These links will take you to various aspets of model railroading that interest me. For the period 2005 to 2010 I had no operational version of the Ballard Southern, but I am now starting on a new version of the Ballard Southern. The "world" it will occupy has been built and the track is on hand. It's just a matter of getting one of those round tuits...
Ballard Terminal Railroad - In an odd case of life imitating art, some years after I created my first Ballard Southern Railroad, based on some abandoned trackage along the Ballard Ship Canal, the trackage was bought up and used to create first the Northwest Terminal Railroad and then the current Ballard Terminal Railroad. This is one of the nicest little examples of "A Railroad You Can Model" that I've ever run into and there is extensive material and photography here. Just remember, they copied it off of my model layout! :^)
Ballard Terminal Railroad - All the info on the real life version
New Ballard Southern Railroad - As noted above, this was "abandoned trackage" for some time. However the old assets have been "purchased" by a reorganized "company" and a new railroad is taking shape. This is where I will start posting pix of the new layout as it gets started
Ballard Southern Railroad, A History - I firmly believe that every model railroad should be based on a specific history. This belief is so strong that the Ballard Southern began, before any track was laid, with a Doctoral Thesis in Ferroequinology. This material has recently been supplemented by the discovery of a series of Historical Notes on what researchers refer to as the "Middle Period" of the Ballard Southern. These notes were found in the packing material of a time machine shipping box and, while still being studied at the Ballard Scholars University (BSU), are presented here for general information.