John Stern Gives Talk

Saturday, October 23, 2004

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.”

The New York City Subway: A Century

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.

• The New York City Subway: A Century

Alan Hannock Fund

October 19, 2004

Alan Hannock, a past ERA president and N.Y. Division 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 N.Y. 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 N.Y. Division. Thank you. — The Boards of the ERA and N.Y. Division

ERA Website Simplified

Monday, September 27, 2004

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.

Headlights Progress Report

Monday, April 12, 2004

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 Ray 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.

ERA Website Adds Search

Monday, February 17, 2004

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!