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 2010 are $35. 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 treated 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 included:
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 2010 dues (link to PDF below). ERA members and others may also use the coupon to pay 2010 dues to the Light Rail Transit Association and to subscribe to LRTA publications.
Siemens ultra-low-floor (ULF) tram in Oradea, Romania on line 3N. Wikipedia photo by Bogdan (June 3, 2008). Click to enlarge.
The Electric Railroaders’ Association, Inc. is proud to announce its 10th European tour. Tramways in Romania constitute a diverse assortment of urban, rural and interurban traction, as well as modern high-speed lines. Trolley, light-rail, trolley bus and the Bucarest metro system will be explored on our tour. [More]
Originally envisioned as just two parts, Ed Ridolph’s exhaustive guide to the decline and rebirth of streetcar systems in the U.S. and Canada, “Rails to Rubber to Rails Again,” is growing so much during production that the series is being expanded to four parts. All four parts will include news current with the dates of publication rather than the cover dates.
Part 1, Alabama to Montana weighed in at a whopping 84 full-color, ad-free pages when published in November 2008, the largest issue of Headlights ever printed.
Part 2, Nebraska–Pennsylvania, which arrived at Fulton Press last week, is 76 full-color, ad-free pages.
Part 3 of the expanded series will cover Rhode Island to Wisconsin and be dated 2006, and Part 4, dated 2007, will cover Canada. It’s too early to predict how long Parts 3 and 4 will run. The overall length of the issues is dependent on how many appropriate images we can find to illustrate the text, and we’ve been finding a lot. [More]
Learn all about the important volunteers who keep the ERA running in the new Contributors section of ERA Online. We’ve devoted a full page to Headlights Contributors, and another for our Board Members, Officers and Committee Members. A third page, Fondly Remembered, looks back on important members who have passed away. [More]
Then 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]