Summer 2012 Dispatch

[Rich Murray]

The Summer 2012 C&TS Dispatch is now available

Dispatch Layout 6-12-12r1 .pdf

(2.34 MiB) Downloaded 597 times

[Greg Raven]

Outstanding!!!

This is way better than the primitive printed edition that John Cole is so found of!

I have noticed some inconsistencies, but for the most part everything works.
It's great to have functioning links from the PDF. There are a couple that don't work as hyperlinks, for example, the link to
the master interpretive plan on page 16, and also another link in the 2nd column on page 5.

I don't know if it was intentional, but many of the photos are hyperlinks to larger versions. This is really great!
You click on a small image and a much larger version pops up in a browser. It doesn't work on all of the photos,
so that's why I am wondering if this was an intentional feature.

Even if you don't use the hyperlinks to see larger versions of the images, the images appear to be scaled versions.
That means you can turn up the zoom, and there is nothing lost in terms of resolution. I'm looking at one of the photos
at 300% zoom and it looks great.

The other thing many people do not understand about PDF files is that it is a vector graphics format, as opposed to a raster format.
That means that the text will look good even at ridiculously high zooms. It is the greatest for publishing.

The email hyperlinks on page 19 are working perfectly.

What software is being used to produce the Dispatch?

Great Job!!!

Regards,
Greg

[Greg Raven]

I note a comment in the summary of the SNG article regarding the Osier Depot.
This states there was no information as to the internal layout of the depot.

I was told by John Norwood that he had drawn up an internal layout of the depot from memory, and had sent this to someone in the Friends.
This drawing is probably still out there in some forgotten file cabinet.

I'll post the statement from Norwood's letter if I can find it. His letters tended to be very long. I'll get them OCRed one of these days and publish.

Regards,
Greg

[Greg Raven]

Another note on Osier. Regarding the Section House being used as a lunch stop: The first time I rode the railroad, in the 80s, the dining hall was not used. I don't think it existed at the time. I don't remember being served lunch inside the Section House. Everyone ate lunch outdoors at picnic tables, which if I am remembering correctly were located in front of the Section House porch.

Regards,
Greg

[John Cole]

Me too Greg, I think our first year was 85 and remember being served sandwitches from tables on the porch and having the picnic tables out in the open. That turned into a real problem when it started raining, most of us went back on the rider coach cars and under the water tank to try to stay dry.

[Greg Raven]

I'm surprised you could stay dry under the water tank.
The "coaches" in those days were box cars with plastic seats bolted the floor!

Greg

[Rich Murray]

Greg, thank you very much for your comments! We appreciate them as we are still trying to figure out what we're doing! :)
The link on page 16 might be getting blocked by your security settings. I just checked and on my computer I get asked for permission and then it's fine.
The address on page 5 is just that an address. In the future I'll indicate which.
Now, for the FUN PART. I didn't realize that some of the photos were hot links and in truth I wouldn't know how to do that on purpose. So, Jason our IT Guru will have to educate me. That does make a great feature and where possible will be included in future issues.
Previous versions of the Dispatch were compiled in an Adobe CS5 program. The Friends don't have this program and I felt we could save the expense of purchasing it (~$500.00) by using MS Word. Thankfully it worked out.

[Jason Rose]

Hey Rich, email me the Word doc so I can figure out what you did. It looks like you copy/pasted the photos from the Forum, essentially embedding them. So, when you view the Newletter digitally on a computer with internet access, you can click the photos to view the full size image from the Forum.

That's a very cool unintended feature.

[Rich Murray]

Jason, I did copy and paste from the forum. So we'll have to work something out in the future for all photos including those that were not originally posted.
(How'd you get back from the shop so soon? That's genetically impossible for me to do !!)

[Jason Rose]

Jason, I did copy and paste from the forum. So we'll have to work something out in the future for all photos including those that were not originally posted.

That's easy to do. We can go over the details before the next issue.

(How'd you get back from the shop so soon? That's genetically impossible for me to do !!)

I spent my allotment for the month... and they ran out of equipment I didn't already have.

With any luck, Rio Grande trains will be running over Tennessee Pass (in N scale) by Christmas.

[Tom Casper]

I got mine in the mail today outside Chicago. Looking good guys. Tried the PDF and it loaded and open fine also. Thanks

Tom C.

[Tim Tennant]

Good job guys. We continue to make great progress and adding the Dispatch to the Forum is a huge step. Thanks for all your efforts!

[Greg Raven]

My "official" version sent via email attachment is a Word document. It doesn't look as good as the PDF. I use Libre Office, so it doesn't display exactly the same as with Microsoft Word.

Regards,
Greg

[Rich Murray]

Thanks for the input Greg. I don't see why we can't send the e-mail issue in pdf and we'll address that for the next issue

[Lee Stockman]

I'm new on the block and while logged in tried to download the pdf Summer Dispatch. I was told that I could not do that. How can I see this "back issue" and maybe some other back issues of the Dispatch?

Thanks
Lee Stockman

[Tim Tennant]

Les, I have to let Jason or Rich answer your question about downloading the Summer Dispatch. As far as back issues, we have a CD that contains every Dispatch between 1988-2003. They're available in the Friends Office and they cost $15. We have plenty of them in inventory. For anything from 2004 to the present, please let us know if you have a specific issue or issues. We can track those down. Thanks.

[Jason Rose]

Tim, I can post all of the digitized back-issues here if Katharina or Gwen will email them to me.

I've been meaning to ask about that, but have been busy with other projects.

[Jason Rose]

Lee,

Can you still not download the file? It should work for you.

[Tim Tennant]

Jason, let us work on that. Thanks.

[Lee Stockman]

Thanks, Amigos,
The June 2012 issue downloaded smoothly, this evening.

Lee

[John Dobson]

This is a really useful development! Downloading is quick and easy, and I can store the results on both my computer and iPad.

Are there plans to digitise all of the earlier issues, as has been done by the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington folk for their newsletter?

I'm working on doing something similar for the Festiniog Railway Magazine, but as each issue is currently 72 pages of A5 (and has been for nearly 10 years) there are size problems we need to address.

[Jason Rose]

Are there plans to digitise all of the earlier issues...

Yes, we're planning to digitize the past several years.

[John Cole]

Hi John, the Friends have a CD with the first 20 years of the Dispatch on it from the Friends office. Give Gwen a call to find out if it is still available.

[John Dobson]

Hi John, the Friends have a CD with the first 20 years of the Dispatch on it from the Friends office. Give Gwen a call to find out if it is still available.

Thanks for the info! We've done something similar with the first 12 years of the FR Magazine (1958-1970). All I have to do now is design the packing and get our Shop Manager to duplicate the DVDs. Then we can put them on sale.