Railways and Industrial Heritage Society of the Philippines, Inc.

RIHSPI tours LRT-1 Depot

Admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:03:25 +0000

PASAY CITY – RIHSPI members and guests visited the LRTA Line 1 Pasay Depot last March 31, 2012 for an educational tour as part of its railway awareness campaign. Tour participants were able to view maintenance and operational procedures up close, gaining knowledge about how mass transit systems work.

Tour participants got a first hand technical explanation courtesy of the LRTA engineers.

RIHSPI previously visited this depot along with the Line 2 Depot last August 28, 2010. For 2012, RIHSPI plans to conduct multiple tours to various railway facilities in addition to more work activities to entice present members and to attract future applicants.

RIHSPI members and guests led by President Karel Brouwers (2nd from left) pose for a group photo.

RIHSPI photographs featured on new PNR website

Admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:12:18 +0000

Photographs from RIHSPI’s 350 MR Collection are being featured in the new Philippine National Railways website as part of its “History in Pictures” gallery.

The gallery contains several photos from Laguna, Manila, Caloocan, and the Aringay-Baguio line in the early 1900s. The online gallery is styled to look like the photo frames that were used on the 350 MR exhibits in Tutuban and San Pablo, Laguna.

The 350 MR Collection was acquired by RIHSPI member, Jaime F. Tiongson from the United States National Archives in 2008. The collection features the activities of the Manila Railroad Company from 1907 to 1917.

APHTRO : Asia Pacific Railway Heritage Conference 2012

Admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:59:29 +0000

The Asia Pacific Heritage and Tourist Rail Organization (APHTRO) will be having its inaugural conference to be held in Solo, Indonesia from June 7 to June 11, 2012. Everyone with an interest in heritage railways and museums will be warmly welcomed. This is a good opportunity to enjoy the magnificent heritage railways of Indonesia and to learn about the heritage railways of Asia.

For booking and registration details, please visit: http://aphtroconference.web.fc2.com/

RIHSPI is a founding member of APHTRO.

RIHSPI Trustees and Officers 2012

Admin — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:15:16 +0000

The newly elected officers and trustees of RIHSPI are the following:

Karel Brouwers, President
Alberto Nual, Vice President
Juan Carlos Salamat, Secretary
Jaime Tiongson, Treasurer
Trustees: Victor Dennis Nierva, Rodney Orca, and Edlee Tusi

Trustee elections were done completely online last February 2012, a first for the Society. Election of the officers were held a month later, on March 4, 2012 at the PNR Tutuban Station.

RIHSPI mentioned in FEDECRAIL Report

Admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:52:06 +0000

RIHSPI was mentioned in the newsletter of the European Federation of Museum & Tourist Railways (FEDECRAIL) in a report by Kyoichi Oda, a representative from the Railway Preservation Society of Japan.

Excerpts from Mr. Oda’s report:

The Railways and Industrial Heritage Society of the Philippines (RIHSPI), the national organisation, was established just three years ago. In that short time a couple of American-built heritage railcars and a signal box have been restored, and work is about to start on a new project, the first railway museum in the Philippines.

Recruiting youngsters is a common problem for heritage railways in Europe, North America, Oceania and Japan, but many members of RIHSPI are in their enthusiastic 20s – it seems that they have a bright future.

Kyoichi Oda

Mr. Oda visited the Philippines last June 2011 to discuss the formation of an Asia-Oceania umbrella organization for heritage and tourist railway organizations. RIHSPI was invited to be the Philippine representative and co-founder of the organization. This organization shall be a member of the World Association of Tourist Trams & Trains, ensuring a worldwide linkage to promote the heritage and tourist railways in the Asia-Oceania sector together in mutual prosperity.

Full link to Mr. Oda’s report can be found here.