Website News
Message from the Chairman
Dear all,
We hope that you like the look of the new SLL website. We’ve felt for some time that the website needed a revamp; it’s our shop window, and we need to attract interest and financial support from a very wide audience. Knowing there is a need and being able to fulfil it are very different things, and our thanks go to Richard Green for the design and construction of the new site.
You may recognise Richard’s style and artistic talent from the Bulleid Society’s website, and from the high quality loco profile prints which he offers professionally (viewable at locos-in-profile.co.uk). We hope that his work will feature our locos in the future. Richard has built the new site for us without charge, although we do expect to see him on the footplate from time to time.
Our webmaster for the new site is Nick Thompson, a resident of Sidmouth, who is charged with keeping the site fresh and informative. I’d also like to thank John Mullins who has maintained the site for several years and will continue to help us by generating share certificates and maintaining the records.
Kind regards,
Geoff Thompson
News from the Webmaster
Hi,
Our new website has settled down to around 60 hits per day which is a lot more than we got previously. The photo libraries get around 250 individual photo-hits per day, and the restoration galleries seem particularly popular. Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments, corrections, and more photos.
On the other hand the scanned versions of Southern Pacific magazine have cast scarcely a ripple on the internet; I am surprised as they include some very interesting stories from steam days. I enjoyed Tom Rayner's yarn of Standard class 5 73087 running light engine alongside an up Exeter train near Hook and being passed tea on a silver tray from the kitchen car on the adjacent track. Vol 19, pages 18-19
I am still hoping to receive more photos of our locos in BR days; they are bound to be scarce because they are now at least 42 years old and come from an age when not many people had a half-decent camera, but surely there are more than 18 photos of 257 Squadron out there. If you have any you'd like to share please drop me an email.
60 website hits per day may seem OK, but looking at the hit-counters of comparable loco sites I think we need to raise our public profile further if we are going to achieve our restoration goals. If you like our website please send the link to friends and family who may be interested. A personal recommendation is the best way to promote anything, and we need all the help we can get.
Meanwhile the campaign of continuous improvement continues! If you spot a typo, dodgy grammar, or something that's plain wrong, please let me know.
Best regards,
Nick Thompson
nicksidmouth@gmail.com