Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society

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Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society

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The history of SFRH&MS dates back to the late 1960s, to an organization that involved itself principally in model railroading with a Santa Fe flavor.

SFRH&MS is the world's premier independent organization devoted to preserving, studying, and sharing information about all aspects of the history of the Santa Fe and about modeling its operations, equipment, and structures. In mid-1994, what by then was the Santa Fe Modelers Organization joined with the Santa Fe Railway Historical Society, a smaller group with a specific interest in the history of the railroad. The result: today's broader, stronger SFRH&MS. SFRH&MS owns and is cataloging a sizable archive of Santa Fe papers and artifacts. It works with other who also own significant collections. For historians and modelers alike, SfRH&MS publishes books and other materials designed to convey information about the Santa Fe's operations and rolling equipment and its buildings and other structures. It provides a line of products designed to help model railroaders build accurate representations of the Santa Fe.

10/29/2026

********** NOTICE **********

The last issue of “the Warbonnet” was the final issue to contain paper renewal notices. To avoid confusion with our online membership management system, Join It, which sends renewal and expiration emails to members which conflict with paper renewal notices, renewal notices included with the magazine have been discontinued. You may always log in to Join It and check on the status of your membership.

I will be sending the mail files to JPA, our printer, on or about November 12: about two weeks from today.

I encourage all members to go to https://app.joinit.com/o/the-santa-fe-railway-historical-and-modeling-society, enter their email address, create an account if necessary, and if the membership expires soon, to renew their membership in the SFRH&MS.

Join It also treats an Atchison Group donation as a membership. It will be emailing "expiration" notices for them soon as well. If you receive a renewal notice, check if it is for your membership or for your annual Atchison Group contribution.

While an Atchison Group contribution is optional, virtually all of the Society excluding "the Warbonnet" magazine and the "Running Extra" newsletter is funded by voluntary, generous, annual contributions. Our website, the annual conventions, initial author payments and publication costs for books, and the two archives are just a few examples of SFRH&MS activities not funded by dues.

If you can, please renew your Atchison Group contribution and consider making it an unrestricted donation to be used for any Society activities.

Thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!

You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!

Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

https://sfrhms.org/society-info/join-the-society/

10/01/2026

I almost thought my calendar was wrong, but here they go!

Our new Join It membership management system is sending out membership expiration notices this morning.

If you receive a notice, PLEASE take note of it and renew.

Either the 2026, fourth quarter "the Warbonnet" or, perhaps, the first quarter 2027 issue will be the last issues which will have paper renewal notices included with the magazine.

We will soon lose the capability to generate the paper renewal notices and we don't want members receiving both paper and email renewal notices to be confused.

RDW

09/22/2026

I just checked my mail box here at the house and found it empty once again. There is some discussion in the SFRH&MS Group about why the 2026-03 "the Warbonnet" was mailed over two weeks ago on or about September 4, and why specifically, the issue is available in hobby shops, but has not been delivered to members.

As to why the magazines, including both the first class (Sustaining Member) issue and the bulk rate (Regular Member) issue I have mailed to myself in the Oklahoma City area, has not arrived after all this time: That is beyond anyone's control and is on the United States Postal Service.

Sustaining Members receive their magazines via first class mail. In a functioning world, the members, especially the Sustaining Members would receive their magazines at about the same time as the retailers, and certainly, in a shorter time span than more than two weeks after mailing. Unfortunately, for now at least, It is a very frustrating reality of recent times.

With regard to the printing process, here is some inside baseball:

Ag Press, which until 2018 published “the Warbonnet” magazine and handled fulfillment of the Society’s books and back issues, is a much smaller company than Johnson Press of America which currently publishes, “the Warbonnet”.

Ag Press inserted the printed magazines into the envelopes and applied the mailing labels I printed and mailed to them, one at a time, by hand. Since the process was so labor intensive, Ag Press had to spread the mailing of the magazines into three batches with a few days in between mailings: first class magazines first, the bulk rate magazines second, and dealer copies third. It wasn’t designed that way, it’s just how it worked out, and it worked out to our mutual advantage. Members received their magazines before the retailers.

Conversely, Johnson Press of America is a very large company and is almost entirely automated. JPA has very precise requirements as to when and how the magazine and any included inserts are to be uploaded into their system for efficient printing. They also have strict processes for efficient mailing. Everything must be uploaded in one set of files at the same time, and, as the magazine comes off the press, everything is mailed at once.

