Modeling links

Someone wants to Operate!

Here's a few of my favorite links--great layouts, manufacturers or dealers of cool model railroad stuff, or resources I've found useful in my modeling pursuits.

Model Railroads

Chris Atkins' Lewiston Camas Prairie: Cool website with lots of information about Chris' prototype, Camas Prairie. Chris models the terminal of Lewiston, Idaho, including Snake River Avenue industrial lead, the Lewiston yard, and the Potlatch Forests Industry lumber/paper mill.

Jack Burgess' Yosemite Valley Railway: A 20' X 20' double-deck railroad faithfully duplicating the YVRR and its operations in August 1939. A degree of adherence to the prototype that most of us can only dream about.

Mike Davison's Northern Pacific Grays Harbor Branch: I REALLY like Mike's layout. The perfect size for a few friends to get together and run trains across. Mike models a fictional Northern Pacific branch to Washington's Grays Harbor and the town of Ocosta. The 12 X 37' layout is set in the late 1960s and features those cool Northern Pacific GP7s and GP9s. My kind of railroad, with lots of industry switching!

Brian Elchlepp's British Columbia Railway Dawson Creek Subdivision: A seldom-modeled portion of a popular Canadian prototype: Alco and MLW locomotives still rule on this rural outpost of the lifeline of British Columbia. Brian's scenery is great, and his locomotives are wonderful models of the prototype.

Joe Fugate's SP Siskiyou Line: Joe's layout has popularized "mushroom" type double deck railroads. A great website on his Proto-Freelanced portion of the SP, modeling a never-built route surveyed between Coos Bay and Roseburg, Oregon, over the Coast Range.

Lee Nicholas' Utah Colorado Western: A freelanced Intermountain West bridge railroad featuring full-house CTC as well as DTC operations. Lee's railroad runs flawlessly, and looks beautiful. The UCW features a cutting-edge "mole" active staging system.

Bruce Petty's Los Angeles Model Railroad: A shelf-type railroad depicting Southern Pacific in the Burbank Junction area in the early 1960s. Innovative way to simulate heavy traffic through an interlocking tower. Cool freight cars and locomotives. Great scratch-built structures.

Patrick Pope's Colorado Midland: A 1990's "what if" operating railroad on the premise Santa Fe spun off its 150-mile Scott City, Kansas-LaJunta, Colorado to the Colorado Midland Railroad. Burlington Northern as well as Santa Fe trains are seen on this single-track bridge route.

Bill Schneider's New York, Ontario & Western Railroad: A prototype-based railroad depicting the much-beloved "Old & Weary" in 1953, four years before abandonment, and the last year for passenger operations.

Ted York's Cajon Pass: A spectacular basement-filling railroad depicting late Steam Era operations on the joint ATSF-UP Cajon Pass mainline between San Bernardino and Cajon Summit, California. Emphasis on road operations with helper engines. To visit his railroad is to step back into the late 1940s in Southern California. An amazing railroad to operate on!

Cool Model Railroad Stuff!

(these aren't alphabetized or organized, so bear with me)

http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/ Where I get my custom decals made. He'll work with you to get them just right.

http://www.stormykromer.com/index.html If you're gonna railroad, you better have the proper headgear. Here's the "original" railroader cap from the 1930s.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/ken_goudy_decals2.html Site offers vinyl decals for accurate models of rarely-modeled truck lines in HO scale.

http://www.branchline-trains.com/ one of my favorite freight car kit manufacturers.

http://www.cmrtrain.com/ some great structure kits, not your standard-issue Walthers stuff. . .

http://www.cvpusa.com/ makers of my Digital Command Control system, East DCC. Highly recommended, and, as it claims, easy to use.

http://www.mainstreet-heritage.com/ more great HO structure kits. You've probably seen the buildings they model in your own town.

http://www.slmonline.com/shoppingcart/store.cgi?action=cityclassicssalenew.htm&uid=15441 makers of City Classics structures.

