Six years ago I posted my
first Blog article under the banner "Oil-Electric" Now, with almost 700 articles submitted, I have racked hundreds of hours
writing and scouring the Internet mining information to support each
article.
Rather than kicking back in a recliner with a cool one, I can
be found at the keyboard, often up to 3 or 4 a.m. doing what I love to
do: explore and learn.
It has been quite a ride for this septuagenarian.
I became a ferroequinologist at age 14. In 1957, we moved from Seattle to Prince Rupert British Columbia. My Dad was Chief Engineer on the Alaska British Columbia (ABC) tug Comet.
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ABC was a subsidiary of Puget Sound Tug & Barge, Seattle, towing a 24 car (40' cars) rail barge between Prince Rupert and Ward Cove (Ketchikan) Alaska. Supplies to the paper mill; back haul kraft paper bundles via Canadian National and connecting lines to Rome, Georgia.
The Blog was born out of a frustration with a "premier" photo posting web site, who believes railroading only occurs on bright sunny days, with perfect lighting, enforced with a plethora of inconsistent reasons for rejecting photos.
Expressing my frustration to the author of "
Wet Rails," Kurt suggested, "Why not write a Blog? That way, you can
always accept your photos!"
The rest is history.
Rejected Header design
Thank you Kurt for your encouragement, and thank you my readers for your continued interest and support.
Robert in Port Townsend.
5 Comments - Click here:
It's always good to hear 'why I blog' stories, Robert. I think all bloggers are subject to frustrating events that have propelled us into the blogosphere, where we tend to stay until we get the frustration out of our system. That sometimes takes years. During that time, we actually enjoy it, come across other bloggers and achieve (non-drug-induced) euphoric highs everytime we post.
Congratulations on your milestone, and full speed ahead!
Eric Gagnon
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
http://tracksidetreasure.blogspot.ca
Thank you, Eric. Most of my career involved writing - Instructional Designer. I love the challenge of reading a paragraph and asking "does this make sense? Does it inform? Is it clear?"
The most frightening event for me, was spinning a piece of paper into the typewriter, confronting a blank space ...
Congratulations, Robert, and I look forward to many more years of your blogging.
I too was frustrated by that particular site, and in fact deleted my account and my photos from there.
Thanks, Steve. My defining moment with them came when a photo I submitted of a CNR freight in a downpour on the Skeena was rejected: "Dark, lack of detail, yadda-yadda."
Followiing several heated exchanges with the "Screener," I got an uneasy feeling, and down loaded all my photos with descriptions (100 plus files) plus the ONLY period PGE they could exhibit. It took 'till 5 a.m.
Later that day, I returned to the scene of the crime, and sure enough, they had deleted my account!
And I have been blocked from that site to this day!
Thank god I followed my instincts ....
Happy birthday O-E.
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