This article is concerned with sources of information about railways, particularly locomotives, rolling stock, buildings, civil engineering features such as bridges and tunnels, and infrastructure (trackwork and signalling). It is not directly concerned with railway history, although many of the same sources may be relevant to that.

A general web search using relevant search terms is always recommended, in addition to following the links provided here.

It is common these days to describe the periods in which railways existed in Eras. These are thought to be the periods and Eras relevant to our railways:

This information is also available in a, Eras page of it's own.

The pre-grouping companies existed in the UK before 1923. This lists the larger companies for which societies or study groups exist that collect and organise information. The list is incomplete. There were hundreds of railway companies, large and small, and many of the smaller companies were absorbed into larger ones at some point. The specialist society for a company may also have information about the absorbed companies.

The following include links to wiki articles in addition to a link to the societies or study group.

• Caledonian Railway
• Cambrian Railway
• Great Eastern Railway
• Great Northern Railway
• Great Western Railway
• Highland Railway
• Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
• London & South Western Railway
• London & North Western Railway
• Midland Railway
• North British Railway
• North Eastern Railway

The following links are to railway company societies or study groups for which there are no Wiki articles. Wiki articles will be added as they become available.

• Furness Railway
• Glasgow & South Western Railway
• Great Central Railway
• Great North of Scotland Railway
• London, Brighton & South Coast Railway
• Maryport and Carlisle Railway
• Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway
• Midland & South Western Junction Railway
• North London Railway
• North Staffordshire Railway
• Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway
• South Eastern & Chatham Railway
• Taff Vale Railway

• Great Western Railway
• London, Midland and Scottish Railway
• London & North Eastern Railway
• Southern Railway

• Limit of Shunt, information about the signalling and route history of some railway lines. You’ll also find some of the historical documents that provide information about these routes, such as sectional appendices, signalling notices and operating notices.

• The Signal Box, “everything about British Railway Signalling”

• Railway Signs and Signals of Great Britain, A website explaining the signs and signals relevant to train drivers on Britain’s national rail network, past and present.

• Transports of Delight, Paul Johnson's website covers all sorts of modes of transportation (and much else besides). His railway page divides into some 28 subpages covering all aspects of British railways and beyond and a broad range of dates (so far as possible from the beginning of railway photography to the present day). This website should surely be in every modeller's bookmarks! (Phil Rossignol)

• Brian Lambert, guides the railway modeller with the many aspects and skills encountered when building a model railway. Most of the items are based on his own layouts or experience from helping build other layouts at local clubs. (Richard Whiteside)

• The Engine Shed Society, specialises in the subject of Motive Power Depots for people interested in sites which are, or have been, used for the construction, maintenance or stabling of rail transport. (Stephen Wolstenholme)

• Mike Morant, a selection of railway photo galleries. (Richard Whiteside)

• Graces Guide, the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. (Lancastrian)

• The Heritage Image Register, is a Free 'Archive' Service for individuals, families, heritage groups, photographic societies, archives, private & public organisations, museums & others to display and promote heritage images of North West England, Lake District & North Wales. (Lancastrian)

• Old Railway Permanent Way, is mainly concerned with the appearance, design and development of British railway permanent way between the 1820s and the 1930s. (Lancastrian)

• Unusual Locomotives, a web site devoted to the weird and wonderful end of locomotive design. (Peter Reynolds)

• Micro / small layouts for model railroads, site (currently being re-built) dedicated to micro layouts. A useful source of inspiration.

• The Breakdown Crane Association, “Studying the past and protecting the future of the Railway Breakdown Crane”.

• Martins Preserved Coach Site, descriptions and locations of preserved railway coaches.

• Steve Banks, a personal compilation of modelling articles, photographs and historical articles.

• NRM Research and Archive, National Railway Museum Search Engine.

• Waggonway Research Circle, a website was created to cover the Industrial Archaeology surrounding the development of the early British waggonways.

• The Railway Correspondence And Travel Society, an organisation for people interested in all aspects of railways past, present and future.

• BBC Steam Archive, collection of television and radio programmes celebrating the craftsmanship inherent in steam trains and the beauty of the British countryside through which these locomotives have passed.

• Science and Society Picture Library, searchable picture library representing the visual content of the Science Museum Group.

• British Railways, a Wiki page listing Gazette articles about British Railways rolling stock.

• LTSV Rail Database, is a database of information about the numbering and classification of UK railway rolling stock. It is mainly about freight wagons but also covers all other types of trains.

• British Railways’ Corporate Identity 1964-1986, describes how “blue era” livery was applied to rolling stock, ships, carpets and so on.

• Railfreight 1987 corporate identity, development of the “triple grey” freight livery.

• Freight in the BR Blue TOPS Era, an article about British Rail from about 1972 to about 1985, often referred to by modellers as era 7.

• British Rail Colours, colours from the BS 381C standard colour range.

• railcar.co.uk, the history of first generation DMUs introduced in the 1950s

• Paul Bartlett's photos of Railway Wagons & other rolling stock, a large collection of rolling stock photographs. Mainly wagons, but parcels and passenger stock included. Organised by major types. Each main group is subdivided into sub types as used by BR Census records.

