Information Exchange

Graham Weller

What do you do with all of your old railway magazines once they have been read? If you don't put them out for the dustmen, the chances are is that you add them to a steadily growing pile kept because they contain that article you just might need one day. Of course when that day comes you either can't find that particular article or just the thought of ploughing through them all is enough to put you off from looking. Over the years there have been suggestions made regarding indexing the information so as to make it easier to find at a later date, but this requires dedication to do this in the first place and what do you index? everything?, or just the subjects that you are interested in now? I was discussing this problem with Andrew recently and he thought that WRG members might be interested in my solution.

Nowadays I rarely keep magazines but religiously cut them up as soon as I have read them. It needs to be done straight away because if left for only a day or two or a week then the pile begins to start! Anyway, it only takes a minute or so to cut up a magazine and extract the articles or pictures that you want to keep. These are then filed away in cardboard folders labelled up with the subject matter. Anything can be used for this, old envelopes, plastic wallets, expandable file cases etc, the cheaper the better. The files can contain any subject matter that you want, for instance I have files for the Isle of Wight, Czech railways, the Forest of Dean, Light Railways and many more besides. Every scrap of information is put into these folders no matter how insignificant it seems at the time, because you do not know how useful it might be in the future. Eventually these folders will become full and then I transfer the contents to Box Files, again clearly labelled up. All of this may seem a bit of a pain but it is much easier to sort through a box file of cuttings than it is to flick through dozens of magazines. When the day finally comes to start on a long desired project, the cuttings can then be transferred into plastic wallets in a ring binder for easy access.

The conversation with Andrew then moved on to what happens to the rest of the magazine that I don't keep, after all each issue must contain lots of information of use to someone. Well, I do sometimes save cuttings for people if I know they are interested in something specific, for instance I recently sent Tom Lloyd an envelope of cuttings about Cornish China Clay workings, a subject that he is very keen on. It would be no problem to save other cuttings etc if I know what subjects people are interested in. What I propose is an information exchange within the WRG and if any members are interested they could let Andrew know what their current interests are. This could be published in the newsletter and if anyone has material that may be of used to someone then it could be forwarded on to him instead of being thrown away. I will start the ball rolling by asking for any magazine cuttings relating to Railways in the Lake District. Over to you WRG'ers!