Company mini-histories

I have added a few short articles to the online database to let you see what I have in mind for gathering company biographies. Check out these companies:

FER-591, Ferrocarril Hidalgo Tulancingo & Tuxpam
MER-200, Merchants & Miners Transportation Co
STP-318, St Paul Eastern Grand Trunk Railway Co
TON-846, Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Co Ltd
UIN-500, Uintah Railway Co
WIL-110, Wilkes Barre Connecting Railroad Co

Notes about companies

I have added a new Notes feature to the "Select company" page of the database search. These notes will show you all sorts of extra information about companies including organization dates, wrap-up dates, company nicknames, presidents. I am also starting to compile short company biographies. At this point, only a tiny handful of companies are represented.

December newsletter mailed

December newsletter mailed.

Newsletters posted

September and December newsletters added to web site.

Database search problem corrected

I updated the database search code to correct an error that one of my correspondents had discovered a few weeks ago. There was a problem with accurately finding companies that started with "St." I also modified the way the search handles confusing words like St, Saint, Sainte, Mt and Mount.

Public and private search screens

I installed the modified format for "public" search screens. The search results from both the public and private screens are identical in every way, except that the "public" searches do not allow access to images.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the Coxrail site, the "private search screen" is a more robust back door into the database that allows users to see images of thousands of certificates.)

Database modification

I further modified the format of the online database search screens. The intent is to roll this format out first on the "private" search screens (with links to images) to see if there are any more suggestions. A day or two later, I will roll out the new screens to the public side (without links to images.)