• British Rail Diagram Books, scans of various railway related documents including Diagram Books of the 1960’s and 70’s. Also has a link to Colin Craig’s detailed contemporary rolling stock drawings.

• BR Database, a complete British locomotive database 1923-1997. Includes origin, allocation history and disposal of steam, diesel and electric locomotives and multiple units.

• National Library of Scotland Map Finder, find historic Ordnance Survey maps, these can be overlaid with Google Earth images.

• Rail Map Online, aims to provide an interactive map of all historic railways for the UK.

• Goods & Not So Goods, An overview of railway freight operations for modellers (from around 1830 to about 2010).

• Modern Permanent Way, history of post-war developments in permanent way.

• Railway Technical, is an information resource with articles about railways around the world, covering technical, operational, maintenance and financial issues.

• Departmentals, a resource for Network Rail test trains & internal users.

• Real Time Trains, an independent provider of real-time information about train services across the Great British rail network.
  Find out what trains are running at your favourite gricing spot!

• The UK Model Shop Directory, The British Railway Modelling Directory on the Internet.

• Mike Bragg's Micro Layouts
• Jim Read's Micro and card rolling stock building
• Information about railway models, mechanisms and motors made by UK firms between the 1920s and 1970s

• Rail Accident Investigation Branch reports, a useful source of prototype information.

• O Scale Resource, a free downloadable magazine, mainly about North America railways.

• Lineside Look, John Emerson's quarterly online magazine promoting finescale 7mm modelling, a free download.

• https://www.railmagazine.com/Rail Magazine, railway related news stories connected to the print magazine of the same name.

• The Railway Magazine, current railway news and access to 120 years of back issues among other things.

The major institutions that relate to railway modelling research are listed below. There are many institutions outside that list that are worth accessing, particularly local ones if researching a particular area. The information needed may not be indexed or sorted to make it easily accessible and anyone wanting to use these sources must expect to do a fair bit of work themselves. A personal visit will probably be necessary, although a preliminary enquiry can be made by email or telephone. Staff will advise whether they have material which is likely to be of use. For example, they would be able to say if they hold the technical drawings of a particular firm for the period of interest concerned. If the enquiry is very specific, e.g. for a photograph of a particular station, they may be able to say whether there is one and whether they can supply a copy by post. The more general the enquiry, the more necessary it will be to pay a visit.

Although an institution may have relevant material, they will also have lots of other things in totally unrelated fields. The staff cannot be expert in everything and the enquiry may well be dealt with by someone with little knowledge of railways. What he or she will know is what their institution has and where to find it. If they cannot help, they may well be able to advise where it can be found. For information on a particular area it is always worth trying the local library, record office and museum; even the smallest of these is likely to have something on local railways.

Specialist societies exist for many railway companies and railway modelling topics. They often contain collections of drawings, records and artefacts related to their particular interest. They are run by volunteers who cannot be expected to do any research or extensive searching for you. A personal visit may be welcome, depending on where and how the records are housed. They may be in a private house, for example. Membership of the society is usually required if they are to provide any extensive assistance.

The Guild has been collating published information relating to layouts, locomotives and rolling stock since 1975. This includes an extensive collection of drawings. Other available information can be found by searching the wiki.

The scope of currently published railway literature is vast, from detailed drawings and operational information to general magazines and periodical. A web search of the chosen topic will usually turn up potentially relevant material.

Any major railway modelling exhibition will have stands devoted to reference books and videos. A browse through these can easily be the quickest route for the sort of information required by the average modeller. Videos of the prototype can give a good overview of an area or lineside features before starting detailed research, and can give shots of locomotives and rolling stock not normally drawn or photographed. Combinations of stock typically running in the chosen area or line can be particularly useful.

In addition to this, at many exhibitions sources can be found for photographs of particular locomotives or rolling stock and may be just the one required. However, be prepared for this search and know exactly what to look for, otherwise it can be a long and inconclusive exercise.

Most published information, in whatever form, will be subject to ownership limitations that may restrict the right to copy it. The Gauge O Guild cannot offer advice in this area, and it is your responsibility to determine whether material that is of interest to you can be copied. That said, it is worth noting that:

• Limited extracts of work can usually be copied for private, non-commercial use.
• Copyright generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator (in the UK – other countries may differ), so anything published that is older than that is not restricted.
• Authors may make their material freely available under Creative Commons or some similar arrangement (but this should not be assumed).

• List of transport museums worldwide
• List of transport museums in the UK
• List of heritage railways worldwide
• List of heritage railways in the UK
• List of museums in the UK
• Heritage railways web site
• Heritage Railway Association web site
• National Railway Museum
• Historical Model Railway Society

The text was originally compiled by the Technical Committee for the Gauge O Guild manual. It was revised and adapted for the GOGWiki by Nick Baines. The links were compiled by Nick Baines, John Birch and Chris Free.