HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First of all, a happy new year from the Zany Zen Railway, we are now entering the 9th year of The Zany Zen Railway! what can you expect?  Well this year we are gonna retry those projects from 2023, New guards van, Firebox update and before winter 2024, a new locomotive. These are merely a rough roadmap so please take them with a grain of salt.

 

ZZR News!

Onward to some exciting news for 2024!

 

New Manager!

First, we have a new manager for 2024! I would like to introduce you all to Katherine Kiyori-Thor, from day one of meeting her, she has been kind, attentive and always listening to my ramblings! plus holds on to ZZR facts like a sponge! making her a prime candidate to join the ZZR Management team.

 

ZZR Season Change!

As you know, at the ZZR we tend to bring spring to the area a lot earlier then it should, mainly due to snow looking very odd on a thin strip of land, so on the 29th of January the ZZR goes to spring mode!

 

ZZR 2024 Regular Ticket Design

And of course last but not least, the ZZR 2024 ticket design, This will be the design for the year, Of course continuing the tradition of basing ZZR ticket colour schemes on British sweets, of course as always, featuring the colour pink! (If you are at all interested, the sweetis Sour Cherry and Apple Squishies by Swizzels)

Free Tier - 0 (Platform Ticket Machine + Donation Terminal)
Bronze Tier - 1 > 499 (Donation Terminal)
Silver Tier - 500 > 999 (Donation Terminal)
Gold Tier - 1000+ (Donation Terminal)

Not sure how to use our brand new ticketing system? Here is a blog post talking about it: https://zanyzenrailway.com/news/post/tickets-are-changing

 

Non Newsy Stuff!

The bits that isn't really news, but some nice infomation I wish to bring to light as its important to me.

 

The ZZR's Head Timelady & Head of Goods

I recently realised that I hadn't introduced everyone to someone who has been an important memeber of the ZZR team and also part of the ZZR Management, Eesoov Elan has become a key member of the ZZR since becoming Head Timelady back in early 2022, and taking on the roll of Head of Goods late 2022, in which she took on the task of making Cyfnos a Get The Freight Out HUB, allowing a big chunk of SL's road users can haul goods to and from our little railway.

 

Wrapping up 2023

It isn't a secret that 2023 was not the best year for me and the ZZR in terms of productivity, the year had bun burn out sprinkled all over it, what continued to make things difficult is the ZZR's Head of Engineering had encountered major health issues, all I could do was worry and hope that she would pull through, Thankfully Amalia has returned home in early December 2023 and so far, doing a lot better! What I am supah happy to report.

2023 may of been a horrible year for me personally along with Amalia, but it was seemingly a good year for the ZZR numbers wise, we saw a record high in visitor numbers this year, hitting 4 1000 visitor milestones! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, I will always say, a railway is nothing without its passengers, yes we can do all the work to make it pretty, and function like no other railway on the grid, but without passengers riding and giving back such lovely feedback, it wouldn't of ever become the ZZR we know today.

With all that, I am cautiously excited for what 2024 will bring.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported the ZZR, wether it is by donation, getting a free ticket, or just riding the railway, your enjoyment of the railway makes it all worth while.

Also a big thank you to Amalia Illios, Eesoov Elan, Katherine Kiyori-Thor for your support of me.

 

Happy 2024, See you on the Zany Zen Railway.

Zen.