Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Yet another correction of a Dispatcher’s Office article

It’s not news at this point, but for the third time, my article published in an issue of The Dispatcher’s Office, the magazine of the NMRA OpSIG group, was garbled in the publication process. I guess I am a slow learner, as the previous two articles I published there were also mixed up in publication. This time, a figure was entirely omitted, Figure 13, though it  is referenced in the text. And if you look through the figures in the published version, they jump from Figure 12 to Figure 14, which might be confusing to a reader. And one of the Empty Car Bills in Figure 6 was omitted too. The article was in the October 2016 issue.
     I mentioned the omission of Figure 13 in my original post about this article, and didn’t mention the missing part of Figure 6. You can read that post at this link: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/11/waybills-part-55-article-in-dispatchers.html . But I have now had two requests for the complete article, so thought I would post a correct version. I didn’t do that with the earlier post because I didn’t want to be complaining too much, but with these requests, I will now do so.
     I should hasten to mention I have no objection to an editor modifying a submission, including making the decision to omit something. In fact, those decisions are an editor’s job. But when the text and figure sequence isn’t corrected when the omission is made, that’s just incompetent editing. Perhaps I can be excused for doubting that I will be submitting to that magazine again, at least with its current editorial approach.
     Here is a link to the correct article, with all figure materials including the omitted Figure 13, in the layout I prepared myself, on Google Docs:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz_ctrHrDz4wQ3A5M0hxN2ZEdnM

For all who may have been puzzled, there’s the complete piece. And for anyone without access to a print copy of the magazine, here is something to read.
Tony Thompson

2 comments:

  1. Hey Tony. Just finished reading the correct article from your link and really enjoyed it. You mention at the end junction and yard stamps and other things that were added to a waybill en route. I've taken a stab at recreating these and can send you some samples. I built almost all from real examples using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and scaled them down to "stamp" them electronically on my waybills. I was thinking it would be easy to distribute as graphic files or put online for folks to download and use, and I made them so that it is easy to modify for specific junctions, yards, etc. Cheers!
    Brian Stokes

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  2. Great idea, Brian, and I would love to experiment with the stamps in this form. I have also considered making actual rubber stamps, so I can use purple stamp-pad ink and other fun details.
    Tony Thompson

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