Links were checked on
14/12/08.
Although I have visited many sites, I will limit myself to
listing a few which provide enough links, on the subjects
covered here, to avoid repeating the exercise, plus
eventually trading cross listings (although not many
reciprocate!).
Links were checked on 14/12/08.
Webville & Hypertext Railroad Co.: Originally a wealth of info and links spread over many sub-categories but no updates since 2004. A close second, probably now first, is Cyberspace World Railroad, on which one can also spend much time - the oddity of the month is generally worth looking at. Another suggestion is international rail links. Look also at the Railserve directory.
Lenz GmbH Home Page. For product info on DCC in English.
Tried & True Trains. Excellent. Look through all the sub-pages
The NMRA home page provides links to all DCC standards. For general modelling supplies Walthers, although with the expected US bias, is pretty comprehensive, and was reworked in February 1999. While in the US, try discount trains. For broad background material and links on the British Isles, see the comprehensive Historical Model Railway Collectors' Society pages. If you have a fast connection, of particular interest in Irish modelling terms is the Jouef made in Ireland page detailing the production of, and demise of the company. But don't try it on dial-up, or you may be waiting for a while.
Mostly US links, are on the collectibles page on Cyberspace World Railways, but no updates recently. Have not come across much else. Search engines did, however, turn up some references to railwayana, but most investigated tended to be spurious, i.e. multiple references to many old Sheffield auction catalogues. ebay has railway hardware on many pages of listings (although with quite a few doubtful items). There are many more US sites on railroadiana, but the most likely ones listed tended to be manufacturers of new stuff. Robert Forsythe's site appears to be gone, but a traces is still on Railway ephemera covers relatively recent UK railway paper items comprehensively, and also has links to a number of Hornby Dublo sites. Maybe I should dig out my old three-rail material and see if it might be worth a fortune. For US Lionel collectors' trains try Dave's Trains. Robin Gibbons has set up an excellent site on UK steam era railwayana, getting better by the month (and, with a change in URL the first railwayana dot.com, but server can at times be slow!), and with the odd reference to Irish material, an LLSR ticket, plus reporting extensively on UK auctions. Gloucester Worcestershire Railwayana was the first real on-line railwayana auction. Early ambitions of monthly on line auctions seem to have settled down now to normal auctions every six months, often with items of Irish interest. SRA has its own dedicated site with results and future auctions (pretty good and timely news on coming auctions, although info not always available on postal auctions realisations and photos are beginning to show the age of the original concept of scanning the catalogue). KRA auctions, since October 2001, had a very useful site with photos (good quality, but big) of many items. It is now part of the Great Central Railwayana Auctions stable. Talisman Railwayana Auctions has an attractive new site since summer 2003 and its seeming break from the RCJ fold. A relatively new auction site, now with its fourth sale under its belt, is Stafford. The RCJ aquirer established a railwayana portal, but in October 2007 it now seems to be by subscription. Onslows has one of the best selection of posters, often with images of UK Irish related posters on site. In June 2007 it moves over to internet only auctions. Bonhams often has interesting items at its Knowle site. Phillips, with a new address, sometimes had its railwayana auction items listed on its old site (but required registration, with many questions - nearly what you had for dinner - plus plug-ins and, even then, railway material not obvious). Paddington Ticket Auction usually has quite a few Irish tickets in its main auctions. A relatively recent site, Gloucester Antiques was also uncovered, with Irish items now and then - with several buttons of late. A nice UK site with many illustrations of signs (plus, as a bonus, one Irish one at the link given - although no activity for several years now). There is a railwayana sales diary on Tony Hillman's site (now on the prorail site). A newer auction site is railwayana.net. Also the long-standing Solent site sometimes has clues on items upcoming at its auctions. A particularly interesting collection of Irish items is held at the Narrow Gauge Museum at Tywyn in Wales. Browse through their collection for CDRJC, Skull and Skibbereen, Cavan & Leitrim, LLSR, CVR, etc. items. The Guinness loco is now to be seen elsewhere.
