Philippine Railway Historical Society News and History!

~~ 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ~~

Hard to believe really, but it is just over ten years since I first went to the Philippines and started a life time commitment of interest to that countries railways.
Back then Philippine railways were a different hobby.
A search of the internet revealed very little at all, while subject specific sites, other than a very outdated PNR one, were really unheard of.
Heading over for the first time in early 1999, I found myself armed with a couple of issues of magazines, a phone number for a driver called Jojo and very little real knowledge.
This trip saw me visit Caloocan and Tayuman, both far more friendlier places back then, as well as Espana, Buendia and Paco.
Many shots were taken, but as it was just a new interest, I didn't get quite the amount I should have.
Returning to Sydney I soon found myself missing the Philippines and wanting to go back. The return happened, but not for five years.
In the meantime I set up the 'Philippine Railways SIG' (later Philippine Railway Historical Society or PRHS) on the internet.
This initially consisted of a small Tripod website and a egroup (later Yahoogroups), the later of which continues to grow.
Over the years I have met so many people, some have become long term friends.
Through these people I have learnt so much about the Philippine railways, yet, there is still so much more to know - indeed I will never know half of the interesting history that exists there.

About a week before the decision to start it all was reached.
The four founding members who were at Caloocan to look at the BUDA cars are seen here with current RIHSPI board member Karel.
L to R: Karel, Harvey, Nick, Bill and Brad

Its great to take a look back at what has changed over the years.
We moved the website from Tripod to Geocities, then later converted to the use of Blogger. While the Geocities site still exists, it is not updated and will soon become history itself with Yahoo closing down their free website service in October.
We have extended our forums to include other types of Philippine transport, photography, modelling and even friendship based forums.

Things began to really change in 2007 when Bill, Harvey, Nick and myself visited the Caloocan workshops, saw the rusting hulks of the BUDA cars and decided then and there to start a preservation society in the Philippines, which later went on to be what we know as the 'Railways and Industrial Heritage Society Phils. Inc'.
This naturally progressed to include an Australian chapter of this group (RIHSPI-ANZ), which basically consisted of PRHS members. We instantly set about raising the worldwide profile of the society and start taking memberships and publishing a society magazine covering all manner of Philippine railway topics.

Today we are on the eve of some more big changes in the society and, while forced upon us, we feel we will become even bigger in the future.
We look forward to meeting people, sharing information, supporting Philippine societies and generally enjoying the wonderful hobby that is the Philippine Railways.

Come join us!