There was a time, not so long ago really, in February 2013 when we started writing this blog, and we had practically no readers. It seemed that, no matter how good the posts were (and some of the early posts were very good), nobody was paying very much attention.

We would tell people about the blog, and their usual reaction was, “What is a blog?”

I am glad to report the situation has changed. We set a new record yesterday with 2,091 page views in a single day, and 13,976 for the month of November. The previous record for page views in a day was 944 and that was just a couple weeks back.

The 1989 movie Field of Dreams espoused the philosophy, “build it, and they will come.” In the film, Kevin Costner constructs a baseball diamond in the middle of a cornfield, and pretty soon the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson comes out of the shadows.

While we can’t claim Shoeless Joe as one of our followers, something similar may be at work here. Over time, as our posts accumulate, there is more and more available here for people to read. Readership has been going up lately, even though there are fewer posts this year than last.

But we’ll take new readers wherever we can get them. If you have just recently discovered this blog, we’ll do our best to keep up the good work, and keep you both informed and entertained while covering transportation history and current goings-on. IMHO, our best posts use pictures to help tell a story.

And if, as a result, you discover the group that’s behind it all, Central Electric Railfans’ Association, that’s even better.

I don’t expect to be seeing the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson anytime soon, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Thanks.

-Ye Olde Editor

PS- Just so this post is not entirely devoid of transit-related information, we’ll post a list of the 10 foundung members of the Illinois Railway Museum, courtesy of Carl Lantz:

Howard R. Blackburn
Robert W. Gibson
Charles V. Hess
Meredith (Butch) Hunter
Malcolm D. McCarter
J. W. McDonough
Howard A. Odinius
Eugene Van Dusen
David J. Williams III
Harry Zillmer

As Mr. Lantz notes, each contributed $100 to bring Indiana Railroad car 65 to Illinois. Malcolm McCarter is the lone surviving founder, and he still sells railroad photos, as he has been doing since 1942.

You can read more about IR car 65 in A Tale of Two High Speeds, one of our posts from last year.