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This page serves as a quick reference to help get you started in finding information about railways on the Internet.
Why incomplete? Because in the time it took you to read this introductory blurb, a zillion new pieces of information just were added to the wealth of information online and no such guide could ever be complete.
These sites can be useful resources in finding information online, exploring both historical and current news articles, photographs, public records, publications and geography.
On search engines like these, which are mind-bogglingly advanced, try to keep in mind that they attempt to interpret not just what you typed, but what you really are looking for.
If you want to narrow your search to something really specific, you can perform exact phrase searches by putting your search terms in quotation marks (instead of a search for the North Shore Line being for pages that have the words "north," "shore" and/or "line," you can say "north shore line", in quotes, to get exactly those three words, in sequence, in your search).
Boolean operators
You can also tell search engines that you only want results that definitely have certain words or phrases in the page, or exclude matches that include certain terms, using a plus (+) or minus (-) sign, prefixing a term, without spaces. For example:
"north shore line" -insull +wilmette
...would give you only pages that have the exact phrase "North Shore Line" and mention Wilmette, but do not have any references to Samuel Insull.
You can use the +/- trick on phrases too, by putting the symbol before the first quote in a phrase. Common search engines are typically not case-sensitive (you don't have to use proper caps to find what you're looking for).
A short list of operating electric railways
A short list of railway periodicals of interest
The Bulletin of the National Railway Historical Society | National Railway Historical Society | Quarterly | General, Membership |
Classic Trains | Kalmbach Publications | Quarterly | General, Subscription |
Electric Railway Journal | Electric Railway Society (UK) | Bi-monthly | Traction-Current Events, Membership |
First and Fastest | Shoreline Interurban Historical Society | Quarterly | Traction-Chicago area, Membership |
Headlights | Electric Railroaders' Association | Periodic | Traction, Membership |
Model Railroad News | Lamplight Publishing | Monthly | General, Modeling, Subscription |
Railfan & Railroad | Carstens Publications | Monthly | General, Subscription |
Railroad Model Craftsman | Carstens Publications | Monthly | General, Modeling, Subscription |
Today's Railways | Platform 5 Publishing, Ltd. | Monthly | General-Continental Europe, Subscription |
Scale Model Traction & Trolleys Quarterly | Michael Grutsch | Quarterly | Traction, Modeling, Subscription |
Trains | Kalmbach Publications | Monthly | General-Americas, Subscription |
Tramways & Urban Transit | Light Rail Transit Association | Monthly | Traction-worldwide, Membership |
Trolley Talk | JAS Publishing, Inc | Bi-monthly | Traction, Modeling, Subscription |
Wisconsin Electric Lines | The Wisconsin Electric Railway Historical Society (TWERHS) | Bi-monthly | Traction, Wisconsin, Membership |
A short list of railfan websites
CA | Pacific Electric | The Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California |
CA | San Francisco railways | Market Street Railway |
IL | Chicago Aurora and Elgin | Don Bosan-Bruno |
IL | Chicago 'L' System | Graham Garfield |
IL | Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee | Laura Hedien |
IL | Chicago South Shore and South Bend | |
IL | Chicago Tunnel Company | Phil O'Keefe |
IL | Illinois Traction/Terminal Railroad | The Illinois Traction Society |
IN | Indiana Railroad | J.J. Grant |
OH | Columbus Railroads | Alex Campbell |
NY | New York City Subway | David Pirmann |
PA | Eastern Pennsylvania traction systems | East Penn Traction Club |
WI | The Milwaukee Electric | The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transit Society |
WI | The Milwaukee Electric and other Wisconsin traction | The Wisconsin Electric Railway Historical Society |