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The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc. is the oldest organization in North America devoted to railroad history, and among the first anywhere to pursue formal studies in the history of technology. Its object is to promote research and to encourage preservation of documentation pertinent to business history, finance, labor history, and biography as well as technology.
The Society has eight local chapters. Memberships are offered in the national society plus, optionally, as many chapters as the member may wish to join. If you were a member of R&LHS . . . You'd be an active member in the oldest organization in North America devoted to railroad history and to researching railroad history. R&LHS was first among today's many groups in this field. Its seniority is significant not only for its own sake but also because the resources that R&LHS can make available to researchers, historians and enthusiasts reflect the efforts of experts who were at work well before the "railfan movement" in railroad history began to grow. The membership of R&LHS is international. The Internet discussion group:- You'd be eligible to be subscribed to a members-only Internet discussion group, where your research question might be answered by one of the nation's leading scholars in the field. Members may contact the Webmaster to be subscribed. Click here to see some recent highlights. Twice a year, you'd receive Railroad History, the journal of R&LHS. Railroad History and its predecessor, the R&LHS Bulletin, have been published since the society was founded. All issues (or photocopies of them) are still available to members, as is a cumulative index. Current issues average about 150 pages each. They contain in-depth articles about rolling equipment, fixed facilities such a station buildings, finance, engineering, public policy, and labor matters. Each issue is well illustrated. Authors' manuscripts are well documented. The editor of Railroad History ensures that the journal caters to the reading tastes of all members, be they scholars or persons with more casual interests in railroad or locomotive history. R&LHS maintains a comprehensive archive of locomotive builders' lists and rosters.
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Research Guide to National Archives | ||
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Reference Section | ||
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Membership Society History Member Services National Officers Chapters National Meetings | ||
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You'd also receive the quarterly RLHS Newsletter. The Newsletter addresses topics of current interest in the Society and in railroading. It offers brief articles on railroad history. It includes a "Trading Post" column of members' classified ads. In these and other ways the Newsletter forges a link between members and their Society. You'd be invited to the annual meetings of R&LHS, held each spring at locations significant in railroad history. You'd have the opportunity to join a regional chapter, receive its publications, attend its meetings, and participate in its activities -- which, for some, includes restoring railroad equipment or other artifacts. If you're looking for historical facts about railroads, the services of volunteer researchers working in the Society's collections are available for a modest fee. Or you may wish to visit the Society's archives in Sacramento, California, where archivists will help you in your quest for information. Members can purchase in print RAILROAD HISTORY at the standard bookseller price of 40% off retail, $7.50 instead of $12.50. Plus 20% off of individually-priced out of print issues of both RAILROAD HISTORY and the R&LHS BULLETIN. Plus an additional quantity discount. Membership in R&LHS is the only ticket you need to enjoy these benefits. See the "Membership" section for details on how to join. | ||
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Membership
You may become a member of R&LHS by printing out and using the USA Membership Form, if residing in the USA, the Canada Membership Form, if residing in Canada, or the International Membership Form, if residing outside the USA or Canada, or remitting dues per the schedule below in US dollars to: R&LHS Membership, PO Box 600544, Jacksonville FL 32260-0544.
Dues may be remitted by credit card. Also, you can now join or renew by credit card over Internet via a secure site, using the USA Internet Membership Form, if residing in the USA, the Canada Internet Membership Form, if residing in Canada, or the International Internet Membership Form, if residing outside the USA or Canada.
Memberships in the R&LHS and its Chapters are for a calendar year beginning January 1 and ending December 31. You may join the parent R&LHS only, or the parent organization plus as many chapters as you wish.
R&LHS Dues schedule:
| Category | USA Dues | Canadian Members | International Members | |
| Regular | $25.00 | $32.00 | $43.00 | |
| Student | $10.00 | (USA only -- Date of Birth required) | ||
| Library | $50.00 | $57.00 | $68.00 | |
| *Family | $30.00 | $37.00 | $48.00 | |
| *Contributing | $50.00 | $57.00 | $68.00 | |
| *Sustaining | $75.00 | $82.00 | $93.00 | |
| *Patron | $250.00 | $257.00 | $268.00 | |
The additional amount for Canadian members ($7.00) and for other international members ($18.00) is to help offset the additional postage cost.
