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SDR Online – Who? What? Why?
Who’s behind this 'unofficial' site?
The photographers Sarah Anne Harvey and Maureen Douglas-Green. Two photographers with one aim – if it moves photograph it, if it doesn’t move photograph it and if it has two legs, two arms and a body definitely photograph it!
What’s it all about?
SDR Online is an unofficial website featuring news, pictures and information about the South Devon Railway. The website first came online on the 10th June 2009 and the intention was to create a fully featured 'magazine' style site, with articles on all aspects of the railway and those people who work on it, both as paid staff and of course volunteers. From its first unsteady steps in June with 154 visitors for the month the website has grown, beyond even our wildest dreams, so that between January 1st and December 31st 2010 we had received 88,669 visits. Far from being a monthly magazine the site has almost turned into a daily newspaper, bringing news as it happens with photographs wherever possible to accompany the stories.
We should also stress that it’s not a ‘commercial’ site, rarely will there be anything here for sale.
Why start another SDR site?
Because, like so many others, we are passionate about the South Devon Railway. It’s our local Heritage Railway – Sarah’s from Brixham and Maureen’s from Plymouth. We’re independent, we are not employed by the railway and our contribution is on a purely voluntary basis. More importantly we do not seek to take over from any existing South Devon Railway sites, merely supplement them by filling in the gaps that the folks who run them may not have the time or space to do. In order to source as much information as possible Sarah is now a member of the South Devon Railway Association and the Devon Diesel Society.
But we can feature all sorts of subjects which will help to promote the railway to a wide audience, which is why we are not terming this as a ‘steam railway enthusiasts’ site. Yes there will be articles which appeal to railway enthusiasts, but there are other kinds of enthusiasts out there as well. For example there are keen amateur naturalists, for who seven miles of track also equates to a seven mile strip of wildlife undisturbed by modern farming methods. And let’s not forget either that the very fabric of the railway is an industrial and architectural heritage which also has its own enthusiastic following.
If, therefore, this new website promotes the railway to would be passengers encouraging new or returning visits, and at the same time encourages the recruitment of volunteers by its diversity of articles; then we will be well satisfied with the work that we have put into it. One clear success is the fact that our site has become, to use modern parlance, interactive in that many of our readers now contact us with news and suggestions for articles, which is something we would always seek to encourage.
Sarah Anne Harvey and Maureen Douglas-Green January 2011
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