Interesting Train Web Sites

Paul's Train Dictionary

This is just something I'm doing to help me and others understand all the words, phrases, abbreviations and acronyms used in the industry and hobby.

World's Greatest Hobby

WGH is an organization that focuses on promoting the model train hobby. They also sponsor a touring expo and publish a lot of information.

Center Rail Solutions

This is a growing catalog of all O gauge equipment, along with other helpful information.

O Gauge Trains

This is a site that plans to be all about O gauge, but it is still mostly under construction. We'll have to keep an eye on it to see how it progresses.

Bruce's Train Shop Secret Pages

OK, these aren't really secret, but I didn't see where to get to this site from any other. I'm not sure about the relationship between these pages and the hobby store of the same name, but you'll find lots of pictures, schematics, and other information here.

All Model Railroading

This is a forum for posts related to model railroading. It appears to be based in the U.K.

Model Railroad Scale List

This is the most complete list I've seen of railroading scales. There'll be scales here you never heard of, with a list of manufacturers for each scale.

All-Gauge Model Railroading Page

Here is a personal site with lots of pictures and articles. You might want to start out by looking at his article "Those Old Trains in the Attic or Basement."

Turnout Article

This is a great, detailed article about turnouts, wyes, slips, and other track configurations.

Lionel Super-O Track

This site has a history and explanation of the Lionel super-O track system.

Toward Better Ways to Run O Gauge

This is a great discussion of the different scales used in O gauge. He includes pictures to show the differences.

Joe Sherlock's Model Train

He's got a layout here as well, but I really like his discussion of different aspects of modeling.

Layouts

My Layout

My layout is not permanent, but here is some information about what I have.

The Train Barn Layout

With about 2,500 feet of track, this is an extremely impressive layout. Don't forget to scroll down and click on the layout map to see close-up views.

LOTS Layouts

This is the list of layouts on the LOTS website.

Larry LaJambe's "Erehwon and Saguaro Railroad"

Here's a fantastic O gauge layout.

Pennsylvania & Western Railroad

Here's a super layout, but I don't know anything about the owner.

John Shankland's Layout and Webcam

This looks like a cool layout, but the website isn't very complete. My initial experiments with the webcam weren't successful.

Greg's Trainyard Network

Here's a really nice web setup with pictures and a "traincam."

Glancy Trains Modular Club

This group has a lot of pictures of various layouts and shows. They are located in southeastern Michigan and are sponsored by the Detroit Historical Museum and Society.

Toytrains

This site has a huge number of pictures of trains along with some of his layout.

Hinkles' Lionel Trains

This Shannon and his wife are into O gauge Lionel layouts. He had built some interesting ones in small spaces.

Paul's New Haven layout

This is a nice site with several layouts he has built over the years--simple but he's having a good time. This is more like my level of work...

Bob Davis's NPF Railway

Here's a nice home layout with a lot of elevation and decent scenery.

O Scale Outdoors

Here's a site for people who run their O gauge track outside. There are links to several outdoor layouts.

Model Railroads.Net O Scale Layouts

Here is a whole site of O gauge layout links.

Bob Davis's NPF Railway

An interesting layout with a good discussion of how to create a nice ballast.

Texas Ed's O Gauge Layout

An interesting layout built in part of his garage.

Bill Parisi's Inland Valley Railroad

Bill is a man after my own heart: an MTH Premier fan. He seems to have more MTH stuff than you can shake a stick at. He also has a huge number of layouts pictured on his Layouts Visited page.

Norm's Train Pages

Norm Charbonneau's detailing is about the best I've ever seen. Amazing!

Illinois Central

Illinois Central Historical Society

Here you can find a lot about the IC, plus they have a store where you can buy IC-related stuff.

Tom Parker's Illinois Central Net Site

Various scanned articles and miscellaneous links to IC material.

Illinois Central Railroad On-Line

A site with maps, photos, and rosters of the IC.

List of Illinois Central Models

This is a list I'm putting together of Illinois Central engines and cars that are available from the various train makers.

Nickel Plate Road

Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society

This organization has tons of information about the NKP.

John Fryar's Nickel Plate Road

John has just about everything you'd want to know about the NKP.

"Nickel Plate History"

This is an article from Classic Trains Magazine.

How I Got Started

Some time around 1964-5 my brother gave me the train. My dad helped me create a place in my bedroom for it. He built a little set of shelves out of 1x6 boards: 6 feet long, about 2 1/2 feet high, and about 6 inches deep. Then he nailed a 1x2 board on the wall so that the top of this ledge was exactly the height of the shelves. We kept a 4x8 piece of plywood on this ledge, flat against the wall. When I wanted to play with the train, I would pull the shelves about 3 1/2 feet from the wall, and then lay the plywood board down with the ledge and the shelves holding it up. I kept my train stuff in the shelves, and the whole thing worked great.

I added to the set for a few years. I bought a box car, since every train should have a box car. I bought some remote switches and extra straight and curved track. Somewhere along the line I got a 90-degree crossover. I don't remember if that was with the train when David gave it to me or if I got it later. I had a few accessories and scenery to go with it. I bought some little trees (though I think they were probably a smaller scale than my train), some fake grass and dirt powder. David made me a water tower out of wood, and he did a great job of it.

I kept the train as I grew up, though I didn't play much with it after I got into high school. After I got married, it moved with me, though I kept it boxed up and didn't play with it too much. The engine started having trouble, and I only had the original 40W transformer, so I let it sit in cardboard boxes. The Marx tunnel rusted badly, so I threw it out. I'd think about the train from time to time, but I hadn't made the decision to basically upgrade the whole thing.

