Chart/Drawing Exchange

greenspun.com : LUSENET : ACL and SAL Railroads Historical Society : One Thread

Okay...you're all going to think I've LOST MY MIND on this one, but I'd like to throw an idea out for discussion. SAL and ACL track charts/maps, and structure plans/diagrams are our most interesting and informative tools. Many of us (including myself) have great track charts and/or structure diagrams that the rest of us would probably love to see. Problem: How do we easily disseminate these documents to everyone in the society? I propose the following solution--in a vaccuum--to brainstorm ideas on how to accomplish such a task. Possible Solution: 1) Each contributor submits to a caretaker in the Society a list charts from his personal collection he'd like to make available. 2) Once approved by the caretaker, the owner will photocopy the documents (a 2-foot by 3-foot photcopy is about six bucks per sheet in NJ) and send them to a central point...like the Society (**Sorry to volunteer you guys for this, but I do so only for the sake of generating ideas**). 3) The Society re-imburses the contributor for the cost of each chart (this removes most of the burden for contributors). 4) The Society then re-sells the charts to members for cost PLUS a few bucks added to cover reimbursements, shipping costs, and make a little profit for further operations. Sorry if I offend anyone here or volunteer the Society guys for more work...that's not my intention. I just want to create a dialog. This can also serve as a beginning for our library (like the C&O HS has at Clifton Forge) which can be housed in our future permanent home. Is there an easier way to do this? Is this endeavor worthwhile? Will it creat too much pain and suffering? Should I just take a flying leap?!? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. JG

-- John Golden (Golden1014@yahoo.com), September 01, 1999

Answers

A more technically advanced and cheaper possibility is to have drawings and correspondence scanned into a digital format. This would also make it possible to disseminate this information over the Internet. I've had many valuation maps scanned here in Atlanta for about $1.25 for a 24" X 66" sheet. The Society has many of these, already. The preferred format is *.tif at 200 dpi. The resulting image can be viewed by almost any word processing or graphics program, as well as by most CADD programs. Any reprographics shop with a digital plotter can plot the image full size.

-- Gary Bechdol (gbechdol@rwhitehead.com), September 01, 1999.

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