The Queen, Limehouse. June 1897.

This blog has been up and running for one year today! To be honest I never expected it to turn out as it has, and wondered if I’d last even a month with it…

This time last year I’d have expected to have the baseboards built by now and be well on the way to having much of the track down. Neither has happened for the simple reason that I also never expected to spend much of last year, and most of this year thus far, sitting in hospital wards with one of my daughters. With that in mind, I never expected I’d have schedule a post to publish at a future date (this post was written and set for publishing three days in advance) just in case I wasn’t here to do it.

At the time of writing this blog has had 12,538 all-time views (2,800 in 2011 already), with December 30th 2010 as the busiest day with 237 views. Search engines bring in a good number of visitors, recurring themes being obvious things like Smithfield, LBSCR, Great Eastern, Sondes, Metropolitan, etc, and referrals come in from a large number of railway and modelling sites and blogs, many of which appear in the sidebar – James Wells’ Eastmoor being the largest referrer of them all. There are also some strange referring sites (for example lindsaylohanblog and petbookreviews…) and some very dubious dating sites referring here too. Blimey.

Anyway, this time next year I should have the baseboards built and the track laid. I know that for a fact ‘cos someone else is building the track for me, and they’ll soon be writing a few posts about the trials and tribulations of researching the Permanent Way of the Metropolitan Railway and its widened lines, and the construction of it in ScaleSeven.

Anyway, a celebratory photo for the blog’s birthday. Taken at the Queens beerhouse in Rhodeswell Road, Limehouse, the VR in coloured lamps on the first floor and a date of June 1897 gives the game away: Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nothing like a good knees’ up in the East End!

Pass the jellied eels…