This new organization bears watching. Erie Lackawanna is one railroad that has a VERY devoted following of true fans. These fans are not the kind of folks who want to sit back and "watch the movie" as it were. and the ELDCPS is, for the first time in North America making a SERIOUS attempt to totally recreate a crack passenger train of one of the great railroads. The EL deserves this kind of "hands on" involvement. I wish the ELTHS well but having too many organizations focused on one railroad merely serves to dilute the huge efforts necessary to preserve the whole history of this greatest of all railroads. I would like to see ELDCPS continue its focus on preservation of passenger rolling stock which can be used to recreate an EL passenger train and ONE OTHER organization which can handle the rest of the job of perserving the history of EL. Ideally, this organization would be democratic and at the same time capable of serving the scholars with an historical database along with a magazine which combines hard historical data with "consumer oriented" mass appeal material for the railfan/modeler community. Splinter groups accomplish little except to warn "the establishment" that THERE HAS TO BE CHANGE. If there is no real change, the established group will bumble along for a few years and then give up the ghost. The ideal situation would be for the splinter group to build somewhat of a membership, them merge with the established organization, The merged organization woiuld go forward with a combination of board members and officers from both organizations and IMPORTANTLY, term limits for the "Prior Rights" board members. Board members would be elected by the ACTIVE membership (authoring articles in the newsletter and doing primary research on the EL and predecessors as well as helping with the work of the Society in other ways such as arranging the archives would gain you voting rights. That way, the "consumers" would get their magazine and those who are a little more passionate would get a quality democratic society capable of preserving the legacy of the EL. John J. Blair ------------------------------
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