In short, and in answer to one of the questions, nobody actually packages the magazines. Digital magazine files and digital mailing address files go in one end, and printed, bagged and mailing labeled magazines come out the other end, into the postal containers, out onto the dock, and off to the USPS, all in one smooth and rapid process.

All that doesn't change the fact that the First Class and Bulk Rate magazines are caught is some sort of postal limbo.

Thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!

You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!

Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

https://sfrhms.org/society-info/join-the-society/

09/12/2026

********** ANNOUNCEMENT! **********

Mark your calendars for the SFRH&MS Denver Area Mini Meet.

October 10, 2026

/RDW

09/06/2026

********** ANNOUNCEMENT **********

I have been informed on this Sunday morning that the third quarter 2026 "the Warbonnet" magazine and "Running Extra" newsletter mailed on Thursday!

Many members received renewal notifications from our online Join It membership management system and renewed. Your magazine will certainly have a paper renewal notice included which you may ignore.

IMPORTANT HEADS UP! The fourth quarter issue will likely be the last issue to have paper renewal notices included with the magazine. Email renewal notices will be sent by Join It. There will be more detailed information to come.

Thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!

You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!

Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

https://sfrhms.org/society-info/join-the-society/

09/01/2026

Mark your calendars and plan to attend the SFRH&MS Kansas City Mini Meet. NOTE that instead of November, the KC Mini Meet this year will be on October 24, 2026.

RDW

08/31/2026

My email just went crazy with membership renewal notices, but I was expecting it.

If you renew using the Join It member portal, and we definitely recommend that you do, please disregard the paper renewal notice which will be included with your third quarter, 2026 "the Warbonnet" magazine. The mail files for the magazine were created and transmitted to the printer weeks ago, so there are bound to be duplicates.

Thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!

You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!

Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

https://sfrhms.org/society-info/join-the-society/

07/01/2026

On the same day I prepared the membership expiration reminder post cards, the Join it membership management system sent out expiration emails.

Some members, probably most, are going to receive both, with the cards arriving after they have potentially renewed online today or tomorrow.

Running two membership databases concurrently to make sure everyone is accurately transitioned to the new system, I guess these confusing things are going to happen.

I encourage all members who have not yet done so to visit: https://app.joinit.com/o/the-santa-fe-railway-historical-and-modeling-society, enter their email, set up a password, and check on the status of their membership online.

If you enter your email and it returns without a corresponding membership, please email me and I will change the email in the system to the email you would like to use. This system is separate from the website and Company Store.

Thank you for your patience and thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!
You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!
Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

07/01/2026

This morning, I labeled and stamped the last of the reminder cards for lapsed memberships. I had just enough postcard stamps to do them all.

As we phase out our circa 1984 membership database, we will no longer be able to generate labels for cards. Expiration notices will now be emailed from our Join It membership management system. The last paper renewal notices included with magazines will probably end at the the end of this year, but that's another story.

If you receive one of these cards and have renewed, the usual caveats apply: if you renewed at the Phoenix convention, I have not yet received the paperwork. If you renewed by mail or using the Join It system within the past two weeks, it is likely I haven't worked the renewal yet, and had to draw a line somewhere. Just gently let me know so I can make sure your renewal hasn't slipped through the cracks.

I encourage all members who have not yet done so to visit: https://app.joinit.com/o/the-santa-fe-railway-historical-and-modeling-society, enter their email, set up a password, and manage their membership online.

If you enter your email and it returns without a corresponding membership, please email me and I will change the email in the system to the email you would like to use. This system is separate from the website and Company Store.

Thank you for being a member of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society!

You may join our organization, renew your membership, or purchase books and back issues at our society website: http://atsfrr.org

If you have a question concerning your membership status or any other SFRH&MS business matter, the best way to ensure I receive it is to email me directly at [email protected] rather than messaging the page or commenting on a post. I don't want to miss it.

Thank you!

Raymond D. Woods, Jr. (RDW)
Business Manager, SFRH&MS

06/23/2026

For those who saw the article about the Historic San Dimas CA cantilever signal restoration in the "Flashes" section of "the Warbonnet", here is the link to the project description and donations page.

The SFRH&MS has donated to this project using funds from our Lloyd Stagner Preservation Fund and encourage individuals to check out the project and consider donating.

historiccantileversignal.com

RDW

Address

1205 S. Air Depot Boulevard , #101
Midwest City, OK
73110

Website

http://www.atsfrr.net/

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