I've been railroading -- real and model for many years. My first American Flyer train set was a Christmas present in 1947. I was able to switch to Lionel in the early 50's during high school. At age 18 I went to work for the Great Northern Railway in Kelley Lake, Minnesota, as a fireman in the Mesabi iron range. It was a great summer -- firing on an SD-9, at the same time the DM&IR was still all steam. Back in New England I worked for about a year as a yard clerk for the New York Central System in the early 60's. From 1974-88 I was on staff of the Conway Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire as fireman, trainman, conductor, relief station master, etc.
When our four sons were small, we started an HO layout -- which eventually led to the creation of Maine Trains, our very own model store in Bar Mills, Maine, which I ran for about three years.
Professionally, for the past dozen or so years I have been developing computer database solutions for small businesses. This led me into CompuServe in the early 90's where I found the TrainNet Forum. I was invited to serve on the staff, primarily to put my database skills to work creating indexes to hobby shops, magazines, etc. As the World Wide Web emerged out of cyberspace I developed a list of links to railroad-related sites. Originally this was a text file in a TrainNet library with 30-40 entries. Today, I'm happy to say, this has grown into the International Railway Links which I update usually daily with the help of the IRL Team of forum staff members. We also issue our well-known Web Gem Award to those railway sites we feel are outstanding. The one at the right is a sample, not one awarded to this site.
Getting Started | Penzance Station | Long Rock Depot | Construction | Acknowledgements & Links