In 1999 I decided to "go for it." I bought lots of brand new tubular track, a new MTH Union Pacific switcher, and several O-27 box cars. I brought it out at Christmas and occasionally when we had kids visiting, but around 2003 the transformer blew out, so I was left with nothing but a train display.

For Christmas 2005 Nancy bought me an MTH Z-1000 transformer, and I started back in with a fury. I sold all my track on e-bay and used the money to buy MTH Realtrax. I had planned on using O-54 curves, but the company I bought it from made a mistake in shipping and sent me a bunch of O-72 curves mixed with the O-54. They gave me some extra O-72 to make up for the error, and so now I've been setting up layouts based on a mix of O-72 and O-54, with a little bit of O-42 for sidings and yard work.

I also decided to focus on Illinois Central, and Nancy bought me an MTH IC diesel GP-9 engine. I bought some IC rolling stock off of e-bay and a local dealer, and I'm happily working towards a nice IC consist. I've decided to stick with a true O scale (1:48) as much as possible, so I'm fairly picky about what I'm willing to buy. Over the last month or two I've also bought several Nickel Plate Road cars. We used to live in Frankfort, Indiana, and the NKP went through there. I consider the IC and NKP as my two road names, and don't buy much else unless something really grabs my attention.

I still don't have a permanent layout, so I have to keep everything stored in boxes and pull it out for a few days at a time when I want to play. I've found that our living room makes a good location, and Nancy lets me leave my train set up for a few days at a time. I have enough space there for a 7' x 12' layout, so I can make some interesting layouts. I've purchased a few buildings and some other accessories, along with replacing the old Marx tunnel, so it's not just a train-on-track setup.

I have great plans for the future, and would love to be able to set it up permanently some time, but for now I'll have to resign myself to recreating a layout each time I drag it all out.

O Gauge Train Vendors

Atlas O Home Page

This is the home page for Atlas O gauge. Atlas is a long-time player in the O gauge market, making engines, cars, track, and accessories. Their new track is called "21st Century Track." Altas purchased Industrial Rail in 2006 and has continued to distribute some of the IR items.

Lionel Home Page

Lionel is the grandaddy of the O gauge vendors. Often people will say Lionel when they mean O gauge. A problem with Lionel is that their stuff ranges from high-quality O scale to shoddy O-27 stuff, and there's no way to know the scale and quality without carefully researching the item. Their Fastrack stuff is good. Lionel bought K-Line in 2006, so that product line is being merged with Lionel's.

MTH Home Page

This is the home page for MTH. They make various gauges, but their O gauge and Realtrax stuff is quite good--I think it is the best O gauge being made. The MTH Premier line is high quality O scale (1:48) and the MTH Railking line is generally smaller than true O scale. MTH has a 2nd track system called "Scaletrax" that has no roadbed and has more realistic ties. If you want to do an MTH product search, click here. If you want a list of all MTH products, click here (note: this will take a while to load).

Weaver Models

Weaver makes a line of O gauge engines and cars.

Williams Reproductions

Williams makes a lot of O gauge engines and cars.

Centerline Products

Centerline makes track cleaning cars.

Train Accessories and Supplies

GarGraves Home Page

GarGraves is a respected maker of 3-rail track that has been considered "high end" for many years.

Ross Custom Switches

RCS makes some of the best switches around, and they certainly have the greatest selection.

Scenic Express

Scenic Express makes lots of scenery and layout accessories.

Miller Engineering: Lightworks, USA

These guys make a lot of lighted signs, billboards, etc.

Z-Stuff for Trains

Z-Stuff makes various sensors and trackside electronic stuff.

Brasseur Electric Trains (traindoctor.com)

Here's a great place to buy train parts and pieces. They also sell engines and cars.

Train Repair Parts

Here's another place where you can buy train parts and pieces.

Railroad Express

This is a place to get lots of train accessories, particularly freight loads and items for freight yards. They also have people, buildings, and other railroad-related items.

Tandem Associates

This site has all kinds of Lionel and Plasticville information and parts. They also are the source of any of the train graphics that I'm using here as separators between sections on the web pages.

Woodland Scenics

This site as a lot of information about building layouts. They also sell a lot of materials for layouts.

Digital Dynamics

This site sells stuff related to Lionel's Trainmaster Command Control system.

Choochoocam

This is a place where you can get cameras to mount in your train to display on a TV your layout from the trains point of view.

Fatty Falcone O Gauge Animated Models

I'm not sure what this site is, but you seem to be able to buy various powered accessories for a layouy.

Wasatch Bridge & Trestle

Here's a company that sells different kinds of bridges for modeling.

Train Boxes Plus

This company sells boxes for storing trains.

Realistic Custom Railroads

This is Corky Dozier's company that builds buildings and other layout components.

Scale University

Scale University sells all kinds of trackside buildings, people, and other accessories, including grade crossings.

Korber Models

Korber sells lots of kits for O scale buildings.

JT's Mega-Steam Smoke Fluid

This is reportedly the best of the smoke fluids.

O Gauge Train Stores and Distributors

Jim's Train Shop

Jim Sutton does a great job and is extremely responsive. Jim is very active on the OGR forum and I've purchased several things from him. The shop is located in Homer City, PA.

Norm's "O" Scale

This shop was given a thumbs up on the O Gauge forums.

Magazines and Publications

O Gauge Railroading

OGR is probably the best known and most widely read magazine devoted to O gauge.

Classic Toy Trains

CTT is also a well known O gauge magazine.

Organizations and Associations

Train Collectors Association (TCA)

Lionel Operating Train Society

National Model Railroad Association

Toy Train Operating Society

Lionel's Collectors Club of America (LCCA)

This group is for those interested in collecting and/or operating Lionel trains.

---