Welcome to the official site of the Electric Railroaders’ Association, Inc. Founded in 1934, the ERA is a non-profit educational organization consisting of people from all walks of life interested in the history and progress of electric railways. ERA dues for 2009 are still only $25, unchanged from last year. The benefits of joining are numerous:
All ERA members in good standing receive the Association’s magazine,Headlights, America’s premier journal dedicated to light rail transit, subways, interurbans, electric railroads and other forms of electric transportation. Currently published twice a year, each ad-free issue is packed with in-depth coverage of transit systems, news and book reviews contributed by leaders in the transit field.
You are invited to attend the ERA’s national convention, held yearly in a North American city with electric rail operations. This year’s convention will treat participants to much of what Los Angeles has to offer. Taking place over the Labor Day weekend from Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7, highlights of the trip will include:
If you are conducting research, you may take advantage of the ERA’s extensive collection of electric railway literature and images at the Frank Julian Sprague Memorial Library at ERA headquarters in Grand Central Terminal. The first books and papers in the library were donated to the ERA by Harriet (Mrs. Frank) Sprague and consisted of elements of Mr. Sprague’s personal collection.
The directors and membership committees of the Electric Railroaders’ Association, Inc. and of the New York Division, ERA, Inc. are cooperating again to make renewal easier by offering members a Joint Renewal Notice and Remittance Coupon for 2009 dues (link to PDF below). ERA members and others may also use the coupon to pay 2009 dues to the Light Rail Transit Association and to subscribe to LRTA publications.
Since 1990, the Los Angeles region has seen the opening of 73 miles of new electrified heavy and light rail service on five lines and over 500 miles of diesel commuter rail service from scratch on seven lines. Join us to experience all this plus the light rail operations of San Diego and Oceanside.
Wilshire Grand Hotel
This year’s convention will treat participants to much of what Los Angeles has to offer:
The Wilshire Grand Hotel, at 930 Wilshire Boulevard, will be our convention headquarters. For a full itinerary of this fabulous trip, click here.
Check out the new Photos section of ERA Online. There are Slideshows, something called The Big Picture (you have to see it to believe it), Maps, showing every map ever published in Headlights since 1996, and a complete listing of Frank Pfuhler’s historic ERA Photo CD Collection. [More]
Starting with the second issue of Headlights to be published in 2009, cover dates will reflect the date of publication rather than the year of membership they were published for. Thus the issue published for 2006 memebrs will be tentatively dated November 2009 and include a note on the masthead indicating which year of membership it is for. This will conclude a gradual switchover in dating which began two issues ago by including news current with the date of publication rather than the cover date.
Each future issue will become, in essence, an annual issue. Since yearly ERA membership dues include a year of Headlights, by publishing two “annual” issues per year the ERA can catch up in three years: the second issue of Headlights published in 2009, then, will fulfill the ERA’s obligations to members who paid dues in 2006; the two issues published in 2010 will cover 2007 and 2008 membership dues; and the two issues published in 2011 will cover 2009 and 2010 membership dues. We will be caught up in 2012.
Our current issue of Headlights, January-June 2005 (left), is the most significant volume of Headlights ever published. The cover feature, “Rails to Rubber to Rails Again” by Ed Ridolph, is a comprehensive, two-part guide to the decline and rebirth of streetcar systems in the U.S. and Canada. Part One covers systems from Alabama to Montana. Part Two will cover Nebraska to Wisconsin and Canada. Production is nearing completion on this issue, which will be dated July-December 2005.
Headlights is now full-color with more pages in a single issue than the total pages of past years, often with four-page color map supplements. The current issue is the biggest issue of Headlights ever published, weighing in at a whopping 84 full-color, ad-free pages! [More]
We regret to announce that Arthur Lonto passed away on March 9, 2009. Arthur served ERA faithfully for many years. He held a variety of offices, including president.
Bernard Linder photo of Arthur Lonto at Branford (July 6, 1964)
Arthur was on the Headlights staff for several years before joining the Division Bulletin in 1959. After he was promoted to editor in 1960, he assembled a competent staff and was able to print the latest transit news as well as interesting and detailed historical articles. Starting with a three-page mimeographed issue, the Bulletin soon expanded to eight pages, reaching our members regularly. When I was appointed editor in 1981, I continued publishing the Bulletin in the same format.
Until a new editor was appointed, Arthur served again as the editor of Headlights in the early 1990s. He was also a member of the Branford Electric Railway Association, where he helped build three car barns. He was the manager of the souvenir stand from 1971 to 1979.
Arthur served his country during World War II. He was in the Army for nearly three years and overseas in Europe for 16 months. Unfortunately, he was wounded there.
After he returned home, he worked in his father’s real estate office until it was no longer profitable. Like many railfans, Arthur was hired by NYC Transit, where he eventually was promoted to associate transit management analyst. He retired in 2002.
Arthur and I had been friends since I started contributing to the Bulletin in 1963. I will certainly miss a dear friend.
We thank eagle-eyed ERA member Frank Pfuhler for alerting us to these Beefy-T 100% cotton T-shirts available from the Shore Line Trolley Museum. The T-shirt depicts the 15-bench open breezer Connecticut Company 401 in meticulous detail. According to the museum, the Connecticut Company had hundreds of these large, 75-passenger open breezer cars. Very popular in the summertime, they were retained until 1947 to handle large crowds at Yale Bowl events. We don’t know how many T-shirts they have or what sizes they come in (x-small looks like a given), so call the museum at 203-467-6927 for details.