Electronic oyster
Some of you, hopefully most of you, will know that the Railway has a presence on the world wide web. We have our own website at westlancsrailway.org, and a Facebook page. The latter is mainly used to publicise upcoming events and share photos of recent ones, both valuable activities that find favour particularly with the younger element (i.e. anyone too light in years to remember pre-Windows computers).
This piece however is mainly about the website. Its main job is to present the face of the Railway to the large numbers of people who learn about railway attractions via the internet. Increasingly they do so using mobile phones and tablets, so the information has to be presented in fairly small packets that can be easily read on a hand-held screen. Another important function is to provide a means for members to communicate with each other, for example to fill vacancies on the roster, or to allow management information to be readily available to all members.
I won’t bore you with the technicalities of how the site operates, mainly because I have only a hazy idea of the underlying mechanicals. Fortunately the website provider has a (fairly) simple fill-in-the-blanks system for creating web pages, which works well (most of the time). Nothing is stored on the domestic computer, it’s all done on the internet, which means other members can do bits of it as well. For other sites I use a system which offers greater flexibility in content and layout, and allows a website to be created on your own computer and then uploaded to the internet. However it’s a steeper learning curve and it’s not so easy to share the job with others. You pays your money…
To my mind potential visitors to the Railway need to know three things, what it is, where it is, and what’s on. So that goes on the front page, in the first four sentences. More detail is elsewhere, accessed via clearly-labelled links at the top of the page - you would be surprised how many tourist attractions bury these essentials! Mundane things like large type, a clear font and contrasting colours are also important - if people find difficulty reading what’s on the site they may not bother, and go elsewhere. The web has a lot to answer for regarding attention spans… Incidentally, if anyone does have any suggestions for improvement, I’d be pleased to have your feedback.
As to who visits the website, we get 4000-plus page views a month from 1500-plus visitors. They come from all over, as you would expect a lot are from the North-West, but there are many others from the rest of the UK and Europe, plus a fair few from the US, South America and the Antipodes. It’s surprising just how widespread the interest is, but whether it’s a reflection of the great regard in which the Railway is held world-wide, or just random browsing by railway enthusiasts with not much of a social life, I’ll leave you to decide. What is clear is that websites, and Facebook for that matter, reach across geographical boundaries and bring your pride and joy into everyone’s living room, for better or worse.
To ensure it is for the better, content is king. We need to show interesting material, and keep it relevant and up-to-date, with plenty of photos and videos as visual aids. The site needs to reflect the Railway’s culture, which is of an informal, family-friendly and welcoming nature. And that’s not just my opinion, the review site Tripadvisor is full of comments such as ‘lots of really enthusiastic volunteers who really make the experience’ and ‘very friendly and you could tell they were passionate about trains’. Pictures and short descriptions of what has happened recently, again on the front page, help to stimulate interest. With the help of an iPhone app (other telephonic devices are available) I have started to post some short photo-stories which describe typical events at the Railway, as a permanent resource that visitors can look through to see what we get up to during the year.
Talking of volunteers, they have their own section of the website, not available to the general public. There Alan Frodsham is doing his best to wean train crews and other volunteers away from email and Yahoo group and on to a calendar-based roster. There is also a message board which all members of the Railway can use to post their own news and comment, in a Facebooky sort of way. You have to sign up for membership of the website first, but providing I recognise you and am paying attention to my inbox, this should be a fairly painless process. And those of you who like a good read on a winter’s afternoon, the minutes of Trust meetings and all the gory details of our safety management system are there to keep you informed, if not actually entertained.
As well as news and events, the site contains descriptions of the site and of the engines and rolling stock. Much of this is based on material from the previous website, maintained by Neil McMurdy. Those with more than a passing interest in narrow-gauge railways can learn more about what we do and what we have on site. I’m hoping in due course to expand this, with more detail on the internal combustion engines (we have a couple of dozen in assorted sheds!) and descriptions of the various items of rolling stock. These items are representative of our industrial heritage, both locally and further afield, and information about them could usefully be made available to a wider public, to complement existing material in publications such as Short Axle. There is an element of cunning planning in this, as we hope to inspire both existing and potential new members to sign up as active volunteers, to keep the Railway prospering in the future. This is particularly important if our expansion plans come to fruition over the next few years.
Another intended project, hopefully underway by the time you read this, is to make some shop items available for purchase via the website. We have the technology, as someone once said, we just need to decide how best to use it and what type of goods could benefit from being offered for sale in this way. We already sell event tickets, such as those for Santa Specials, online using a link from the website. This eases the burden on the shop staff and helps us to plan events better. Any ideas on expanding the shop facility (and offers of help) gratefully received.
Finally, a plea for your assistance in keeping the website topical. There’s only one of me, and I can’t get to every event or hear every bit of interesting news. But if you tell me about things I have missed, and better still send me some photos, I can post the information fairly promptly. I’m retired, and therefore very busy, but it normally doesn’t take long to update the site. Who needs an early bed-time, particularly if getting up before 9am is not normally required? So please send me stuff, and keep sending it, and help to increase the hit rate, and hopefully the attendance-rate as well!