01/24/2015
Let me explain just why this site seems unattended. First off, I don't know how to maintain it properly. Our member and computer expert Lonny Texeira set it up for us and assumed I would run with it, which I haven't. I decided to try and update the site when I read the comment of Bob Richard who last year and this volunteered to help us set up and again tear down our show (exhibit) at the Pacific Science Center / 4th. Div. NMRA 41st Annual Model Train Show over the M.L.K. Holiday weekend. Bob is the greatest and is now a member of our group. I had a large detailed description of things at the Science Center all typed in when all at once they whole thing became shaded and I couldn't add to my report so after many tries I just deleted it and started over. It just did it again but something I did once again gave me the chance to continue on. If it blocks me out again I will post it at that point and hopefully you will understand. We are so far behind in our plans for the group and with a repair shop losing a great deal of our data (before Lonny jumped in to rescue us) we have been floundering in completion of our many goals and projects. First off, we have been coninuously growing and growing daily. The problem is we have not had any imput from the membership with news items and I personally fell so far behind in my goal of six newsletters a year that I was about to go under for the third time when I finally started a marathon attempt at writing newsletters for each and every issue I had tried to achieve. I worked for a couple of months spending so many hours in trying to keep the articles interesting and consecutive. With the tragic unexpected death of one of our Executive Board Officers who contributed articles for the newsletters and without input from the members I was pretty well adrift without a paddle. Finally, I got caught up, or so I thought. I had been combining the Volumes and Issues in consecutive order but the printing costs grow greatly when you make a newsleter more than a single sheet folded to become four pages. As I was just finishing the assumed last issue proof and looking and double checking the date I went cold and nearly cried. I was still a whole year behind. Some of the members have said that they don't care if we send out newsletters, the main goal is to preserve the histories of all forms of public transportation before it is lost forever. I (Al Ramey, Co-Founder and President) have the horrible cat on my back of being a perfectionist and when we chartered the group I set a mental goal of six newsletters a year thinking that we would have trouble deciding which member provided articles would fit in each issue. I was coached by the late Bob Beard, Curator of the Museum of Bus Transportation in Pennsylvania. He said to set up files for each category of public transportation and then disect those files into topics within that category. He said that as soon as an article is submitted to file it and then when compiling my next newsletter to pick and choose from those files to make an interesting newsletter touching on all of the topics we cover. My fears were that everyone would think that the group was basically for bus histories as I have spent most of my adult life driving buses. I still drive them, having retired from Seattle Metro thirteen years ago and staying on part-time. On Feb.9, 2015 I will have completed sixty-two years of bus driving. I have never campaigned for members within Metro so as to avoid that stigma. We do have a great deal of members who are Metro workers from all departments, but we have far more from the general public who have joined after visiting the show at the two locations we do every year. The first as just mentioned and the second at the very successful United Northwest Model Train Club / 4H Model Train Show For Charity which this year (2015) will be held on February 28th & March 1st , 2015 at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe. This wonderful huge event is in addition to a model train show, it is a fantastic swap meet for entusiests with dealers from all over the country. This is where we have the whole show up as pictured on this site. My late sister used to say that if you asked me what time it was that I would tell you how to build a watch, and I am afraid that I have done just that again with this rambling dissertation. So now you know. We are alive and living. We dropped back by about fifty-five members when we increased our dues from $5.00 per year to $12.00 per year. Those were the people you don't want. $5.00 per year to see what you have, not dedicated to our cause of historical preservation for the generations to come. We soon hope to have the container in which we house the show available for research into the thousands of pages of documation we have acquired to date. Then watch us grow. Me not putting out anything for a couple of years or more has caused more people to not send in their dues, but they are the type who won't hesitate to bring their status up to date as soon as we are totally on track. We have made a couple of presentations at historical groups and are currently planning another. We have an H-O scale layout of a downtown type composite area and just above it an historical video of the last days of the Seattle Streetcars is being shown. The two operating streetcars in our layout are painted exactly like the ones in the video and the display goes over very well with those viewing it. I don't think "spellcheck" is working so please excuse any typos. I keep very busy and as this was typed in to quickly satisfy the inquries as to whether or not we actually exist, with me wandering off forever, I now find myself behind my schedule (job jar) for today. Thanks again to Bob Richard and the kids and to all who have liked us. Will try and post some more when I get a chance, that is, if you like it.
Sincerely, Al Ramey, President and Co-Founder, Northwest Public Transportation Historical Group. 1/24/2015.
