Railroad publications --almost free

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

September 8, 2004

Hello, all:

Please forgive the broadcast message format.  However,
I am wondering if you or someone you know is willing
to browse back issues of railroad publications for the
Railway Mail Service Library (RMSL).

The RMSL has received many donated boxes of recent
years railroad publications.  I'm hoping to find one
or more people who are willing to browse through them
for me, to separate what can be disposed of versus
what should be retained for the RMSL.

The RMSL retains any magazine or book that has any
significant mention of Railway Post Offices, or
several pictures where they are visible.  These are
put into manila folders, labeled with publication
data, then filed alphabetically by subject.  If you or
someone you know is willing to go through them and
separate out the RPO-related ones, that person can
keep any others that have articles of interest.

For anyone willing to do this, I could periodically
drop off boxes for you to peruse at home.  The other
approach is that you stop by Boyce station on a
weekend to pick up and drop off materiel when
convenient for you.  This project has no time
requirements, so it can be a fun alternative to
watching sitcom re-runs in the comfort of your home.

If you prefer coming to Boyce station on a weekend to
work on this project, you have the advantage of a
refrigerator with complimentary soft drinks and
snacks, plus photo opportunities for passing Norfolk
Southern freight trains.  There is a system under
development that allows you to know when trains are
approaching the station, plus a radio monitoring the
road frequencies.  Bring your laptop; if it is
wireless, you can link to the Internet while inside
the station or in the adjacent parking lot.  That web
access is complimentary, but requires that you contact
Peter Furnee in advance of a visit for a password to
access the broadband router.  Once you have it, you're
able to access the wireless router during any later
visit, day or night.

Returned materials to the RMSL will be magazines
placed in labeled folders --I'll provide the format
guidelines for labeling as well as the manila file
folders-- plus the remainder of the publications that
you do not want for yourself.  It will help if the
surplus publications brought back are sorted by name
and grouped by year.  These will be eventually sold on
eBay to raise funds to pay for station maintenance
expenses.  This is another project for volunteer
assistance, for which the RMSL will allow the person
listing the publications to withold a 25 percent
commission of the closing bid.

I appreciate your courtesy in reading this note. 
These are long term projects.  If you or an
acquaintence don't have time to participate now but
may be able to in the future, please contact me later
on.

Best wishes,

Frank

=====
Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc.
f_scheer at yahoo.com
(202) 268-2121 - weekday office
(540) 837-9090 - weekend afternoons 
in the former N&W station on VA rte 723 
117 East Main Street 
Boyce  VA  22620-9639