Railpage Australia
Encyclopedia
Railpage Australia is a private owned and run website
focusing on railways
within Australia
and Oceania
. The site was run by volunteers, and provided free or reduced-cost internet services to not-for-profit railway organisations and preservation groups. It has been quoted as a source in major state and national newspapers, as well as in government and private research publications.
.
The site allowsrailway enthusiasts
to find and exchange picture, news and information relating to mainly Australian trains and railway infrastructure
. The site includes a user photo database
, discussion forums
, a chat room
and a railway news section.
The discussion forums are divided into separate sections, such as Australian based discussions, heritage
interest groups, and overseas discussions.
Although around 50 percent of forum users were under 26 years of age, nearly a quarter of contributors were involved in the rail industry.
service on David Bromage's account on Monash University
's general access Unix
server. Anybody could finger
the account and view the indexpage, and further view the railpage. The name lives on.
The content of the finger service was translated to an experimental web site in July 1994. Early content included a repository of Australian railway timetables
, inspired by a contemporary project in the United States
.
In January 1995, Brian Evans suggested to David Bromage that Railpage (which at that point comprised static web pages) could be further developed. The two began to develop the site further, and later transferred it to a dedicated server.
The site gained its own domain name (railpage.org.au) in January 1997.
On 11 January 2003, Railpage introduced an on-line forums service using the open source PhpBB
forum software.
Assuming the role of Project Director and site owner, (which he still maintains today), Brian Evans proposed the website enter a new development phase, involving the introduction of a Content Management System (CMS). The site had accumulated a significant number of unique URLs and was becoming increasingly harder to maintain. A solution to provide content owners with an ability to create and maintain content at the site became a priority.
Late in 2003, after several months of development and with the help of several developers and testers; RP2 was launched on Saturday 10 April 2004 at approximately 5pm. While at the time the portal
structure was primitive and contained a number of bugs
present in all Nuke releases - the portal offered a number of new services to users including an image gallery and news feeds.
As of January 2008, the site receives in excess of 1000 posts per day, and over 62,000 unique visitors and 13,000,000 hits per month. The domain www.railpage.com.au alone serves in excess of 30 gigabytes of data
per month. As of April 2008, the site had reached 16,000 registered users and 1,000,000 posts.
The site had been offline since 22 January 2010, but has now been reconnected as of 14 May, that year. It was down due to a fall out at Digital River's headquarters.
In December 2003, Railpage and the Australasian Railway Association helped the then Australian Geological Survey Organisation (now Geoscience Australia
) produce the Railways of Australia thematic map.
Railpage was used as a secondary source of information by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
in 2004.
Railpage was used as a source by the Museum of Victoria in preparing its Victorian Railways history portal.
It was sole source of reference in the Wyndham City Council's Tram Investigation Study.
In recognition of its educational merit, Railpage is included in Education Network Australia (edna): a list of approved school resources as a directory of resources on Australian railways.
In February 2007, the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics
used information posted in a Railpage hosted site, "Gheringhap Loop", to produce an information paper on rail freight activity data. In the forward, the Executive Director of BTRE states (in part) "Following the growth in private train operations...rail freight activity data became increasingly scarce. The lack of data can be a challenge for the BTRE in providing the government with timely and accurate information about trends in Australian freight transport....In the meantime, the BTRE has investigated other potential data sources, including information from railway enthusiasts."
As of July 2007, Railpage has 5 citations on Google Scholar.
The Parliament of Australia
lists Railpage as a key internet link on transport economics and transport law for Members and Senators. Railpage is also used as a resource by senior State Government Members of Parliament and Officials.
Those who have contributed in an official capacity have included the president of the Public Transport Users Association
Daniel Bowen
, the Victoria
n Director of Public Transport Jim Betts and the Victorian Department of Infrastructure's Fare Policy Manager Adrian Webb. Television presenter Scott McGregor
has participated in a live chat on the web site.
Its co-founder, David Bromage, has been featured in media articles and interviews including by ABC
radio on the history of the XPT and trainspotting with Railpage cited as a source for further information. Other staff including Michael Greenhill and James Morgan have participated in media coverage about Railpage.
, however as times wears on it bears less and less resemblance to the original release. Its code base was PHP
and the back end database runs MySQL
.
A new server was sourced in late June 2007 to take over the task of handling both Railpage and the other websites hosted by Railpage. The migration of the main Railpage website to the new server was completed on 3 July 2007, and launched on 5 July 2007.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
focusing on railways
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
within Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. The site was run by volunteers, and provided free or reduced-cost internet services to not-for-profit railway organisations and preservation groups. It has been quoted as a source in major state and national newspapers, as well as in government and private research publications.
General
Railpage is the largest railway-oriented web-site in Australia and was among the first 100 web sites to be hosted in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
The site allowsrailway enthusiasts
Railfan
A railfan or rail buff , railway enthusiast or railway buff , or trainspotter , is a person interested in a recreational capacity in rail transport...
to find and exchange picture, news and information relating to mainly Australian trains and railway infrastructure
Rail transport in Australia
Rail transport in Australia is a crucial aspect of the Australian transport network, and an enabler of the wider Australian economy. Rail in Australia is to a large extent state-based. The Australian rail network consists of a total of 41,461 km of track of three major gauges, of which...
. The site includes a user photo database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, discussion forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
, a chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
and a railway news section.
The discussion forums are divided into separate sections, such as Australian based discussions, heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
interest groups, and overseas discussions.
Although around 50 percent of forum users were under 26 years of age, nearly a quarter of contributors were involved in the rail industry.
History
Railpage started in 1992 as a cfingerdFinger protocol
In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information.-Name/Finger protocol:...
service on David Bromage's account on Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
's general access Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
server. Anybody could finger
Finger protocol
In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information.-Name/Finger protocol:...
the account and view the indexpage, and further view the railpage. The name lives on.
