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For those curious about the origins and history of the International Railway Links (IRL) from TrainNet.org, here's a little background information on this valuable resource which attracts over 300 hits per day and is approaching 10,000 entries.
The original list was a simple ASCII text file created by a CompuServe® TrainNet Forum member in 1995 with a handful of entries (web addresses) for railroad sites on the then young World Wide Web. The file was placed in a forum library and other members soon began sending in additional addresses. Slightly less than a year later, Forum Staff member Dick Beebe took on the task of maintaining the list which had grown to well over 1,000 individual entries. A professional programmer, Dick designed a FoxPro database system to facilitate the storage and updating the list, which was originally done several times a month.
As the list grew to several thousand entries it became obvious that it was very time consuming for members to download and print, so Dick developed a FoxPro driven HTML version to replace the text version allowing members to easily download and load it into their web browser as a local file. As the popularity of the World Wide Web grew the TrainNet Forum staff decided to make the list available to more than just CompuServe® members, therefore in December, 1998 the HTML version was moved to an independent web site provided by Forum Administrator Dorr Altizer. Now located on the World Wide Web under a new title, International Railway Links (IRL), complete with a search engine provided by Andy Beebe, owner of Maine Web Design, the list became available to everyone on the World Wide Web, whether or not they were CompuServe® members.
The railway and railroad related links on the IRL have always had an international flavor as they included links from Australia, the United Kingdom, the Pacific Rim countries and continental Europe and on 5 March, 2009 the IRL reached a major milestone by reaching 9,000 entries. Unlike many other "link lists" on the Web, instead of being categorized or grouped by the subject matter, a method which was deemed inefficient, difficult to use and possibly misleading, the IRL entries are arranged in alphabetic order on separate "pages."
The FoxPro database system eventually became obsolete and has been replaced by a standard HTML 4.01 based system (that doesn't require proprietary software to maintain) and a new search engine powered by FreeFind. The new system is much faster and easier to use with a typical web browser and can be maintained by the entire IRL Team.
Although entries have come from many sources, including a great number of webmasters who provide updated information, special thanks go to Dick Beebe, Robert Saul, Gerald Kackman and Dan Dawdy who have all contributed many entries.
The current IRL Team consists of Team Chief Don Howe, Team Members Dean Portz and Becky Morgan supported by TrainNet.org Webmaster Dorr Altizer.
As new entries poured in during the late 1990's several of the TrainNet Forum staff members noted that some web sites were really outstanding in their design, creativity and usefulness. So on 1 July, 1998 we established the Web Gem Award program. From the very beginning, we determined that to receive the Award a site had to meet relatively stringent minimum criteria and be given a high score by a minimum of three members of the staff. Coordinated by Team Chief Becky Morgan, the coveted Award is currently held by 100 sites from around the planet.
