Railway Preservation News :: View topic - The Return of Steamlocomotive.info

Well, the bulk of the technical issues attendant upon moving the site to our new hosting company have been resolved. Work has begun on restoring the site. I'm hoping to have it completely back before surgery (January 8th). A lot of work still to be done, but its just drudgery. I'll probably announce any success or issues here.

Secondarily, I do NOT have any concrete plans for the site's survival after my demise. I will give that some thought after I'm done with my upcoming surgery (which should not be catastrophic) which is essentially doing laser ablation on the tumor via my pre-existing plumbing. We've done this once before (shudder).

The oncologists are still saying I've got "a couple of years" before this kills me, so at least I've got some time to work on a solution.

I am, perhaps, being a bit more blunt than I should but, whatever.

Regards,
Doug

How possible would it be for someone (definitely not technologically challenged me) to take both Steamlocomotive.info and this site and combine them into a workable successor site? That might be a solution if a couple of competent enthusiasts were willing to work on it. Just throwing it out there.

Bob - If (big IF) you can get access.... IIRC, this is phpBB ver. 3.1 and you'd need to upgrade to 3.2 to use the import tool in Xenforo. Going from 3.1 to 3.2 should be painless (operative word there being "should"). I've never done that myself and my PHP skills are gawd-awful rusty nowadays - seems I've forgotten more than I knew. I'd still be willing to help, though.

jayrod wrote:

Yes, I'm sure there would be challenges. There would also likely be some data loss. Any time you do an import like that, there's always glitches. There's also problems in the data to start with 10 year old posts that reference a post or any image that's long gone.

It wouldn't be perfect and it may be tricky but even if we can save 90% of it, that's a great foundation. I've been offering for years though and never had a response, so it appears it's a lost cause.

And to the person who threatened to sue me for denying him access to "essential data" please have the goodness to eat feces and bark at the moon.

Author:	steaminfo [ Fri Dec 26, 2025 4:05 pm ]
Post subject:	The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Well, the bulk of the technical issues attendant upon moving the site to our new hosting company have been resolved. Work has begun on restoring the site. I'm hoping to have it completely back before surgery (January 8th). A lot of work still to be done, but its just drudgery. I'll probably announce any success or issues here. Secondarily, I do NOT have any concrete plans for the site's survival after my demise. I will give that some thought after I'm done with my upcoming surgery (which should not be catastrophic) which is essentially doing laser ablation on the tumor via my pre-existing plumbing. We've done this once before (shudder). The oncologists are still saying I've got "a couple of years" before this kills me, so at least I've got some time to work on a solution. I am, perhaps, being a bit more blunt than I should but, whatever. Regards, Doug

Author:	Ed Kapuscinski [ Fri Dec 26, 2025 5:46 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
That's fantastic to hear. Once it's up and running I have a tool that can take a snapshot. I can run that if you'd like. This way at least a static version will be around. I've done that on a number of sites and it works pretty well. That's how I preserved http://wmwestsub.rrarchives.org/

Author:	PaulWWoodring [ Fri Dec 26, 2025 5:50 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
How possible would it be for someone (definitely not technologically challenged me) to take both Steamlocomotive.info and this site and combine them into a workable successor site? That might be a solution if a couple of competent enthusiasts were willing to work on it. Just throwing it out there.

Author:	wesp [ Fri Dec 26, 2025 6:11 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Doug, Thank you! Looking ahead, I have a pdf copy of a local news article when the small steam engine was moved to display in Florence, SC. Is a pdf something you can post to the notes for the engine? Blessings for your upcoming surgery, Wesley

Author:	superheater [ Sat Dec 27, 2025 12:27 am ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
steaminfo wrote: Well, the bulk of the technical issues attendant upon moving the site to our new hosting company have been resolved. Work has begun on restoring the site. I'm hoping to have it completely back before surgery (January 8th). A lot of work still to be done, but its just drudgery. I'll probably announce any success or issues here. Secondarily, I do NOT have any concrete plans for the site's survival after my demise. I will give that some thought after I'm done with my upcoming surgery (which should not be catastrophic) which is essentially doing laser ablation on the tumor via my pre-existing plumbing. We've done this once before (shudder). The oncologists are still saying I've got "a couple of years" before this kills me, so at least I've got some time to work on a solution. I am, perhaps, being a bit more blunt than I should but, whatever. Regards, Doug Hold out some hope. There are things that have been released in the past few years and on the horizon that are doing wonders, such as Keytruda and other immunologicals that are being developed. Also get things like Vitamin D tested and discuss results with doctor. Vitamin D is essential for apotosis (programnmed cell death), something you clearly want with C. Godspeed.

