I was already banned (since November).  I registered on this site a few days ago.  Today I have received an email suggesting my account on the other site will shortly be deleted.   

Edward, et al.

Yep, me too. Just got my removal notice from the other site. Seems any activity here is viewed as treason. It's sad to watch. 

I'm glad CB is such a fine and welcoming site. 

Mike,

You are too funny! Train lovers are sincere about their passion - I'm surprised someone didn't beat me to the information. 

Kelly

Mike, you and Kelly commented on a steam train photo on page 4 of my 1988-2002 Bike Tours journal.

You could also get a job in Chama that requires less training than a steam train engineer. 4 tons of coal must be shoveled by HAND for every 64 mile trip.

G'day Wayne

First cycling content, Victorian Goldfields Railway has a huge space in one of the carriages/cars for bikes in the usual consist. 

Yes I am aware of the large tonnage of coal that the bloke on the back of the shovel has to move each hour particularly on the big main line locos. Yours were definitely bigger than ours, ask Kelly about our in joke.

Towards the end of steam on the rails they tried auto stokering but I am not sure how successful it was.

Looking forward the Brits closed down their collieries(mines) some time back and the heritage  railways there are having to import their steaming coal from Europe. Coal fired power stations are being phased out so looking forward the Heritage railways may have a problem sourcing their steaming coal.

I enjoy your jounals   

Mike

Mike, During my Indian Country Part 1 tour I was a passenger on the two big US narrow gauge steam railways: Durango & Silverton and Cumbres & Toltec. The narrow gauge locomotives and cars are a bit smaller than standard gauge railways. That allows the track to make sharper curves. But they still burn a lot of coal! I suppose it is getting harder to find suitable coal.

The Durango & Silverton railway runs 45 miles in a deep roadless canyon. The north terminus, Silverton is high in the mountains where of course they mined silver by the ton. Durango is a trendy town at the foot of the mountains. The train accepts bikes, kayaks, skis, and other large baggage. Riding the train round trip is kind of boring so it's great to ride the train through the canyon and bike over the mountain back to Durango. The parallel road is high in the mountains, a completely different experience from the train in the canyon.

Cumbres & Toltec is a longer and more mountainous 64 mile route so each daily trip is only 1-way. Both the train and the parallel highway climb high in the mountains. It's the steepest and highest railway in the US. It operates between sleepy Chama, New Mexico and very sleepy Antonito, Colorado. A joint tourism venture owned by the two states. It can also accommodate bikes, but not in a secure place.

I look forward to eventually publishing the Indian Country Part 1 tour journal. It has a lot of train photos.

I got the same ‘eviction notice’ with the same (ir)rational. At least I did manage to get my journals moved over here (with an opportunity to correct lots of spelling and grammar errors , plus redo the maps in RWGPS 😀) several months ago, so no panic. Shame to see what was (still is?) a tremendous resource to the touring world unravelling in what looks like an act of self destruction.

My goodness, we are feeling like pioneers now. We got kicked off the other site years ago, shortly after this one got started, for the terrible crime of cross posting our journal. We had been regularly downloading and storing our  other journals so were easily able to repost them to this site after we got home from the Yucatan. That is all except one!!! We got the get off my site, now, message while riding down a dusty road far from any secure place to calmly download the trip we took with our twin grandkids to San Diego. We were fighting the banishment clock and lost later in the day, so no record exists of that one journal.  All the rest are safely here, however, and Jeff Arnim seems to be perfectly sane and rational for the indefinite future, thank goodness, so no more drama to come.

What a shame to have lost your thoughts that would have taken so much time to prepare, and would have included spur of the moment vignettes. Any chance NG still has backups so you could ask him for them? Or, is his delete 'for keeps'? 

FWIW I grovelled once to Neil when threatened with dismissal and managed to stay.

Mike