Welcome to the new Abandoned Rails Website!

(Well, not "new", per se, but rather updated...)

What all has changed? The color scheme is still the same, as you can see. But there have been a number of visual changes to note:

1) URL Formatting: previously, abandoned routes had the url "article.asp?id=363" or "map.asp?c=413". No longer -- each route now has a much more descriptive URL, like "Monterey_Branch" or "Anaheim_to_Santa_Ana". Not only will this encourage more traffic from other sites, but if you want to go straight to the page for the state of New York, just type in "New_York" into your address bar after "abandonedrails.com/".

2) Single Page Presentation: previously, the historical text and pictures were displayed on one page, while the map for the same route was on another page. And if you wanted to see each of the pictures in a "slideshow" fashion, each picture could be seen on its own page as well. But now maps, pictures, historical text, filings and everything else for an abandoned route can be found on a single page.

3) Embedded Slideshow: Instead of loading up the page with all the pictures at once, only a single picture now shows in the "slideshow" area. Each picture shows for 7 seconds before advancing to the next one. Media-style controls allows you to browse through the pictures at their own pace as well. Clicking on a picture will open the original picture for full-size viewing.

4) Widescreen: When I first started Abandoned Rails, the 800x600 screen resolution was the defacto standard resolution for websites, thus I set the width of each page to fit within 800 pixels (page width was set at 760 pixels, actually). Today, 1024x768 is the single most-used screen resolution; indeed, almost 30% of visitors to Abandoned Rails use 1024x768, the most of any one resolution. That, coupled with the fact that I am now displaying all of the information for an abandonment on a single page, led me to widen the default page width to 960 pixels.

4) Faster Load Times: Previously, some pages would take more than a second to load. Now, pages display much faster, within tenths of a second.

That's really the only changes from a user standpoint. Behind the scenes and from a technical standpoint, the entire database has moved over from MySQL to Microsoft SQL Server. The new database allows the use of stored procedures, which contributes to the faster load times of the website. In addition, the entire site has been re-written using ASP.NET; previously I used classic ASP, and the use of ASP.NET now also contributes to the faster processing time.

All in all, I'm pleased with the changes, and should start playing catch-up to all the abandoned routes that have been emailed to me during this time. But the changes are far from over. My next project is to work on the Abandoned Rails Atlas. Imagine an Atlas that when you click on a blue marker, the abandoned route is shown on the atlas, along with a pop-up information window showing you the historical text, pictures, and filings for that route. You would never have to leave the Atlas, because all of the information is right there. That won't be for a while, though...

I hope you find the new website more useful and gratifying. Please let me know what you think!