After a lot of work behind-the-scenes to look at alternatives, funding, etc. the owner/operator of Railroad-Line has announced tomorrow will be its last day.
A group is working on capturing the data and seeing if we can set up a new Railroad-Line, on a different hosting environment. The goal would be to reopen in March, but a lot of work has to be done to set up, check out, and establish an environment that has the data but that performs much better than the current environment.
dave
Well that truly blows Dave.
I'll third it Curt.
Yup, you got that right. It suuuuucks for sure. Just glad we have a place to land
until (if and/or when) RRL is viable once again.
Larry I just posted my photos from Deer Creek on the build thread. I was lucky I had also saved them to my computer photo album. Hopefully everyone else can do the same.
Curt nice to see your SW build here. I have all my pics from every On30 build I've done on my computer.
I just moved my Pratt's Hollow SL RR from layout tours to the O narrow line sub forum so that's where you'll find my layout progress.
Larry what main category is that in?
Sorry Curt, I'm still getting my bearings here. It's in the "roundhouse" category.
I was sorry to read earlier today about the shutdown. I have deleted my links to the forum. I enjoyed it there, I met some wonderful modelers virtually there and 3 in person. I will miss it
TomO
Railroad-Line Forum was the very first forum I ever joined. And was the only one for me up until about a year ago. I remember when they shut down a couple of years or so ago for a re-vamp. It seemed I had lost my best railroading buddy. I learned a lot there and made some good friends. Here in west Texas, I have yet to find another model railroader so reaching out on the web is a life line to other modelers for me. I'll miss the crew lounge and all the great photos. Maybe RRLF will come back to life in the future.
Take care....John
Well that's it. 8:50 pm Friday 31st In Melbourne Australia.
RRL is no longer visible.
Anyhow, over here now and I'm posting plenty of my builds here already, and getting good replies & interest.
Good to have a home to post stuff too, as I still have a lot of layout and diorama builds to show off.
I wish posting photo's was a bit easier, but it is, what it is.
Retirement may be coming soon too, so even more time to do modelling....(I hope).
I tried this morning at 6:00am CST hoping to write a goodbye but nothing. Oh well...
Like Rob wrote above from Australia I virtually met many good modelers. Read some great builds, had good conversations and personally met up with 3 and missed a 4th twice.
As to your impending retirement Rob, make sure you carve out time for yourself
TomO
With the demise of the RRLines forum I'm reminded that it was not that long ago that this forum "went dark".
Without the efforts of Jim and Craig the Modelers Forum wouldn't be here either.
Apparently it's either expensive, time consuming or both to run a forum like this.
Much of what I know about modeling has come from the aforementioned forums as well as the Sierra West forum ( which is dedicated solely to SW kit building).
We appear to be in a 'fragile' environment
Just my 30 cents (inflation)
terry
More time for modeling. Glad to have familiar 'faces' here. :P
Loved that forum for 23 years, but was tired of waiting on the load. I think I spend 3 years total time waiting for it to load. I don't think I'll return. Moving on but oh the great memories!
This forum is beautiful and Fast
My hats off to Joe and Moderators for keeping the peace there.
Philip
Well, it's gone, and I'm sorry it ended this way.
dave
As the rest have said. It was a great forum when it came to subject matter. Luckly for me I haven't lost any pictures. I started my website way before I joined any of the forums. I use the server that my website is hosted on as my "picture cloud". All my pictures to builds are stored on the website and on several tera bite disks attached to my three computers. So if a forum shuts, I don't loose any of my pictures, just the wording of what I did. Yes, it costs me a yearly fee of $447.32. That includes a second site called Kingstone Locomotive Works and includes a private e-mail address which I use for all my model railroad related exchange amongst model railroad acquaintances.
So, let's see what happens. I'll be making this my new home now.
Bernd
Well,
That explains why I couldn't get the RR lines up this morning.
Yepper, more modeling time.
Tom
I spent a couple of hours yesterday madly trying to download what I could. I got my 118 page build thread done, which was the main thing. As we were given the date of 3rd of March as a shut down, I hadn't rushed to do this. There is a lot more I would have downloaded given time. I should have known better. For me, the search function didn't work anymore, which was frustrating. I got stuck in a loop that kept returning me to the index page. It was a buzz over there in the good old days. Not so much lately. I'm pleased I have a home here.
