I had the impression (from something in some issue of the magazine) that Reid had a job-printing business. Also that health as well as financial issues helped lead to the end of publication.
A bit of Googling turned up this (by someone signing himself "Interlocking," on the "Trainorders" WWW site):
"Rails Northeast -- and its predecessor, PC Railroader -- was published from around 1973 through the July-August, 1984 issue by Bob Reid of suburban Pittsburgh. Most often, PCRR/RNE was published monthly, but at other times -- including that final year of 1984 -- it was bi-monthly.
"The publication was, from beginning to end, heavily weighted on the state of Pennsylvania and the railroads of PRR/PC/CR. Locomotive disposition news as it pertained to CR units was very good, almost to a fault -- just about every CR retirement was listed in the section "Locomotive Backshop" number by number. In the late-1970s, this filled up a lot of space in the magazine.
"There also were three or four issues in the mid-to-late '70s which listed CR's entire roster; Reid also broke down the roster by showing the classes assigned to each terminal, i.e., Buckeye had 10 SD38s, 55 GP38s, etc.
[...] "I don't remember locomotive news coverage being all that thorough for NW, Chessie or the others -- at least, not as good as that given to CR.
"Reid also published the Pennsy (quarterly) Journal for a short time, published CR roster information in magazine format early in the railroad's history (Conrail Power I), and published the hardcover book PC Bi-Annual in 1973. There also was a calendar or two in the early years, and a guide on Horseshoe Curve.
"All of this stuff routinely sells on eBay.
"I don't know what you're paying for the RNE issues, but the going rate on eBay is $5 for issues of RNE. Occasionally, you can buy them by the box at swap meets for much less than that.
"Reid published all of his stuff from his house, putting the whole thing together and distributing it. Some of his old contributors are T.O. members today. Critics will have a field day pointing out all of the grammatical/typographical/layout errors in the issues, but looking back 20-30 years, these magazines hold a wealth of information."