WHR

Unfortunately, failure of computers and lack of time to back up adequately has lost some of this website's updates and images over the years. However, assistance from the late Keith Bradbury and the Wayback Machine has helped recover some of the files. If anyone else can help, please get in touch. The email address is on the Stop Press page.

From the early 1990s I had followed the construction of the Channel Tunnel and CTRL planning, writing for RAIL magazine under the pen name Gary Moore and then my real name until Nigel Harris decided Christian Wolmar was more valuable and dismissed me!

My web history began in 28/10/1998 with 3 editions of Version 1 of a personal page hosted at Compuserve. By the third edition on 29/12/98, there was a Rail page with a WHR photo. I had followed the development of Phase 1, walking the route frequently with my dad during the construction phase and taking lots of photos. I had been contributing a regular column to Railway Magazine but the editor, Nick Piggott, dismissed me by mobile while boarding a train if the background noise was anything to go by! It's a hard life as a freelance. He thought the other railways would complain about too much WHR coverage. My creative urges led to the idea of following the fascinating construction in detail and developed into recording it for the benefit of others on the web.

Version 2.0 launched on 30/10/99 with the transfer of all files to my new Freeserve webspace (www.isengard.fsnet.co.uk). Some 211 people had visited my website previous to this stage, probably mostly my own visits to check the site loaded correctly! After development of a page structure at Xmas 1999, the webpage featured the characteristic light blue background of this website and red text.

Version 3 launched at a new website on 29/10/2000 and reached 400 editions on 8/9/04 when it referred enigmatically to an interesting report on BBC Ceefax (the opening of Phase 3 Three). During this period the website transferred to a WebFusion account at www.isengard.org.uk.

On the 2/9/04 the website was moved to a new address: www.isengard.co.uk costing me over £100 a year in hosting fees at WebFusion.

Version 4 was launched with the start of work on Phase 4. Numbers viewing the website increased dramatically and by July 06 has passed 750,000.

On 11/4/16 the website was moved to TS Host at a much cheaper rate per month, though there is a slight lag when updating.

On 20/5/19 they had reached 8 million but a proposed prize could not be awarded as the visitors crashed through the number before I could do an update following the Beer Festival Weekend!

The website was paused for 4 months from 1/12/19 to 4/4/20 as scanning/cataloguing of your webmaster's extensive slide collection covering the WHR's first year took first priority.

Wayback record

Wayback date	Website Date	Version	Event	Website	Counter
2/2/02			WebFusion hosting announcement	isengard.org.uk
25/5/02	22/5/02	V3.130		isengard.org.uk	144,026
3/6/02	3/6/02	V3.132		isengard.org.uk
N/A	3/7/02		150,000 visit	isengard.org.uk	150000
18/7/02	16/7/02	V3.153		isengard.org.uk
3/9/02	31/8/02	V3.168		isengard.org.uk	156,406
22/9/02	21/9/02	V3.177		isengard.org.uk	R
24/9/04	22/9/02	V3.178		isengard.org.uk	R
29/9/02	27/9/02	V3.180		isengard.org.uk	R
21/11/02	19/11/02	V3.193		isengard.org.uk	194,209
24/11/02	23/11/02	V3.195		isengard.org.uk	R
1/12/02	24/11/02	V3.196		isengard.org.uk	R
	14/1/02		200,000 visit	isengard.org.uk	200,000
22/1/03	21/1/03	V3.222		isengard.org.uk	R
8/2/03	8/2/03	V3.228		isengard.org.uk	R
18/2/03	16/2/03	V3.231		isengard.org.uk	R
18/2/03	18/2/03	V3.232		isengard.org.uk	R
19/3/03	18/3/03	V3.246		isengard.org.uk	R
25/3/03	24/3/03	V3.250		isengard.org.uk	R
5/4/03	4/4/03	V3.255		isengard.org.uk	245,100
11/4/03			Error	isengard.org.uk
23/4/03	22/4/03	V3.262		isengard.org.uk	R
1/6/03	31/5/03	V3.285		isengard.org.uk	R
8/6/03	7/6/03	V3.290		isengard.org.uk	R
N/A	10/6/03			isengard.org.uk	250,000
21/6/03	20/6/03	V3.297		isengard.org.uk	R
	7/03?		Hosted by Tim Butters	bargepower.co.uk
26/7/03	N/A		Bargepower redirection page	isengard.org.uk
3/8/03	3/8/03	V3.326	This is the only Bargepower page saved	bargepower.co.uk	R
5/8/03			Last isengard redirection page	isengard.org.uk
11/8/03			Bargepower transferred to fsnet before this date
23/9/03	21/9/03	V4.336	First V3 page saved on fsnet	isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
11/10/03			First Bargepower redirection page	bargepower.co.uk
22/10/03	27/9/03	V4.337		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
N/A	28/10/03		300,000 visit		300,000
20/11/03	10/11/03	V4.344		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
9/2/04			Last Bargepower redirection page	bargepower.co.uk
27/3/04	24/3/04	V4.362		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	373,288
21/5/04	16/5/04	V4.368		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
6/6/04	24/5/04	V4.369		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
29/7/04	25/7/04	V4.282		isengard.fsnet.co.uk	R
	2/9/04		Hosted at isengard.co.uk	isengard.fsnet.co.uk
5/9/04			First fsnet redirection page
8/9/04	8/9/04	V3.400	First isengard.co.uk page/Last V3 Edition	isengard.co.uk	R
30/10/04			Error
12/12/04	10/12/04	V4.43		isengard.co.uk	R
24/1/05			Error
5/2/05	4/2/05	V4.78			R
9/2/05	9/2/05	V4.80			R

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