All ERA members receive an annual issue of Headlights, America’s premier journal dedicated to light rail transit, subways, interurbans, electric railroads and other forms of electric transportation around the world. Each full-color, ad-free issue is packed with in-depth coverage contributed by leading writers and photographers in the transit field.

Prior to the May-June 1996 issue of Headlights, there were no digital files at all for any of the photos and text printed during the previous 60 years. Then as now, printed copies of old Headlights have to be scanned by hand and the images assembled in Adobe Acrobat to create PDFs. Thanks to the ongoing work of ERA Director Jeff Erlitz, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin, we have been able to add downloadable PDFs of many pre-digital ERA publications.

When First Vice President Sandy Campbell succeeded Arthur Lonto as editorial and design director of Headlights in 1996, the first thing he did was end the ERA’s age-old tradition of producing the magazine using pasteups and mechanicals. Adobe Indesign (and before 2002, QuarkXPress) is used to output digital files for printing and creating PDFs. There is now instant access to any article written and any photo printed during the last quarter century.