Cheers, Mark.
My first post here. I was a past member of the now gone Railroad lines Forum as well. I'm glad to see so many familiar names here, so this will likely be my new modeling home.
I model in HOn3. My model railroad is the North Coast Railroad along the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York. It follows the tracks of the old Rome, Watertown and Ogdensberg line from the Port of Oswego west, into orchard country of Williamson, in Wayne County
Quote from: Dave Buchholz on February 01, 2025, 09:21:46 AMMy first post here. I was a past member of the now gone Railroad lines Forum as well. I'm glad to see so many familiar names here, so this will likely be my new modeling home.
I model in HOn3. My model railroad is the North Coast Railroad along the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York. It follows the tracks of the old Rome, Watertown and Ogdensberg line from the Port of Oswego west, into orchard country of Williamson, in Wayne County
Dave,
Welcome to the Modeler's Forum. There are many of us that have been long time members and also many of us that were on RR Lines as well.
I think you'll be happy here.
Tom
Good to see so many friends still hanging around here at the "new joint"
I hope a few more make the short trek over.
Karl in chilling Michigan
As long as they e serve Cheerios in the breakfast lounge, I'll be happy as a spike in a tie.
To everyone who has decided to try this forum since the RR-Line forum shut down, thank you for taking the chance. This forum also had its own issues a couple of years ago but is now running better than ever. It too can trace its roots back a good 20 years so there is a lot of information available. I am the person in charge of underwriting its' financial cost. I am happy to do so and see no reason for anything to change for as far as I can see. Should something happen in that regard plenty of notice would be given and at a small yearly cost, a like minded group could take on the responsibility. The major investment was front loaded and paid off by myself. My day to day job on the site is Moderator and with the group of people we have this job consists of mostly saying welcome, just the way I like it.
Craig Rusty of 'Keep It Rusty' is the person responsible for reconstructing the site, debugging it and placing it on a program platform that is both simple to use and very stable. His help in saving Modelers Forum can not be overstated. He is in charge of maintenance of the site and is backed by professional programmer's should the need arise.
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/785-010225102815-53689993.jpeg)
I have always said anything that is given for free has no value. This site is not free. Each and every member contributes their time and knowledge when they post their projects for everyone to review and learn. It is only at times like this (RR-Line closing) that we truly understand how priceless forums are to this great hobby. So again welcome. The next train does not arrive for a few so follow the above road to the hotel, turn right at the reception desk and enter the club house (on this forum called daily chat). Grab a cup of coffee and say hi we are glad to see you.
Jim Donovan
Jim, thank you for hosting the forum.
And thank you for being so welcoming all of us refuges from the RR-Line.
Finally got the photo posting thing figured out.
Jim,
Thank you for providing a nice new place for us modelers to share ideas and how To's. I have lots of material to post. All or at least the majority of pictures I have are stored on my website. I use it as a "private cloud service". Looking forward to spending some time with past subjects from the two forums that have been lost, Freerails and now the Railroad Line forum.
Looking forward to 20 more years of posting and making new "net friends" of the model railroading fraternity.
Bernd
Jim,
I would like to thank you and Craig for running this forum. I had no intention of joining any other forum while the RRL forum was running due to limited time (I'm still part of the working class). With the sudden demise of the RRL forum we decided to look elsewhere and there was a big discussion on the ON30 lounge as to how we could all stay in touch, and decided that here was the best option.
I must say that joining here was a great choice as everyone here has been very welcoming and when we suggested various forum headings you took our suggestions seriously and even implemented them and for that I am grateful.
I can see that this forum is active with lots of builds and camaraderie and I believe that I will enjoy myself here.
The only thing that worries me is that this forum will go the way of the dodo in the future as costs to run this forum will be too much for one person to handle. I would not like to participate for a few years only to have it close like the RRL did.
Again, thanks for being so welcoming and allowing us to join this forum.
Thank you Jim and Craig!