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| ABOUT THE WESTERN OHIO WEB SITE |
The purpose of the Western Ohio Railway web site has, to date, gone through three phases of intended purposes.
Now to be clear, web site development is as much of a hobby for me as railfanning and model railroading.
So this was something I wanted to do for enjoyment. But my goals for the web site have evolved with time.
SHARING MY PHOTOS
Created in 2013, I originally wanted the site to be a place to share and organize my pictures. I'm not the most
prolific photographer, and my collection is much smaller than many. But I wanted a way to organize my photos
and reference them when ever I wanted, where ever I was at. I knew having them on a web site would give me
access to my photos anywhere in the world.
My original plans also included sharing the progress of my model railroad. The concept for which is described
on other pages on this site. But progress on the layout was slow, and pictures worth sharing few and far between.
For now, it was a prototypes only site.
Looking back at the first few hundred photos published to the site, they were almost 100% in the 'David Lamb Personal Collection'.
Then I made a discovery...
RISE OF THE CCET
I don't know which I discovered first. Either the existance of a new shortline railroad operating on my beloved Peavine, or the fact there
was a group of railfans collaborating in a facebook group about the Peavine. Regardless of which came first, the more important discovery
for this web site was the facebook group(s).
The members of the facebook groups were providing not just quantity and quality of materials, but an incredible variety of materials. Sure
there were lots of modern photos. But there were a lot of historical photos as well. There were documents and diagrams and first hand accounts of stories
along the line.
The purpose of this site transistioned to organizing what I saw being posted to facebook into an organized site where I could look up specific
locations and topics quickly and easily. Want to research the Batavia depot. Every picture I have for that is on one page. Want to
find information about the Easter crash of 1958, all of that information is on one page.
The site became my go to resource for things I hope to (and in a couple cases have already) modeled on my planned model railroad...
ALONG CAME THE PEAVINE DIVISION
Planned for many years, only recently has the Peavine Division taken root. At the time of writing this (October of 2021), there is one
sceniced section with progress on more of the layout expected to continue at a steady pace.
With the layout starting to actually happen, the purpose of the web site changes again. While I will continue to collect
material from the facebook group, I am anxious to post pictures and videos of the HO Scale Peavine Division. And who knows,
maybe in a few years I'll have to update this site again with another evolution.
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WHAT CAN YOU FIND ON THIS SITE
There are multiple sections of content on the site. All navigation is done with the main categories at the top or through the menu at the bottom of each page.
The first of the main menu categories is "Layouts". This page takes you to a list of Western Ohio themed layouts. The Layouts page gives some summary
information about each layout I've either built, am working on or would like to build in the future. Links to more information about each layout are provided.
The links for the Peavine Division can also be found in the menu at the bottom of each page.
The WO Story page is different from the Layouts page in that the layouts page is focused on specific model railroads, where the WO Story is the freelanced
history of the Western Ohio Railway. I discuss the concept of the railroad, then align that to a freelanced history. The system map shows you where the
Western Ohio would operate... if it really existed.
The last main menu option is the "Peavine". This page gives a little history about the real Peavine, as well as links to some of the bigger reference
documents collected over the years. I do not consider myself an expert on the Peavine, just an avid fan. And better sources of truth and information
can be found in the facebook groups
Cincinnati Eastern Railroad Fans
Cincinnati Eastern Railroad (Cin. East Term)(Peavine/Cincinnati District)
History of the Peavine RR. From the CE to the N&W
QUICK LINKS MENU
At the bottom of each page is the quick links menu. This is actually the faster way to navigate to what you want to find. I do not have a search feature (please remember, this
is a hobby for me, and I am an amatuer), but have tried to layout the most common way to look for things in the menus.
The Western Ohio Story is revisited here, with links to the Concept, History and Site Map. This is meant to make the Western Ohio Railway feel like a real operating railroad company.
The Peavine Division Layout information is the next section, and the same links you find on the Layouts menu. This is the up to date information on the model railraod
I'm building right now.
Other Layouts are links to my former Marien Industrial District layout, and my concept layout build around the meat packing industry.
To sections that are currently under developed are my influences and inspirations, ans well as the How Do section. Regarding the How Do, I don't consider myself an expert
on anything. So it would be inappropriate for me to tell someone how TO. But I'm willing to share how I do things in the hope that it is helpful to other modelers.
I have plenty of content for this section, just have not taken the time to create it.
The Real Peavine links to the doucment mentioned in the main menu Peavine option. This is another section that is underdeveloped.
Photo Galleries is where this site might excel the most. At the time of writing this (Sept 2022), I am approaching 3000 published photos. They are
organized by prototype photos in general, photos from the Peavine only and Model photos of my layouts. When you click on one of the galleries, you'll
see an extensive menu with different categories to choose from like railroad name, equipment type, location, date, significant events. There are also
galleries for my favorite shots, new arrivals in the last 30 days and an index of every engine number I have photos of.
Within the Peavine Gallery is a sub gallery called Walk the Line. Using Google maps years ago, I tried to document each mile of the Peavine, all the crossings and bridges
(this is before I knew Jeff Wood already had this information). The page is literally organized by each mile of the line. So if you are researching a specific location,
this is probably the easiest way to do it.
The last section just gives a little information about the site, and link to contact me. You are also encouraged to add your name to the Guest Book, and leave a
comment if you like.
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