A Letter from DASH's Chief Engineer

My name is Bill, and I'm the fellow that runs DASH. I certainly appreciate that you may have experienced some issues with our site over the past several weeks. I will tell you that it has also been personally and professionally awful for us, and I am sorry for the frustration and inconvenience that this may have caused you and many other users. 

I wanted to give you a summary of the situation. We have been live with the DASH Marketplace for about 2 years now. We have had 4 interrupted auction days in total over that period, but 3 of those were unfortunately in the last 3 weeks. That is 4 too many interruptions, of course, but we're doing the best we can.

The fact of the matter is that we have grown very strongly over these past two years, and this growth caught up to us. Starting 3 weeks ago, we started working to improve our capacity to handle the load. We were not able to roll out our first improvement in time to prevent our first auction interruption. Since then, we rolled it out and discovered that we needed to do another enhancement. While we were working on that, our DNS provider (completely unrelated to the load issues) decided that we needed to re-work how users reached our servers via their ISPs. That caused some "downtime" even though our systems were fully functional.

Since we implemented that second enhancement for handling laod. it has resulted in a 300% performance improvement for many of our users while at the same time reducing our server load. Or so we thought...

An unintended by-product of our enhancement was to put additional load on our servers when a listing closed. This past Sunday evening, we were closing a listing about every 2.5 seconds for an hour.  So, after about 45 minutes of this, the actual load on our servers was astronomical - the fault being in the code of the very thing that should have made everyone's experience so much better. Two steps forward, but a frustrating step backward.

All I can say is we have now corrected this issue and that we will be "all hands on deck" to ensure that everyone's experience is seamless this week. As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult to simulate these circumstances. Though it may not seem like it, the team at DASH is very accomplished and has managed systems for literally millions of users.

Thanks to everyone for your patience and I hope to see you online throughout the week!

DASH Outage Update - Adjusted Auction Closing Dates

Over the weekend, we experienced some technical issues which prevented users from using the site or bidding on our auctions. We have fixed the problem and are using this opportunity to install optimizations to make the site faster for you in the future.

You can visit the DASH Marketplace and start bidding at any time, but do note that you may encounter some slow load times while we finish optimizing the site.

Because of this weekend's downtime, we have decided to reschedule the closing times of all auctions which were originally set to close on Sunday, May 31st and Monday, June 1st. They will now close on Tuesday, June 2nd.

The updated auction closing times are already live on the DASH Marketplace for all affected listings. 

Please email Support@Collector-ModelTrains.com with any further questions.

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Inside Look at the MTH Headquarters

We recently had a chance to visit the fine folks at MTH and see the inner workings of their fantastic operation. It's a pleasure to see where some of the world's finest trains are designed and developed, so we wanted to pass along some of the fun to you! 

The great thing about MTH's headquarters is that it really just feels like a regular old train room, but expanded to 1,000 times the size! Their building is simply enormous, and packed with trains, accessories, and tools from top to bottom. You can tell it's full of people who adore their trains and love every second involved with producing them. 

Just look at the size of the place in the picture below! It's endless! 

And if you're a railroader, the following picture will look familiar. It might seem disorganized to the layman, but we all know that it's just packed to the brim with everything you'd ever need to get an old train into tip-top shape once more. It was obvious to us that the people at MTH are just regular old railroaders like you and me at heart. 

We stumbled upon this nice little section of track, along with a stunning wall of MTH trains. To know that thousands of freshly-developed MTH trains were ran and tested on this humble table of track was quite a remarkable experience. Who knows how many models were given the seal of approval right here in this room, making it a huge piece of railroading history. 

The trains never end in this room! We spent a lot of time slowly moving along this wall admiring every single piece. There's a lot of craftsmanship and nostalgia and railroading history on this wall, and we weren't about to pass up on the opportunity to enjoy it. 

We're thrilled that MTH gave us the opportunity to poke our heads into their wonderful space and let us snap a few pictures of what life is really like inside the headquarters of a major model train manufacturer. It's simultaneously humble and amazing, full of love for the hobby, and a really magical place for anyone with a love for trains. 

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Tour of the Trainz Service Center

DASH seller Trainz has recently launched their new National Model Train Service Center, which provides railroaders with a faster alternative to getting their trains serviced and repaired. We've got some great photos of their service center in action to show you some of the cool stuff they're doing for railroaders. 

At the Trainz service center, beautiful old locomotives like this one come through the door every single day. 

 

Here you can see an expert technician inspecting the latest train. 

 

And here's the sharp engine after it's been serviced into tip-top shape!

 

You can see how much action this workbench has seen from the scuffs and scars on the Lionel Authorized Service Station logos. 

 

If you're wondering how many parts the service center has, just look at this huge wall of seemingly-endless parts! 

 

And it's not just one wall. Look at these huge cabinets of even more parts!

 

Look at all the tools and technology that goes into servicing a single train. 

 

It looks like this stunning locomotive is smoking once again! Another job well done. 

 

It doesn't take long inside the National Model Train Service Center at Trainz to see all the great work they're doing with people's beloved collectibles. You can read more about the service center at Service.Trainz.com or schedule an appointment for any members of your fleet that need a touch up or full-service repair. 

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Visit the 2015 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show

If you're anywhere close to the Northeast, we have some big news for you. The Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show is coming up on the weekend of January 24th, and it's a can't-miss show. You'll even have a friend there, because DASH Seller Trainz will be in attendence!

About the Show

Every year when late January rolls around, you'll find loads of railroaders headed northeast. They're on their way to the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield Massachusetts to join 25,000 fellow railroaders and general public for the Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show.

It's well worth the trip, as the event includes both real life railroads and lots of scale model railroads, historical societies, travel agencies, art shows, flea market dealers, photographers, and even a few manufacturers. You'll find the perfect craftsmanship of various modelers thanks to layouts in every scale. The Amherst Belt Lines is a regular attendee of particular interest, due to their impressive HO scale model railroad empire. It now features more than 11 scale miles of mainline (650+ feet of mainline track) on 96 modules. And this year's event will showcase another record-breaking train with 250+ cars from The Dry Hill Club!

Numerous commercial vendors and hobbyists will be selling model trains (including our very own DASH seller Trainz), photos, books, and loads of other railroad memorabilia of various sorts. You'll be able to find new and antique railroad items, big-time manufacturers and publishers will be in attendance, and even see a few new product announcements too! This show was rated one of the country's top three shows in a recent Model Railroad Industry Association manufacturer's survey, so you know it'll be a good one.

Trainz at the Show

Visit DASH Seller Trainz at the show to see some of their great products and meet the crew behind one of your favorite sellers. Tell them we sent you, and they might even have a few goodies to give away!  

We certainly hope you're able to make it to this fantastic even on January 24 & 25, 2015. I'm certain it'll be the most fun you've had in ages. I know I would be there if I could!

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