Have you wondered how Locopage started up? Well, here's how:

I have been interested in railways since a young age (I was born in 1975). When the Mornington line was still open (it closed in 1981), I can remember traveling along it in a railmotor.
Our family was involved with the Mornington Railway Preservation Society from the mid-1980's to early-1990's. Trains are a family interest; my brother is interested in railmotors and rollingstock; while my father is involved with Puffing Billy, Walhalla Goldfields Railway, and the Daylesford Spa Country Railway.

A photo of me while out 4WD'ing, one of my other hobbies

In September 1988, I got an interest in diesel and electric locomotives, and decided to start 'locospotting'. I cannot recall where the idea for this came from. I made a 'Locolist' covering Victorian diesel and electric locomotives; this later expanded to interstate government operators, and eventually, private operators. The first loco seen was N474, while on a short holiday at Warrnambool  on 20 September 1988. If you want to see the list of locomotives that I have seen over the years, then please follow this link. Interstate holidays have definitely helped with the locospotting. In 1993, a holiday to Brisbane resulted in a guided tour of Redbank Workshops (including seeing several locos that were later scrapped or sold), while later that year, a holiday to Sydney resulted in visits to Broadmeadow and Delec depots. Of course, back in Melbourne, I have visited South Dynon Loco several times; and more recently, been around the outside of the Melbourne Freight Terminal with a pair of binoculars occasionally locospotting. I have been on more recent holidays to Sydney (2004) with visits to Junee and Delec; and Adelaide (2005) with visits to Islington and Dry Creek. In both cases, networks made via Locopage proved to be useful in arranging visits to these railway facilities. A holiday to Brisbane and Sydney (2007) provided even more contacts and visits to railway facilities, and showed just how beneficial networking can be.

Initially, I wrote up my locomotive data, but then with access to database software, typed it up. My locomotive database is now in Access 2000, and has over 4000 records in it, as the fleets have grown over time. If you want a copy, it can be found for downloading at the bottom of the Guide page.
The printout from the database - the latest edition of my 'Locolist' is now a 'book' nearly 300 pages long.

1994 saw me off to RMIT University studying for a cartography degree. While here, I got access to the Internet, and found the aus.rail newsgroup was a useful source of information.

In May 1997, a request was posted on aus.rail for information on Victorian locomotives. A reply suggested the book 'Power Parade'.
This got me thinking: I had recently done some web design work as part of my course at uni, and I had diesel and electric locomotive information at home in 'Locolist'. Perhaps I could create a web site on diesel and electric locomotives? So, I got in touch with David Bromage, the webmaster of Railpage, and asked about the idea of having a "locomotive page" on Railpage. He agreed, and so Locopage was born.

In early June 1997, the first HTML files for Locopage went online. They contained just brief tech specs, details of named and preserved locos, and links to photos. During July, the first stage of Locopage was completed. It should be pointed out that at the same time I was doing this, I also had mid-year exams, and then was working on my research project (for the record, I narrowly missed out on Honours). I had initially included TasRail locos on Locopage, but after discussion with Stuart Dix, removed these, as they were already covered on the RailTas website.

By late September 1997, I had produced a template of the current design for the individual pages for locomotive classes. The only feature that would be added in the future were the entry-into-service, withdrawal, and scrapping dates, following a suggestion in the feedback.

As soon as I finished final exams in November 1997, I started work on the upgrade. Each class would now have an individual page, based on the template, while the pages for the operators were reduced to become descriptions of the operators with an index of the classes. The upgrade was completed in January 1998. Since then, it has been a constant matter of updating the pages, and adding new pages as required.
As the IT manager in my department was also a railway enthusiast, I able to wander back in to uni every month or two until graduation in October 1998 to check emails and FTP across updates. For the next 5-6 months, I used the Net at a local library, while comparing local ISP's.

In March 1999, I finally got connected to the Internet at home, making things much easier for reading and sending emails, and FTPing updates to Locopage.

1999 also saw my entry into email lists. Currently, I am on one email list, and now on Railpage's Forums, and these have replaced the aus.rail newsgroup as a source of information (and a place for discussion). As I am busy at work, I no longer have as much time to spend surfing the net as I once did.

Keeping track (no pun intended!) of the locomotive fleets is a never-ending business, especially with the increasing amount of loco sales between operators. Every quarter, I go through my printout 'book', and do a 'major' update of Locopage, as well as the database. Minor updates are made more often as required.

As from June 2007, I am looking the quarterly updates being reduced to just updating the database; unless I have the time to do more.

Locomotive Page Introduction