Main Street Railfan

Hey everyone! We just wanted to let you know that we've been having some disruption with stream swap. Apparently the YT stream key quit talking to the camera - and in order to fix it, we had to reset the entire stream key. This also caused a delay in this evening's swap. We are hoping that we've fixed this, but only the next stream swap will tell.

Anyway - we just wanted to let you know what's been going on - and we are working on fixing it!

6 days ago | [YT] | 11

Main Street Railfan

Don't forget that we will be having a new trackside video premiere tonight at 8pm following stream swap! Not going to lie - glad this one is off our plate, but we hope that you will enjoy it. We will be on live during the premiere for those who are interested in chatting.

We're also giving away FIVE free channel memberships! You do not need to be present to get one - it's randomly selected by YouTube.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 14

Main Street Railfan

Greetings everyone!

We feel that it is way past time for a channel update - but we have been pretty busy - mainly spinning our wheels.

Our next trackside video has been nothing but a mess of technical issues - and that has been very frustrating. We updated drivers, software, operating systems - just about anything we could think of in order to avoid starting over again. This proved to be an exercise in futility, as it finally became apparent that somehow files within our editing program became corrupted. We guess that we were lucky in that we only had to partially re-edit, but between regular life stuff, our mini-break to go to a couple of concerts (thanks for putting up with our disrupted stream swap weekend!), and these incredibly aggravating post-production issues, well, we find ourselves running way behind on not only posting new videos, but implementing other channel improvements.

BUT - we think we will FINALLY have the latest trackside video ready to go next Tuesday with a live premiere. (We hope that we will not run into any more issues at least. We are still in the middle of re-editing, but we’re pretty sure we cracked the code.) During the premiere we will be randomly gifting five free channel memberships. (This is something that YouTube allows us to do, so we will be taking advantage of that.) You do not have to be online in order to be eligible - YT just picks five of you - so good luck!

We also want to communicate our heartfelt thanks to those of you who have become channel members. It makes a big difference. We’re still slowly growing our subscriber base and being monetized helps this retired couple cover at least some of the costs associated with running this channel.

On a personal note, thank you to everyone who reached out about our sick doggy. Although the vets were never able to figure out the core issue beyond having an extremely acute case of gastroenteritis, four days in the doggy critical care unit led him to making a full recovery. And in the last six weeks we have also acquired two puppies - so puppy snuggles have taken up some time as well! 🥰

For future updates you can stay tuned here or check out the website or Discord server.

Enough of this yakkin’!

Let’s go catch some trains!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 12

Main Street Railfan

In our trackside videos, would you like…

1 month ago | [YT] | 11

Main Street Railfan

Hey all! Some of you may have noticed that our livestream has been swapping off of our normal schedule of 7:44am/pm. This is because we have a few commitments that have interfered with the timing of these. FYI: YouTube does not "save" livestream videos over 12 hours long - which is why we normally take the stream down every 12 hours - so we have access to the videos to do compilations and other videos. It also keeps the video in our livestream archive. We also can't swap the stream remotely from a phone or other device. It must be from a computer, which is impossible to do if we happen to be out and about.

Stream swap probably won't go back to the normal schedule until Monday. Thanks for being understanding about this temporary stream swap chaos!

1 month ago | [YT] | 19

Main Street Railfan

Super brief update...

One of our dogs has been very ill - ill enough to be hospitalized. Because of this, our video publishing schedule has been disrupted. We hope to get back on schedule soon, but in the meantime, our focus is on our furkid family.

Thanks for understanding.

2 months ago | [YT] | 21

Main Street Railfan

Greetings!

Just a few things to keep you updated on what’s going on with the channel and some of the improvements and updates that we’ve made.

Trackside Tuesday
Our goal is to bring you a new trackside video each Tuesday. Our plan is to run that as a premiere at 7pm ET. Of course, that’s the goal. We will be online during the premiere time to answer any questions or just chat with whoever happens to make it.

Membership Perks
As we said before, we will not hide the livestream or other train content behind a paywall, but there are some perks for being a member. The first is that when we schedule videos for the channel, members will be able to see them as soon as they are uploaded, while everyone else has to wait until the scheduled posting. (Note: everyone has to wait for premieres.) So if you want to see the latest content the moment we post it, then a membership will give you early access.

Secondly, members have access to special channel emojis.The more members we have, the more emojis we can create. (This is a YouTube restriction.) We are happy to take emoji requests. Please remember a couple of things: we are not allowed to use copyrighted material AND these things are TINY. We have been testing out our emojis in chat, so feel free to give us your feedback.


Apparel Update
We have been in contact with a business to potentially make some gear for sale. As soon as we have more information about this, we will let you know! We just wanted to you know that this is something we are actively working on.


For Our New Subscribers
Welcome - and thanks for joining us. About us in short: we are a retired couple who decided to put a live camera on our house because we are right beside the railroad and we wanted to share our unique small-town view with other railfans. Right now, any money that we earn from the channel is going towards recouping the cost of keeping the camera online. We have set our watch ads on the lowest setting that we can so as to bring you as much uninterrupted train content as possible, while still supporting the channel’s mission.


MSR Discord Server
We have our bare-bones Discord server up and running. If you are so inclined, we welcome you to join us there. If you’ve never used Discord or shun traditional social media, please feel free to check it out. We will not tolerate any sort of bullying - so if you’ve had problems with social media in the past, this might be the place for you. If you have questions about Discord, we would be more than happy to help you with this. They say if you build it, they will come! Well, it’s built - so feel free to check it out! discord.gg/CNxuXqSK


In Closing
In terms of content, we have a ton of other ideas, but are basically waiting for cooler weather. This summer has been particularly brutal, and much of our equipment doesn’t like the heat either. Also, channel upgrades take time to figure out. We both have learned so many new skills, and that’s proven great to keep our brains fresh and engaged. Our goal is to get better at the content we bring you while also having some fun. And we have really enjoyed meeting so many of you - some in person at the crossing and many of you in chat. It’s been great having experienced folks help out the newer fans (that includes us!) navigate this exciting world of trains. Please feel free to join in the conversation. We really do want to build a community of railfans - and also make space for YouTube railfan creators to share - whether that’s asking for help, giving feedback, or just having a place to vent.


Now let’s go catch some trains!

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 9

Main Street Railfan

We barely made it - but we ARE having a Trackside Tuesday video premiere tonight. Please join us!!! 7pm EDT

2 months ago | [YT] | 7

Main Street Railfan

Working on our next trackside video - which will bring you our first efforts at drone footage. (Yeah - we need to work on it!) Here's a quick screenshot showing boats on the Huron River heading out to Lake Erie at daybreak.

2 months ago | [YT] | 18

Main Street Railfan

We are thinking about ordering some custom shirts, and we are wondering what sizes we should do for an initial order. ANSWERING THIS POLL COMMITS YOU TO NOTHING! This is really just for us to get a basic idea on sizes. (And we are limited on how many answers we are allowed to have...)

2 months ago | [YT] | 8