan.......

Of course, what I REALLY want to know is how a search for "Railway Age" pulled up, among other things, a book on male cultural studies in modern Africa, a book on comparing Jewish societies, and a book of translated modern Chinese poetry...........

Don't overlook the NMRA's A.C. Kalmbach Memorial Library http://library.nmra.org/ which has an excellent collection including many old trade magazines. It is professionally staffed and located in Chattanooga adjacent to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

As an aside, I wish the NRHS would consider partnering with the NMRA with respect to its library, as the Kalmbach Library is an ideal home and both organizations could benefit from an expanded collection.

Alan Maples

I would similarly love to see a partnership/merging of the NRHS and MNRA libraries. The NRHS library is currently in storage, not doing anyone any good at the moment.

One obvious problem would quickly rear its head, however, aside from all the ugliness that would arise out of funding, administrative costs, etc.: I could only foresee this working if the NRHS and NMRA continued to maintain separate inventories, in case of any future parting of the ways. This would negate much of the space-saving arguments.

Yes, there are precedents. The Md. Rail Heritage Library continues to inventory two of each book donated if two copies show up, just in case of any ultimate division between the Baltimore Streetcar Museum (which houses the collection) and the Baltimore Chapter NRHS (which provides the vast majority of the inventory, resources, etc.).

Do you still need these?

They just arrived at my library, and they are great big heavy bound things. I don't think I am going to bother to take them home!

Steve,
Yes, a scan would be appreciated. Just sent you an email on the topic.
Thanks,
Ken