George, long before it became widely-known that Email, text messaging, etc., were having a negative impact on society's ability to communicate (let alone spell), I decided I would continue talking, yes "talking," to friends and family over the phone. And as long as I'm shooting slides, and magazines are printing on paper, FedEx and the Postal Service are the only means necessary to get material from me to them, and back again. Got three mid-range digital cameras in our family, but as long as magazines are paying the same for photos and text that they were 10 to 20 years ago, I see little need or incentive to spend the thousands of dollars it would take to buy one digital SLR (with the MPs and full-frame sensor needed to match what film can do) and compatible lenses to replace the pair of reliable film bodies (plus other bodies I use for night work) and eight lenses ranging from 28mm to 500mm that I already have. Now that I've got all that pointless blather off my chest, I can only offer a couple of observations. Anyone else, please add your two cents. Just look at rail magazines from 10 or more years ago. Then look at magazines today. Big difference. Different people working at the magazines, different people contributing. Much of this can be traced to one person who drove many of the good contributors away from one magazine, and then did the same thing at another magazine. (A very talented motive power columnist was driven away, as well.) But there's more to it than just that. Contributors move on to other things, editors change, and with that comes a new string of contributors with the inside track to that editor. Another thing for me has been time and money. And time IS money. Just last night, my son was asking me to check the new scenery elements he's been adding to his MSTS Surfliner route between Del Mar and San Clemente. I had to tell him I'd look at it later because I had to hustle to put together a package of photos to FedEx to a magazine that had just called to tell me they misplaced the original photos that were to illustrate an upcoming article of mine. More work, more time, spent on a project that's already received more than its share of time (multiple revisions submitted while the story has been sitting in file for the past couple of years). I still love to get out and shoot, and have all the ambition in the world to explore and report on certain things, but the reward for doing so is just not what it used to be. And if it's not the low pay, it's the short space given in print. Hope I haven't discouraged you too much, George.