12th Anniversary of this Blog!

December 17th marked the 12th anniversary of this blog. In keeping with what has become a blog anniversary tradition, here are a few numbers, going back to December 2012*, first month I actually took notice of these statistics! For some reason I didn't do a post last year, so there's no 11th anniversary stats! 

I started this blog to create a diary of sorts that would document the building, rebuilding and operating my home layout. As of today, there's a total of 975,845 unique page views! That's an increase of 163,365 since the 10th anniversary post - roughly 81,700 a year for 2021 and 2022. 

As I noted two years ago, that's not as many new views per year as prior years, but while blog traffic isn't increasing much, it's remained fairly stable. 

Here are the top ten  posts from the past 12 months (you can find these by entering the post title in the search box to the right of your screen):

That's enough looking back - looking forward what do I plan for the coming year? 

First of all, I'm really going to make a concerted effort to upload videos to my YouTube channel on a regular basis. Two things have gotten in the way of video uploads in the past year - first of all I was really focused on getting several aspects of the layout complete. I also wanted to avoid a string of videos (and blog updates for that matter) that featured benchwork shots and nothing else! Secondly, and more importantly, I needed to work through the mechanics of doing decent videos. While my videography is far from perfect, I think have it at a point where it's at least watchable! So look for more videos in the coming year. 

And you can find my channel by searching YouTube for "CVSNE" or simply clicking the link HERE. 

What's the plan for the layout itself in 2023? 

I'd like to get some additional "open country" scenery completed - that includes finishing the river crossing area. Work is already well along with literally dozens of pieces of Central Valley girders covering my modeling desk! 

The other big planned project for 2023 is to upgrade/update, and complete a myriad of locomotive projects. So look for blog posts (and perhaps videos!) on getting some of those key players out of their boxes and onto the track! 

I'm continually surprised, thrilled, and more than a little humbled at how many people follow (and I hope enjoy!)  my various corners of the model railroad internet. 

In the meantime please accept Christine's and my wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy New Year! 

10th Anniversary of this Blog!!!

December 17th (Thursday) marked the 10th anniversary of this blog. In keeping with what has become a blog anniversary tradition, here are a few numbers, going back to December 2012* (first month I actually took notice of these statistics!).

I started this blog to create a diary of sorts that would document the building, rebuilding and operating my home layout. As of today, there's a total of 812,581 unique page views! That's an increase of about 100,000 since last year's anniversary post. It's not as many new views over the course of the 2020 as in prior years.  

While it could be that I'm not as interesting as I think I am, I think there's something else going on. I've noticed a slight decrease in readership/page views in this (and other) model railroad blogs. While there are some model railroad blogs that are quite active, it's telling that they all seem to be blogs that were started 5+ years ago. That tells me those folks started blogging, liked doing it, and have stuck with it. I've also noted the same phenomenon with various message boards, email list and groups.  

But overall, I think a lot of model railroaders who wish to share their efforts with the wider community have shifted towards other platforms - especially Facebook. Although I have a Facebook account, I don't particularly like the Facebook interface. Facebook's very nature means individual posts seem very fleeting - quickly dropping out of sight. Considering one of the main reasons I have maintained this blog is to keep a diary of hobby thoughts and progress of sorts, don't look for a wholesale shift to Facebook anytime soon. 

But even more archaic than blogs are email lists. I do own and maintain a groups.io email list that's really geared towards my proto-freelance Southern New England Railway. I actually started that list almost 20 years ago, and once I started this blog a lot of the traffic on that list dried up. Ironically, I started the blog since posting and sharing photos on the yahoo group had become such a pain. That group is still around - there is less traffic than I'd like, but since a few friends whom I like to keep in touch with seem to prefer to stay in touch through the group I keep it going. Actually, the neatest part about that group is the archive of photos of the earlier SNE layouts! (If you're interested in signing up for the email list you can subscribe by sending an email to :

SNERY+subscribe@groups.io

But one area where I plan to continue placing emphasis is on my YouTube channel. You can find my channel by searching YouTube for "CVSNE" or simply clicking the link HERE. I even tried adding a how-to video to the channel - and have plans to do a few more this coming year. 

In what's become somewhat of an anniversary post tradition, here are the top ten all time posts:

Of course, by including the list of Top Ten posts and associated links here all I've done is guaranteed people will click on them, increasing their total views more!! You can find these by entering the title of the post in the search box.

I'm continually surprised, thrilled, and more than a little humbled at how many people follow (and I hope enjoy!)  my various corners of the model railroad internet. 

* There are no stats available for the first year since I didn't include them in the first anniversary post! I also didn't do a "End of 2018" Anniversary post for some reason.