50,000 Views

50,000 views . . . that's how many times pages on this blog have been viewed since I started in July, 2009.

Amazing.

Like most bloggers, I had low expectations when I started the blog. Since I like model railroading, and I like to write, it seemed like a natural thing to do. All I wanted to do was create a visual and written record of my layout, along with my thoughts and reflections about the hobby and a few other things. If anyone else wanted to read it, that was a bonus.

As it turns out, the blog has become like my own mini-magazine or book. Very few modellers can be like Tony Koester, and have a publisher create an entire book about his layout. For most of us, a blog will have to suffice. And that's OK.

Of course, 50,000 views is nothing compared to what many other blogs and websites get. But it's still pretty big for me.

What's really cool is being able to share my modelling with visitors from around the world. My layout may be in a basement in Canada, but people from the U.S., Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Russia, New Zealand and Switzerland can "visit" it.

Some people say that the Web will be the death of model railroad magazines. As someone who works very part time for Canadian Railway Modeller, I am not unsympathetic to that view. Yet very few people could ever hope to be published in the model railroad press; there aren't enough magazines, or enough pages, to hold everything that could be said about the hobby.

Plus, most of us aren't modelling at a high enough calibre to receive that kind of editorial attention.

That's where a blog comes in. It gives me a creative outlet, and a way to share my modelling with others. Unlike my regular writing at work, it's also a release, a fun way to use my gift that isn't scrutinized, discussed or debated. Nobody writes a letter to the editor about my blog saying I'm completely and utterly out of my mind!

So, to you, thanks for visiting. It's a pleasure and a privilege to have you stop by and visit the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision.

And please feel free to come back.