User:Centpacrr/UP

Generally, I make my contributions to the Wikipedia Project in two main two areas: pro ice hockey in which I have worked professionally over the last four plus decades and 3,000+ games as a team executive, in radio and TV broadcasting including for NBC Sports (NHL on NBC), NBC Sports Network, Versus (VS), FOX Sports, ABC Sports, ESPN, MSG Network, PRISM, SportsChannel, Comcast SportsNet, CBC Sports, Rogers SportsNet, TSN, NHL International, and other regional and national outlets, writer, historian, have been extensively published (three books and many hundreds of articles), and also both served as a consultant and appeared in on camera interviews in two documentary feature films produced by NHL Productions ("40th Anniversary History of the Philadelphia Flyers" 2007 ) and HBO Sports ("Broad Street Bullies" 2010 ); and early North American railroad history about which I have also been published extensively (four books and many articles). I have been a registered Wikipedia contributor since September 19, 2006. In addition to the above topics, from time to time I may also contribute writings and/or images in a variety of other fields in which I have professional experience and/or particular personal interest including aviation (I am also a pilot); early Air Mail; "Zeppelin" mail, "Lindberghiana", and other areas of postal history; steamships; early radio and television; opera (I used to be the head "super" for the two Philadelphia grand opera companies) and classical music; digital image restoration; Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the 1960's and 70's (I spent ten weeks on a traveling political seminar there in 1964); and topics relating to the history of Philadelphia, PA, San Francisco, CA, and the States of Pennsylvania, Maine (particularly  Waldo County and the city of Belfast), and California. Many of the images I contribute come from my various postal history, aviation, railroadiana, and American history collections (The Cooper Collections) which I have been building for more than half a century as well as original digital images that I have created on those and a variety of other subjects. I also contribute frequently to Photography Workshop project of Wikipedia's Graphic Lab offering my skills gained over the years as the sole owner and operator of DigitalImageServices.com. I was born in 1945 in Philadelphia, PA (in which my family roots go back to the arrival from England of my first direct Cooper family ancestor, James Cooper, in 1679), have lived in the area for virtually all of my life, and am a graduate of both the William Penn Charter School (1964) and Temple University (1968) there.

Professional Ice Hockey
My main hockey contributions are in the areas of professional ice hockey history as they relate to the NHL and AHL in general, and in particular to teams, players, arenas, etc, which are (or have been) located in, or associated with, Philadelphia and Hershey, PA, and Portland, ME. I have worked in pro hockey in Philadelphia, Hershey, and Portland (Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL), Philadelphia Firebirds (NAHL), Hershey Bears (AHL), Maine Mariners (AHL)) for four decades as a freelance writer, newspaper reporter, book author, PR man (1976-77 Philadelphia Firebirds), historian, statistician, and in radio/TV broadcasting.

I have written well over 2,000 articles (mostly for newspapers, magazines, and team programs of the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), Philadelphia Firebirds (NAHL), Hershey Bears (AHL), Richmond Robins (AHL), Maine Mariners (AHL), and others. (Some of these appear on my informal hockey history website, HockeyScoop.net, and I am also a blogger on HockeyBuzz.com, the world's most visited privately owned hockey website.) I have also written three books on hockey -- "Conditioning for Hockey: Year Round" (co-authored with Pat Croce) (New York: Leisure Press, 1983); "The Hockey Trivia Book" (co-authored with Gene Hart) (New York: Leisure Press, 1984); and ten chapters in "Professional Sports Teams Histories - Hockey" (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1994). I also wrote the Foreword for the 2016 book in Arcadia Publishing's "Images of Sports" series called "The Philadelphia Flyers".

In addition to my hockey broadcasting work with NBC and others (see lede above), I have appeared in extensive interviews in two TV documentary films on the NHL Philadelphia Flyers: "History of the Philadelphia Flyers" (Warner Home Video, 2007) which was produced by NHL Productions, and "The Broad Street Bullies" (HBO Sports, 2010) which ran on HBO in both the US and Canada throughout May and June, 2010. In my various capacities I have worked and/or attended over 3,000 professional hockey games.

