Moderator: Harold_V
Well It sure sounds like you had a challenging experience.RONALD wrote:In ye olde tymes (the 1970's), I wanted to do research on steam locomotives. In Chicago was the John Crerar Technical Library, it had recently found a new home at the newly built IIT Library. They had a collection of RR materials that went back to almost the begining of the RR's.
Nothing could be taken out, so for a Friday evening or two each month I would drive to IIT, and sit in the Crerar section of the library. Some items were in the stacks, others had to be called up. I brought along a pocket full of dimes for the copying machine.
I started with the earliest editions of the Railway Gazette, using scraps of paper to mark the pages I wanted to copy, and of course stopping to read interesting information. Railway Mechanical Engineer was one of my favorites, I copied much good information out of those issues.
After more than a year of such research, I reached the 1950's, at that time, they stopped publishing any important information on steam locomotives; my reaserch had come to an end. I still have all that copied information, a great resource.
Today, it's real simple to do such research, you just connect up your computer to the Internet, and a world of information awaits.
Crerar at some time moved to the University of Chicago Library because of some dispute with IIT. Their RR collection may not be as extensive as in the 70's, when at IIT. To my dismay, they had sold off much of the RR collection, becuase it was duplicated by what IIT had in it's section of the library.
Just a Thought. 