Chapter Dues schedule:
| Chapter | Dues |
| Chicago | $14.00 |
| Golden Spike - Ogden, UT | $12.00 |
| Lackawanna | $25.00 |
| New York | $27.50 |
| Pacific Coast | $20.00 |
| Southeast - Jacksonville, FL | $15.00 |
| Southwest - El Paso, TX | $12.00 |
| Southern California | $15.00 |
Member Services
Membership Matters
Membership applications, change of address and other membership status inquiries should be sent to R&LHS Membership, PO Box 600544, Jacksonville FL 32260-0544.
Locomotive Rosters & Records of Builder's Construction Numbers
The Society has locomotive rosters for many roads and records of steam locomotive construction numbers for most builders. Copies are available to members at 25 cents per page ($5.00 minimum) and to non-members at 40 cents per page ($5.00 minimum) from R&LHS Archives Services, PO Box 600544, Jacksonville, Florida 32260-0544. A list of available rosters is available for $2.00. For further information and to see lists of available rosters, Click Here.
Back Issues of Railroad History
Many issues of Railroad History since No. 139 are available for members only at $7.50 per copy. Price to non-members $12.50. Reprints also available of No. 57 at $20.00, No. 86 at $13.95. Click here for list of issues and contents.
Articles from the Bulletin, Railroad History and the R&LHS Newsletter
Copies of articles from back issues of these publications of the Society are available to members at 20 cents per page ($5.00 minimum) and to non-members at 30 cents per page ($5.00 minimum) from R&LHS Archives Services, PO Box 600544, Jacksonville, FL 32260-0544.
Research Inquiries
Source materials printed, manuscript, and graphics are housed in the Society's archives. Inquiries concerning these materials should be addressed to R&LHS Archives Services, PO Box 600544, Jacksonville, FL 32260-0544. To help expedite our response, please indicate a daytime telephone number where you can normally be reached.
Society History
Given the popularity today of what we'll call an avocational interest in railroad history and railroad operations, it's hard to imagine a time when the "railfan" hobby had only a few practitioners -- and when even those few lacked a way to share their mutual interests. But back at the beginning that was precisely how things were. And that was why, in the spring of 1921, Charles E. Fisher, Arthur Curran, Warren Jacobs and Roy W. Carlson formed the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.
The first American railroad had been chartered about 100 years earlier. There was already much history to document, many pictures of locomotives to collect. The organization that these four gentlemen started quickly became not only the leader in the documentation of railroad history but, as the society matured, an international pioneer in the study of the history of business and industrial technology.
R&LHS has devoted itself for more than 75 years to promoting railroad research and to furthering the preservation of all aspects of railroad history. Its effort springs from the charge in its original charter: "the increase, diffusion, and perpetuation of knowledge of locomotive history and data and to assist and mutually benefit collections of locomotive and early railroad data."
R&LHS is a nonprofit corporation. Its membership is open to all. No longer must prospective members submit a monograph on some railroad subject as well as "at least two photographs of locomotives." But on the other hand the dues have increased some from the original 50 cents per year or $10 for life!
Within a year of its formation R&LHS had recruited 52 members and had begun publishing a semiannual periodical, The Bulletin, which was renamed Railroad History in 1972. Membership grew by 1925 to 190, by 1930 to 254, by 1950 to more than 1,000. Today, R&LHS members number about 2,300 worldwide. Among the members are preservationists, museums, curators and archivists; universities, libraries and professors; authors on railroad history, publishers and editors; and -- in the majority -- enthusiastic nonprofessional followers of the railroads and of their history. Active and retired working railroaders play a major role in the activities of the Society.
The archival collection began to come together in 1927, when Harvard Business School made two rooms available in its new Baker Library. In 1983, a new archival center was established in Sacramento, California, in connection with the California State Railroad Museum Library.
A chapter was formed in New York City in 1934, and since then R&LHS has added several local or regional chapters that conduct their own programs and publish their own journals. Several chapters have preserved locomotives or other railroad equipment. The extensive collection of the Pacific Coast Chapter, which dated from the 1930's, formed the basis for the California State Railroad Museum.
