This is interesting… what if the original renewal was not extended?  There was no reason to extend it after all as it was all time specific information.

The law says any publication that was copyrighted when new and did not renew/extend its protection before 1964 is now  in the public domain.  Google usually has no knowledge of renewals.  Stanford does (after 1950) so I went to look; there was no known renewal for the 1958 ORER. Or 1950… or 1944… or ANY ORER w/o regard to date. That strongly suggests all of these older ORER’s are in the public domain but Google is unaware of that fact.

So if there are any curious members on this list who wish to test this idea, go to Google Books, search for the ORER of interest (after 1926), check that date at this site: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals and if nothing comes ip drop Google a note by first clicking on Overview and then scrolling to the bottom of that page looking for “Send Feedback”.  Provide enough info so they can find that listing and tell them there is no renewal data in the Stanford Copyright database and that the information in the publication was date specific, obsolete after 3 months.  You should get a reply in 2 or 3 days.

I will ask about a 1950 ORER.

Dave Nelson

This is the note I sent Google re the July 1950 edition:

re https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Official_Railway_Equipment_Register/QnQPAAAAIAAJ?kptab=overview.

This is a time sensitive quarterly publication from 1950 that would have been obsolete in just 3 months.  There is no record of it's copyright renewal in Stanfords Copyright Renewal database and given its time sensitive nature no particular reason to renew its protection 28 years later.   In fact I could not find a renewal for any publication date for this series of products.

Please review and move it to the public domain if you can.

Thanks.