Perhaps it is because I am in the middle of midterms, and trying desperately not to focus.

Besides RYPN, what other respectable boards are there to discuss steam locomotive and preservation railway operation on?

If you find one of this caliber, let us know.

Four that I am aware of, though each with their own idiosyncracies:

RailroadForums.com:
http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/for ... y.php?f=42
(heavy western bias/content)

Railroad.net:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewforu ... a4155e9b33

Kalmbach's Trains.com:
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/740.aspx

TrainOrders.com (membership payment required for participation):
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/list.php?10

Mostly narrow guage related, but sometimes interesting info about NG engines at Cumbres & Toltec, Knott's, etc

http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/list.php?1

I know there are a few listers from across the sea.
Would they be so kind as to offer a few similar boards
for UK preservation?

Although off-topic with regard to the original question, I anticipate that in the not too distant future there will be independent discussion sites covering diesel locomotive preservation that are not related to RYPN.

PC

4460 wrote;
> Perhaps it is because I am in the middle of midterms,
> and trying desperately not to focus.
Good luck with midterms, and tell me about it! What I do is "lurk" at a number of sites and visit them once a week or so, between exams! I have found that most groups and boards ebb and flow with the content that I am looking for.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote;
> If you find one of this caliber, let us know.
Caliber is important, but like the railroad slogan "Friendliness Too!" is also something to look for. While the written word does not always convey voice inflection, too often responses on all lists, boards and Yahoo groups can be curt and highbrow.

P Cook wrote;
> ...I anticipate that in the not too distant future there will
> be independent discussion sites covering diesel locomotive
> preservation that are not related to RYPN.
My personal opinion is the last thing needed is another list on the Net. Not an attack, but could you please clarify for me why diesel preservation would not be related to RYPN? I feel that if we want to continue to attract a diverse population to our hobby interests, there is a need to be open to all ages of the industry.

While not a scientific poll, most of the folks I know are currently interested in the transition era of railroading. On one of the traction lists I belong to a new fear is that too many new members are more interested in PCC's and the new MU's, rather than the classic street car.

In conclusion, one suggestion that I have for the moderators, or at least the group as a discussion, is to have members sign their real names. The signing of a persons name gives civility to a group such as ours, instead of the anonymity of a handle seen on other similar groups.

Romi Romano

There will eventually be a diesel preservation discussion board independent of RYPN because of the hostility towards diesels that has become increasingly evident in discussions on this site.

It is not a question of whether it will happen or not. It is just a question of when it will happen.

PC

Forgive me, Brother Cook, but as someone who has done more with diesel preservation than steam over the years, I cannot recall any "hostility" towards diesels on this forum. Granted, there are still a scant few folks out there who refused to take a photo of any diesel, or tore up the first all-diesel issue of Trains Magazine and returned it to Kalmbach denouncing it as "pornographic material", but those are few and far between now--probably mostly in nursing homes.

Granted, a couple diesel preservationist topics that have shown up here have met with somewhat lukewarm, cold, or cynical reaction, and I would make the case that the particular advocates or inquiry makers in question just, by luck of the draw, didn't happen to make either a coherent case for their cause or asked incredibly narrow and specific questions on the order of "what should the thread count be on an Alco 251 fuel injector sleeve?"

Sandy, if you click back to the first couple pages of the interchange listings and do a quick count of the number of discussion items that pertain to diesels, you may be surprised just how few there are now, compared with what was typical a few years ago. And it isn't that there are fewer diesel fans out there nowadays.

PC

You appear to be confusing hostility with apathy. Not the same.

Let's be frank: Aside from the proposed F40PH preservation society (which, as currently proposed, has problems unrelated to the worthiness or lack thereof of preserving F40PH's), exactly what projects are there out there to get interested/excited about?

Right off the top of my head, in steam I can point to Santa Fe 3415, CNJ 113, the RJ Corman and Iowa QJ's, the Everett 11 and H&BTM 38 repatriated and apparently being rebuilt, mainline trips with Milwaukee 261 and ATSF 3751, the A1 Tornado project in Britain, the Steam Festival in Michigan and the continued survival of 1225 and 765, and (in the bad news department but a topic for discussion) the Grand Canyon steam shutdown decision. I'm not even looking for topics in the magazines or forums, just going from memory.

In diesel? Well, there's that long and slow rebuilds of the Flying Yankee and Doyle's Alco PA......... wake us when they get there........... and........... and......... IRM and Lake Superior got those Wisconsin Central SD45's........... and do we want to count the Erie 833 going to NY&GL? Levin's PRR E8s are old news by now...... and............. Oh, and Strasburg had to get an EMD SW8 to replace the 44-tonner........... and I don't count the WNY&P and D-L Alco/MLW fleets as "preservation"........... The M&ET 70-tonners probably qualifies more as a local preservation issue than a national one.

Let's face it: Right now, the potential preservation targets for diesel, in the grand scheme of things, are EMD SD40-2's, F40PH's, and GE Dash Sevens, and there is neither the money nor the motivation at the moment to go after those. Heck, we've already seen some foamers proposing preservation of SD50's, SD60's, and the UP SD9043's, as unworthy as those "dogs" of dieseldom seem to be.

railroadphotoessays.com

I think that the board is big enough for all of us ... I prefer the last turn-of-the-century steam, but I have been observed whispering sweet nothings to our SW8 while switching ... There are enough Renaissance folk who hang out here who can appreciate all that adheres to rail with flanged wheels. We all have our preferences, and are blow-hards at expressing those preferences, but at the end of the day there's not a one of us who doesn't pause at the sound of horn or whistle.

There's another board out there designed to be specifically about railway preservation:

http://www.steampreservation.com/

The potential is there, but at the moment it's suffering from a bit of a Catch 22, since nobody posts there, so nobody uses it, so nobody posts there. :)

The framework is there, and while the name says "steam" it's about all preservation. Should anyone be interested, I'd welcome some activity.

Add to the list the construction of a new diesel by the Mt. Washington Cog Railway. It is my understanding that it has broken down; but there are plans to repair it and build additional ones. I am almost afraid to mention the introduction of a diesel on the Georgetown Loop; I guess (hope) it is safe here away from the NGDF....

The news from the Grand Canyon has brought renewed discussion on the merits of steam vs. diesel, especially from an emissions viewpoint. I think such talk is healthy; but sometimes passions bring out the worst in adherants from both sides.

I did extend an olive branch a few weeks ago to the diesel and streetcar community, and point out the existance of surviving examples of each in the extreme southern portion of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area. (Update: there was an old boxcar sitting on the siding that extends into the scrapyard this morning; the little critter orange there had to have been moved to get the boxcar in, and probably did the move itself. So, it is still in occasional use.) But, I am at a disadvantage when it comes to these matters; because I don't know either subject well. It's all a matter of what drives you (pun intended.)