Newsletter
Friday, March 31, 2000

by Robert A. Chant

My latest undertaking is the Railways of Canada Database and Mapping Project. This endeavor marks the fulfillment of the dream set in motion by the original Railways of Nova Scotia Web site three years ago. At that time, I envisioned a site that would be a repository for both current and historical information concerning Nova Scotia's lines.

To achieve this goal, I knew I would need a great deal of support and assistance from the railway community, and I was not to be disappointed. Help was found both in and out of the province. Each week the list of contributors and supporters grew, even exceeding my highest hopes. The friends I have made along the way will always have my gratitude and appreciation for their part in reaching this goal.

I was so overwhelmed by encouragement that I expanded. The new Railways of Canada Archives would continue the tradition of the previous site, but would cover all of the country. Once again, I was not let down. Response was so tremendous that I now have a backlog of information waiting to be placed on the site. My biggest problem now is finding the time to get this information online.

For those of you that do not know me, I have a full-time job and I am partner in a Web page design firm. I also have another company in the works that will be starting this spring. My work-related responsibilities are so demanding that my personal time activities may have to take a back seat. As I am sure that some of you are aware, there are times that the Web site has gone for months without a change.

For those few that are interested, I do have a schedule for updating the site that I try to follow. These usually coincide with my vacation periods, so I generally have a major updating session in January (winter), April (spring), July (summer), and October (fall). I may also make small changes anytime throughout the year.

The Railways of Canada Database and Mapping Project is my attempt to organize and present all the information we have on Canadian Railways. I have been working on the task for about four months now. My biggest concern is how to best exhibit the material. I have made several disappointing efforts, only to start over.

At first, I was going to go with a book format and present the material in a chronological order, but this has many drawbacks. If you wanted information on a particular railway or town that spanned many years, it would be hard to find. You would have to read each entry to get the necessary facts.

I then thought about using what I call "ride the rail" format. Each railway is plotted on an image map with key stations indicated. You can start at any major point and click to links to adjoining towns. To prevent the user from getting lost the links contained on any one page would have to be limited. This would result in a duplication of information for each line segment. The duplicated material would be very tedious to update if changes were required.

I then thought of a searchable database. I would populate this with all material I had on every railway, town, industry, etc. The user would then have to query the database to get information he or she requires on a particular subject. This would be like using a search engine to surf the Internet. The end user would be responsible for organizing the information into a "usable" format. This would be tolerable for someone with a general knowledge of railways, but for the novice rail fan, it would be inadequate, so the idea was dismissed.

I then though about combining all methods and let the user decide what would be best for them. In order to avoid any duplication of material I would need to use two separate indices. I would require an index that would present the material in a chronological order, and an index based on station order. I would also need a searchable database that would return links to the material based on search criteria.

I started to construct these three separate "interfaces" to the information I had on Canadian railways. This is when I discovered how flawed these methods would be. The user would require constant (and aggravating) clicking between the index and the information. I also realized that it would be tedious for the user to track updated or changed material.

I then starting thinking about using some advanced Web page design features to overcome these drawbacks. This is when I decided to use a "framed" format for the project. Although I am not a big fan of frames, I think it is the best possible alternative for presenting the variety of material contained on our site. I have also made use of JavaScript and increased to the minimum screen size to 800x600.

I have viewed the pages on Netscape 3.01+ and Internet Explorer 4+. If you experience problems while viewing this pages (when they become available), or you want to share your views on the database project, or if you just want to tell me how much you hate frames ;-), please drop me a note .

Sincerely, Robert A. Chant

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