[PRCo] Re: Pgh Rlys Engineering Maps

[Fred Schneider]

In response your query about preserving old documents: because all  
chemical reactions proceed most rapidly in a warm moist  
environment ... guess why man evolved first in Africa and migrated to  
the rest of the world from there? ... you want to store anything you  
want to preserve in a cool dry environment ... preferably under 50  
degrees Fahrenheit and under 50% relative humidity.  Most people  
simply don't have storage safes in their homes designed for that  
purpose such as the one in the Lancaster County Historical Society  
where they store negatives and extremely valuable papers.   We're  
dreaming if you think you can do it.   But don't store good stuff in  
a basement ... it's usually damp there and it may flood.   Tops of  
bedroom closet shelves are usually the warmest place in the house and  
they are also not ideal.   Probably the best place is simply a file  
cabinet on the first floor.   Roll it, don't fold it.   And keep it  
in an acid free box ... you can buy them from archival supply  
houses.   Try Google or Dogpile if you want to find such supply houses.

Now from a practical standpoint, Herb,

                  if it is the item that both Ed and I think it is,  
it has limited value.   The original was created for the dispatcher's  
office in downtown Pittsburgh so the interurban dispatcher could  
visualize the locality from which a motorman was calling ... blind  
curves, stops, signal numbers.   I've seen one picture of the office  
with it over the interurban dispatcher's desk.   As Ed stated, he has  
a film negative.   You and Ed and I have prints.   If it's brittle,  
simply scan it digitally and make a new print ... xerox works.    
Unless you have the original, it probably isn't worth much.   It's  
the information contained in it that really matters.   And if you  
have the original, then we all need a better copy because the  
typewritten stop names do not show up well on the film negative.

And you were sending some of that snow east.  After I planted 40 or  
so flowers last week, it was supposed to be 27 degrees last night ...  
that's Fahrenheit ... in Lancaster.

On Apr 6, 2007, at 4:21 AM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> I have two old maps which are from the Pgh Rlys Company files. They  
> are track maps of both interurban lines from Boggs to the end of  
> each line. The maps are a wealth of information. They show all  
> trackwork, all switches, all sidings, length, in feet, between  
> switches/sidings, all bridges and the type of bridge, all blind  
> curves and their direction (outbound), all steep grades, up or down  
> (outbound), capacity of each siding/loop and the schedule times (in  
> minutes past the hour) at each siding/loop and the name of each stop.
>
>   They are beginning to become briddle and need something done to  
> preserve them before they start crumbling into dust. Can the museum  
> use them for the 'collection'? What can be done to slow down the  
> aging process?
>
>   Maybe Ed has some ideas.
>
>
>   Weather In Cleveland This Week
>   Mon 4/2: 62 degrees/Partly Sunny
>   Tue 4/3: 73 degrees/Sunny
>   Wed 4/4: 84 degrees/Sunny (Set new record high)
>   Thurs 4/5: 27 degrees/Snow up to your @$$
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>