Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums, the ATRRM magazine, is now being beta tested in a new, online format. This is a continuously updated web page format, not a pdf of the quarterly print magazine. The goal is to provide more timely information, more photos (and video), and more in-depth coverage of all aspects of railway heritage and preservation, including long term construction and restoration projects.

We're doing this test to see how our readers react to an online versus a quarterly print magazine. At its April meeting in York, PA (come join us for an interesting conference), the ATRRM Board will decide whether or not to discontinue the print magazine and go permanently online.

This test is also a chance to learn how these things work and to get the bugs out. At the moment the Comments program isn't working, so don't be surprised by that. Instead, I'll look for your reactions and suggestions here.

To see the magazine, go to www.atrrm.org/blog, or to www.atrrm.org, then click on TRRM Online.

Better media coverage is good for railway heritage, and that's what we're trying to do.
Aaron Isaacs, editor
Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums

The "Progress Reports" page, at least on an iPad - the bottom part looks fine, but on the top part of the page, the Sponsor Ads cut off the status of the items on top. I've attached a screenshot to show you.

Great idea and good idea...

One suggestion: there's a lot of material that you've published and a date last updated field would help the user spot the material that he/she hasn't looked at before.

Bob H

The Contact link is also not working.

Does a museum have to be a member of the ATRRM to be listed in the "Find a Railroad Museum or Tourist Railroad" page? I notice that the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles is not listed.

Greg

This is a great idea, Mark. Thank you.

dave

Yes, only ATRRM members are listed on the ATRRM website. However, the magazine covers all North American museums and tourist railroads, whether they are ATRRM members or not. We hope to increase our membership by being relevant to everyone in the field.
Aaron Isaacs, editor
Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums

I am not in favor of eliminating the ATRRM quarterlies.

We already have a big problem in that the history of rail preservation is being lost, because it is not being recorded. With Facebook, blogs and forums taking the place of newsletters and magazines (such as L&RP), we stand the risk of not knowing in the future what we are doing today.

Twenty years from now I can still pick up my stack of L&RP and know exactly where we were as an industry in the 1980s and 1990s. Between the preservation news briefs, articles and even the ads I can get a good idea of what everyone was doing. But as soon as L&RP disappeared the internet started taking over, and what had once been published on permanent paper started to be put on websites that disappear after a few years. (Try going back to RYPN threads from a few years ago and start clicking on links. 90% are dead). Then facebook became much more popular, and a static website with content that may last a few years turned into a post which lasts a day before fading away. And there is no easy way to permanently save a Facebook post for posterity.

I was happy to see that the ATRRM made their quarterly publications available in print as well as PDF, because there would be a way to record the history of rail preservation in a way that can be saved and/or printed. I was hopeful that a the ATRRM grew that the publication would also grow and include more of what is going on, becoming basically the recorder of our history. But by the decision to go the other way, toward a format that is by its very nature temporary and largely unsaveable, you are exacerbating the problem and helping to perpetuate the huge hole of knowledge about rail preservation that is deepening each year.

Yes this is a huge mistake.

I think Mr. Rowlands makes a valid point. While having the ATRRM magazine available in an electronic format is convenient for many in the present, there is information in these magazines that could be useful years down the road. However, with electronic technology changing so rapidly, would the electronic formats still be accessible in the future? Today we are able to review printed literature created more than a century-and-a-half ago. It is unlikely many of today's electronic files will be accessible even 25 years from now. How much info stored on the old magnetic "floppies" (8", 5 1/2", 3 1/2"), Betamax tapes, even VHS tapes is still available? --- Ray

Any of us can print it out on high quality paper of archival quality if we want to invest in that capability. Probably all of us can print out "working copy" for our own use on standard quality if we so choose. It may make sense for ATRRM to archive hard printouts for posterity, but any of us can take that responsibility on ourselves if it is of great personal concern.

dave

Well here is the opportunity for all the people who have been saying there needs to be an internet journal of preservation to type articles instead of typing on internet discussions.

PC

The print distribution is only preaching to the choir. Open online will allow a wider audience to find it, hopefully deem it worthwhile, and perhaps join. It can make us all stronger if that happens.

dave

The decision to move to a digital format will consider many factors. Timeliness, cost, accessibility, and distribution are some of the considerations. ATRRM envisions a product that can do the following: provide near real time updates on ongoing projects, updates on FRA issues (rule makings, RSAC meetings, THRWG meetings, etc.), feature articles, and other breaking news. In addition to text, the use of video is possible with a digital format which could add a nice dimension to the product.

Going to a digital format does not mean the end to the print format. The association may choose to do only one format or a both. The print format could take the form of an annual or semi-annual publication that captures several months worth of preservation.

This website has provided all of us an information exchange for many years. What it has not become is an internet journal of preservation. ATRRM's goal is to provide what we've all be clamoring for. Get your project updates ready.

The comments to date are greatly appreciated, particularly the technical ones. I also have the same issue with my iPad. We'll also let you know when the comments feature is enabled.

Finally, please consider coming to our Spring Conference in York, PA. We meeting with the NRHS and the Ma&Pa Preservation Society has a great program lined up for us!

G. Mark Ray
President, Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums
http://www.atrrm.org

Congratulations on developing a plan for an internet journal of preservation and actually following through and implementing it.

PC

Congratulations on the implementation of this important step in bringing rail preservation discussion and information to a much wider audience.

The local RHS that I used to help out has stayed aligned with a national organization that I do not believe is worthy of further support and so I am interested in possibly joining an organization that is an ATRRM member. Is there a list of member organizations available so that I can identify a few that may be local to me?

I looked around the ATRRM website but could not find such a list. If this is due to my lack of surfing skill, I apologize in advance.

You can pontificate all you want about "permanence" of print versus online permanence.

The reality is that the odds of being able to find a nugget of information online about, oh, some random particular piece of equipment or the particulars of its brake mechanism, staybolt spacing, etc. or the retirement dates of some equipment, line, or passenger train, are STILL far greater, and cheaper, than figuring out which one(s) of the very few specialist technical libraries or shop collections MIGHT have the information you seek, then travelling to said library or archive and then FINDING that damned snippet of data, or even taking the effort to wade through hundreds of books, thousands of magazines, and millions of pages just looking for it in the first place.

Seriously. Are you going to come to our library, pull down one of the dozen binders of compiled locomotive roster data that we have, and look up the loco you seek? Or are you going to take your chances with an online search?

Perhaps the wiser, and more strategic, approach, would be for the NRHS or R&LHS to find a way to offer the wealth of information and data already being posted online a more stable, secure, and permanent online presence, and offer the information provided not just to members or historians, but to the railfans and general public as well, and free us from the worry of some archivist or club dying and "taking it with him/them" when the website and domain lapse.

Yes, I'm tired of sounding like a stuck record.