Making the move to Flickr

[Matt L]

When I made the jump to digital photography 10 years ago, I chose Photobucket as my storage site. They were fairly easy to use and not expensive... until now. Shortly after paying $99 to renew my subscription on Photobucket last month, they sent me a notification about their change in policy. Anyone who wants to do "website hosting" must pay Photobucket $400 per year or the images was no longer hot link. This apparently includes posting images on message boards I don't own... or even administer. That is unacceptable. I will not be blackmailed!  >

I began checking around for a new photo hosting site but didn't find anything I really liked. I'd tried Flickr a few years go but disliked the uploader. However, fellow jreb member Callduckfarm (aka Mike) gave Flickr a strong endorsement when I asked for advice on Facebook, so I decided to try Flickr again. Guess what? The photo uploader is much better now. Flickr also gives each use a terrabyte of free photo storage. Therefore, I have begun uploading my photos to Flickr, starting with 2011.

With that in mind, here is one of the albums I uploaded.

An NS local interchanges with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh RR:



Speaking of the B&P, their road freight arrived a short time later:



NS 287 utilizes trackage rights on the Buffalo Southern RR:



These photo are part of an album from Tifft Street, which can be viewed at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32990771@N04/sets/72157687407225726

All photos in this post and the link were taken by me Friday 7/22/2011 in Buffalo, NY. I'll share more albums from my Flick account as time permits. Enjoy! 

[Bill Richardson]

People can get web hosting for way under the price you quoted for Photobucket.  People can get free hosting, although they are limited in storage space and some other things.  I have free hosting, with a 200 meg limit.  I have two websites on that, and have used only 1/4 of the space.  I haven't checked lately, but it was around 1/4.  My RR website is on there, and I have a lot of photos on it.  I have an "outdoor" website, with many more photos on it than the RR site.  There are no forced ads on my websites.  Years ago, I had a paid website, and it cost about $6  a month.  I closed that one and started a new one with free hosting.  Instead of a domain name, I have a sub domain name.  As for Photobucket, I had their free account, with plenty of ads, and it was slow as molasses.   Somehow I erased a whole folder of RR photos off a flash drive, while in Photobucket, and that was when I decided to close out PB.  I studied various photo storage/sharing venues and settled on Flickr, because it provided a link for any photo I wanted to post on another website.  Other storage websites I looked into did not do that.  They just provided links to share photos--as in send a link which linked back to my photo on their website.  I could not post a photo here on Jreb--just a link.

Flickr takes some getting used to, I think, for learning how to get around and move photos either way.  I haven't used it much, just a few time to get some photos on here.  Same as many things--"learning the ropes".  Not bad.

[E. Hodgson]

If interested I could setup some space for hosting for a small yearly fee work with you on a domain and other stuff if needed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Matt L]

Thank you both. I have continued my FLickr uploads. It's been a fairly easy learning curve so far. The only thing I haven't mastered is figuring out how to post photos on railfan.net but that will be addressed on that message board.

Bill, what is the name of your website?

[Bill Richardson]

Matt:  The name of my railroad website is,  Railroad Engines Etc

          The name of my outdoor/hiking website is,  Kentucky Woodlands Etc

      The web host I use is,  Free Hosting EU.    They have paid hosting too, with more space and features.

[NSyorktown]

Matt:

Per your original photos of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh interchange site . . . . I'll assume that area gets dumped on each winter, with snowfall several feet high at times.  I don't see any warmers by the turnouts.  Seems odd.  Don't the harsh winter conditions cause problems in that region?

[Matt L]

That's a really good question! Yes, the south side of Buffalo can get shelled in the winter or even late fall. Some who read this may recall when Buffalo and the south towns (suburbs) got 5 to 7 feet of snow during a severe lake effect storm in late 2014. there was alot of digging in 3 yards at Tifft Strret- B&P, Buffalo Southern and NS alike. Buffalo Southern has video of their snow removal operation on You Tube. I don't know what B&P or NS did.

[Matt L]

Matt:

Per your original photos of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh interchange site . . . . I'll assume that area gets dumped on each winter, with snowfall several feet high at times.  I don't see any warmers by the turnouts.  Seems odd.  Don't the harsh winter conditions cause problems in that region?

Thanks, Bill. It;s good to have alternatives just in case... but Flickr has been working well so far.

I have been steadily archiving over the past month. Here is a chase of the NS OCS from 6 years ago.


Passing the former Erie RR/EL station in Owego:



Entering Corning:



Westbound CP Cass in Hornell:



To view the complete album of the chase, please visit:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32990771@N04/sets/72157684831207401

All photos in this post and the link were taken by me 8/24/2011 in the Southern Tier of NY. Enjoy!

[Matt L]

Here's a glimpse of the last SD40-2 I saw in Conrail paint:











NS 14M using trackage rights on Buffalo Southern at the same location:



To visit the rest of this album, which also included shots of the Buffalo & Pittsburgh RR, please visit:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32990771@N04/albums/72157685115538753/with/36409265222/

All photos in this post and the link were taken by me Friday 9/16/2011 in Buffalo, NY.

[Matt L]

A few months later, I had an interesting visit with NS before spending Thanksgiving at a family dinner. it was the beginning of fr=oreign power becoming more common on the Southern Tier mainline. At this time, NS 309 still originated at Gang Mills, an interesting set of power was assembling a train to take westward:



meanwhile, a second set of power (possibly NS extra I09) was building another train to take west and relieve the congestion at Gang Mills:



NS 12T crossing the Chemung River in Elmira during the early afternoon:



A complete look at my Thanksgiving adventure with NS is in this photo album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32990771@N04/sets/72157685398478993

All photos in this post and the link were taken by me Thursday 11/24/2011 in upstate NY.

[Bill Richardson]

Matt---Back in August you asked the name of my website.  I gave it, and the name of my outdoor website.  Recently, I had to change the host.  I have a new host, and have uploaded my outdoor website, with a different name--Woods Cliffs and Waterfalls.  I have yet to upload my RR website.  It will have a different name, probably Railroad Engines.  I changed the headers on the pages to "Railroad Engines and Related Subjects."  I figured on using that as the website name, but had trouble when trying to add on a 2nd website.  Staff suggested RailroadEngines.  I guess they want something like that, instead of a name with more words, in order to make it work.  Anyway, the old websites are deactivated, gone, can't be found.  The names will still show up, but clicking will bring up a 404 error--not found.  I'll get the replacement up soon.

[Matt L]

A couple months later, I was out with NS on a frigid day.

Westbound intermodal 23K at main St over pass in Hornell:



NS/CP 38T rumbling through CP Cass in Hornell with leased power supplied by CP:



NS 13T heading east through the valley in Canisteo:



For a complete look at the day's activities, please visit this album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/32990771@N04/sets/72157688113735645

All photos in this post and the link were taken by me Saturday 1/28/2012 in Steuben County, NY.