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Home > About
ABOUT
COXSTER
The man behind
the name is indeed me - Damon Cox. I am currently 17 years
of age and live in Farnborough, Hampshire. As you
have probably worked out, one of my main interests is the British railway network. This
fascination of trains has been with me for as long as I can
remember and is unlikely to go anytime soon. I have been
lucky in this hobby having met many other young (and old!)
enthusiasts and travelling all over the United Kingdom with
them. I have also met a number of railway employees ranging
from guards and drivers to people who work 'behind the
scenes'. I have also been lucky in the fact that my Dad
shares this same interest and he too has a website. Why not
check
it out?
 Towards the end of March 2006, at the age of 15,
I was given the chance to spend two weeks with local train
operating company (TOC)
South West Trains as part of my Year 10 work experience.
An account and some images can be found in my
work experience blog.
 In the December
of that same year I filmed for a new television format by
Fever
Media, in which myself and another enthusiast put a
pitch forward to five famous entrepreneurs to
enable us to travel around the UK's mainline railway network.
We were in the first episode, which was aired on Tuesday 2nd
January 2007.
The final outcome in the show (which was titled 'Fortune:
Million Pound Giveaway') was successful for us, with the
money being awarded. A page about the show in general has
been created over at the Wikipedia website and can be found
by
clicking here.
 I
currently work up in London for a company named Trafficlink
who supply clients with the very latest traffic and travel
information, being beamed to listeners and viewers
nationwide. When en route to my interview in July 2007, I
stopped off at Wandsworth Road for half and hour to see if
anything interesting in the way of freight rumbled by. Much
to my delight it did, and within just minutes of arriving I
saw
a Serco test train headed by DRS's 37259.
ABOUT THE
WEBSITE
This website was
published on Thursday 30th November 2006 however it
certainly is not my first website. My first was a dedicated BVE
Trainsim website named BVEDepot.co.uk and was created in
around 2002/2003 at the age of 12, however when I
rediscovered Microsoft Train Simulator I decided that I
wanted to be involved with it so my second website was born
towards late 2003 (at the age of 13) and was named Virtual-Rail.co.uk. This website lasted for 3 years until it was
merged with my photography website, both of which formed
Coxster.co.uk. Picture-Rail.co.uk started out as DamonsPhotos.co.uk however this name was
short lived as I later decided I wanted a URL similar to Virtual
Rail.
IN THE PRESS
Railways
Illustrated, December 2004, Page 34: "For all the
simulator fans, this website has been brought to my
attention. Virtual Rail was set up in late 2003 to provide
MSTS (Microsoft Train Simulator) fans with reviews on new
routes and encourage fans into the MSTS community. The site
leads you to a variety of routes that are available. It also
looks at BVE (BVE Trainsim) which is the author's favourite,
and is a free site. The site is run by Damon Cox, and for
all SIM fans I am sure these coming winter nights will now
be so much easier to endure."
Computer
Active, Issue 183, Pages 61 & 63: "For Train
Simulator extras have a look at www.uktrainsim.com and
www.virtual-rail.co.uk." They then went to include an
image of the front page with the caption "Virtual Rail
provides extras for Train Simulator, or you could
[referring to a different website] test your
mettle in the action game Splinter Cell".
The Railway
Herald, Issue 38, Page 9: This magazine used an image of
43008 on a lowloader. The article filled almost half the
page and had the following caption associated with it:
"GNER Class 43 No. 43008 City of Aberdeen is pictured at
Woodall Spa service station on the M1 motorway, during a
move from Brush Traction at Loughborough to Edinburgh
Craigentinny. The power car has been receiving attention at
Brush following collision damage sustained earlier in the
year at Edinburgh Craigentinny when the power car collided
with a Virgin Voyager unit."
The Smokin'
Award AP, February 2006: "Damon Cox has
combined his two award-winning sites, Picture Rail and
Virtual Rail into one - Coxster.co.uk. The website has a
very nice collection of British rail photos, while the
virtual section explores the world of train simulator
software. The last section gives an interesting account of
Damon's work experience with South West Trains while he was
a year 10 student. This young webmaster keeps getting better
and better!"
Rail Magazine, Issue 564, Page 65: This magazine
used an image of 47828 minus it's headcode box. The small
image was accompanied with the following caption: "47828
'Joe Strummer was involved in a shunting accident April 2 at
Norwich Crown Point when, after being uncoupled from 47813
John Peel, the headcode panel was pulled off as the multiple
working had not been detached. The Cotswold Rail '47' is
stabled at Norwich on April 5 and it is understood the
locomotive should be returned to traffic by April 16."
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