Irish
Railway News has useful present day material and a well
frequented message board. NIR is now part
of Translink and the wild wallpaper is gone, but flash
downloads are in. The Iarnród Éireann
site moved some time ago and received a considerable revamp
(answering the campaign here, carried out over sixteen
updates!). A link to the Irish
Railway Record Society. This site is developing well
over time. I note that the IRRS has individual company
pages. Given the knowledge base within the Society, these
should eventually make my own pages fairly superficial,
except perhaps for signs. But for the moment we are still
in the game. The Railway Preservation Society
of Ireland is back since the beginning of 2000 with a
new site. The Irish
Steam Preservation Society now seems to have disappeared yet again
after its momentary appearance.Irish
Steam Preservation Society now seems to have settled into
its new site. Cavan and Leitrim has
been back since 25 August 1997, with another change in URL, but not
much news as of August 2008.
The plug seems to have been pulled in early 2005 by
Easyspace on Steve Flanders' impressive Donegal
Railways, but it reappeared elsewhere in June 2005.
Another site with Cavan and Leitrim Railway
history emerged online a year or two ago but has stayed
"as is". Its creator's, great grandfather was
the longest serving director of the line, and the loco
'Isabel' is named after his grandmother. Another
fascinating Clare site is Matthew Labine's West Clare Garden
Railway documenting his gauge 1 15mm scale garden
railway. Matthew, unlike yours truly, must spend more of
his spare time extending his model railway. There is a
second, official, West
Clare site detailing the important preservation work
being done there. A limited page on the late Cyril
Fry's model railway, which I had the pleasure of seeing
in Churchtown in the sixties, and again in its recent
reincarnation, is to be found at the Fry Model
Railway. A relatively new site, with much modern Irish
material, from Steve
Johnson contains a Bord
na Móna page. For the BCDR, go to the Downpatrick and County Down
Railway Museum site which, as well as describing the
Museum, has useful history of that line and a BCDR crest,
and moved to a new url in November 2004. While disappearing
in November from its previous location, in January 2006 the
Irish Traction
Group was found at a new url. There is an excellent
Irish narrow
gauge site, with a wealth of information on locos,
builders, stations and even precise links to map
references. It also has pictures of CDRJC tickets but shows
little new activity since mid-2004. Will have to get down
eventually to linking each of my narrow gauge pages on
geocities to this authoritative site. It will also point
you to sources for most Irish railway books. The Waterford and Suir Valley
Railway site has good information on the Waterford area
and Belturbet
Station has history of the station and the GNRI and
Hell's
Kitchen has a great collection of Irish railwayana. The Finn
Valley Railway has useful historical information and
impressive ambition.
The NMBS/SNCB official site is being upgraded and the English version is temporarily unavailable. Stefan Nicolai continues to complement this Belgian information with 'additions' pages on his personal site. These are perhaps of more interest to readers of these pages. All of the great material on rolling stock, previously on his comprehensive site, apart from, for the moment, some large images and technical schemas, is now to be found here.
The European Railfan page has enough European links to keep you going for the day.
Paul Stevens, previously of PC Plus Magazine, for his excellent series and advice (with the forms page, I am now up to his November 1996 article) but the site has not been updated for some time, I am grateful for Marco van Uden's extensive company logos in his links page on the European Railfan Server which are still used, and to the MGWR authority, P O'Cuimin, for provenance of plates.
For those interested in genealogy, perhaps visit my Dublin Lenn*n pages, now the third site under management. If you are not detained, try the link to Family Tree Maker. You may even, like me, discover ancestors on the railways (granduncle William Casey was a driver on the GNRI and his son a fireman - thanks to the Irish Railway Record Society for filling in all the details from their employee database). Another justification for expenditure on GNR memorabilia! Have now moved to the best (in my view) genealogy programme, The Master Genealogist, and the lack of work on railways can be explained by getting to grips with its intricacies. Finally, I should also mention the Irish Club of Belgium site, which provides essential expatriate information, as well as that of my employer, the European Commission, for material of broader European interest.
Return to Index page,
or go to page 11, Irish railwayana:
some photos.
Alternatively, go to my
railwayana.com pages
for company data
For genealogy, go to my
Lennan
genealogy pages or their mirror on
this site
