I am, as many know, the propietor of www.steamlocomotive.info. I'm not inclined to call myself the "webmaster" as in reality the site is more the master of me than I am of it. There are some things that I would like you to know about the site.

First, it is not complete. There are "bugs" in the code that create the website that have yet to be fixed. Most of them are tiny, minor things that don't get noticed by anyone but me. When I'm feeling particularly masochistic I work on these issues. There are features I had planned for the site that are only partially completed, but if a frenzy of motivation ever strikes they might be.

Second, we (meaning me and a nice guy named Steve Frost, In England) try to keep the site as current as possible. For example, this month (October 2023), we've thusfar added 135 photos to the site, 1 video, 5 links to other sites, and 313 maps. The locations of 34 locomotives have been changed, and technical details for another 108 locomotives have been edited.

Goals:

I'm 74 years old, and not in particularly good health. I may survive another 10 years, or another 10 minutes. This is not a matter of clarity. If the site were handed off today to someone without programming skills (Coldfusion, Javascript, T-SQL) it is mostly maintainable through an administrative interface. Without those skills, two problems would exist: programming errors wouldn't be correctable, and worse, there are some content changes that might (and do) need to be made to the database from time to time, that would be impossible, because I've never implemented the means to do this in the administrative interface.

So goal #1 is to continue to enhance the site's administrative interface to the point where a non-programmer/non-DBA can comfortably maintain.

Goal #2, I suppose, is to find someone stupid enough, or masochistic enough to take on responsibility for this thing.

Goal # 3 is to consult a therapist and see if I can someone come to a state of indifference to the site. Not sure how that is going to work.

Personally, I can't even consider offering anything other than a few words of encouragement because I'm too old and my computer always has a problem. Fortunately there are some very bright young members of the preservation movement who may be more useful than I am.

Best of luck to you, Doug, and thank you for everything you've done for us over the years.

If you do not find someone, perhaps integrating advertising could be the solution. Then the project becomes interesting as a side business. Still better than deactivating it some time.
Instead of deactivating, another option would be to download it as pure HTML pages to supply a frozen version that is independent from server software. Httrack was a tool I used some time ago for such things.

Doug- Best of luck with goals (1) and (2) to keep your worthy and valuable endeavor vibrant. I do not have any of the skills necessary so I can only suggest this for goal (3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZpEe7KIJ8

Doug,

First, let me start by offering personal thanks to you for your dedication to create a maintain such a wonderful resource for all of us who are so nuts/passionate about steam locomotives here in the US. I have spent countless wonderful hours enthralled with all of the stats and information you have packed into this website over the years!

I have no great pearls of wisdom to offer, but I am hopeful and confident that the right person or persons will come along who will be suitable inheritors of your beautiful handiwork.

Sincerely,

Rob Gardner
ASR President and 2100 Project Manager