10 years of RailUK Forums

[WillPS]

Top work everyone, particularly Yorkie and his gang of merry men.

 

[ainsworth74]

Top work everyone, particularly Yorkie and his gang of merry men.

I am not a merry man!

 

[Techniquest]

I can't find where you discover your membership number, but I see I joined on 19th June 2005 so my membership number won't be as low as expected.

 

[IanXC]

I can't find where you discover your membership number, but I see I joined on 19th June 2005 so my membership number won't be as low as expected.

54 good sir! When viewing a user's profile the URL will end with "u=xx" where xx is a number assigned in order of sign up!

 

[Techniquest]

54 good sir! When viewing a user's profile the URL will end with "u=xx" where xx is a number assigned in order of sign up!

Ahhh cool beans, I'll try to remember that. 54th member to sign up, not bad! I wonder how else (apart from yorkie of course) out of the 53 others before me are still active members?

 

[londonboi198o5]

happy birthday railuk

and a special thank you to the people who work had maintaining the site and keeping at active without your help we wouldny have this forum

here is to another 10 more years and long may the site continue

 

[krus_aragon]

Happy birthday one and all!

Having looked to check, it's a few days shy of 6 years since I stopped being a lurker and signed up for an account, in order to ask for travel advice for a railway company that doesn't even exist any more (WSMR).

May the happy anniversaries roll on for all of us.

 

[infobleep]

Happy birthday. Keep up the good work.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Congratulations and happy birthday.

I was a lurker here for some time as well as being a member of TTF.

 

[Crossover]

Ahhh cool beans, I'll try to remember that. 54th member to sign up, not bad! I wonder how else (apart from yorkie of course) out of the 53 others before me are still active members?

As I seem to have nothing better to do, I have had a look at it seems like 21 (including Yorkie) have been active at some point in 2015, one banned member and a few that don't exist anymore (presumably where they have been merged with other accounts etc.)

 

[devon_metro]

Can't believe its nearly 10 years since I joined! Member #174. I remember the early days and its amazing how much this forum has grown.

 

[krus_aragon]

Ahhh cool beans, I'll try to remember that. 54th member to sign up, not bad! I wonder how else (apart from yorkie of course) out of the 53 others before me are still active members?

I've just had a dig through the profile pages for you.

Of the 53 earlier profiles:
6 don't exist any more (closed/deleted?)
3 are those of moderators or admins.

Of the remaining 44:
26 are dormant (no forum activity in 2015)
A further 5 are lurkers (no posts in 2015, but still reading)
13 are still active posters.


I'm not going to do the same trawling for the 4000-odd that joined before me, though!

 

[Techniquest]

I've just had a dig through the profile pages for you.

Of the 53 earlier profiles:
6 don't exist any more (closed/deleted?)
3 are those of moderators or admins.

Of the remaining 44:
26 are dormant (no forum activity in 2015)
A further 5 are lurkers (no posts in 2015, but still reading)
13 are still active posters.


I'm not going to do the same trawling for the 4000-odd that joined before me, though!

So currently, out of 54 of us, only 14 still remain as active members. Not bad, considering a lot of us were quite young at the time, so no doubt most have moved on.

Cheers for the research!

EDIT: 4,109 before you (yes I did look!) and you'd only have to research 4,055 of us. Still sounds better than 4,109!

 

[trainophile]

Many happy returns! (and some happy singles, too! )

Thought that deserved a as it made me laugh. That's one great thing about this website, there's so much inoffensive humour in evidence. We have some real wits on board, and no that isn't a cue for some comedian to mention half wits!

 

[90019]

Happy birthday RailUK.

I can't believe I've been here for 7 years now, although I don't post anything like as much as I used to.

Can't quite believe I was only 4084 - the place has grown so much since then it is unbelievable!

I am almost annoyingly close to being at a round number at 2498.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Happy 10th birthday RailUK Can't believe I've been on here for just over half of that! We'll never return to the glory days when we had IanPooleTrains or biggles on here, but it's still good enough for me

 

[Mojo]

RailUK Forums in its current incarnation was launched on 6th June 2005 with Tom and yorkie as Administrators, and AlexS, Met Driver & Sprinter as Global Moderators. Coxster and Derek Kaye were Moderators in the Simulations section (which back then had multiple forums rather than just the one today). TomCrame was a Moderator in the Metro & Light Rail forum.

We also had some non-moderating staff members who were responsible, and were the only ones that could post in certain forums. Nick and bunnahabhain were responsible for contributing to the Railway News forum, and joy54.gen, Guinness, jonb & Simming posted in the Rail Gen forum.

On 7th Nov 2005 the forum staff was restructured with several people leaving, and those that remained either becoming Administrators or Moderators, a position that remains to this day, aside from the introduction of Quizmasters on 23rd Mch 2012. There was also the short-lived position of POTW Co-ordinator (held by Jordy from 18th Apr 2007 until his promotion to Moderator on 21st Dec 2007).

