Edmonton and Calgary, the two cities that began the revival of light rail in North America in the late 1970s, were the sites of our 2006 Convention. Our convention headquarters were The Westin Edmonton in downtown Edmonton at 10135 100th Street, and The Sandman Hotel Downtown Calgary at 888 Seventh Avenue. Both are convenient venues in the two traction capitals of Alberta. Our annual movie/slide show was held Saturday in Edmonton and our banquet will took Tuesday in Calgary.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of ERA member Frank Pfuhler, thousands of historic images from our Sprague Library photo collection are now available on CD-ROM. Mr. Pfuhler has produced 48 CDs of high-quality JPEG scans, and they’re available for only $30 each, including shipping & handling. For more information and a complete listing of CDs, see our Sprague Library page or email Frank Pfuhler.
The next issue of Headlights is in the mail. The entire 40-page issue is devoted to the Croydon Tramlink light rail system in London. This meticulous article was written by Stephen J. Parascondolo, webmaster of Croydon Tramlink, The Unofficial Site. As usual, the article is lushly illustrated with full-color (colour) photos by Mr. Parascondolo and Sandy Campbell, editor of Headlights. In addition, there is a 4-page, full-color Tramlink map supplement, a first for Headlights.
Now would be the perfect time to join the ERA to get your copy!
Scott Becker of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has been taking some amazing photos of PTC 8042 and its move from the Electric City Trolley Museum to PTM. Adds Scott, “Thanks to Jim Lilly and crew for transporting 8042 from ECTM to PTM and to the PTM volunteers who assisted with the unloading. The weather was beautiful (sunny and 45 degrees) and there were plenty of shadows to be seen!” While you’re there, check out some of his other great slideshows.
Alan Hannock, a past ERA President and NYD Chairman, passed away on October 6, 2004, at age 75. In the past few years Alan was confined to an adult residence or nursing home because of a stoke and other medical problems. Alan was a leader of both the ERA and the NYD in the 1950s and 1960s.
Because Alan had neither living relatives nor an estate, the Boards of the Electric Railroaders’ Association and the New York Division paid for Alan’s burial expenses. Fortunately, one of our members remembered that Alan’s parents were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, and arrangements were made to have him interred there. A ceremony was held on October 19, 2004, with several of Alan’s friends in attendance.
The total cost of Alan’s burial was $2562. Any amount that you can contribute to defray the expenses would be gratefully appreciated. Checks should be mailed to:
ERA Alan Hannock Fund
P.O. Box 3323
Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163-3323
Please make your check payable to the Electric Railroaders’ Association, Inc. and annotate “Alan Hannock” on the check. All contributions will be split 50/50 between the ERA and NY Division. Thank you. — The Boards of the ERA and NY Division
New York Newsday marked the 100th anniversary of the New York Subway with a special section on its website today. Be sure to turn the volume down on your computer first!
A packed crowd at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in SOHO listened intently as famed transit photographer and historian John Stern and his wife gave a talk entitled “The New York Subway: A Century!” to mark the 100th anniversary of the New York City subway system. ERA Online was credited with helping to publicize the event, and the article on John Stern (below) was quoted.
Before the event, Mr. Stern commented, “I still follow transit news closely through the pages of Railway Gazette International, and I am Honorary Director #22 of the Shore Line Trolley Museum in Connecticut. As my talk will show, I’ve come to have a deeper understanding of why the subway affects people so much: because it puts opposites together such as surface and depth, rest and motion, which we want to have closer in ourselves.”
An illustrated transcript of John Stern’s 2004 talk, “The New York Subway: A Century!”, is available. Click the link below to download a free PDF.
John Stern’s transit images form the backbone of the Sprague Library photography collection. They span a unique period in American transit history from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. We try to find an excuse to include a historic John Stern image in every issue of Headlights, digitally remastered from his original large-format black and white negatives.
Left, Twenty-Third Street Line: Car 809 at SW 14th Avenue. From John Stern’s “Portland Dreams,” Headlights, July-December 1999, page 21.
It is now easier to navigate ERA Online. Transit News has become What’s New and is now the first section you visit after the Welcome page. Publications is now Sprague Library and includes information about our picture collection (see next article). Finally, Membership has become a much more inviting Join the ERA.
If you’ve been patiently waiting for the next issue of Headlights to arrive in your mailbox, you’re in for a treat. The January-June 2002 issue of Headlights has finally been published!
This whopping 36-page issue revisits the Portland Streetcar with beautiful photos by Frank S. Miklos and Raymond R. Berger. It features a full-page map by Sandy Campbell of the Portland Streetcar and MAX Light Rail routes and reports on MAX extensions and Vintage Trolley happenings. As usual, every other spread is full-color.
This is the first issue of Headlights created with Adobe InDesign CS. This state-of-the-art page layout program features layer transparency, native Photoshop and Illustrator file import and OpenType support, capabilities which are raising Headlights production to higher levels of excellence. Previous issues of Headlights were produced using QuarkXpress.
It is now easier to find a topic on ERA Online. We’ve added a Google search button at the bottom of our pages which is so thorough, it even examines our sample Headlights PDFs. Give it a try!
Record crowds attended the grand re-opening of the PATH terminal at the World Trade Center site today. Fares were waived so everyone could give it a try, and Headlights editor Sandy Campbell rode to Exchange Place and back — twice. His photographs of this historic event follow.
Right, re-opening of the PATH terminal at the World Trade Center.
The ERA is proud to announce that back issues of Headlights can now be ordered through our website! A complete index of the 15 most recent issues, from 1996 to date, has been added by Sandy Campbell, as well as a second index compiled by Frank Pfuhler of issues prior to 1996. Free Preview PDFs of post-1996 issues can be downloaded by clicking the corresponding cover or text link. Then, if you see an issue you’d like to buy, our new interactive order form makes it easy.
Indexes for 1983, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992 and 1993 were added today to the pre-1996 index. Thanks again to Frank Pfuhler!
The ERA held a testimonial dinner for Harold Geissenheimer. Mr. Geissenheimer is a former ERA president and editor of Headlights and is an avid promoter of electric traction. He has also held the post of general operations manager of CTA, helped revive the Pittsburgh streetcar system, and now publishes Transnet, an online newsletter about the transit industry.
Mr. Geissenheimer presented a slide show that answered the question, “What is Light Rail?” The dinner was the second in a series honoring individuals who have made invaluable contributions to the ERA and the transit industry as a whole. The first dinner honored Arthur Lonto.
The whopping 44-page July-December 2001 issue of Headlights features an article on the history of the Newark City Subway by Frank S. Miklos. It is jam-packed with historic photos from Mr. Miklos, John Stern and others, and features a map of 1944 subway routes by Sandy Campbell. As usual, every other spread is full-color.
This issue completes an exhausting trilogy on New Jersey traction.
Robert DiStefano’s now-defunct website Subway Web News had a page of astonishing photos from “Underneath Ground Zero” at the Cortlandt Street subway station showing the damage caused to it by the collapse of the Twin Towers.
On March 1, 2002, the MTA began a project to completely rebuild the section of tunnel that collapsed on 911. The project is now finished and service was restored on September 15, 2002. The Cortlandt Street station (above) remains closed.
The following news articles about subways around the World Trade Center since the attack on September 11 were forwarded by John Swindler.