Fwd: (erielack) Trains Screws up Again -- Anthracite RR Map

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

For the record, here is what Senior Editor Matt Van Hattem had to say about
 the map and its intentions.

Bob Bahrs



____________________________________
 From: MVanHattem_@_kalmbach.com
To: Dlw1el2_@_aol.com
Sent: 5/1/2009  11:03:50 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: RE: (erielack) Trains Screws up  Again -- Anthracite RR Map


Thanks for cc-ing me,  Bob. I appreciate it!
You’re right, the key  here is the timeframe we chose. We selected the
1950s date because we had good  base maps for the railroads in that era. I hope
I explained that in the  text.
Jim Guthrie seems to  be asking for an all-time map of anthracite road
branches and railroads.  That’s a fantastic idea! Being from the Northeast, I
would love to see that as  well.
But that was not the  purpose of our map, and I hope we did not imply that
it would be. Jim is  correct in stating the map “does not tell the story
that *is* anthracite.” But that was never the  purpose of our map. We wanted to
answer the question “whatever happened to…  [fill in the railroad here].”
We get a lot of questions from readers asking  things like “Is the Lehigh
Valley still around?” It was our hope to  answer those questions with this map
by comparing the trackage that had been  in place in the 1950s with what is
there today.
I’m sorry Jim is  disappointed, although I think his expectations are out
of line with our map’s  intent. Like Jim, I’d love to see an
operations-oriented anthracite map, as he  wishes.
By the way, I looked  at a book about coal cars by historian Robert Karig
to determine what  railroads ought to be included and what railroads should
be left off. I used  Karig’s definition of “anthracite roads” to govern who
we showed. That is why  Pennsylvania Railroad is not on there. (I do not
recall seeing DS&S; by  the time Karig’s book opens DS&S was part of Lehigh
Valley.) We talked about Susquehanna and  decided to leave it off the map
because by the 1950s it had let the coal  fields. That was a judgment call.
Thanks for sending  this along, though. I always want to hear the good and
the bad. And it makes  me think about other maps we might do. This isn’t the
last map of the  Northeast that Trains will run, so it’s good to hear what
other readers in  that area of the country might be looking for.
How are you  doing?
- --Matt

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