The content of the finger service was translated to an experimental web site in July 1994. Early content included a repository of Australian railway timetables
Public transport timetable
A public transport timetable is a representation of public transport information to assist a passenger with planning a trip using public transport. A timetable details when vehicle will arrive and depart specified locations and may be organised for by route or for a particular stop...
, inspired by a contemporary project in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In January 1995, Brian Evans suggested to David Bromage that Railpage (which at that point comprised static web pages) could be further developed. The two began to develop the site further, and later transferred it to a dedicated server.
The site gained its own domain name (railpage.org.au) in January 1997.
On 11 January 2003, Railpage introduced an on-line forums service using the open source PhpBB
PhpBB
phpBB is a popular Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board...
forum software.
Assuming the role of Project Director and site owner, (which he still maintains today), Brian Evans proposed the website enter a new development phase, involving the introduction of a Content Management System (CMS). The site had accumulated a significant number of unique URLs and was becoming increasingly harder to maintain. A solution to provide content owners with an ability to create and maintain content at the site became a priority.
Late in 2003, after several months of development and with the help of several developers and testers; RP2 was launched on Saturday 10 April 2004 at approximately 5pm. While at the time the portal
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
structure was primitive and contained a number of bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
present in all Nuke releases - the portal offered a number of new services to users including an image gallery and news feeds.
As of January 2008, the site receives in excess of 1000 posts per day, and over 62,000 unique visitors and 13,000,000 hits per month. The domain www.railpage.com.au alone serves in excess of 30 gigabytes of data
Data (computing)
In computer science, data is information in a form suitable for use with a computer. Data is often distinguished from programs. A program is a sequence of instructions that detail a task for the computer to perform...
per month. As of April 2008, the site had reached 16,000 registered users and 1,000,000 posts.
The site had been offline since 22 January 2010, but has now been reconnected as of 14 May, that year. It was down due to a fall out at Digital River's headquarters.
Uses in society
Railpage is used as a reference source for railway information in Australia, in particular with the Federal and State governments.In December 2003, Railpage and the Australasian Railway Association helped the then Australian Geological Survey Organisation (now Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian federal government. It carries out geoscientific research.On a user pays basis it produces geospatial products such as topographic maps and satellite imagery.-History:...
) produce the Railways of Australia thematic map.
Railpage was used as a secondary source of information by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...
in 2004.
Railpage was used as a source by the Museum of Victoria in preparing its Victorian Railways history portal.
It was sole source of reference in the Wyndham City Council's Tram Investigation Study.
In recognition of its educational merit, Railpage is included in Education Network Australia (edna): a list of approved school resources as a directory of resources on Australian railways.
In February 2007, the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics
Department of Transport and Regional Services (Australia)
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport is an Australian Government department. It deals with transport infrastructure, transport security, roads, aviation, and maritime development...
used information posted in a Railpage hosted site, "Gheringhap Loop", to produce an information paper on rail freight activity data. In the forward, the Executive Director of BTRE states (in part) "Following the growth in private train operations...rail freight activity data became increasingly scarce. The lack of data can be a challenge for the BTRE in providing the government with timely and accurate information about trends in Australian freight transport....In the meantime, the BTRE has investigated other potential data sources, including information from railway enthusiasts."
As of July 2007, Railpage has 5 citations on Google Scholar.
The Parliament of Australia
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
lists Railpage as a key internet link on transport economics and transport law for Members and Senators. Railpage is also used as a resource by senior State Government Members of Parliament and Officials.
Those who have contributed in an official capacity have included the president of the Public Transport Users Association
Public Transport Users Association
The Public Transport Users Association is a community-based public transport lobby group in Victoria, Australia, based in Melbourne.- History and Aims :...
Daniel Bowen
Daniel Bowen
Daniel Bowen, born in 1970, is a Melbourne resident best known as the author of the blog, Diary of an Average Australian. Bowen has published this blog continuously since 1994. His other web articles include , sent weekly to a mailing list and posted to Usenet group rec.humor since August 1990...
, the Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
n Director of Public Transport Jim Betts and the Victorian Department of Infrastructure's Fare Policy Manager Adrian Webb. Television presenter Scott McGregor
Scott McGregor (television presenter)
Scott McGregor is an Australian actor, television presenter and railway enthusiast.- Early life :Scott McGregor was born in Orange, New South Wales where his parents had a farm and his father managed the The Central Western Daily newspaper...
has participated in a live chat on the web site.
Its co-founder, David Bromage, has been featured in media articles and interviews including by ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
radio on the history of the XPT and trainspotting with Railpage cited as a source for further information. Other staff including Michael Greenhill and James Morgan have participated in media coverage about Railpage.
Hosting services
Railpage, is hosted by SISgroup in Sydney, Australia. From 1999 to 2004, Railpage hosted the popular Vicsig web site, and continues to provide internet services to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre. Other hosting includes the Diamond Valley Railway at Eltham, the Australian Association of TimeTable Collectors, and the Australian Society of Section Car Operators amongst others.Technical
Railpage Australia was based on PHP-NukePHP-Nuke
PHP-Nuke is a web-based automated news publishing and content management system based on PHP and MySQL originally authored by Franscisco Burzi. The system is controlled using a web-based user interface. PHP-Nuke was originally a fork of the Thatware news portal system.PHP-Nuke was originally...
, however as times wears on it bears less and less resemblance to the original release. Its code base was PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and the back end database runs MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
.
A new server was sourced in late June 2007 to take over the task of handling both Railpage and the other websites hosted by Railpage. The migration of the main Railpage website to the new server was completed on 3 July 2007, and launched on 5 July 2007.