Of the current forum staff, they were appointed as follows:

6th June 2005: yorkie - Founder of RailUK Forums
5th Sept 2005: Max - Railway News contributor
14th Oct 2005: Mojo - Railway News contributor
23rd Sept 2006: theblackwatch - Moderator
18th Apr 2007: Jordy - POTW Co-ordinator
8th Sept 2007: matt - Moderator
20th July 2011: bb21 - Moderator
20th July 2011: Mike395 - Moderator
9th Dec 2011: Greenback - Moderator
25th Oct 2012: IanXC - Moderator
25th Oct 2012: ainsworth74 - Moderator

 

[RichmondCommu]

Congratulations on reaching your tenth birthday This forum is such a fantastic source of information with regard to the operation of our railway network; post a question or start a thread on this forum and within a few hours you will have a answer to your query along with a thorough explanation. However, out of all the things that I've learnt on here special mention must go to Yorkie for ticketing and fares information that he furnished me with last year. That saved my extended family a fortune in travel to London from Derbyshire allowing them to make many more journeys than they would have normally done and I look forward to buying Yorkie a pint when I attend the Monsal Trail forum meet in August.

I think Techniquest is spot on with his view that some forum members sometimes move on, especially it seems after they leave school. I remember browsing the forum several years before I joined in order to look for some ticketing information and remember thinking that many of the members appeared to be children planning their next day out on the train. Nothing wrong with children though!

In terms of moving on the same thing happened to me in the early 1980's after leaving school and starting University. Railways were certainly placed on the back burner, in my case for almost 25 years. However I'm living proof that people often return to the hobby in time. As an example Yorkshire Bear very rarely posts nowadays but I suspect much of that is because he has finished Uni and has started a full time job with Network Rail.

Finally I think Techniquest probably deserves some kind of recognition for I suspect being the longest serving active member on here who is not a forum staff member. I've never met Techniquest and maybe I never will but I think his commitment to the forum deserves special mention.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Happy 10th birthday, RailUK Forums! Gosh, 2005 was LiveJournal, GeoCities and AlbinoBlackSheep for ten year old me; rail forums were far from my mind...

 

[The Snap]

I joined on 10th June 2005 by invitation from Yorkie and Mr Cairns IIRC.

Where has 10 years of my life gone?! *face-palm*

 

[Tom]

Membership numbers, if I recall correctly, started at 2 when I migrated the forum over to vBulletin from phpBB yonks ago. Not that I have that ID number anymore

 

[table38]

Having lurked on here for years, it was only the persistence of forum staff to get people to attend the meals and events that allowed me to meet some of the members on here, some of whom I discovered that already knew, but just didn't know their secret identities forum usernames.

So now I can irritate people in person as well as on here

 

[Techniquest]

Finally I think Techniquest probably deserves some kind of recognition for I suspect being the longest serving active member on here who is not a forum staff member. I've never met Techniquest and maybe I never will but I think his commitment to the forum deserves special mention.

I won't turn down that recognition!

Good chance we'll never meet each other, but it can be made to happen!

 

[Stuwhu]

well done. 10 years is a long time in the fast moving cyberspace universe

 

[yorksrob]

Well, to celebrate ten years, I thought I'd have a tiptoe through my old magz to see what was going on on the rails at the time. Here's a few happennings from 2005. It doesn't seem like yesterday !:

• £80m Evergreen 2 project launched by Chiltern

• £400m new concourse at Kings Cross approved by DfT

• Hull trains unveils its new class 222 Pioneers

• GNER wins the franchise to run the ECML for a further ten years

• All Virgin Cross Country Voyagers temporarily withdrawn due to a fire at Barton Hill depot

• Virgin trains runs its last class 87 hauled passenger services on the WCML

• An historic 121 year old Great Western footbridge at Codsall is accidentally demolished by a road/rail vehicle

• 39 killed by terrorist bombings on London transport

• Last Gatwick Express runs with class 73, Mk 2's and GLV's

• A newly constructed tunnel at Gerrards Cross collapses on the Chiltern mainline

• GNER's last unrefurbished Mk4 set is withdrawn for Mallardisation

• The Strategic Rail Authority is abolished and its functions transferred to the DfT

• NR faces health and Safety charges as a result of the Hatfield train crash

• The Larkhall Branch is reopened in Scotland

• The last Mk 1 slam door trains are withdrawn from the Southern Region outside of the Lymington Branch

 

[The Snap]

Finally I think Techniquest probably deserves some kind of recognition for I suspect being the longest serving active member on here who is not a forum staff member. I've never met Techniquest and maybe I never will but I think his commitment to the forum deserves special mention.

I won't turn down that recognition!

Good chance we'll never meet each other, but it can be made to happen!

Although I beat him by 9 days!!

I do believe Tomnick is also still active and he joined on the same day as me!

 

[Spa_Jonnie]

Thanks to the generous sponsorship by this very forum we've three visiting locomotives featuring at the Spa Valley Summer Diesel Gala, Class 14 D9539, Class 20 D8098 & Class 25 D7612 along with a railway sponsored visit of Class 205 DEMU 1133! Then there's the home fleet of Class 10 D3489, Class 33 33063, Class 37 37254, Class 73 73140 & Class 207 DEMU 1317!

So on behalf of us all at the Spa Valley Railway I'd like to thank you very much for your generous sponsorship and choosing us to celebrate 10yrs with! Happy 10th Birthday!

Jonnie

 

[Techniquest]

Although I beat him by 9 days!!

I do believe Tomnick is also still active and he joined on the same day as me!

We'll share it then, only got to share out the cake 3 ways!

 

[Peter Sarf]

New boy here. Well actually I am surprised it is almost five years since I joined. Lots of interesting and friendly discussions. See if I can make the Spa valley for some Hydraulic action and a long overdue fix of 8LDA music.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Although I beat him by 9 days!!

I do believe Tomnick is also still active and he joined on the same day as me!

In that case I apologize without reservation! The same goes for Tomnick who is indeed a very active member and is always willing to help out with signalling related queries. Good stuff everyone!