Model Railroad Collector Wiki - Update #8 - April 27, 2019
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Several updates to report on the latest progress for the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project. Big performance improvements and updated eBay searches highlight this month's updates.

A few highlights of recent changes include:

• Calendars - It was brought to my attention that the calendar date pickers (used in personal collections for setting the "ordered on", "acquisition" and "sold" dates) had some anomalies especially with the international (German) version. All date pickers in the Wiki have been upgraded.

• Date rendering in Directory and Collections - The formatting of dates in the Directory and Collection lists were not always consistent, nor correct - especially when viewed with the German version of the Wiki. Renderings now correctly reflect the English or German localization of date formatting.

• Checkbox columns indicating if item is "In Collection ?" or "In Want List ?" - Now adding an item from the Directory to one of your Collections or Want List immediately updates these columns thus allowing a quick check if you have an item already in one of your collections or have flagged it as "Wanted".

• Performance tweaks - Extensive reworking was done to the common processes of adding new records to the Wiki Directory and to User Collections as well as editing these same lists. Adding or updating records is now significantly quicker even when using slower internet connections.

• Price History list - The Price History list (used to record the date and price items sell for) now supports entering dates and displaying them correctly in both the English and German versions of the Wiki. Previously there were issues choosing and rendering the dates.

• User Collections - Moving items from one collection to another - Bug fix to correctly allow easily moving an item from a Want List to another collection or vice versa.

• Multiple column sorting - Now clicking on a column header in either the Directory or a Collection will intelligently sort on multiple columns. It is now possible to do custom sorting on multiple columns simply by sorting on one column as usual (by clicking the column header title) and then holding down the SHIFT key and clicking on another column header with your mouse.

• Adding New Directory items - Smart defaults - Prior to adding a new item to the Directory many users have discovered that preselecting a similar item, opening it for editing, and then immediately closing the edit form, will save those details and then PREPOPULATE the form fields with that item when creating a new entry in the Directory. This not only saves a considerable amount of effort when entering details for the new item (only change the fields that are different), it also ensures consistency when creating the same items with different versions. The update in the April release prepopulates the Railway company and prototype class from the previously selected item.

• EBay Global search improvements - 1 - Custom search keywords You may now enter your own keywords for a custom eBay seach. The text box will prepopulate with the manufacturer name and article number that was selected when opening up a new eBay search, but you may change the keyword text to anything you like. The eBay search syntax is quite powerful for those users that understand the formation of search keywords and operators. It is not possible to go into detail of how this works in this forum post, but if you would like more information you can visit eBay for a technical summary of search syntax. https://developer.ebay.c...PIGuide.html#usekeywords . The important take-away is that the Wiki eBay search can now accomodate ANY custom search in the "eBay Search Keywords" textbox

• EBay Global search improvements - 2 - Select if eBay search is related to Model Railroads or not While most of your eBay searches will be related to trains, the Wiki eBay search functionality has a configuration checkbox which allows a user to search for an item on eBay that is NOT related to the Model Railroad hobby - just uncheck the checkbox next to the text "Search is related to model railroads ?". Depending on the type of search you wish to do checking or unchecking this checkbox will produce more relevant results.

• EBay Global search improvements - 3 - Remove duplicates The global eBay search functionality which allows a user to search for an item in all countries (previously announced) now has a feature that tries to remove duplicate items from the same seller's auction in different countries. To make this feature work registered users may now sort the list of countries according to their needs by clicking on "Preferences" in the main menu and then select "EBAY SEARCH". A new list will appear with all countries. You may then drag and drop the country names from highest to lowest priority. The settings only need to be configured once and the settings are persisted. In the event that the eBay seller posts an item to more that one country - only the country at the top of the priority list will be shown and the others will be removed. Make sure to check the checkbox "Remove duplicates from results ?" to experiment with this new feature.

Special thanks

• Although many users have contributed several items to the public database of (mostly) Marklin trains, the MRC Wiki would like to thank collector Nic B., who single-handedly entered more than 350 items in the Wiki Directory in late March and early April covering most if not all Maerklin items from the 1980's. This is a significant milestone as it means that all collectors that own any items from this decade can easily add them to their collections in a matter of seconds WITHOUT having to register new items. If you have any items from this period or desire any for your Wish Lists then have a look (thank Nic for all his work.)

