The top ten blog posts of 2012

December 30, 2012Posted in: Random

I deem that it is time for a dose of omphaloskepsis, and to find out which of my miserable scrawlings captured your attention the most during the past year.

On a personal basis, the year started hopeful, but plans did not work out as hoped for, so I end the year really much the same as it started.

I’ve managed to write more this year, and visit more places – and done somewhat more in transport land. You’ll have to put up with a lot more of that in January for the anniversary.

I wrote less than planned though – with the usual bouts of lethargy getting in the way, and I am still sitting on a pile of photos that I just can’t motivate myself to write about. One day, maybe.

Then again, it has been a good year for photos of fireworks, and although my visit to the Olympic park was but a single day, then The Queen blocked off the Orbit while I was there.

And there was quite a bit of monarchy, which was rather difficult to avoid this year unless you tried really hard.

For me, some of the highlights include the helicopter flying through Tower Bridge, as it later turned out, for the Olympics opening razzmatazz. A few late nights offered chances to see things happening in the early hours when few others were awake.

Amazingly, I still haven’t taken a trip on the cable car – despite recording its construction at length, and in some discomfort when locked on a riverside pier at midnight once.

It’s rare for me to accept PR visits, but when it is buildings that are simply not open to the public, that can tempt me to want to write about the place. About 5% of the blog posts written were due to invitations from venues which I would not have been able to write if this blog didn’t have an audience. So I am always grateful for people who read the website for without you I can’t get into building sites and the like.

I did accept a “freebie” to be on one of the boats in the Jubilee flotilla though – well, just occasionally is allowed ;)

And I finally published my research on pneumatic railways, although it didn’t seem to attract as much attention as I had hoped. That is the confusion of writing a blog – I can never be sure what sort of stories will sink or swim.

top10But, the top ten articles that certainly swam this year were the following:

  1. Closed for 130 years, the public observation tower in central London
  2. It’s the 250th anniversary of the Cock Lane ghost
  3. Vintage tube train to run on the Underground next month
  4. Huge military fly past over Windsor Castle in May
  5. Pre-Booking details announced for London Open House Weekend
  6. List of London’s Bonfire Night Fireworks for 2012
  7. Photos behind the hoardings of the new Kings Cross station
  8. Disused tube station to open to the public for tours
  9. Victorian plans to encircle London with a Crystalline Railway
  10. Helicopter to fly through Tower Bridge

Here’s to 2013.

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