2017 Wrap-Up

Photo by Mark Perry

This is my year-end post, as 2017 draws rapidly to a close. Get ready for some photos, lots of statistics, and some rambling. So, nothing out of the ordinary! ;)

The Big Picture

2017 was a good year for me. I started out with some actual plans (gasp). I did some of what was on the list... Ontario Southland, and some guest posts... I got a bit distracted on the grain elevator front by the renewed grainelevators.ca site.

I did some traveling... although by past years' standards, I didn't travel that much.

• North Dakota - by night
• Tiny Piney, Manitoba - my third most popular post of all time, with 49 comments to date!
• Kamloops, BC
• Italy... haven't blogged about that yet!
• Rivers, MB (with rainbows!)
• Southern Ontario - VIA 78 and the Ontario Southland
• Alberta and British Columbia for my 50th birthday (start here)
• Kitchener, ON
• Halifax, NS (haven't blogged about that either)

We had some foreign power in Winnipeg via BNSF detours (at night, too), plus a few oddballs like a Kansas City Southern unit and ex Warbonnet leased power on CN.

Warbonnet on CN!?

The Canada 150 celebrations gave us some VIA wraps as well as the CP Canada 150 train. CN ran a special caboose train for their employees, and CP had their annual Holiday Train.

The Statistics

Adobe Lightroom says I took a little over 15,000 photos and videos in 2017, which is a bit ridiculous. Keep in mind that my wife and I went to Italy in May-June which accounts for a bit over 4,000 photos.

Blog-wise, I posted 59 times on Confessions of a Train Geek, which is a new low. I think I'm posting longer and more detailed content, so I'm OK with that lower post count.

Only 6 posts at Confessions of a Model Train Geek... which reflects my level of model train activity. I just haven't been really into it. That's OK - it's a hobby.

I've been really pounding it out at my new site, Grain Elevators of Canada. 231 pages online so far and more to come! I have a few more contributors sending photos to me so more and more elevators will be coming online shortly. I've been so impressed by how many people have stepped up and freely offered their photos for sharing. Thank you.

I had a huge spike in traffic in April when I posted the Piney train station post. It went viral - maybe my first - and for a couple of days I had over a thousand pageviews a day. After that - back to the usual. My 40 Mile Railway post was well shared but not on the "Piney scale".

Socializing

I spend most of my social networking time on Facebook and Instagram, and occasionally Twitter. My Traingeek Images Facebook page has been growing pretty rapidly over the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure why but it's been getting a lot of "likes" such that I'm at 1064 page likes and growing by about 20-25 a week. That many likes and $2.36 will buy you an extra large coffee at Tim's.

On Instagram I cut back to posting 3 images/week, at the same time as I post on Facebook and Twitter. Here are my "best nine" for 2017 aka #2017bestnine.

104,102 likes, and $2.36, will buy that coffee at Tim's. I'm rolling in the "likes". Cha-ching!

What's With the Sarcasm?

I'm being a bit sarcastic about the number of "likes" because I don't really think they are worth worrying too much about. People will like what they like, and if they like my photos, great! You're here reading because you like my stuff, and thanks for that!

I try not to obsess about how many likes my photos and posts get, because I share photos and my words because I want to. I'm just glad some people see them.

Please don't think I don't appreciate you reading my posts. I do. I really do. I just don't get upset when I don't get "enough" likes.

Next Year

So what's on the agenda for next year?

I'd still like to go to Assiniboia, SK. I've planted the idea in my wife's ear and hopefully I'll get out there in the spring. Churchill seems "right out" since the rail line is still broken and may never get fixed.

I've had a few people ask me to write a Manitoba grain elevator book. I haven't the slightest idea how to get a book published but I think I will look into that.

We're going to Edmonton and Jasper this summer, so there will be railfanning! I've been to Edmonton but not to Jasper, so I look forward to more mountain trains.

I'll be posting more grain elevators on Grain Elevators of Canada. Hopefully I'll photograph some more myself!

I have some ideas on eBooks and so forth. Pretty soon I'll send a survey out on my mailing list so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks

Thanks to commenters Jenn, George, Eric, BW, Jason, Doug, Michael, Tom, Mike, 5879East, Rick, Chris, André, David, James, Jim, DaveM, Karl, Patrice, Richard, Taylor, GP9Rm4108, Bryan, Carol, AJ, _Don, Bill, Sheldon, Brad, Red River Rail, Harry, Jeff, Cornergas Craig, Andrew, Brian, wainair, RCP, Doonhamer, Alexandre, jonovision_man, Heinz, Dale, myhydro, DaveM, Lee, Dash 8, Mark, Rory, craigpei, Carolina Caboose Captain, Shane, shnorth123, and of course, Anonymous.

Here's to a great 2018!

You can see my 2014, 2015 or 2016 year in review.

PS: hey, why not join my mailing list and get a weekly email filled with photos?