Diesel Historical Society?

As I sit here waiting for crewcall to call me, I got to thinking.

If a National Diesel Historical Society (NDHS) was formed - would it have any success or would it too suffer like the NRHS?

Here's my thinking - Diesels are pretty popular among railfans (Duh). But will they join? It seems history of RRs always takes a back seat to current operations. This probably is because of the popularity of digital photography and America's obsession with the latest and greatest.

I see it all the time - people complaining about the diminishing spartan cab -2s... but yet when it comes time to pony up the funds to save one - will the line be as long as the photo line next to the mainline? Of course not. Caring stops at the wallet. Especially when canon just brought out their fifteenth million digital rebel XTIIIIIICIMV model and newest $7,000 VR lens (that all railfans MUST have to submit photos to railpictures.net!!)

I guess the summary is - that perhaps all museums and historical societies are doomed no matter what the subject is. Why settle for boring history when we can watch GEVOs blasting down the mainline. Of course the railfans will complain about all the GEVOs but will always photo them.... while their beloved SD40-2 is sitting rusting away somewhere with no money to fill up the tank.

gp80mac wrote: I see it all the time - people complaining about the diminishing spartan cab -2s... but yet when it comes time to pony up the funds to save one - will the line be as long as the photo line next to the mainline? Of course not.

You are SO correct! This GP38-2 relic is sitting practically in my back yard in dire need of a paint job and I just don't give a crap.

But yet you felt the need to take its photo...

and if prompted, I bet you can recite its heritage.

Please don't jump to the conclusion that the presentation of history is consistently boring, although I know sometimes it seems that way within some groups. There are some excellent history based programs around that the presenters took a lot of time and effort putting together. The problem is that their circulation is limited by travel distances and the difficulty of getting long established groups to host a showing of anything that is not done by one of their own members.

Diesels are not only a topic of technical interest to railroad enthusiasts, there are also marine groups interested in diesels, and collectors of early engines that exchange information about them. See the list of marine diesel articles about halfway down this page, some of them are engines that are well known in locomotive service:

http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/Pages/tugs.htm

I would never imply history is boring - quite the contrary. But history is seldom interpreted to be as exciting as it is. To interpret history correctly we need to acknowledge that history is not PC. Unfortunately most high schoolers are stuck learning about how to make soap for history class, and those experiences will guide them.

A former friend of mine was a diesel mechanic in the Navy. He worked on 567's.

A diesel locomotive makes a great training aid, you can open all the carbody doors on a switcher or roadswitcher, gather everybody around, and do an item by item tour of the machinery. I know of a couple museums that have done this in conjunction with events, and each time it is good for an hour or two of audience participation discussion.

The thing I find most disappointing about NRHS is that they look at a diesel locomotive only as something to pull their excursion when a steam locomotive is not available. They usually board the train and leave the train as if it was an amusement park ride, without taking any advantage of the opportunity it provides to teach and learn about the equipment.

The same goes for the evenings at the convention. I took a look at the events in Chattanooga and saw that almost every evening was "movies from the NRHS collection". It is nice that their movie librarian is a very dedicated person who is willing to haul all that stuff around, but why not have presentations on technical or historical topics on at least one or two evenings, rather than just two presentations on Friday? You have got a group assembled that probably includes some of the best writers and presenters in the hobby, who have travelled hundreds of miles and spent thousands of dollars to be there. So you have them get together to look at movies and videotapes they can borrow to show at the monthly chapter meeting, or maybe already have in their library at home? What a waste of talent.

In fairness to NRHS though, I should mention that many museums also squander their resources and miss opportunities. One gentleman who worked at EMD for many years, Mark Lagomarcino, was very helpful to a number of museums, doing research for their restoration projects and providing them with advice and guidance. I do not recall any of those museums that ever asked him to be a speaker at one of their events, even though he had worked in the EMD Sales Department for many years and was an excellent and entertaining story teller. He passed away a couple years ago. There is another great opportunity lost.

It is very sad that so many organizations in this hobby overlook opportunities to perform an educational function. Historical groups are a way to get the talent that is available in the industry together with the people who would like to learn about railroading, provided the groups are willing to let a few non-members in the door once in a while to do presentations. At a recent meeting an NRHS officer commented "Without us (the national) these chapters would just be a bunch of slide showing clubs." I've got news for him. As it is right now, much of the organization is just a bunch of slide showing clubs.

The current demographic in the hobby (something possibly unknown to the NRHS) is that roughly 85% identify themselves as being diesel fans. Maybe it IS time for a diesel historical society.

A good venue for a diesel historical society would be a short line, such as SMS/Penn Jersey. Yesterday in Bridgeport, NJ, they were operating an SW14 and a Baldwin DS44-750.

I think that the Railroad Museum of New England at Thomaston, CT is likely to assume a very prominent position as a focal point for diesel related activities in the Northeast over the next few years, now that the new shop building is nearing completion. They have a collection of locomotives that provides a good cross section of equipment from their region, they operate regularly scheduled trains and engineer for an hour sessions, and occasionally have special events. And most important thay have a very enthusiastic and dedicated group of volunteers. Other museums that immediately come to mind as being points of interest for diesel enthusiasts are the Illinois Railway Museum at Union, IL and the Western Pacific Museum at Portola, CA.

But considering that the NMRA hosts far more diesel oriented lectures and clinics at their conventions than the NRHS has ever done, the core of a diesel technical and historical group probably already exists within that organization. And in my area, there are a number of active railroad employees in the NMRA who have commented that their interests were never welcome at the local NRHS chapters. So I think a diesel oriented group either developing within the NMRA, or as a spin-off from that organization, is a real possibility. And considering that many younger NRHS members (among the few there are) are expressing dissatisfaction with the organization's lack of interest in diesels, a diesel group may happen real soon.