http://frateschi.com/Railroad_Models_Products.html Not everyone needs an export G22 or GA8, but I'm glad someone imports the excellent-running Fratteschi models. I'm tempted to model Mexican narrow gauge diesels or something like that. . .

http://www.jlinnovative.com/index.html JV Innovative Design. Cool detail parts and structures.

http://www.railwayeng.com/ The NEXT railroad I build, these guys are getting a bunch of my money. Pre-built custom turnouts and stuff like that. Even in Code 55!

http://www.modelerschoice.com/freightcar.htm Buy lots of cars from these guys! A new direction for "craftsman" style styrene freight car kits. Hell, I built one, so they can't be that difficult! Concentrating on 1960s prototype cars, and they have a cool motel kit as well for sale.

http://www.digitalfox.com/digitalfox/ Eric Cote's sideline business: small runs of cool prototype freight car schemes. Especially friendly towards doing Northern Pacific models! Who else would do insulated ACF covered hoppers. . .WITH the insulation modeled!

http://www.ttx-dcc.com/ Tony's Train Exchange. Great site with lots of info on DCC. . .they aren't just trying to sell you a decoder.

http://www.lestersboxcarworks.com/ Great place for discounted mail order model train stuff. Pat's prices can rarely be beat.

http://www.greatdecals.com/ A page of links directing you to the OTHER model railroad decal manufacturers. Lots of cool stuff otherwise hard to find.

http://www.p-b-l.com/erm/ERM-Main-NS.html Eel River Models--the Beer Car people--have some cool new structure kits out as well.

Other Useful Modeling Sites

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/kgoudy.htm cool photos of vintage trucks. perfect for the layout.

http://www.uphs.org/boxcars.htm data base for Union Pacific boxcar data

http://www.1-87vehicles.org/ modelers of HO scale vehicles.

http://www.dnaco.net/~gelwood/ The BEST resource for railroad equipment photos on the internet. The famed "Fallen Flags" website.

http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/BFSpages/LDSIGprimer/TOC.html Layout Design Special Interest Group's "Layout Design Primer." Before you consider building a new layout, really dig into this great resource site.

http://ljames1.home.netcom.com/scph7.html A GREAT site by James Lancaster, a survey of Packing Houses in Southern California. I don't model SoCal, but I found this fascinating, given my own modeling interests.

http://downunder.railfan.net/sptrains.html I don't model Espee, either, but here's a few cool models by a modeler in New Zealand. Great ideas applicable to ALL prototypes.

http://members.rogers.com/canadianbranchline/index.html I love what Ian Wilson has done in researching his prototype in Ontario. Good articles and a wealth of ideas useful for my own research. Too bad he's ditching his HO scale for S scale. . .

http://members.aol.com/Bx39crle/yard/index.htm Tom Jelenek's site on modern freight cars. Hard core stuff.

http://www.pocld.org/sanborn.htm You want access to Idaho and Washington Sanborn insurance maps? Here's the place to go.

http://www.horailroad.com/b_online_clinics.shtml On-line model railroad clinics! A great site, with a bunch of cool ideas. Who says modeling has to be expensive? Guarantee you use some of these ideas.

http://plantpath.wsu.edu/aboutplantpath/hiarec1.htm about Sugar Beets in eastern Washington and the Walla Walla area.

http://gesswhoto.com/um-pea-production.html pea production and canning in the Walla Walla Valley

http://mapper.acme.com/ A mirror site, it seems, of TerraServer. A little easier to use.

http://www.trevinocircle.com/adsigns.asp a site with files you can download to your printer to use as signs for your model railroad.

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/index.html Ted Culotta's famous website, the single coolest website on vintage freight cars out there. Fascinating stuff, great photos, inspiring modeling, and a useful links page.

http://www.toytractorshow.com/index.html I found lots of information about 1960s era combine on this site. Too bad most of the coolest farm models are in S scale!