EDITORIAL

Five Years Ago…

Do you still remember? Right after the Revolution, there was quite frequently put the question, which, probably rhetorical being, has been quite fast felt into obsolesce. It sounded like that: "What have you done in the last five years, sir (madam) X?. At the respective time, we were amusing ourselves when we heard it.
Now, when there have been more than ten years from those times and - as most of you know better, dear railway men - our magazine celebrates five years of existence, it has come our turn to ask ourselves what have we done in the past five years.
Indeed! What have we done? We have been right besides you, the railway men, in all the moments, either good or bad, we have related issue after issue the events and the changes that the Railways have experienced, we have been "up to date" with the international news…And the most important thing would be the fact that you read our magazine on monthly basis.
That is how five years passed by, while the Railway Journal has regularly appeared on your tables in order to keep you informed with the news from the Romanian railway world. Maybe some of you appreciate our work, maybe others do not… Still, during this entire time we have tried to mind our own business: to write about the railway companies, about the railway men and their problems, namely about you, our readers!
If at the anniversary of one year since our appearance, when we were "making our first steps", we were trying to find out justifications and we were bringing arguments about the utility of our magazine, things are quite different now. We can say that in this five-years the Railway Journal has also evolved, has gained its well-deserved place in the Romanian and international "railway scenery" - big and well-known foreign publications have congratulated us for the graphics and the article we have published. In very short lapse of time, we have succeeded to integrate in the railway life; we have succeeded to make more known the Romanian railway system. As we have proposed, five years that have passed by was not at all a time of justifications, but an action time.
What's next?
We can say that nothing spectacular: we will write further on about the National Romanian Railway Company "CFR" SA, about the other railway companies, about the private operators, locomotive and wagons restorers, about the railway constructors, the TF(Railway Transport) Police, the Trade Unions, the personnel from the management and everything that is related to the name of the Romanian railway system. The main heroes of our articles will be further on you, the ones that "force us" to daily blunt our penholder.
On the other hand, we reserve the pleasure to discover further on that you give us the chance to write about most spectacular matters: major investment and modernization programs, inaugurations and festivities, top Romanian participation to the European and world railway life, prestigious sportive successes, rummaging through the archives for treasures for a long time forgotten by the history and so on. By all means we will not forget to open the doors of the persons from the management of the railway companies, of the Ministry of Transports, Constructions and Tourism, of certain exceptional sportsmen and skilled technicians of Rapid Club or other railway sportive groups. We will not forget about the railway entertainment, railway tourism and its picturesque places, nor about the passionate collectors of…railway history.
Concluding, I can tell you that: the editing house of Railway Journal will continue to make its job, to write as until now about the Romanian railway men and their problems, namely about you, DEAR RAILWAY MEN!

Oana Branzan