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Fact is, half the stuff that was posted back in the day about elephants and such would be deleted today.  Back then with a smaller group, and then only a few that would stray so far off topic, it wasn't bad for the occasional elephant story.  Now with so many members, even if a small percentage would talk about elephants we'd have a herd.

BobC was famous for his "Trains for Kids" program.  I seem to remember that I turned in 3 kids and not once got a train.

OGR back in 2009 was at the Super Bowl.  Only 4 forum sponsors at the time.  I might even have one from 2002 at home.  Will have to check.  Back when I used to travel, OGR's forum was a welcome distraction from being away from home.

Desk

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Last edited by MartyE

I started following the forum sometime in 2001.  I remember some heated discussions and decided not to join partially because of that.  I finally joined in early 2003 because I had a question about TMCC .  The one thing I remember about that topic was all the replies saying how they hated TMCC, even though some had never even seen it.  Basically, I got the feeling if you weren’t conventional go away.

I did get a good answer to my question, which helped me get started in command control.  Wish I could remember who posted it.

...It looks like all of the subjects need to go through a spring cleaning.  Many posts are long out of date and if possible should be deleted.  This isn't meant to be negative but why keep so much stuff posted when it's no longer needed?

We used to prune (delete) inactive threads from the forum after a certain time. It was an automated process. However, in the process of deleting these old threads and the "SOLD" threads in the For Sale forum, we made a terrible error. There was a long-running thread about the Natty Boh Reefer that was very interesting. The OP was Paul Strickland (VaGolfer1950) and he had put a lot of effort into starting and maintaining the thread. This popular, long-running thread got deleted! The word "sold" had been added to the title, and the automated process of deleting the "SOLD" threads on the For Sale forum got this one! Paul has never forgiven me and I don't blame him. He has not posted here since December of 2019.

We don't have to pay extra for disc space because its very cheap. You can buy a 4 Terabyte drive at retail now for about $100. Just a few years ago that kind of disc space would have cost thousands of dollars. So, we no longer delete old threads, however we do close them after six months with no activity.

If you ever run across an old thread that you would like to see re-opened, report the thread to the moderators and ask that it be re-opened.

I was member number 72 here in the Fall of 2000 with my original handle, Conrail4Me. I was sixteen at the time, I turn 37 in September. I have spent over half my life on this forum.

The early days were indeed different. There were times when 100 replies to a thread were a big deal and topics could stay on the front page for weeks, not hours. There were topics such as the original Coffee Pot / Caboose thread, Hoenwald, and a myriad of other fun and whimsical topics which usually don't pop up these days or would not fit well with the current forum structure.  Something that I have always felt contributed to the growth of the forum was the speed at which the industry was moving in the early 2000s. At that time, the print magazines were still the only real source of hard news and it could take months for something to make it into print. This forum I believe contributed to speeding up the "news cycle" in the industry. I remember threads about the early DCS development and delivery, Lionel's dive into the deep end of the scale model pool (The Challenger and Acela come to mind), and much more.

I've spent countless hours here, and I'm grateful for ALL that OGR has done and continues to do to keep this forum alive and relevant. My sincere thanks to @Rich Melvin who has busted his tail more than a few times putting up with software issues, unruly forum members, and the great Lashup debate. In all seriousness, Rich has done A LOT to make the mechanics of this place function and he along with the rest of the OGR team deserve kudos.

Last edited by Notch 6

The AOL boards were the Wild West, with a lot of know-it-alls, who were decidedly lacking in factual knowledge, but making up for it in sheer bluster. When the Forum started, a lot of AOLers migrated, but didn’t realize there was a Sheriff, who was big on law and order. Oops! See ya!

Quick AOL story - one of the regulars was a rodeo cowboy, who was drinking, and playing with his trains, the night before he was flying to compete on the rodeo circuit. He drank enough to fall asleep, and crawled off to bed. Flew out the next morning, and when he returned home 2 WEEKS later, he found his trains still running!

Last edited by Mark V. Spadaro

I started viewing the forums around 2005 or so, finally joining in 2008. The early days were a bit crazy to the point where I hesitated entering some conversations for fear of some snarky remarks.

Nice to see that 99% of today's conversations remain civilized!

Even now, I still learn something new everyday - thanks!

As I note in my Profile, I originally joined the Forum in 2001 and was around for 4-5 years but eventually went on "a sabbatical" for a few years.  I've been back full-time with no interruption since 2011.

I still recall well the early days and two categories of posts really stick in my mind. The first was what I would call the "TMCC versus DCS wars" as DCS was in testing then and would be released soon. The animus was real and got quite heated. The second topic was the York Meet. That, as we know, is still discussed in detail today.

Final verdict: The OGR Forum is THE place to be online for all things trains!

Last edited by johnstrains

The AOL boards were the Wild West, with a lot of know-it-alls, who were decidedly lacking in factual knowledge, but making up for it in sheer bluster. When the Forum started, a lot of AOLers migrated, but didn’t realize there was a Sheriff, who was big on law and order. Oops! See ya!

I think I came in from the TRainNet forum on CompuServe.  It was definitely tame there.  Gary Moreau even came on there occasionally and chatted.  I believe there are still a few of us here on OGR.  We used to do a "meet at the fry stand" at York.

I have to echo Derek's praise of the staff of OGR for keeping this the place to be. Also the membership. Nowhere is there a bigger knowledge base and a group of folks that are willing to help. 

Last edited by MartyE

Having lurked and then joining almost since the beginning, I can definitely say that I have a true appreciation for this forum's moderation.  It really was dicey at the beginning, with a number of former AOL members that could not play well in the sandbox.  The forum moderators took control and ensured that this place remains the best forum to talk about trains and train related issues.

....there's Allan in the 2nd row with a big smile....maybe he can pinpoint it.....

Peter

Ah, the good old days! I remember it well! It was, indeed, the Fall 2000 York Meet. . . seven years before I joined the magazine as Editor-in-Chief. I was among the very early forum members because I had already been very active with the original AOL forums that pretty much were THE place to be in the early days of social media , but do not recall the exact year or date.

Last edited by Allan Miller

George......here's a picture of the 1st Forum meeting.....Fall 2000? I'm in the back with my son, Charles.....he was born in August 92....8 years old looks about right.....

....there's Allan in the 2nd row with a big smile....maybe he can pinpoint it.....

York2000

Peter

Yup, I'm in there. Back row on the left with the baseball cap. I'm not certain I lurked for any length of time before joining up, as my Y2K join date, and my appearance above, will attest. I may have jumped aboard as soon as it opened .

Pretty certain everything in my collection then is still with me now.

---PCJ

@Rich Melvin posted:

We don't have to pay extra for disc space because its very cheap. You can buy a 4 Terabyte drive at retail now for about $100. Just a few years ago that kind of disc space would have cost thousands of dollars. So, we no longer delete old threads, however we do close them after six months with no activity.

Definitely grateful for this. A fair number of old "What did you get at York?" threads have allowed me to pin down purchase dates for quite a few of the pieces in my collection I'm adding to my electronic inventory.

I wonder if any of the PhPBB forum posts exist in the Internet Archive?

---PCJ

I have been a Forum member since 2005, looking at some of the joined dates I feel like a rookie. The best Tread I remember was the Kline engine blowout thread when a company called Sun Manufacturing got a hold of Kline’s remaining K4 and Berkshire engines and was blowing them out $350 for a CC K4 and $450 for a CC Berkshire. The tread was like going to a prize fight went on for over 20 pages. I bought a #1361 K4, still have it, had it fixed once but runs great to today but now stays in a display case as I have two Legacy K4s to run now.

JohnB

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