All TrainBoard Members, This Thread Is For You

Here are some flashback threads to read that will tell a lot of you things you don't know about TrainBoard;

ATTENTION ALL TRAINBOARD AND RAILIMAGES MEMBERS - TrainBoard.com
Welcome to the dedicated server - TrainBoard.com
=== Statement regarding problems === - TrainBoard.com

Those are three threads from almost five years ago. There are more but if you are a member that has joined in the last five years, you may not know this story.

Here's a short history of TrainBoard; We launched in March 2000 on a shared hosting server. That server was in Florida. This means that we started with web space that anyone could start with. There were probably several hundred web sites on that same server.

At that time, there really were not any sites for image hosting and people needed to have a place to upload images so we started RailImages.com on another server which was located in Virginia.

It took only months for us to be kicked off that server. We violated the terms of service by using too many resources.

We were forced to find another host and I found one in Quebec and RailImages moved there. This type of hosting was a "shared server" in which only a handful of sites are on one machine.

Soon after, TrainBoard re-located there as well.

Within time, these two sites again overused the resources available and we were forced to look for new quarters.

I found a host in Dallas, Texas and the sites re-located there. For the first time (see the links above for historical reference) TrainBoard and RailImages were located on a server that existed solely for the purpose of these sites.

At that time, we begged for money and about $4000 came in within a couple of months time. This made the project possible.

Along the way these sites have grown from being what we would now consider very simple, to being what they are today with a lot of bells and whistles and added features.

Some weeks ago, our server administrator, Owen (okane) alerted us that we were maxing out the resources on the server and were also starting to see errors on the primary hard drive.

Owen said that the situation was critical. Also, it should be noted that Owen had warned of possible trouble a year or so ago and said we should start planning to upgrade again.

At the time, I felt that financially we were at our limit and that we would have to go with the status quo for now and just make sure we backed up the TrainBoard and RailImages databases every day - and that's what we've done now for a while.

With this recent situation, Owen said that we were going to have to make some kind of decision.

He started negotiating with out present host and was able to make what we feel is a very good deal.

We are going to have more server, but it will cost more. We are going to need about $100 more per month than before, and for the last year, we've not had the kind of money in the bank that we did in the past.

You probably noticed TrainBoard and RailImages down yesterday. At this time, Owen was moving the sites to the new server, and this is the new server.

This was done without the kind of fanfare that accompanied past changes. I guess Owen and I were a little nervous but it looks good, right? Here we are and pretty much everything works.

Whew. :tb-shocked:

This new server is bigger, faster, has more hard drive space, is RAID configured, etc. I'll skip all the technical stuff and maybe Owen will want to post it for the geek-types but for most of you, simply saying this server is bigger, faster, better, etc. will tell you what you need to know about it.

We feel that it will meet our needs into the future for a reasonable amount of time. We made it about five years on the old one and in the computer world, that is a long time.

Here's another step back in time. Anyone remember our RAM Telethon?

READ THIS: TrainBoard RAM Telethon - TrainBoard.com

That was a lot of fun, and it's fun to just read the thread again!

Soon, we are going to come up with another telethon of sorts. We are not begging for money in this thread but we are going to be on a street-corner near you soon.

This thread is to just let you folks know what is going on.

Oh, and one more thing,

THANK YOU OWEN!!!

Without people like Owen, these things do not happen. I used to do all of the technical stuff but I was in over my head and at times it showed. Just at the right time Owen became available and took loads of headaches away from me.

To make it even more amazing, he has donated funds to TrainBoard that are far, far, far beyond what could ever be expected.

Without Owen, we would not be where we are today.

If TrainBoard means anything to you at all, note some of the people that make it happen. Today, that person is Owen.

I could not have done it. He did. Thank you sir! :ru-ooh:

Charlie
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Another big THANK YOU to Owen.

 

THANK YOU OWEN!

 

I would like to thank Owen for not just his donation of money but also his donation of his Professional resource to both migrate us to this new server and the ongoing maintenance he puts into here.

I would also like to acknowledge Charlie who has always had the vision to keep this site moving especially in such difficult financial times.

I would also like to acknowledge those administrators and moderators who donated the money we needed to migrate to the new server.

I'd also like to thank all those members who regularly either donate or subscribe to the site to keep us running. Unlike a lot of bigger sites the advertising here does not cover the costs of running the site and we rely on donations and subscriptions to keep trainboard online.

Once again thankyou all for making this site one of the best train sites on the web.

 

Thanks again, Owen for your incredible skill and work!