What is The Travelogue?

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“Eurostar” Class 373 Power Car 3002 at London St. Pancras
May 18, 2008

Today’s launch of the redesigned Oren’s Transit Page also marks the debut of a new section within the website.  The Travelogue will serve as a space for me to create additional content to share with you, the site visitor, beyond my photos and the basic captions that accompany them.  All posts to The Travelogue will also be cross-posted to the new Oren’s Transit Page Facebook page, so if you are a fan of the page and typically catch up on what’s going on in your world via your news feed, you’ll also know when there is something to read in this space.

I expect The Travelogue to evolve over time, based on how much time I have to devote to writing for it and based on the feedback I get from readers such as yourself.  My initial goal is to have one to two posts each week.  Content will likely fall in to the following categories:

  • The Viewfinder:  Since its inception, Oren’s Transit Page has generally just captioned each photo with the train or bus model type, its identification number, the location of the photo, and the date the photo was taken.  This feature will try to tell some of the stories behind the photos, such as why I chased down that specific vehicle, why I chose to take pictures at a given location, or how a photo resulted from more spontaneous circumstances.   It will also highlight significant dates in transit history and other related events of interest.
  • Photos of the Month:  For many years on the old site design, I featured one rail photo and one bus photo on the home page each month.  That feature will continue here on The Travelogue on the first two days of each month with the goal of highlighting not only the selected photos themselves, but also the rest of the photos of that vehicle type.
  • System and Equipment Reviews:  When I travel, I usually make a point to take a ride or two on a given city’s transit system to get a sense of how that system functions in addition to taking photos for this website.  In these reviews, I’ll offer my thoughts on my experience ranging from a transit system as a whole to a specific type of equipment such as the new 7000 Series Metrorail cars in Washington, DC.
  • Oren’s Reading List:  When I come across articles, YouTube clips, or other content that I think might be of interest to and worth sharing with a wider audience, I’ll share it here so you can see it as well.
  • Site Updates:  When new content is added to the website, you’ll know about it by reading The Travelogue.  (The previous update e-mail list will not be used going forward.)
  • Other topics of interest may not fall in to the categories outlined above, but that doesn’t mean I won’t write about them.  For example, in the near future, I plan to write some about the different types of photos that I take (even if the photo at the top of this post appears to be quite simple, its composition is quite purposeful) and what to expect when you take a long-distance Amtrak trip, as these are things I get asked with some regularity and might as well share the answers widely.

All of these post types will permit user comments, and everyone is encouraged to leave feedback on each post and discuss the topics at hand.  In addition, if you have ideas for things that ought to be posted on The Travelogue, feel free to share them with me!

It is also important to note what The Travelogue will not be (at least as of now).  It will not be a place for opinionated commentary about transportation or urban planning issues in general.  It also will not be a place where news and links are posted on a regular basis or where you can find out that agency XYZ is changing routes 1, 2, and 3 next Sunday.  There are plenty of other places on the internet where you can find the former, and you can probably find the latter by browsing through the list of official transit agency websites that I have compiled for each agency displayed on Oren’s Transit Page.

The idea of creating a space to share more than just the photos themselves came up frequently as I was working to redesign my website.  I hope that the additional content that will appear here on The Travelogue satisfies that request and creates a space for some two way interaction between us.