We start yet aother year!

Hello All,

Thanks for checking out the long lost blog for Lets Talk Trains.

Well, 6 years ago C.J. and I started what we thought would be a lot of fun and lo and behold, here we are. C.J. is 'out there' somewhere playing engineer for Amtrak and I am still hosting the show every week. Amazing how things work out.

We have seen a few co-hosts come and go and I appreciate every one that has tried to wing it! It is not easy for sure but some poeple have tried it and done pretty good. Of course there is always the listenership. Speaking of listenership, it has been a steady climb for all this time.

Some things we have accomplished over the years are:
Multiple websites / changes
Adding MP3 to the available listening modes
Adding an automated eMail list
Adding an online Chat room during show hours Thanks for Nathan!
Adding this Blog (now I need to post to it!)
Adding a (sometimes) Survey page
Having the show be International (Belfast Tom, Tim Fischer, host of The Great Train show in Australia, and others in Europe
Having guests of significant RR organizations (FRA, UP, BNSF, AAR, FRA and more)
Continuing to include RR museums and operations

With over 5,000 listeners a month checking in to listen to the show, I could not be more pleased.

I also want to acknowledge the 'regulars': Conductor Larry, Monon George, The Amazing Chris Guenzler, The Official Caller Ken, Alene (LTT MP Detecter), and the crew at World Talk Radiio (Joe, Anthony, Paul, Ruben and more). If I forgot anyone special it is not my fault, it is my aging mind which seems to be lost at times.

One of the most important achievements on the plate is to make the show totally portable. That is have the ability to take the show on the road with all of the capabilities of being in the studio. Having phone lines is one of the biggest hurdles in doing this. Getting the show streamed from a remote site is relativly easy but does need significant hardware to make it happen. Although one survey indicated that a video feed was not that big of a deal, I do want to have that ability in addition to the audio feed.

The other 'biggie' is to set up an RSS Feed / PodCast for the show. Right now we are making MP3's available in the archives and they are slowly increasing in numbers compared to the Windows Media files. The big hurdle here is how to add this and not add a significant workload to the overall scheme of things.

For those of you who are wondering what it takes to make a show happen, it takes mainly a lot of patience. Getting folks lined up and agree to a show date can be lots of fun! it is about 60 hours a month to put the show together, do the show, process and post the show. There are also monitary implications to having the show come off somewhat smoothly. Between the nice new eList and file storage (with a reliable International server) actual costs are running just shy of $200/month. The more we can do without incurring costs or added labor the better.

In the meantime, this whole effort has been a bag of fun and it is all due to the listenership to which I am greatful. Whodathunk 6 years ago we would be this far down the rails so to speak? I know I did not.

So, Thanks to one and all for sticking around and helping to make the show a huge success. I do appreciate it and look forward to at least 6 more years.

I also am making a commitment to posting a blog at least twice montth so be sure to check back now and then.

Thanks! Enjoy yourself 'out there' and be sure to stay safe!

EngineerRichard