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I first came on here to edit on April 28, 2004 (19 years ago now!) It is an addicting idea to try to add to something much bigger than I could ever do. I am a little skeptical over the idea of freedom to change anything, but overall I'm very impressed by the quality of articles and I have faith good work is being done and I can add to it.
There are many quality websites out there and it seems silly to duplicate too much. I like the idea of learning about something and testing my knowledge by trying to share it. For me that motivates much of my efforts here.
My specialty has primarily been image generation, perhaps because I've found so many articles where useful images were absent. I try to make quality images, but I will compromise perfection for meaningful improvement. I'm happy if anyone can replace my images with better ones.
[3] Jimmy Wales is founder of Wikipedia, the self-organizing, self-correcting, ever-expanding, and thoroughly addictive encyclopedia of the future. In this presentation, he explains how Wikipedia's collaborative system works, and why it succeeds. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 20:47)
The Tocopilla railway was a mountain railway built to serve the sodium nitrate mines in the Toco area of the Antofagasta Region in Chile. With a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), it ran from the port of Tocopilla on the Pacific coast up to a height of 4,902 feet (1,494 metres), with gradients up to 1 in 24. The railway was built by a joint-stock company founded in London and was designed by William Stirling of Lima, with a detailed description of the initial operation of the railway published by his brother Robert in 1900. The line was electrified in the mid-1920s and expanded in 1930 with the addition of lines serving new areas of mining. It continued operating into the 21st century, but was forced to close in 2015 when flash flooding caused numerous washouts on the electrified section of the railroad. With the declining prospects for nitrate, it was not economical for the line to be repaired. This photograph taken in 2013 shows a boxcab on the Tocopilla railway, leading a train down towards the coast.Photograph credit: David Gubler