Randy's Layout Blog: New Britain Station

Hand-colored postcard of New Britain Station.

On November 2, 2007 I first published New Britain Station. At the time I was still planning my layout.

I posted about the basic concept of the design, with a helix at either end, in March of the following year.

It wasn't until almost a year later that I had removed the old layout to prepare construction for the New Britain layout.

In 2011, I had to move the website due to technical issues. Quoting guitarist Robert Fripp, "turn a seeming disadvantage to an advantage," and I took the opportunity to completely redesign the site. In 2014, again due to some technical changes, I switched the blog to be hosted at Blogger. It is more robust and added the ability for readers to comment on my posts.

Today I'm launching New Britain Station 3.0. The old Google Sites is being retired, but the deadline was (fortunately) pushed back several times. Which again allowed me to not just transfer it but redesign it entirely. I've updated and rewritten every page and added loads of photos. Although quite time consuming, I have learned so much more since 2011, it really needed a proper refresh. Hopefully for the last time. The blog will continue without any changes.

Postcards of New Britain

The photo at the top of the page is from a postcard produced for F.W. Woolworth Co. and is one I have used as the main photo on the site. Like most postcards, there's no copyright date but the one I have was postmarked in 1913. As it turns out, New Britain Station was a popular subject for postcards. I have found nine different ones to date - here they are: