Database

Tuesday - database entry night. Well, it will be when I get a Round Tuit.

My database has been a labour of love and hate for over 10 years. I blame Gary Stephens and Greg Goodchild. Gary had this great idea many moons ago about doing a loco-spotting competition amongst the members of the BRMA Brisbane North group using published pictures. He would give us a random list of 10 locos (all BR numbers) which we had to find. The rules were simple. Find the loco - 3 points; find within +/-10 locos - 2 points; and find the class only, 1 point. Maximum of 30 points per fortnight. It went for 10 fortnights (I think) and Greg won. I only had small library back then (poor uni student) and I decided to make things easier I would put all my photos onto a database. Even after the competition ended, I kept doing it. It has come in handy over the years as I have been able to find pictures for fellow modellers, and find pictures for me too.

A couple of years ago the file got corrupted and I lost about 2/3rds. I wasn't a happy little camper but decided to start rebuilding. I made some changes and have added more detail to the database. I have also started a second data base - this doesn't track locos, it tracks photos of the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway. It will be used to build our 2mm layout(s).

So 20,000 entries later, over half of the BR steam locos "spotted" - if I had an Ian Allan Combined Edition I would have a lot of red ink.