Sometimes you get an opportunity that you just can't say no to. Hi, this is Nick writing again. First, please accept my apologies for the dearth of posts this year. Once you read further you may understand why things slowed down.
In June of 2011, Gregg Ames, the curator of the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, retired. The library began a search for the next curator (the 6th for you Dr. Who types.) In August an announcement appeared on the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society's chat group and this announcement was forwarded to me.
Honestly I was torn about applying. The job, if I got it, would involve a considerable move away from my family and friends. However, after passing on an announcement for an archivist at Norfolk Southern, and being told by several folks that "this is the perfect job for you," I decided to give it a go.
Applications were due by the end of September and in early October I received an email from the search committee asking for a phone interview. After the phone interview some time passed and then I got another email asking if I could come out to St. Louis for an in person interview. Now things were getting serious.
The in-person interview was actually a series of interviews with multiple communities of librarians at UMSL and was followed up by another phone interview with members of the Barriger Library's Board. This was my first experience with an academic interview process and I have to say, even if I hadn't gotten the job, the experience alone would have been worth the effort of applying.
A couple of weeks later, I got a call and was offered the job.
I said yes almost immediately.
I've told people it's like being offered the Captain's Chair on the Enterprise. Who'd dare say no?
So, starting in February 2012 I'll be in the thick of one of the best railroad research libraries in the world. I expect this blog will be moving with me, probably to a Barriger page.
Expect more posts, more research oriented work and perhaps notifications of publications and articles coming out. I've got a backlog of them still gestating in my office. I think I'll be pushing them out into the wide wide world soon.
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Nick, I need help. I rode the Allegheny passage on my bike last summer which got me thinking about the Western Maryland which led me to the B&O which led to a B&O map showing it went through Pittsburgh, which was a surprise to me because I only knew of it as a terminal station in Downtown. but i was able to trace its route across PGH and the Allegheny river from old Hopkins maps through the Allegheny Connecting Railroad and looks like it went to New Castle and beyond by the same route that still exists next to Route 8 (in fact the whole route still exists except the station and tracks into downtown). But there is B&O trackage along Pittsburgh's north side at Allegheny City and there the maps peters out about where the current baseball stadium is now- beyond that is the Pittsburgh and Ft Wayne and Penn trackage and some kind of Chicago railroad. Any of these related to the B&O? I did find a bridge across the river called the ohio connecting railroad and I think the words "Baltimore and..." might have been cut off by the map. Or maybe not. Is that the other route out of the city? How is the book on this coming along? I am at aprochek@aol.com. - Alex
ReplyDeleteAlex, if you can get hold of a copy of the PRRTHS' book on Pittsburgh, there's a map (make sure it is in the copy, it's big and probably didn't get kept in the book in all copies) of Pittsburgh and all lines. That should help answer your questions. Also there should be maps on http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/
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