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Author:	Bobharbison [ Tue Dec 30, 2025 1:04 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
PaulWWoodring wrote: How possible would it be for someone (definitely not technologically challenged me) to take both Steamlocomotive.info and this site and combine them into a workable successor site? That might be a solution if a couple of competent enthusiasts were willing to work on it. Just throwing it out there. For this site, it's quite simple really. I (and many others) could have a working forum up and running within a week. What's not as simple. 1) Getting everyone that's here to migrate to the new site. 2) Starting over, from scratch and losing years of info that has been assembled here. It would be possible to migrate that as well (or most of it, there's always a few glitches) but that would require the help and approval of the current site owner. Otherwise, even though it's essentially abandoned, it would potentially violate copyrights.

Author:	jayrod [ Tue Dec 30, 2025 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Bob - If (big IF) you can get access.... IIRC, this is phpBB ver. 3.1 and you'd need to upgrade to 3.2 to use the import tool in Xenforo. Going from 3.1 to 3.2 should be painless (operative word there being "should"). I've never done that myself and my PHP skills are gawd-awful rusty nowadays - seems I've forgotten more than I knew. I'd still be willing to help, though.

Author:	Bobharbison [ Tue Dec 30, 2025 7:22 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
jayrod wrote: Bob - If (big IF) you can get access.... IIRC, this is phpBB ver. 3.1 and you'd need to upgrade to 3.2 to use the import tool in Xenforo. Going from 3.1 to 3.2 should be painless (operative word there being "should"). I've never done that myself and my PHP skills are gawd-awful rusty nowadays - seems I've forgotten more than I knew. I'd still be willing to help, though. Yes, I'm sure there would be challenges. There would also likely be some data loss. Any time you do an import like that, there's always glitches. There's also problems in the data to start with 10 year old posts that reference a post or any image that's long gone. It wouldn't be perfect and it may be tricky but even if we can save 90% of it, that's a great foundation. I've been offering for years though and never had a response, so it appears it's a lost cause.

Author:	wesp [ Tue Dec 30, 2025 8:19 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Bobharbison wrote: jayrod wrote: Bob - If (big IF) you can get access.... IIRC, this is phpBB ver. 3.1 and you'd need to upgrade to 3.2 to use the import tool in Xenforo. Going from 3.1 to 3.2 should be painless (operative word there being "should"). I've never done that myself and my PHP skills are gawd-awful rusty nowadays - seems I've forgotten more than I knew. I'd still be willing to help, though. Yes, I'm sure there would be challenges. There would also likely be some data loss. Any time you do an import like that, there's always glitches. There's also problems in the data to start with 10 year old posts that reference a post or any image that's long gone. It wouldn't be perfect and it may be tricky but even if we can save 90% of it, that's a great foundation. I've been offering for years though and never had a response, so it appears it's a lost cause. BUT… Dave Collison needs to agree!

Author:	steaminfo [ Mon Jan 05, 2026 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Happy to report that I now have all the necessary access to continue porting steamlocomotive.info to its new home. This is a relief, but I can't promise dramatic progress. I'm having surgery on Thursday so my efforts this week are going to be fairly limited. I'll try to attack the port next weekend. Thank you for your patience. And to the person who threatened to sue me for denying him access to "essential data" please have the goodness to eat feces and bark at the moon. Regards, Doug

Author:	jayrod [ Tue Jan 06, 2026 11:52 am ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Quote: And to the person who threatened to sue me for denying him access to "essential data" please have the goodness to eat feces and bark at the moon. Geez. I guess someone knows neither the concepts of "essential data" nor personal property. Counter sue because you can't access his personal data. (Just kidding).

Author:	steaminfo [ Fri Jan 09, 2026 6:16 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Well, I didn't make it by the 8th. Sigh. But I do have some good news: chemotherapy was successful and for the moment, they say, my kidney and bladder are "disease free". Got to ring the post chemo bell and I did so with enthusiasm. Now on to the website. Wheefun.

Author:	wesp [ Fri Jan 09, 2026 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: The Return of Steamlocomotive.info
Doug, Check PM Wesley

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