~ Early Web Links ~

The Connecticut Valley Model Railroad Club is a non-profit hobbyist organization founded in 1986 in the Upper Connecticut River Valley area of New Hampshire and Vermont, dedicated to promoting model railroading through community events and civic activities. Visitors can explore the club's history, photos of HO and N scale models, and details about the annual Upper Valley Model Railroad Show held each spring.

Big Blue Trains is an active online community forum dedicated to model train enthusiasts, with thousands of threads and posts covering layouts, equipment, and hobby discussion. With over 181,000 posts and 544 registered members, it serves as a gathering place for model railroaders to share knowledge and connect.

Run by hobbyist Robincuu, this blog is dedicated to collecting and painting 1:72 scale plastic figures spanning historical periods from the Dark Ages and Napoleonic Wars to World War 1 and World War 2. Posts catalog specific sets from manufacturers like Hät, Zvezda, and Redbox, with painted figure photos organized by era and conflict.

The San Jacinto Model Railroad Club is a Houston-area club welcoming model railroaders of all scales and gauges, with monthly meetings featuring how-to clinics, slide shows, and railroading discussions. The site serves as a hub for members and prospective joiners, featuring the club's monthly 'Derail' newsletter, information on the annual Greater Houston Area Model Train Show, and a Fall Model Railroad Layout Tour.

The Piedmont and Western Railroad Club, based in Valdese, North Carolina, maintains both an active model railroad layout and the Old Rock School Railway Museum, offering a rich blend of hobbyist and historical railroad content. Visitors can explore prototype images of North Carolina railroads, steam locomotive carvings, narrow gauge car restorations, and resources like railroad station directories covering hundreds of cities and towns.

The 7+ Railroader, run by enthusiast Michael Roberts, is a comprehensive guide covering HO scale, N scale, DCC systems, track planning, and scenery techniques for model railroad hobbyists of all skill levels. The site also bridges traditional model railroading with digital train simulation games and Railroader mods, making it a unique destination for both hands-on builders and gaming fans.

ModelRailwayEngineer is a comprehensive resource for model train hobbyists covering layout planning, scenery building, and hands-on techniques across all popular gauges including OO, N, and TT. The site features beginner guides, product reviews, project updates from the creator's workshop, and a shop selling hand-crafted miniature scenes like animated bonfires and garden rockeries.

The Mid-Eastern Region of the National Model Railroad Association (MER-NMRA) hosts this comprehensive hub for model railroad enthusiasts across the eastern United States, covering divisions from New Jersey to the Carolinas. Visitors can browse decades of archived issues of 'The eLocal' newsletter dating back to 2005, explore contest results, clinic resources, layout galleries, and achievement programs.

The New Haven Society of Model Engineers is a Connecticut-based club founded in 1932, celebrating over 90 years of preserving and promoting model railroading as a hobby. The site covers club history, membership information, layouts, and event schedules for this long-running non-profit organization.

ModelWikiRail is a collaboratively edited wiki created by Bob Simmonds inviting model railway enthusiasts to contribute and expand pages covering gauges, scales, and related topics. The site highlights niche scale information such as Gauge 'Om' at 1/45th scale and encourages community participation through open editing and link sharing.