Closing Notes

Thanks again to all those collectors that have contributed to the public database. Each entry makes it that much easier for those starting out. If you have not registered why not register and give a try at managing your own collection. ? You might be surprised at how easy it is to do.

Happy collecting

Model Railroad Collector Wiki website - https://www.modelrailroadcollector.wiki/

Model Railroad Collector Wiki - What's New - Update #9 - August 2019
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Item Maintenance - New functionality has been added to convert the collection Maintenance list from a simple list of completed maintenance tasks on a locomotive or car in a personal collection to a full blown Task List that includes TO DO tasks as well as already completed ones. To access this new functionality start by selecting an item to which you wish to attach a task. Click on the row of the item desired to enable the "Item Maintenance" button (identified with an icon of a "wrench"). See image below for location of the button.



Next click on the "Item Maintenance" button and a new table will open. You will see a list of previously attached tasks OR an empty table if no task have previously been created for the item. If you have existing tasks then you will notice the "Status" checkbox in the first column of the table. An unchecked box indicates that the task is in TO DO status and a checked box indicates that the task has been completed. See image below for a visual explanation.



To add a new task start by clicking on the "NEW" button. A simple form containing 4 fields will open.

1. Service Type - The first field, called "Service Type" is a dropdown list. If this is the first time your are using the Maintenance List then the Service Type dropdown list will be empty. To add new items select the dropdown option called "<< Not in list - add new >>". Selecting this option will pop up a small window which will allow you to create/add your own Service Task type. Enter the name in the text field and click "Save" to register your new custom type or "Cancel" to return to the Service Log form. See example below.



It is not uncommon to have many different custom service types. Below are some suggestions. Feel free to copy some of these or create your own.



2. Service Date - Use the calendar selector to select the date that the task was completed or, in the case of a TO DO task, the date by which you want to perform the task.

3. Notes - Use this field to enter any supplemental information that you need related to the task.

4. Status - Select either "Completed" or "To Do" from the dropdown list to indicate if the task has been complete or is scheduled for some time in the future. In this manner you may schedule future necessary service on a needy locomotive - perhaps, for example, to indicate that you need to add or replace a decoder, or change the tires or brushes. See below:



Task List - To complement this new task status functionality a collection menu feature has been added called "Task List". The Task List summarizes in list form all of the completed tasks within a collection as well as all of the TO DO tasks. The Task List can be filtered by Completed or To Do items, sorted by date or type of task or service to perform, and, like all other lists in the Wiki, may be printed out for reference on your workbench. To access the Task List first make sure that no item is selected (highlighted) in your collection list. The new "Task List" menu button appears in the button bar as shown in the image below.



Click on the "Task List" button and you will be presented with a list containing ALL of your tasks, both completed and TO DO for the selected collection. Once the list is displayed you may filter (using the Search box), sort (click on a column header), Edit (click on a row and then click the Edit button) or Print the Task List. TIP: When a TO DO task is completed simply edit the task record - change the Status dropdown to "Completed" and update the Service date to the actual date that the task was completed.



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If you haven't seen the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project in action then have a look and if you are interested in contributing to the public database and/or managing your own collection(s) then register and explore the Wiki features. The entire project is community driven. All questions and or comments are encouraged and appreciated.

Happy Collecting !

Kurt

kamstutz

https://www.modelrailroadcollector.wiki

Happy New Year to my Marklin collector friends!

As the Model Railroad Collector Wiki passed it's second birthday this past week I thought that I'd like to provide you with a bit of insight into the project and how it has grown since it was lauched in December 2017. Below is a table showing some interesting facts about the Wiki Directory database and the collections built using it. Many thanks for all of your contributions this past year. (Were there really over 4,000 images added to the Directory photo galleries this year?).

Early plans for 2020 call for adding in a feature to associate one item with another/others, thus allowing you to see, for example, what locomotives might pair with your coaches OR which coaches might be pulled with your locomotives. These associations are a pre-requisite for a planned integrated Train Consist Builder on the development horizon.

December marked a milestone in the Wiki Directory - 99% of all Marklin steam engines produced over the past 80 years are now registered in the Directory. What that means for Wiki users is that adding almost any Marklin steam locomotive to&nbsp;your collection is as easy as searching for it by model number and clicking one button to add it to your collection. Plans for 2020 include adding more items to both the Electric and Diesel locomotive categories.

