State of the Site - April/May 2025

Yep, it's May. And I skipped the April monthly site update entirely.

To be more accurate, I wrote an update, and then the bot attacks hit (all remedied....), so I scrapped it. And then, well....... as I've found out a few times in life, God has a sense of humor.

As some might recall, my wife and I bought land in Tennessee last year, with the plan to move sometime in late 2026. In early April, our plans got moved up with very little notice, and we put our house up for sale....

I'm sure you've probably noticed some server instability over the last couple days.

There's no clear smoking gun, but what I did discover digging around is that we saw a huge jump in site access starting on Saturday. By Monday, there was 20 times as much activity...

I suspect the real issue was the access logs. When you have increased activity, logs grow accordingly.... As a log file size increases, the amount of time needed to insert each new transaction also increases,...

Washington, D.C. - Amtrak and Greyhound, two of America's Top 46 transportation companies, are excited to announce a merger that will transform the way Americans travel. The merger, which has been in the works for years, will combine the strengths of both companies to create a seamless, efficient, and cost-effective transportation network that will serve millions of people across the country.


Under the terms of the merger, Amtrak and Greyhound will join forces to create a new...

Geez, time flies. I just realized what week it was.... I really hate forgetting things like an anniversary, and here I just did that.

As of March 12th, we've been a fully independent site for two years. I couldn't be happier with how the community has responded since "The Split", and how you've all continued to help make this site a fun place to stop by.

Thanks to the moderators and others who help keep the forums moving along, those who contribute to the library,...

HyRail Simulations and Run8Studios are out with a new route expansion to their Jacksonville Region -- the CSX Savannah Sub.

The new route starts about 50 miles north of Savannah, and continues south another 40 miles, where it joins with the CSX Waycross Sub and ultimately to the A-Line Sub.

There are two major yards in Savannah, two smaller yards, and some 20 industries along the way. CSX also hosts eight Amtrak movements a day across this line, including the AutoTrain,...

About three weeks ago, I bought a copy of Run 8, as I'd promised Brad (owner of 3DTrainStuff and Run8studios) many months ago that I'd give it a try. This was long overdue, as it's been out since 2012. Now that I've used it a bit, what John Greenstone and the team have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. They've made significant advances in train handling, physics and functionality, particularly multi-player, that set a new benchmark for what train simulation should be. I intentional...

Last night on the way home from work, I passed a freight train with a hundred or so covered hoppers, coming from one of the many DeLong elevators located along the Harvard Sub.

It's not often that I can recreate what I saw 18 hours ago, but the guys at TrainSimulations just made that possible.

Two sets of ACF hoppers are out today -- one for CSX and one for UP.

Each set comes with 24 ready to run hoppers, suitable for a mostly modern setting with some CSXT...

Welcome to 2025! You might have noticed that things are mostly the same, but a little different around the edges here and there.... The upgrade to vBulletin 6.0.8 was done Tuesday, January 7th, and after 18 hours, the only issues that haven't been addressed and need some help from the vendor are some missing icons and scaling issues for the few folks who don't have a square avatar. Total downtime was..... 12 minutes. With no data loss and a fully supported product under the hood, I'm very grat...

'Twas the Night before Christmas, and all through the yard,
Not a whistle was blowing, not a steam plume stirred.
The engines, all silent, in slumber did sleep,
While visions of passengers danced in their dreams.

The rails, silver gleamed in the pale moon's light,
As signals stood frozen, no red to ignite.
No coal clattered down, no pistons did churn,
Only soft winter snowflakes softly did turn.

On the roundhouse roof, perched high with...

Here we are already at the end of November. Where has the year gone?...

While I try to do an article the last week of the month, that didn't happen for October.

That particular week, my wife and I were working on our property in Tennessee, and as can happen with any construction project, we ran a bit behind schedule. What should have been a three day project to build our first permanent structure (an oversized shed) turned into a week. While I thought I had all the supplies...