NEWSLETTERS!!!

[Ed Lecuyer]

I am pleased to announce that a new section of the Discussion Forum is now open. WW&F Museum Newsletters from the past few years are posted for your reference and enjoyment.

The Newsletters section of the Forum is available ONLY to current members of the WW&F Museum. If you are not a member, we certainly hope you will join us. Those of you who are (who also make up the majority of membership to this discussion forum) should be able to see the Newsletters section under the WW&F Railway Museum Discussion header when you are logged into the forum.

If you are a WW&F Museum member and do not see this section when you are logged into your forum account, please email me at ed@spongeawareness.com and I will get you added to the list.

I also know that there are WW&F Museum members who read this forum, but have not set up accounts. I encourage you to do that, as we are planning additional "member's only" benefits for this discussion forum.

A special thank you to John McNamara for making the "proof copy" PDFs of the newsletters available for us all to enjoy.

Thanks!

[James Patten]

I should note that you should allow a month or so for new memberships (and dropped members) to work their way through the system.  So if you join today, it will take a while to get back to Ed that you're a member.

[Vincent "Lightning" LeRow]

I think this section is really neat!!  it will be especially nice if some of the older newsletters get posted, like the ones that are hard to find.

[John McNamara]

I think this section is really neat!!  it will be especially nice if some of the older newsletters get posted, like the ones that are hard to find.

The posted PDFs were generated by our publisher, Lincoln County Publishing, and were sent to Allen Fisher, Ellen Fisher, and myself for final review. I have been sending them on to Ed for posting.

Unfortunately, I don't think I have PDFs for issues prior to those posted. However, I do have paper copies back to 1994, so if you or anyone else have any specific requests, I can scan one of the paper copies and send it to Ed for posting. The quality won't be as good as the presently posted ones, due to the scanning step, but they should be adequate. Let me know here or by PM.

-John

[Mike Fox]

Great work Ed. I think it is a fabulous idea. Keep it up.

[Ed Lecuyer]

March/April 2011 newsletter is now available.
Also, the complete "set" from 2009 is also available.

[John L Dobson]

I think this section is really neat!!   it will be especially nice if some of the older newsletters get posted, like the ones that are hard to find.

I agree, and would certainly be interested in getting access to scans of issues earlier than 2009 - all of them if possible(!).

My Christmas present from my wife last year was the complete run of Trains (1941-2010) on DVD and I'm finding the earlier issues especially fascinating. It's made me wonder about scanning the entire run of the Ffestiniog Railway Magazine and putting it onto DVD as a sales item. However it would be a mammoth task for one person - issue No.1 (16 pages) appeared in 1958, we're now up to issue No.212, and issues have steadily increased in size over the years - every one since I took over as editor in 2003 has had 72 pages...

[Ed Lecuyer]

Ask and ye shall receive.

John McNamara has graciously started the tedious process of digitizing the older newsletters. First up: March/April and May/June of 1994. Each issue takes about 1/2 hour to scan and process. If anyone would like to help, please contact John.

[John L Dobson]

Ask and ye shall receive.

John McNamara has graciously started the tedious process of digitizing the older newsletters. First up: March/April and May/June of 1994. Each issue takes about 1/2 hour to scan and process. If anyone would like to help, please contact John.

Thanks Ed! That really is dedication!

[Ed Lecuyer]

Dave Crow has joined John McNamara in scanning older newsletters. All of 2008 is now available. Thanks Dave!

Meanwhile, everything (except for 2 missing pages) in 1994 has been scanned. Keep an eye in the Newsletter section of the forum for more years and issues as this process continues.

Any members with older collections of Newsletters who wish to help out should contact John as to avoid duplication of effort.

[Mike Arnold]

I really wish someday the news letters could be purchased in book for like the Musings. I enjoyed reading everything I can about the museums history and the railroads history.
Michael Arnold
US Merchant Marine
Cadet at NY Maritime College
www.twinforksnrhs.org

[James Patten]

A while back Allan Fisher was working on that project, when he was still gift shop manager.  I don't know if he's still working on it or not.

[John L Dobson]

Ed

When I try to access the scans for issues 2005_03, _05 _07, _09, and _11, I'm getting the following message:

>The requested URL /newsletters/2005_11.pdf was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.'<

Could you investigate this problem? I've had no trouble downloading every other scan that is listed.

I'm delighted to be able to see some of the early issues of the newsletter in this format - please pass my sincere thanks to those doing the scanning.

[Ed Lecuyer]

In order to post these newsletters in the easiest manner possible, I am creating the pages with the links in one session. In the case of 2005, the scanners (John and Dave) have not scanned the rest of 2005, yet, so those links are broken.

They'll be filled soon enough.

[Ed Lecuyer]

All of 2005 is now posted.

Dave and John have been scanning at a furious clip, and the results (as of this writing) are:
1994-1998: Complete, except 2 missing pages for Jan/Feb 1994.
2005-Present: Complete.

At the rate they are going, I suspect that the remaining 6 years between 1999-2004 (inclusive) will be available within the next few weeks. We owe John and Dave a great deal of thanks for taking on this task, and sharing their results with us.