If you haven't seen the latest updates to the MRC Wiki browse the "What's New" page for a listing of all major features added since the project launched. Link here:

www.ModelRailroadCollector.Wiki-What's New ?

... and if you have any questions or suggestions for the project please feel free to reach out to me by email.

Kurt

Model Railroad Collector Wiki - Update #12 - February 7, 2021
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It has been almost 5 months since the last Wiki newsletter so I'd like to bring those interested collectors up to date on the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project's latest news.

2020 sees a more than 300% increase in new Wiki database items and collections compared to 2019.

With the repeated lockdowns and home isolations due to the pandemic many model railroad collectors used their idle time to organize their collections. Note in the table below that in comparison with 2019 there was a three fold increase in the number of items added to the MRC Wiki database and items added to personal collections in 2020. Thanks to all those collectors that added new items as each new item enriched the master database and made it that much easier for new collectors to build up their own collections. 181 collectors registered on the Wiki in 2020 and they created more than 200 personal collections containing more than 6,000 articles. Nearly 20,000 new images were added to the Wiki photo galleries increasing the total number of model railroad related images to over 34,000.



MRC Wiki receives award for best "experimental" website.

How do you classify a free website with a crowd-sourced public database ? The judges at the annual DNN convention categorized it as "experimental" and their votes earned the Wiki a first place award. There was no financial compensation for the win, but the bragging rights are priceless...



User Guide available in Spanish and German

Many thanks to Wiki users Javier E. and Kristian B. who translated the recently created User Guide into Spanish and German respectively. Many thanks for donating their bilingual experience to help others and enrich the Wiki ecosystem. The User Guides may be downloaded directly from the English, German and Spanish Wiki homepages.

Noteable contributions

A special callout in this newsletter to two users who have made recent standout contributions to the Wiki project -

• Antonio M. completed registering more than 2,000 Marklin refrigerated cars (ie #4415 type beer cars) and is currently registering #4680 wagons.

• Dwight L. is taking on the task of registering a large number of Z-Scale (Mini Club) models.

• At least 6 other collectors have made 100 or more new item contributions during the past 6 months.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Collection Spreadsheet Importer undergoing beta trials

A number of collectors have asked why the Wiki project doesn't have an import process that allows them to quickly ingest their collection lists from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into the Wiki. We now have an import tool that we are currently testing. If you would like to participate in testing please enter in contact with me and I will provide more detailed information. Early tests look very promising and allow matching of spreadsheet items with those same items in the database. The process is not perfect, but expect a 60-75% percent success rate for most Marklin standard catalog items after about 1990. There are 4 fields columns that must match the database columns -manufacturer, scale, article number and version/variant number. We will have a blog post with more details coming soon.

Feature updates and bug fixes.

New tutorial videos created. - See all the videos here on the Wiki YouTube page - New tutorials



Jump to page directly by entering page number instead of clicking on arrows repeated times



- Series, Set Contents, and Functions fields localized by language (no longer share the same field)

- Advanced Search picker support added for "In Collection" and "In Want List"



- Graphical bar graph display of years an item was or is in production</span></p>



- Bug fix - Prevent saving a new or edited record if sub-category is empty (not selected)

- Add in context sensitive pop-up help to form fields for Directory and Collection item details. Help text is pulled directly from the User Guide's.



- Add sorting by database items without images (click on images column header to activate)

- Bug fix - Alphabetically sort list of collections in pop-up collection list

- Set default table view in Directory to show manufacturer logo and hide production years. (Can still be enabled via Column visibility buttons)

- Bug fix - correct broken rendering of German and Spanish translations containing double quotes.

Update your Profile

If you have a MRC Wiki account please update your profile to include your country, region (state), city, and language preferences. &nbsp;On our roadmap for future development we have a task to put pins on a world map showing where Wiki users are located. &nbsp;The names will remain anonymous, but we'd like to know where you live. You do not need to provide any address information, but please provide information to the city level to help us understand where our users are located. To update your profile click on your user name in the upper left of the page, then click on the "Manage Profile", and click on "Address" title to open the address form fields. Erase the name in the Country field and re-enter it by slowly typing the name of the country where you live. You should see country suggestions that appear based on the letters that you type. Select the country from the dropdown list. The region list will then be populated with the regions (or states) for the country you have selected. Choose the correct region and then finish by entering the name of the city in which you live. Optionally add in street information (not required). Open the Preferences section verify that your TimeZone and (IMPORTANT) Preferred Locale settings are correct Futures plans include having a newsletter in German and Spanish in the future so setting your preferred language will assist us in sending you our newsletter in the language you best understand.
Finally, click the UPDATE button to save your changes.

