If you have any interest in military records associated with your rail interests, Ancestry.com has open access from now through Memorial Day. You may have to sign up for a free (normally image-limited) account, but you will be able to view and download a lot of documents like photos, muster rolls, pension cards and so forth.

It still doesn't solve the problem of the soaked WWII records that haven't dried properly, but you may find something of use.

About 5years ago I got very involved in indexing WWI Draft Registration Cards. These records/images for the LDS Church's Family Search program. Specifically, names, birth date and place were indexed on the initial run. On many of the records occupation was also noted (but not indexed) and I found it interesting the number/percentage of individuals having railroad related jobs.

sc 'doc' lewis

[quote="Becky Morgan"]If you have any interest in military records associated with your rail interests, Ancestry.com has open access from now through Memorial Day. You may have to sign up for a free (normally image-limited) account, but you will be able to view and download a lot of documents like photos, muster rolls, pension cards and so forth.

Free means that for 10 days it is free then they bill you 99 dollars for the full year subscription. The Mormons have a larger data base and it is entirely free. Don't have a URL for it though.

Sorry, I should have posted the link

https://familysearch.org/search

sc 'doc' lewis