The Historical Society is a stated feature of the model railroading hobby. These societies exist for every major and many minor railroads of the pre-1970 era. There are even societies for roads such as Penn Central, Conrail and CSX along with at least one for a model railroad. The desire to save and preserve the past is part of the human spirit with many of these societies started by those who saw that past slipping away. Railfans, employees and amateur historians were the initial founders along with some modelers. Each of these historical societies has sort to bring up the standard of their publications and work which costs money. The raising of the standard has raised the cost of membership for those who want to learn the history and apply it to their modeling. In my area of Virginia there are several key roads and others within a two hour radius. Once you add others that one remembers seeing or hearing about growing up the list becomes quite long. The cost of keeping membership up in all these societies is now past the tipping point and cutting back becomes a necessity. It is not that any of these societies are unworthy there is just too much of a good thing. The need to rationalize the cost of the hobby to a lower level means re-examing these memberships and the cost of the additional research material beyond the society magazine.
Part 2 will be a discussion of the interplay between these two cost areas and the choice of modeling subjects.
Railroads Societies belonged to over the last 20 years:
Active Membership
NKP
Southern Railway
N&W
ETWNC
RF&P
Hawaiian Railway Society
Inactive or not planning to renew
Milwaukee Road
Denver & Rio Grande Western
ATSF
Chesapeake & Ohio
Western Maryland
New York Central
NRHS
PRR
EBT
No comments:
Post a Comment