What ? You're not registered ? Have a look at the database of model railroad items to see just how elaborate it has become. Free registration allows you to create your own collections for access anywhere you have internet access and share your collections with friends. Want to buy or sell? Check out the free Marketplace where you can post collection items for sale for free.

As always we appreciate any comments or suggestions to help guide the project and make it that much more useful to the collectors using it.

Happy model railroading.

Kurt

Model Railroad Collector Wiki

Edited by user 13 February 2021 16:05:21(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Update #14 - Wiki Newsletter June 17, 2022
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It has been over 6 months since the last MRC Wiki Newsletter so I thought that I would update you with the latest news about the Model Railroad Collector Wiki project.

If you have not visited the MRC Wiki recently and have forgotten your password then you may recover it by clicking "Login" and then the "Reset Password" button.  You will be asked to provide your email address that you used when registering.  An email with a link to reset your password will be sent to you by email.  Should you have any problems please contact the administrator via the Contact page.

Need to get started again ? - Follow these simple steps.

•  Click on the My Collections menu option and then create one or more empty collections for items you own and optionally an empty collection to contain your Want List.
     
•  Click on the Model Train Directory menu option and, using the Search box, locate an item you own.  If you cannot locate it in any category then you will need to add it to the database.
     
•  Click on the row containing your item.
     
•  Click on the Collections menu button and then select the collection you wish to add the item to
      
•  You have now added an item to your collection.  Repeat for each collection item

The MRC Wiki in numbers....
Many thanks to all of the contributors to the public database.  It has seen considerable growth since the beginning of the year and, with currently more than 25,000 registered items and more than 61,000 images in the photo galleries, we are on track to reach 30,000 items by the end of 2022.  The user base has grown to more than 560 registered collectors who have added more than 20,000 items to the 600+ personal collections in the Wiki repository.  




The diversity of the MRC Wiki project is demonstrated by the fact that we have users from 46 different countries.  Model railroading is definitely an international hobby.



The MRC Wiki is a constantly evolving model railroad collecting database and therefore new features and bug fixes are added regularly based mainly off of user suggestions.

A full list of updates since December 2021 can be found below in the Update Log

12/2021 - Update Year Introduced selector to include future year 120 days before end of current year.
01/2022 - Add sorting of thumbnail images in Owned collection
01/2022 - Search panes and Search builder updates for Spanish and German versions
01/2022 - Category translation fixes
01/2022 - Bug fix - Currency formatting error that saved currency amounts in Spanish and German 10x higher than correct.
01/2022 - Added UPC column to user collections
01/2022 - Update screen refresh after adding or updating items in Directory
01/2022 - Fix paging immediately after collection item update.  Now refresh does NOT take you back to page 1.
02/2022 - Security patch applied.
02/2022 - Added new column to Directory - Quantity of items in all collections.  Find out how many other of the same items are in other collectors collections.
02/2022 - Update column sorting for Directory list
02/2022 - Pagination control updated
02/2022 - Consist feature added
02/2022 - Add consist sharing via URL copy function on btn click
03/2022 - Add paging to public Consists list
05/2022 - Intl date format fixes for non localized languages (collection preferences)
05/2022 - Date Received and Date Ordered updates on collection Item edit form
05/2022 - Bug fix for custom item collection properties for German and Spanish versions.
05/2022 - Global railway administrator created (custom role for advanced users)
05/2022 - Page length defaults standardized for locations, origins, service types and price history sources
06/2022 - Directory item form field dropdown lists for railway companies and prototypes updated to include embedded search.

The principal new feature (added in February) is the Consists.  The Consists feature allows you to build complete trains (Consists) using items from the public database.  You also have the ability to share your consist creation publicly with all other users.  In this manner collectors can consult the list and search for ideas for building complete trains.  If you have not yet played with this functionality please have a look in the "Consists" section and create your own in the "My Consists" section.



