11/08/2026
Hello! We thought we'd make this post to celebrate a small milestone in our journey.... our account today celebrating 20 years on YouTube. And believe it or not, back then, we were actually uploading videos!
YouTube back in its infancy was a much different beast compared to the juggernaut it is now. People uploaded plain videos to share, no intros, no 'like and subscribe', no chasing views, subscribers or clout.... they were just sharing either their life moments or their creativity at the time. For many of us railway enthusiasts, it was a way for us to share our videos of trains we captured, but none of us would ever think back then to talk to the camera lens and create an entire cult following of ourselves as many aspire to do now!
Back in 2006, I was at university and studying media, specialising in Television Production, so this was my means of sharing the videos of trains I captured and try and practice and learn how to edit, but also properly 'craft' a video into something that's watchable to wider audiences. I would later graduate from that degree and spend a few years working in the television industry, in broadcast operations and also my dream stint as a news cameraman and editor, but ironically would leave that industry years later for a completely different career path!
Rheilffordd as a brand and the videos we've made has only come about since 2022, as we sought to re-enter the game of making videos about topics we're passionate about, heritage railways and transport, using all the experience, skills and practices that I had previously done when working in the Television Industry. We're not about chasing views, subscribers or clout, but a genuine focus and drive to capture the stories and atmosphere of the people who operate, organise and look after all the subjects that we feature in our videos.
As a bonus, in the comment below, I have made public one of my original videos from 2006, which features steam operations on the then, New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, Thirlmere Loop Line, located South of Sydney. You can enjoy that video in all its 240p or so goodness and the crappy captioning I did back then compared to what we do now!
Unfortunately as Rheilffordd is just a side-gig from my real full-time job, it requires a lot of time and effort to produce, time of which is becoming more and more limited as my work is very demanding as well as my personal life outside of it always comes first ahead of making and producing videos. We have most certainly NOT given up or stopped producing, if anything we've had to pivot our activity to much more financially lucrative commercial work outside of the YouTube platform that have surprisingly made us a lot of valuable income to invest in our equipment.
We will aim to try and get out at least one Rheilffordd video....this year, lol!
In the meantime, thank you to all of you who have watched our videos, subscribed, and even more so, remember our brand for what we do, which means more to us than metrics ever will. Thank you and good day!
Maikha Ly
Director/Producer of Rheilffordd
