Doug's Railroad Stuff

FAQ

Latest update March 10, 2010

Created December 26, 2007

March 10, 2010:

As I need to program more CDs, I am changing the INDEX.HTM so that the index pages (high lighted in green) also have the first few letters of the railroad name. Two users asked for this change.

October 2, 2009:

I have finished converting all PDF files to html/JPG format. I no longer offer PDF formats.

Any offering that is more than 6 CDs (I had 3 of 6, 1 of 7, and one of 9) have been converted to DVD in the same data format used on CDs.

Due to the occurance twice this week (May 15, 2009) of a buyer reporting not having received an item from me (one waited 4 months and one waited 6 months and I have records that the items were shipped but no records that they were received), all future sales will be final and assumed satisfactory after 60 days from the sale date unless you contact me about a missing order by the 60th day.

Q: What is ORER?	The Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) is a detailed listing of all interchange equipment so that foreign road equipment can be determine for filling needs. This is true for run-through passenger equipment as well as freight equipment. This frequently has Gross weight, light weight, inside dimensions, maximum loading, outside dimensions, brake types and lots of other details for the equipment. Non-interchange non-revenue equipment (locomotives, MOW, caboose, etc.) are frequently just grand totals and not itemized but car series numbers. A special caution about what is printed in the ORER. The railroads paid to have their items printed in here. The narrow gauge Gainesville Jefferson & Southern never had narrow gauge interchange with its neighbors (all standard gauge) so it never published any narrow gauge information for its 50-odd mile line. The narrow gauge Roswell Railroad was about 15 miles long and was also isolated by being narrow gauge. However it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Railroad (SRR) and so had its narrow gauge equipment listed in the ORER under the SRR section. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad not only listed its standard gauge roster but also its narrow gauge roster and a rather complete section on the narrow gauge passenger equipment. So, if your railroad was small, there could be a lot or no information in this volume about the rolling stock used. This was first published around 1886 and is still being published today.
Q: What is OG or Official Guide?	The Official Guide of the Railways is often called the Official Guide (OG) of the Traveler's Official Guide was the reference for all railroad schedules (passenger until the 1960's when freight schedules started to appear in the Guides). After the mid-1970's, there were two official guides, one for passenger and one for freight schedules. This schedules and this reference can be thought of as the travel agent/airline computer system that we used today for booking travel via airlines. Although it says "of the Railways" in the title, I have found stage coach companies (1888 era), early airlines, packet boat, steam ship, barge and most any kind of travel schedule in these books. In the more recent volumes, it includes items from North and Central America (railroad) and frequently the British isles. Steam ship companies are frequently all routes interconnected to the US and feeder lines (non-US) that are direct connections with the US lines. There are often maps of railroads from the Interstate Railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Sometimes flagship passenger train consists are shown. This was first published around 1868 and is still being published today.
Q: What is ORL?	The Official Railway List (ORL) is a document that lists most every railroad and a quick synopsis of the line. Gauge, miles operated total number of locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars, and people who head major departments. It also has details for logging railroads that I have not seen anywhere else. The ORL also contains lots of detailed information about how a switch is built, wheel profiles, coupler drawings and many other details of interest. I have only seen one issue - 1888.
Q: What is ORPTE?	The Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment (ORPTE) is similar to the ORER. Any railroad who paid to have its information added into the document has a section detailing how all its passenger equipment is configured. This includes length, width, height, car type (RPO, coach Pullman 10-6 or 11-1, etc.), if it has air conditioning (how it is provided - ice, electrical, steam ejector, etc.), number of toilets, and many other items. It also includes per diem for the use of any car by non-owning roads. The ORPTE was started in 1943 and I have not seen a copy dated after 1971 (creation of Amtrak).
Q: What is ROG?	The Rand NcNally Official Railway Guide (ORG) was a competitor to the OG. It is usually smaller than the OG and so does not always have as much information about schedules as does the OG.
Q: What is ARG?	The American Railway Guide (ARG) was an OG like publication that was around prior to the OG's first edition in 1868.
Q: What is APPLE?	This is Appleton's Rail Road and Steam Ship Companion. It was a competitor to ARG. This is more of a traveler's guide book with sights and history of items in the document. The book has 28 maps and many lithographs. It has trip lengths, fares, construction costs, and many other items of interest concerning rail roads, steam ships, packet boats, stage coaches, canal boats and the like. The information is referenced by company and location.
Q: How do I checkout from e-Bay if I want to pay by check or money order?	To compete the purchase of the item you want to buy on e-Bay, follow these steps: 1) Go to My e-bay 2) Go to Items I've Won 3) Click on the PAY NOW button 4) Check off the appropriate payment method at the bottom 5) Click the CONTINUE button 6) All shipping and mailing information is now available to you.  Click the EMAIL INFORMATION TO SELLER button to complete the transaction.
Q: eBay's checkout buttons are confusing. How do I order multiple different items?	eBay uses the button "Buy It Now" for what everyone else calls "Put In Shopping Cart". eBay uses the button "Pay Now" for what everyone else calls "Checkout".
Q: Do you do all the scanning yourself?	I do all the scanning myself. They are 150 DPI. If you want/need them at a higher DPI, I still have the originals and can rescan them for a fee to 300 DPI or higher. Some CDs have already had some pages scanned to higher densities. They are included on the releases. Some of the track charts are done at 200 DPI.
Q: Why are some CDs PDF and some JPG format? Q: Why are the PDF menus hard to use? Q: Have you responded to customer input and changed your CD format?	I originally scanned everything at 150 DPI JPG format. As the number of CDs required increased, I wanted to keep my costs down and so I used a format converter to change JPG to PDF one page at a time. I can not afford Adobe Acrobat so I can not put multiple pages in a single PDF document. This was very cumbersome and so I developed some programs that generated an HTML (web page) menu system that helped navigate through the mass of files. However it was not the final form. Several comments from buyers wanted a way to page through the book even if it took more CDs. So I changed to an HTML menu with the ability to "flip" through pages and the scans are back in the original JPG format. I have converted all the CDs that still had full JPG scans back to the JPG format and I get very few complaints. The items in the 1890s are basically the PDF era of my CDs. Some are JPG. I am including scans of both types of files. To convert PDF back to JPG, I loose image quality (96 DPI) so I do not intend to change the PDFs back to JPGs. The only way to do this and retain the image density is basically to rescan the raw book. I have converted all PDF offerings to JPG as of March 10, 2010. I have one book that was scanned by another and placed into PDF. The information in the PDF is so little that a JPG is not possible. I no longer offer the 1918 Poor's CD. I tried offering the 1918 Poor's as the only PDF CD. I lost a couple of customers who did not like the format.
Q: Can the CDs be searched?	No. These are scans of every page and insert of the book. These are not text documents.
Q: What quality is the text?	The first scans were done at 150 DPI for crisp reproduction. Several of the older books were scanned for my own book. The sections I needed were done at 600 DPI. Some of the newer and shorter items I have been scanning are done at 200 and 300 DPI.
Q: Can the scans be printed?	Yes. Both PDF and JPG formats can be printed.
Q: Are samples available of the scans on the CDs?	Yes. I have several pages of scanned books I am willing to send out as samples. My web site also has sample scans for most, if not all, offerings. If you find something missing, please let me know.