Current popular features to explore:

    Marketplace - Want to sell something from your collection?  The MRC Wiki has a free Marketplace where you can post For Sale listings.  Consult the user guide for the simple instructions on how to mark a collection item so that it shows in the Marketplace.
    
    Collection sharing - Easily share the contents of one or more of your collections (owned collections or Want Lists) privately with any other MRC Wiki user.  See the user guide for instructions.

FAQs - Commonly asked questions...
        Q: I just uploaded an image.  Why doesn't it appear immediately in the Directory
        A: Thumbnail images are moderated.  Once a photo is uploaded one of the photo administrators will resize and optimize it for display in the Directory.  You may use the uploaded image immediately though in any of your personal collections.
        
        Q: Why can't I add this record? I get an error when trying to add a new item to the database
        A: The most common reason is that you cannot add a duplicate.  Always search for the record in the appropriate category and make sure it doesn't exist before adding to database.  
        
        Q: What constitutes a duplicate item?
        A: Any item with the same manufacturer, scale, item number and version number in the same category group is considered a duplicate.  You can, however, have duplicates in different categories.

        Q: I have my collection currently in a spreadsheet (such as Microsoft Excel).  Is there an import function to get me started?
        A: The MRC Wiki does have a utility to help with importing from a spreadsheet.  The utility is not really user friendly nor is it 100% successful in importing from a spreadsheet.  If the majority of your items are Marklin then you might expect maybe 50-60% of your list could be imported.  If you have several hundred items then this is a possible consideration.  Please contact me via the Contact page if you are interested in experimenting with the importer and I can provide more details.

        Q: How can I help the MRC Wiki project?
        A: The Wiki is entirely supported by it's contributors.  If you can please contribute by adding new items to the Directory database and update existing items to provide the most accurate data for all to take advantage of.
        
        
That's all for now.  As always if you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the project please reach out to me. 

Happy collecting.

Kurt

Update #16 - Wiki Newsletter - December 24, 2024
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Hello model railroad friends,

As 2024 comes to a close so does another year of the Model Railroad Collector Wiki website. Now completing it's 7th year of activity, the MRC Wiki database has continued to grow. The main directory now totals nearly 39,000 items - all with at least one photograph. The photo galleries contain more than 48,000 unique images and more than 800 users from 48 countries have registered at one point since the website was launched.

At this point in the project I don't intend on making too many updates to the code base, preferring rather to help grow the database and improve the quality of the data. The main focus in the database has been to register most items that Marklin has produced over the past 80+ years and I am proud to say that realistically about 98% of the items have already been registered. For anyone collecting vintage or modern Marklin H0 scale items then the database is very complete. There are some weaknesses in the database though - Special models and promotional one-offs are very challenging to register since they are not as well documented as are main production line items and the Mini-Club Z scale category is far from complete. Additionally I see a need for many items from non-Marklin manufacturers and non H0 scale items.

For those registered users that do not visit the MRC Wiki regularly I invite you to check out the Consists section in which collectors register entire passenger and freight trains. This section may provide inspiration on what you may build for yourself or suggestions to add to your Want Lists. Click on a row and see what compositions others are putting together. There are more than 500 complete trains registered already.

The MRC Wiki Marketplace is a place to freely advertise any items that you wish to sell or look to buy from other members of the MRC Wiki community.

Sharing collections is a feature that many users are not aware of. The MRC Wiki allows you to share any of your personal collections with other registered users.

As always I continue to answer questions about how to use the MRC Wiki. First time users sometimes have difficulty, but I am always available to help get you jump started or refresh your memory on how to do some task.

I remind you that now is a good time to backup your personal collections to your local computers to keep an up to date offline copy. An Excel compatible spreadsheet can easily be created using the Export feature available when viewing a personal collection.

I wish each and every member of the Marklin Forum and MRC Wiki community a very happy holiday season and a Happy New Year. If you have contributed to the public database in 2024 then I thank your for your time and spirit of giving to help other model railroad hobbyists. May 2025 bring you health, happiness and, of course, more trains.

The "Wiki" in numbers -



Regards,

Kurt Amstutz
Model Railroad Collector Wiki
Creator and administrator