I have a pretty good idea that they both are for preservation and the hobby in general, but what would make a person join one group over the other?

Later!
Mr. Ed

NRHS is national, with over 170 chapters (including a new one in Japan and one in the UK).

URHS is the United Railway Historical Society (or Societies) of New Jersey, focused exclusively on rail preservation in that state.

Aside from that, I'll leave it to others to debate the merits, or lack thereof, of either organization.

Having dealt with NJ Transit and URHS in the past, my understanding is that the URHS was created to be the entity to which NJ Transit (NJT) could donate equipment that would ultimately become the collection for the state railroad museum. They also encourage other NJ rail preservation organizations to join as a supporting member of URHS.

J.R.

It is not possible to join the URHS. The URHS is an umbrella organization that theoretically represents the various railroad preservation groups in New Jersey. The number of groups has varied over the 20+ years the group has existed - some new ones have been added (like the CNJ RHS) some have ceased to exist (like the PRSL group) and some were more or less kicked out (like the Camden & Amboy RHS or the Railroadians of America). The member groups pay $1 per member of their group to belong. Each group has a delegate and an alternate and one vote. There are delegates and officers but no members. The only way to have a say in URHS would be to join one of the member groups and then talk to that group's delegate to then take your thoughts back to the URHS. There are several NRHS Chapters that belong to the URHS - Tri-State, Jersey Central, North Jersey, and West Jersey.

If you choose to do this - good luck! This command and control model has not accomplished much to preservation in N.J. (Let's not revisit the Hickory Creek that never ran in the state or diesels painted for the railroads fancied by the officers of URHS rather than the actual railroads they were from) - but it seems to go on waiting for a better day, not unlike Chang Kai Check saying that next year he would invade the mainland and overthrow the Red Chinese.

Actually, NRHS has been an international organization for several years because it now has chapers in the UK, Canada and Japan.

One big difference between the two organizations is NRHS holds a convention each year, for 2009 it was in Duluth, for 2010 it'll be in Scranton.

For more information and a list of chapters by state see NRHS.com

Bob H

Thanks for your replies. I thought they were identical organizations competing for the same membership base.

Later!
Mr. Ed