Railroad history has many facets -- corporate development, finance, engineering, public policy, biography and labor history, to name just a few. It has close ties to business history and the history of technology and industrial archeology. Railroad history is partly the evocation of a romantic nostalgia, partly the precise enumeration of locomotive specifications. It is the "far" history of the John Bull, Norris 4-4-0s, and William H. Vanderbilt; the "near" history of gas turbine locomotives, Baldwin "centipedes" and Robert R. Young. Whatever the particular subject, railroad history is unquestionably significant. It is also perishable. Memories fade; documents are destroyed; physical properties disappear; corporate structures disintegrate.
The role of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society has since 1921 been and will continue to be, to preserve, promulgate and interpret the accomplishments of the railroad form of transportation down through history.
National officers:-
J. Parker Lamb, President, 2605 Pinewood Terrace, Austin, TX 78757-2136
Arthur L. Lloyd, Senior Vice President, 20 Arapahoe Court, Portola Valley, CA 94028
Cornelius W. Hauck, Vice President -- Finance, 550 E. Fourth St.-#4D, Cincinnati, OH 45202
William F. Howes, Jr. Vice President -- Member Services, 3454 Cormorant Cove Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32223-3790
Mark E. Entrop, Vice President, PO Box 10, Dyer, IN 46311-0010
Charles H. Stats, Secretary, 1104 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 80304-2004
R. Michael Walker, Treasurer, 8910 Rochester Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Peter A. Hansen, Editor, Railroad History, 15621 W. 87th St., Lenexa, KS 66219 E-mail
The Chicago Chapter meets the second Friday of every month.
Before the Chapter meets, members, guests, and friends are invited to our regular pre-meeting get-together at Maxim's restaurant, one block south of the Temple Building, on the northwest corner of Clark and Madison. The gathering starts at about 5:00 PM, with comestibles ordered about 5:30. Anything from a snack to a full-course dinner may be selected. There is also much conversation on the "menu," also. We hope you have the time to join us there.
Then at 7:00, we adjourn to our regular meeting room at Pierce Hall, on the lower level of the Chicago Temple Building, 77 West Washington Street (on the southeast corner of Clark, across the street from Daley Plaza.
Golden Spike Chapter
W. Michael Burdett, Chairman, 4421 Taylor Ave., Ogden UT 84403
Lee Witten, Secretary, 852 East 5500 South, Ogden, UT 84405 lewitten1@comcast.net
The chapter meets at Union Station in Ogden and works closely with projects of The Union Station Foundation. One of the projects is the restoration of former Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge locomotive #223. The chapter is also seeking funds to restore the "Moon Glow", the only remaining car of the General Motors demonstration train, the "Train of Tomorrow." A completed project by the chapter was the restoration of a World War II hospital car, which has been donated to the Union Station Foundation.
Lackawanna Chapter
Kenneth C. Miller, Chairman, PO Box 396, Washington, NJ 07882
John Willever, Secretary, 228 West Washington Ave., Washington, NJ 07882
Chapter meetings are held on a variable schedule quarterly in western New Jersey or eastern Pennsylvania.
A major project of the chapter is the restoration of the Lackawanna's Water Gap Station.
For project description and status, see the
Delaware Water Gap Station
Restoration Project Website
New York Chapter
Charles M. Smith, Chairman, 3 Princeton Rd., Strafford-Wayne, PA 19087
Peter Conovich, Secretary, 21 Battery Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11209
New York Chapter meetings are held at the Williamson Library in Grand Central Terminal the second Friday of every month. The Williamson is at the southeast corner of the building, 1st floor (above the concourse) and is reached by the elevator bank at the northeast corner of the concourse. From the elevator make two rights, to a door that leads to the passageway between the windows at the end of the concourse.
Southeast Chapter
William F. Howes, Chairman, 3454 Cormorant Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32223-2790
Arthur L. Towson, Secretary, 3638 Colony Cove Trail, Jacksonville, FL 32277-2206
The Southeast Chapter meets at 6:30 PM on the second Thursday of each month (except January) in the CSX Transportation building 13th floor conference room at 500 Water Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. We normally precede the meeting with dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant at the nearby Jacksonville Landing at 5:00 PM.
Our monthly meetings include programs describing historical and contemporary railroad topics. Some of our meeting programs have been Paul Reistrup (CSXT Vice President Passenger Integration and former Amtrak President) who recounted his railroad career and outlined passenger rail developments and Bill Howes (R&LHS President) who described the end of B&O/C&O passenger service. In addition, we also host an annual banquet and an annual photo contest and organize field trips to railroad sites throughout the Southeast. In June, 2001, the Southeast Chapter successfully hosted the annual R&LHS convention and board of directors meeting.
