Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to share your railroad related societies and clubs. We really have a small community here, but it's filled with decent people at least. I never thought of joining such societies because I always assumed they were more social-obligations and to be fair I don't have a high opinion of rail fans, no offense. But now that I realize I can join and enjoy such a treasure trove of information offered, I'm not holding back.
- The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society: Joined at the beginning of the year. High quality quarterly publication with lots of great details and info. I very much do intend to go to their annual meetings. Unfortunately I missed their 50th held in Altoona this year. It seems like a decent community. I currently belong to the national organization, but I'm thinking about joining the local chapter. I've yet to see any signs about people freaking out from membership dropping due to the aging of the community. With projects like the T1 Trust and it's connections to the museums in Altoona and Strasburg, I'm confident this society has ways to go. Edit: Maybe I spoke too soon. Came across an editors message in an issue from 2010, mentioning how they're concerned about their pipeline of content no longer being as full. Ironically this is right after they approved increasing the publication from 64 to 84 pages. Maybe they're trying to hurry up and publish as much as they can. Can't be too surprised after 200-some issues though, I just hope I can get my hands on the digital copies of the older issues on CD (they're currently out of stock)
- The Reading Company Technical & Historical Society:Doesn't seem to be as big or well funded. They have the Bee Line publication. I've ordered a few back issues to see what they're like. (Edit:Spoke too soon again. Just arrived. As expected, their length is based on the length of the enclosed articles as opposed to a set page number like The Keystone. No color either, but I can't speak for the most recent issues.) I plan on visiting their museum in Hamburg hopefully this fall and I'll try to learn about the society there. I know they want volunteers, but I live kind of far from their museum. From what I heard, they do an absolute fantastic job giving tours of their yard.
- Anthracite Railroads Historical Society: I followed this group on Facebook for the pictures. I didn't know much about their actual organization because their website had connection issues with the VPN servers I use. Didn't even know they had their own publication. Garbage online community though. I'll give some of their back issues a try. Their monthly meetings are relatively close by, but I'm hesitant to go.