I have received several questions on how I maintain this site. So I decided to add this short discussion.
When I started the site in 1995, I was trying to create a WEB site that would meet the requirements of those interested in railroading. Based on the comments I have received, I must be doing a good job. With an access rate of over 2000 per day, it is one of the most visited railroad related WEB sites. The site continues only because of the generosity of the people who have donated money to fund the cost of the ISP. I (you) pay to have no pop ups or ads. If the funding runs out, I will switch to the LINUX server I maintain inside my firewall where I maintain a backup of the entire system. The connection speed will be reduced to DSL but access will continue at no cost.
I working in engine service on the Erie Lackawanna between graduation from Purdue and entering the Air Force. I worked out of the Cleveland OH area. I worked the extra board, the Meadville Run and a daylight yard job at North Randall. I operated BLW switchers, RS3, F units, FA units, GP-35, H24-66. See the EL/OPS for information and photos.
I actually have a real job. Even though I am retired from the Air Force, I still work in computer security for a large multi-national company. If you are interested in some of my stories from Vietnam where a I served as a C-130 pilot, see my other site.
I spend a lot of time on the site. Typically, I spend four hours per night and much more on the weekends. I may use two computers at the same time (well three if your count the laptop running DVDs) depending on what I have to scan. I have the slide/negative scanner on one computer and the flatbed on another computer. I have given up trying to do any modeling because I don't have any time left. I guess I'll have to dump the many years of MR, RMC, Trains and RailFan magazines.
My email system is based on a UNIX system. I receive many files as attachment to emails. By using the UNIX system, I feel this protects me from any potential virus issues. I move all image files to my home system and run a virus check. I normally crop and modify most files I receive. Because I crop, I like to receive larger files than I use on line so that more of the image can be used. Because I do receive many image files attached to emails, it may take up to a week for them to show up on line. NOTE - I receive over 100 emails per day. I only look at the subject line and delete WITHOUT reading those that APPEAR to be SPAM. Make sure your subject line reflect the subject. I may use some emails if the subject would be of interest to others.
I also receive many slides, negatives and documents from various people. I scan the slides and 35mm negatives on an HP S20 scanner. I scan all media at 2400 dpi and save as TIF files. Documents and large format negatives are scanned on a Microtek 8700. The separate negative tray permits me to scan without a piece of glass between the negative and the scanner head. I scan to create a file of approximately 10Meg by adjusting the scan DPI. I return all material along with a CD containing the files to the person who sent them. I have received from 20 to over 2000 slides in one package. I can normally process about 60 slides per night. If you have older slides/negative sitting in the closet, consider sending them to me.
All documents are scanned at a normal 300 dpi and saved as GIF files. I may scan some documents at a higher DPI depending on the material. I then use ScanSoft OmniPage OCR to create the text file. I have now gone to creating a PDF file for documents. This process is use to speed the time I have to spend creating an HTML file and to prevent the "loss" of image files that has occurred in some of the older operator manuals.
After scanning the material, I convert to JPG or GIF files for the WEB site. I shoot for a file size that is 60K for the online files. My initial goal was create files that load quickly for people who are using modems. After the material is placed on line, I create a CD and remove the files from my base system. I currently have over 650 CDs. All material is kept in a basic database so I can find any single image file in less than five seconds. There are over 175000 line items in the database.
After the files are converted for the WEB site, I hand tag the HTML documents. I have found that this creates much smaller HTML files rather than using an auto tagger. As an example, I have one document that was 26K when I hand tagged it. An MS application created a file that was over 150K. Lots of no back space "< >" characters.
All new files are placed in the "New Material" section and in the final locations. Most people access the "New Material" section daily and use the archive for older material. The "New Material" section are maintained on line for no longer than three months. Since I hand tag all material, I do make errors. When these are brought to my attention, I normally correct only the final location and not the "New Material" section. The corrections are normally completed on the weekend. I do check the error logs for missing files and replace the missing files.
I purchased an HP S20 slide/Negative/print scanner several years ago. I have run over 60000 images through this system without any major problems. I can't use the print function anymore due to a broken gear, but the slide and negative functions still work without a problem. I am thinking about replacing this system with a new unit. I like this unit as it doesn't have any glass between the film and the scanner head like a flatbed scanner. Any new slide scanner must have the capability to scan more than one slide at a time, like the Minolta or Nikon systems.
I replaced my old flatbed scanner last year with a MicroTek 8700. I purchased this system because of the separate large format negative capability. I can scan negatives up to 8x10 inches. The negative surface is scanned directly to the reader head without any glass between the two. I used another scanner which placed glass between the negative and reader head which produced Newton rings on the images. I have found that the 8700 does not do a good job on slides. The HP S20 does a much better job. The 8700 started to have a problem after 14 months of use and I have yet to receive a response from MicroTek Technical Support folks. It continues to scan but the sound is getting louder and failure is expected.
I have three computers at my work station. I have a home built desktop unit which is the base unit. The MicroTek 8700 is connected to this system. I have one laptop with the HP S20 scanner attached. I have a third laptop which I use to play DVDs to generate some random noise. I normally play light movies so I don't have to actually watch. When I played "K-19" I didn't much done that night. All computers are connected via a 100Meg router/hub/firewall. All inbound traffic is blocked by the firewall and intrusion detection software is operating inside the firewall. I also have a LINUX server running Apache WEB software on the network inside the firewall. No outside access is permitted to this system.
I do find time to go to Cincinnati Reds baseball games, cut the grass and the assortment of "honey dos." Because of my job, I do have to travel. When possible, I will try and place material on site for the days I will be gone. Since I could be up to a week ahead, I can normally complete this task.
George
Last updated - July 11 2003