While I am certainly appreciative for the brief and photos of this years EBT fall spectacular, I would have appreciated even more knowing when it was going to happen so i could have gone. <p>Hume, buddy, how about we have an event schedule somewhere on RyPN and cross post each new announcement from that page to the list? I would gladly trade the wig wag disk space for that useful information. <p>Dave<br>



lathro19@idt.net

Dave,<p>The best place for schedules of steam locomotive runnings is still Steam Central at http://www.steamcentral.com. I checked the schedules page before posting this, and sure enough, the EBT Fall Spectacular is there.<p>I was on vacation in Indianapolis this year for several days. Had I checked Steam Central before I left, I would have known there was a mainline steam excursion running just a few miles from my hotel! As it was, I just had time to get a picture of it parked for the night before I had to move on. :(<p>Steam Central is definitely the place to look when making travel plans. As he expands his coverage worldwide, it will become an even more priceless resource.<p>(You're welcome, John.)



Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

Dave, I'll cop the blame for that one. I guess this is one of those cases in which something is so close to your nose that you don't even see it. At the very least, I should have posted a reminder to the Interchange beforehand.<p>That said, I concur that John Craft's Steam Central is doing a far better job of keeping up with the ever-changing roster of special events that Hume, Bob or I have resources to do.<p>Best,<p>Erik Ledbetter<br>



eledbetter@rypn.org

The two places to check on events:<p>SteamCentral schedules: http://www.steamcentral.com/dates.htm<p>Jim Wrinn's "Crystal Ball:" http://www.steamcentral.com/trav-cb.htm<p>(This new feature aims to point out some of the more enticing events coming up. As it only started this month, there wasn't time to do much with the EBT event.)<p>One thing I've noticed consistently in my site stats is that the "News" page is by far the most popular. Only 15-25% of site visitors go on to the Schedules listings. Since news was included as an afterthought, and my main interest in the developing the site was the schedules, I was certainly amused. (In some months even the Opinions get more traffic than the Schedules.)<p>I'd be delighted to hear from any of you if you have suggestions to make the Schedules feature more interesting or useful.<p>JAC



SteamCentral

John;<p>I think your schedules page is being underutilized by railfans, myself included. As I mentioned, if I had checked it before going on vacation, I wouldn't have missed out on an excursion.<p>I tend to check the news page as part of near-daily browsing of the net for steam locomotive news. (This board is another resource.:) ) My interest is in whats being restored/moved/built/shut down/etc., as well as interest in what is currently running. Since the only working steam that's a days journey is the Texas State Railroad (usually), the schedules page is only useful when I'm traveling out of the region.



Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net