I am on my way back to Germany (with BA via London, because FINNAIR is on strike, as it was five days ago on my way to Delhi, when I had to switch to Air France). Despite of all travel obstacles, I feel great: it was a wonderful conference, which I had – to be honest – not expected after some pull outs, visa problems and little registration numbers from the “Western World” some days ago.
It was a very vived T2M Conference in Delhi. We especially profited from the Indian tradition and style of engagement and controversial discussions. It was a pleasure to see, how “Western” history of transport and mobility academia did mix with Indian transport expertise. The discussions were more political, contempory and future orientated than ever on a T2M conference before and profited from the self confident, controversial attitude of Indian intellectuals. It was wonderful to see the strong impact of a living democracy. “Where should we go from here?”, was the general question of our Indian colleagues. Thus, the conference, though still historical in its approach, was more applied than ever. I would like to thank the organizers, in particualar Dr. P.V. Goel and his team from CILT, Ms Priya Aurora and her team from Indian Infrastructures and Mr Atul Singh, the new director of the Indian Rail Museum, again and again for a wonderfully organized conference, which will have a long lasting catalytic effect on the history of transport, traffic and mobility and the mutual relations of the participants.

Dr. Garth Wilson
The conference was overshadowed by the sudden death of our Vicepresident Dr. Garth Wilson a fourthnight ahead. We all stood silent for a minute to think of Garth, who besides of many other activities for T2M had organized our 6th Annual Conference in Ottawa in 2008. We publish an obituary for Garth in this newsletter.

Next conferences
After the conference is before the conference(s). In Delhi, Dr. Alfred Gottwaldt from the Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Technologymuseum in Berlin) an myself for the Berlin Institute of Technology invited to our next annual conference in Berlin, October 6-9, 2011. The overarching topic will be “Transport and Mobility on Display”. We especially invite papers on the past, present and future of transport and mobily museums and on the visual identity, message and branding of transport modes, transport companies and travel styles. The call for papers will be sent our in January 15th, deadline for the call will be April 15th. We encourage not only individual but also session applications. In Delhi, EC and General Assembly also welcomed the official invitation of the Spanish National Railway Museum in Madrid (and Prof. Miguel Munoz Rubio and his colleagues Javier Olivares and Francisco Polo). The topic will we intermodality. So far, the conference is scheduled for November 8-11, 2012.

Journal of Transport History (JTH)
In the last newsletter, I forecasted that you will have two issues of JTH in your hand by now. It was good that I did not offer a bet, because now the year will end with only one issue having been sent to you.
But there are good news too:

1. Three issues have already been sent to the publisher (Manchester University Press) and will be printed and sent to you in the next weeks.
2. In Delhi, the Editorial Board of JTH appointed Prof. Gordon Pieri from the Universitiy of Western Cape, Capetown/South Africa, as new editor-in-chief of JTH and Prof. Javier Vidal Olivares as assistant editor. At the same time, the EB, the EC and the members meeting thanked Prof. Lena Andersson-Skog as editor-in-chief and Dr. Drew Whitelegg as assistant editor, who stepped down at the end of their two-year-appointment. Lena and Drew: you rescued JTH in a very problematic situation and spontaneously accepted to take the helm of the ship in rough weather. Thank you for your committment and effort!
3. The third good message is the growing number of submissions to the journal. We are – although still much delayed – back on track on our way to further improve the quality, outreach and rang of JTH.

In Delhi, Gijs Mom as general editor of our T2M Yearbook could present and distribute the second volume of our yearbook in time. Well done, Gijs&Team (4 editors, 30 contributors, 24 referees)! Besides of country reports on the history of transport and mobility, it contains concise overwievs on a couple of actual themes and revisites classic articles in our field. Those members, who have not been present in Delhi, will receive their Yearbook by our secretariat in Helmond.

I wish all off you some rest, peace and recreation during the coming holidays, if you live in a country, which offers them, and a fruitful and successful new year 2011,

December 6, 2010
yours
Hans Dienel