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by Steve Eshom
After my visit to Stampede Pass last month where I stumbled onto the original switchback route, I spent some time on the Internet looking for more information about that line’s history. What I found cemented my belief that historic documentation AND access to that documentation is vital.
My initial Google searches on the switchbacks turned up some basic information on the history of the switchback route, but I wanted more. I wanted a map, photos, and detailed dates of operation. So I headed for the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association (NPRHA) website. Clicking the research button I was presented with a search box…I typed in Stampede. Within moments I had located 3 relevant articles (including maps, photos, and documentation on the operation!) on the switchbacks from NPRHA’s publication The Mainstreeter. A few more clicks and I had back issues of the magazine on their way to my door step.
When the materials arrived and I was thrilled with what I found. The issue that focused on the switchbacks put into one concise article all of the facts from various NP documents, news articles, and previous publications. There was some serious work put into the creation of the article including quite a bit of hiking and scouting to verify things like trestle locations (NP documents included some discrepancies which were cleared up during the scouting trip). In my mind this was just one example of the consistently outstanding historical documentation from this group.
I tell you that story to make the point that we all need to be conscious of historic preservation as we go about our railfanning. Though we may not think it is all that impressive today to see 3 orange Dash-9s on the point of a train changing crews at the Vancouver Yard office, someday having documentation of that act will be valuable historical knowledge. I encourage all of us to carefully document our photographs and include some contextual information about why the subject we photographed is important in addition to the usual who, what, when, and where information. I also believe we should make that information available for indexing and eventual searching like the NPRHA has (technology should aid us with this over time).
Thank you NPRHA for reminding me of the importance of historic preservation!
September 28th, 2006 at 4:28 am
I totally agree. The Internet has really opened research up for the masses, but there is much more to be done. Too many rail enthusiasts, be they pure railfans, historians, or somewhere in between, have their own silos of information that are not shared with others. I try to share as much as I can on my web site in the hope it may be useful to someone, somewhere, sometime.
September 28th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
NP Historians Rock!
It is important, and fortunately many spend time to do a great job. Unfortunately there are those that do not.
btw - Thanks for pointing out the NP, I think I’m going to include the Northern Pacific in some of my research.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
[...] by Steve EshomAs I’ve been scanning and cataloging my older photos I ran across the first railroad photos I took with the Canon AE-1 Program I received for Christmas 1987. Are these photos anything special? At first glance not really, they are just wedgies of BN trains in the snow and gray skies. Going back to my comments in Historic Preservation I can say I’m very happy I did snap these relatively mundane photos. [...]