I'm Stuart Hale. I'm currently serving as Vice President and Chairman of the Acqusitions Committee of Mid-South Rail Hertiage Foundation. We are working to preserve rail heritage in Western Ky and the surrounding region.
I also volunteer at the Hardin Southern Railroad and am qualified as a Conductor and brakeman/fireman. Next season, I'll start me engineers training if I get all my paperwork done :-)

MSRHF is currently working on a Baldwin 2-6-2, an NC&STL wood baywindow caboose and a 1941 Davenport locomotive.

Several of our members read the board and occasionally post. I like to read it to see what's going on and I have learned quite a bit. Occasionally I will disagree with some things, but I don't think flaming or anything like that is productive or helpful to the good of the railroad preservation movement.

Thanks for the help and all I ask is that you all keep sharing ideas, techniques and information.

Stuart

Mid-South News
gnufe@apex.net

Brian Hume member of the Halton County Radial Railway Museum in Rockwood, Ontario, Canada, also Qualified Conductor for CP rail and certified TSSA Boiler operator.

b.hume@rogers.com

Angie Morefield, I am also with the Whitewater Valley Railroad and am a volunteer brakeman. This is the best place to find out what's happening all over the country with the many great originzations that are contributing to railway preservation, and to ask questions of the most knowledgable and helpful rail enthusiasts. I do not post as a representative of any opinions held by the Whitewater.Rypn and coffee, the only way to start the morning, every morning.
-Angie

Ladypardus@cs.com

> Larry Shiplett active member of the Whitewater Valley Railroad Museum. Check RYPN almost every day. Very interesting articles.

pls1632@hotmail.com

I'm Matt Bumgarner, board member of the Newton (NC) Depot Authority which is in the process of moving, renovating, and restoring the old SR depot for adaptive re-use utilizing private donations and government grants. Also a volunteer for the Doe River Gorge Ministries and actively involved in restoration of steam and rail operations along the old ET&WNC.

stealthnfo@aol.com

I'm Ron Goldfeder, working at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis as a Collections Assistant in the library/archives and also as webmaster. When they let me outside I sometimes operate our trolley cars, act as switchman, run the miniature train and give tours. I tend to be the voice of MOT, but several of us keep up on RYPN postings daily and we speak up if we can be of help or if we have problems. Keep up the good work.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com

I am a Freight Train Conductor with the Green Mountain Railroad (Vermont Rail System) in Bellows Falls,VT. RyPN is a very good place for your board/co-workers to visit and see what they are missing.

Brian Hebert


btamper@hotmail.com

Roger W. Mitchell
Master Mechanic, President Emeritus, and Director
Fort Collins Municipal Railway
Fort Collins, Colorado.
Also Vice President of the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club. Extra Class callsign N0MCR

Fort Collins Municipal Railway home page
n0mcr@netzero.net

Dave "Smokebox" Brown, 32 years old, 6 years active volunteer on OR&N #197, SP #4449, and Brooklyn Roundhouse. A Founding member and current treasurer of Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation.

I read RYPN everyday and offen look to this sight for answers to many questions in the rail preservation field.

I still miss RYPN as a mag though....

Smokebox

"orhf dot org"

Although my opinions on this board do not offically reflect the views of both of my employers, I am employed as the Librarian/Archivist for the Friends of the Railroad Museum of PA at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg. I also work part-time on the train crew at Strasburg Rail Road. So you have at least one person from both camps posting on this board. I know of at least three others from SRC who post on this board as well.

K.R. Bell

> GE13031 and I have wondered about this and
> Brian Allen (Operations director of the
> Cuyahoga Scenic) and I had the same
> converstaion today.How many museums,both
> operating and static or in some way rail
> related, have members posting on this board?

> This conversation comes up due to my boards
> unwillingness to come to this board and
> learn what everyone else out there is doing.
> They feal that they know all there is to
> know about everything and don't want to
> listen to others that have done more and
> better things than us.
> I know there are alot of top shelve groups
> posting on here and was just interested in
> an actual number and listing. I think this
> is the best site for people in our our line
> of work(love)and has more to offer yet!
> I'm chief mechanical officer of the Lake
> Shore Railway Assocation
> (owners and operater of the Lorain &
> West Virginia Railway) and manger of shop
> and field operations for Industrial Railway
> Switching and Services.


http://rrmuseumpa.org

This old rust scraper who practices the art of needle scaling and wire brushing in the amazing 37-stall Roundhouse at the North Carolina Transportation Museum, beautiful downtown Spencer, N.C.

One thing you might want to realize is that a BUNCH of folks are traveling to the TRAIN 2002 meeting today and are going to be out of pocket (read off line) for a few days, so there's a large number of people and groups who ARE here but aren't chiming in today.

http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

Glad to see all you folks here. We often disagree with each other, but that is what discussion is all about. When we had L&RP, the highest subscription figures were about 17,000. As you can see from our counter, this site has been accessed about 430,000 times in the last three years or so. While we will probably never have the production values of L&RP, RyPN is free and the news is instantaneous rather than two months old.

I don't get around much, but on my recent western vacation, I found plenty of people at museums and tourist RRs that had never heard of us, perhaps because there is simply too much stuff to look at on the web.



ryarger@rypn.org

I'm a Professional Geologist and hydrogeologist who has been working in the environmental industry for 15 years. For the last 6 years I have been on the Board of Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, Georgia, and have headed up restoration of the small rolling stock collection. I am a volunteer with the SAM Shortline excursion train and will soon qualify for Conductor on same. Back in the mid-1980s I was a volunteer with the New Georgia Railroad, crewing when I could on S&A 750.

Iron Dave and some good folks at MOT got me hooked on RYPN, for which I am very greatful. I tend to ask more questions than post responses, and I am always amazed by the responses. This forum is the best way I have found to get input from all of you who have so much to share. Thanks!

syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

> I find rypn.org to be the most useful site
> on the web.

> J. David

Bill Drotar,Jr.
Valley Railroad, Essex CT
Enginehouse Employee (Geez, Dave, do I have a title???)
Steam Locomotive Engineer and Fireman


drotarinoh@webtv.net

I'm Les Beckman, member of Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana. Like most volunteers at small museums, I wear many different hats. One day I may work on our track, another on rolling stock, conductor on our "caboose hop" passenger train or give a talk to visitors at our shop building. I am assistant editor of our newsletter and serve on the Signal Committee, the Rolling Stock Committee and the Safety Committee.

I believe that RyPN is informative as it pertains to the rail preservation movement. I welcome the many people who contribute although I believe that many people who are involved with the movement do not visit the website. Even so, RyPN is the best we have today on rail preservation!

midlandblb@cs.com