Early North American Railroad History
With regard to railroads, I contribute primarily to articles which relate to general 19th century U.S. railroad topics, the First Transcontinental Railroad (aka the "Pacific Railroad") about which I have been the author, editor, and/or a major contributor to nine books published between 1997 and 2011, and most specifically to the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) from which my Wikipedia username (Centpacrr) is derived and of which my great great grandfather, Lewis Metzler Clement, was Chief Assistant Engineer, Acting Chief Engineer, and Superintendent of Track during his 19 years with the company between 1862 and 1881. My first railroad history book, published in 2005, was "Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865-1881" (Philadelphia: Polyglot Press, 2005; 445 pages. illustrated).

This project was followed in 2009-11 by a three volume set of illustrated large format books on the classic railroad routes of North America (US and Canada) produced by Bookcraft, Ltd of Stroud, England, for which I was both a principal writer as well as the Consultant Editor for the overall project. The first volume, published in March, 2010, is entitled "The Classic Western American Railroad Routes" (New York: Chartwell Books (US) / Bassingbourn: Worth Press (UK), 2010; 320 pages, illustrated) and is an all-color "coffee table book" (it weighs in at five pounds) which contains more than 400 color images, maps, detailed articles, and dozens of feature pieces totaling close to 100,000 words on eight key classic passenger railroad routes in the western U.S. and Canada during the period from 1865 through the first half of the Twentieth Century: the Union Pacific/Central Pacific/Southern Pacific Overland Route from Omaha to San Francisco; Southern Pacific Sunset Route from New Orleans to Los Angeles; Northern Pacific Route from St. Paul to Seattle; Santa Fe Route from Kansas City to Los Angeles; Denver and Rio Grande Western Royal Gorge Route from Denver to Salt Lake City; SP Shasta Route and Coast Line from Seattle to Los Angeles, and; Canadian Pacific Route from Calgary to Vancouver. The second volume in the series (of which I was Consultant Editor) is "The Golden Age of Canadian Railways" and was published in September, 2010. The third and final volume of which I was both co-author (eleven sections on various New England, North Eastern, and Mid-Atlantic railroads) and Consultant Editor is "The Classic Eastern American Railroad Routes" which was released in May, 2011. (Together this three hardback "oversize" (12" x 10") volume series totals 832 pages, includes several thousand all color illustrations, and weighs in at over 13 pounds.) In addition to my four (of seven) books on North American railroad history, I have also written, created, and/or contributed many hundreds of articles, images, maps, exhibits, graphics, document transcriptions (with my annotations), and other materials to our family operated 10,000+ page railroad history website, the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Included among the railroad related images that I contribute to Wikipedia are those I have created that illustrate original period documents, maps, publications, manuscripts, materials, tools, equipment, and other artifacts and ephemera in the various collections that I have built up over the years.



In addition to my books and online writings on the Central Pacific Railroad and other rail lines throughout the United States and Canada, I have also written extensively about the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad (BML) in Waldo County, Maine, a 33-mile short line opened in 1870. In addition to my writings on the B&ML I have also been photographing this line extensively for more than 25 years.



Miscellany




Wikipedia "Awards" or "Merit Badges"
While I appreciate the thought, I do not accept or post either here or on my "talk" page, nor do I post on the pages of other WP users, "Barnstars", project activity awards, service ribbons, or any other form of WP "merit badges" as the Wikipedia Project is not Cub Scouts and klaving nachus is not among the reasons that I contribute to it.

My Related Websites
* * * *
 * The Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum (My family's 10,000+ page website on CPRR and US railroad history which has been on line and growing since February, 1999.)
 * TranscontinentalRails.com (Re my book: "Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865-1881")
 * BMLRR.com (My illustrated history of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad in Waldo County, ME)
 * The NERAIL North American Railroad Photo Archive (I have posted more than 350 of my railroad related photographs and images on this site)
 * ThePalaceHotel.org (My illustrated history of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA)
 * HockeyScoop.net (My historical essays and images on Philadelphia and Hershey hockey history)
 * Internet Movie Database (IMDb) (Film credits)
 * DigitalImageServices.com (My professional digital image restoration services site)