Founder's Desk #3

To everyone who's part of RailJournal,

Since Founder's Desk #2, just under a month ago, the numbers tell a story I want to share before anything else.

26 days, in numbers

  • Registered accounts up 53.1%, from 5,750 to 8,804
  • Nearly 54% of all current accounts logged in during this period, real, active usage, not dormant signups
  • Active forum posts up 27.4%, crossing 14,700, with over 2,000 native discussion posts added by 229 different posters
  • Gallery photos up 27.6%, now past 15,400, contributed by 328 different railfans
  • 45 news articles published, generating over 524,000 views in under a month, with our Kanpur-Delhi superfast train story alone crossing 54,000 views
  • Our Instagram crossed 1,500 followers, and the WhatsApp channel is now at 8,400+

None of this happened because we pushed harder on ads. It happened because more of you are showing up, spotting, posting, and reading. That's the whole model working.

Five things we're announcing today

1. Creator Partner Program
If you're making reels that talk about RailJournal and help put the platform in front of more railfans, we want to back you for it. Well performing reels will earn creators Karma, up to 20,000 depending on performance, along with swag and merch.

2. Moderator applications open
We're opening up moderator applications to the community. If you care about keeping the forum clean, accurate, and worth spending time in, you'll be able to apply directly. Details on how to apply coming shortly.

3. Rail Race
A new way to track trains racing against each other on shared or parallel routes. If you've ever watched two trains neck and neck and wished there was a way to follow that moment, this is built for exactly that.

4. Global Chat
A multi user, all railfan chat experience is coming, one shared space for the community to talk live, not just post and wait.

5. Journal
A new capability to track and benchmark your own journeys and spottings over time, your personal railfanning history, in one place.

On the app

The RailJournal app enters dev preview on 2nd October 2026, starting with our top creators and Karma contributors. General availability is expected sometime in November.

We're not there yet on everything, ratings, saved journeys, and onboard journeys are still early and need work. But the direction is clear, and it's being built with you, not just for you.

Thank you for another month of proving this community is the real engine behind RailJournal.

Founder, RailJournal.in