Re: The Circle Will Be Unbroken.....the archives

As I recall, you sent me an e-mail asking about the idea of starting a NG BBS in 1998 or so. I did a little sniffing around and set up the Narrow Gauge Discussion Group on a free public BBS system. The big problem with it was that there was a limit to the number of posts that could be kept and that when we reached that number the oldest just "scrolled off" and were lost.

1999 was the last year Bart ran the C&TS, and we had a number of - uh - lively discussions on his management of the RR, and how often ties should be replaced. Because of the lively nature of those discussions, I decided to create a parallel board, so people would have a place to duke it out without offending my delicate sensibilities. This would become the NG Dead Goat Saloon.

At some point in there El Coke dubbed this place the "Gilded Lily Fern Bar and Ice Cream Parlour" - or the Lily for short.

By Spring of 2000 the stuff we were losing was just too important and I looked into getting my own domain for the NGDG. End of March 2000, we moved here and I renamed the place "Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum" instead of "group".

But to answer your question, I *think* we opened up some time in 1998. Which means we'll be 10 years old some time next year. One thing I do remember is that you said you'd printed off some of our better discussions from the NGDG, I wonder if you still have them around? They might be dated and could pin things down a little more closely.

Don