Welcome to RAILWAY BYLINES 5:6. One of our principal articles in this issue looks at the North British Railway ‘Pugs’ - those characterful little 0-4-0STs which were better known, of course, as the ‘Y9s’. When we were conducting our research for this article it soon became apparent that there would be far more material and photographs than could be shoe-horned into a single article. Regular readers will recall that we were faced with a similar problem with the L&SWR ‘B4’ O-4-OTs last year - too much material, not enough space (just like the relationship between the editor's waistline and his trousers, it has been said? and on that occasion we asked you for your comments about the desirability of two-part articles. The general consensus was that a two-part article was far preferable to skimping, or as one reader put it: “If it needs saying, find room for it to be said!” We hope you enjoy the first helping of Y9s. Short of any unforeseen disaster, the second part of the article will be in next month’s issue; it will look closely at the locomotives’ working lives - what they did and where they did it.
It will be seen that, among the footnotes at. the end of the Y9 article, is an acknowledgement to the North British Railway Study Group. Several of their members were extremely helpful, generously offering advice and assistance while our article was in preparation. Regular BYLINES readers will probably (hopefully!) have noticed similar acknowledgements in other issues of the magazine. The thing is that;, with BYLINES, we strive for factual accuracy and, with this aim in mind, for certain articles we actively seek advice and guidance from people ‘in the know’. Very often, these people are prominent members of a railway society. We wouldn’t like to guess how many railway societies exist in this country, but it must be into three figures. Honest.! There are ’line societies’ such as the North British Railway Study Group, the London & North Western Railway Society, the Great Eastern Railway Society etc etc - as their titles imply, they are devoted to one particular railway company. On the other hand there are ‘special interest societies’ such as the Industrial Railway Society, the Industrial Locomotive Society, the Signalling Record Society, the Engine Shed Society, the Colonel Stephens Society etc. There are also ’regional’ or ‘area’ societies such as the Welsh Railways Research Circle, and then we have ‘local’ societies - the Bristol Railway Society or the Manchester Locomotive Society, for example, and, of course, ‘general interest’ societies such as the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society and the Stephenson Locomotive Society. On top of all that there are numerous preservation societies. We. suspect, that many BYLINES readers are already members of one or more railway societies but, if you do not belong to one, you could well be missing out. In most cases, I’or an annual membership fee of somewhere in the region of£10-£15 you will have access to like-minded enthusiasts (many of whom will he. modellers) who are keen to exchange knowledge and information; you will also be invited to attend meetings or participate in activities such as site visits, and you will receive the society’s journals. In a number of cases, society journals are extremely well produced A4-size magazines which could put a few ‘professional’ publications to shame. They can be worth the annual membership fee alone! It is, however, not always easy to find out about railway societies - as they are run by volunteers from home, you won’t find them listed in Yellow Pages - and so we try to do our little bit in BYLINES by giving a contact address whenever a particular society is mentioned. We hope this helps, and we hope that it encourages some of you to think about signing up.