Our chapter has approximately 55 members and our newsletter, The Southeast Limited, is published every other month. We also continue to sell a reprint of R&LHS Bulletin #86, The Story of the Florida Railroads by George W. Pettengill, Jr. It covers Florida's railroad history from 1834 through 1903. At only $13.95 it is a real bargain and may be purchased from Chapter Chairman Paul Barnes, National President Bill Howes, or at any of the several railroad shows we attend.
If you are in the area, plan on attending one of our meetings!
Southern California Chapter
Loren R. Martens, Chairman, 4285 Benito St., Montclair, CA 91763
James B. Caballero, Secretary, 2785 Mandeville Canyon Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
The Southern California Chapter meets in the Cowans Room of St. Edmund Episcopal Church in San Marino, California at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. The church is located on San Gabriel Blvd. just north of Huntington Drive.
Please visit the chapter's Website for more information.
Southwest Chapter
Harry Bean, Chairman, 6427 Navajo Ave., El Paso, TX 79925
Ronald E. Dawson, Secretary, 12400 Rojas Dr. # 87, El Paso, TX 79928
The Southwest Chapter meets in El Paso, Texas on the second Wednesday of the month at Avila's Mexican Restaurant at 10600 Montana. Dinner (optional) begins at about 6:30 pm and the business meeting at about 7:30 PM. If there is not a speaker, normally a railroad or video is shown for the program. The business meeting will normally include updates of activity regarding the chapter's locomotive, ex-SP No. 3420, the Pullman James Watt, or other rolling stock. There is usually a representative of the Paso Del Norte Streetcar Preservation Society on hand to give an update on the streetcar situation. Contact Harry Bean at 915-772-7388 or Bob Kelly at 915-581-0761 for further information.
Please visit the chapter's Website for more information.
National Meetings:-
The 2002 Annual Meeting & National Convention of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 6 to 9.
On Friday, June 7, a trip was made to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. That evening, the group had dinner at Giuseppe's Old Depot Restaurant, the former Colorado Springs RR passenger stationSaturday was a day of rail excursions. In the morning it was the Canyon City & Royal Gorge excursion train, through the spectacular scenery of the Royal Gorge. The train was powered by an EMD F-7. In the afternoon it was to the 14,110 ft. summit of Pike's Peak on the Manitou & Pike's Peak Cog Railway. That evening the annual banquet was held.
Sunday morning was the annual membership breakfast meeting. While annual meetings have traditionally been hosted by an R&LHS Chapter in its home city, this meeting was unusual in that the entire affair was arranged by one couple, Mr. & Mrs. Mike Walker, who received a resounding vote of thanks.
The 2001 Annual Meeting & National Convention of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society was held in Jacksonville, Florida, May 31 to June 3. The convention was hosted by the Southeast Chapter, which put together a very fine program.
On Friday, June 1, a field trip was provided to NASA at Cape Kennedy, where the facilities of the NASA railroad were visited, followed by a special tour to areas not normally open to the public, such as the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Following this visit, the group stopped at New Smyrna Beach for a tour of the Florida East Coast locomotive maintenance facility.On Saturday, June 2, a program of presentations was given, featuring a panel entitled "Is There a Role for Short Lines in the 21st Century.", with several speakers who provided many interesting insights into the contemporary railroad industry. The afternoon presentations were devoted to the history of passenger service in Florida, featuring a talk by Seth Bramson, well-known as "Mr. FEC History".
The feature speaker at the Saturday night banquet was Don Phillips, transportation reporter for the Washington Post, who passed along a number of interesting observations about possible future trends in national transportation policy. Sunday morning was the annual membership breakfast meeting.
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Saturday's program was a tour of the Illinois Railway Museum, guided by Kevin McCabe, the museum's president. Included were areas not normally open to the public, including the steam locomotive shop and the street railway equipment restoration shop. After an excellent box lunch, catered by Union, Illinois' three-star restaurant, members were free to ride various rail equipment, including a 1906 Chicago trolley car and vintage North Shore interurban cars. Saturday evening was a panel presentation on Sources and Techniques in Railroad History.
Sunday morning was the Annual Meeting of Members and breakfast. A program was presented by Mike Blasczak of the Chicago Chapter on the rail corridor development project in the Pacific Northwest.
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