This site is pretty much a direct result of my other hobbies of photography and trains. As I began to get into sharing my photographs with others, I noticed that there were some people who had their own websites just for displaying their photos. The idea intrigued me, and I decided I'd like to do the same thing. The first website I created was located at freewebs.com. It was alright for a first attempt at a website, but nothing extra special. I also felt really restrained in what I could do by the templates and amount of files freewebs allowed without having to pay. I simply stopped maintaining the site after a while due to lack of interest.

After that I looked into the possibility of starting a website at other hosts like freewebs, but I could still never find what I was looking for. Eventually I decided the route I really needed to go was to build my own pages from scratch in HTML format, but I could never motivate myself to get started. In early 2007, I decided it was finally time to sit down and learn HTML and how to properly code a website. Rather than starting on my own site right away, I began by building a site for my model railroad club. We needed a website anyway, and the experience gave me a good chance to learn HTML code. My main guide was the tutorial section on HTML and tables found at virtuallyignorant.com. I also bounced a lot of ideas off the folks at the fuzzyworld3.com 3um. The folks there were really helpful at giving me feed back as far as what made for a good website, and what at things I should avoid doing. (Thanks yet again guys for all your help!)

Now I had acquired a basic knowledge of HTML, but I'd yet to actually take the time to build my own site. An opportunity arose in the form of a new class offered by my high school's tech ed department. The class, called "Networking and Website Design," included several weeks worth of learning about networks and the components of a computer, with the remainder of the class being used to design and build a website. Best of all, I would get the chance to work with Macromedia Dreamweaver, a website design program, meaning I wouldn't have to hand code the whole website. Figuring that I was bound to learn something along the way, I signed up for the course.

Several months of day to day work later, and here I am, working on getting the site ready to turn in for a grade. Of course, this really isn't the end as I plan to continue to build and maintain the website beyond the class. It's come a long way though, and I think it's turned out pretty well.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a decent name for the site, but I couldn't come up with anything I really liked. I wanted to incorporate both the fact that I was a railfan from Wisconsin and that the site was about railroads. One day I got to thinking about Wisconsin's nickname, "The Badger State," and though I might be able to work it into the name. All of a sudden it hit me: Badger Rails. I decided I liked it, and it has stuck ever since.

Being that I'm also a model railroader, I decided to devote one section of the website to my model railroad stuff. I model pretty much exclusively in HO at this point, and this section is broken down into three areas. One is about my module, one covers information on my home layout, and one is on my current projects. The module page and layout page both contain descriptions and photos. The current project page will be a sort of blog for me to post about projects I'm working on, things like custom locomotive paint jobs, recent projects that I've completed on my layout or module, and other notable items.

The New Stuff page is designed to give frequent visitors (and I hope there are some!) an idea of what's changed since the last time I updated. I don't really plan on ever "finishing" the website, as I'll always be adding new photo as I take them, along with new model railroad projects and other items. So if you visit often, be sure to keep an eye on this page!

I owe my interest in trains to my parents. When I was around six years old, my parents surprised me with an HO model train set for my birthday. With my Dad's help I quickly had the train set up on the basement floor, and I was hooked. Eventually a 4 foot by 8 foot board was bought and a table was put under it so that I could get my trains up on the floor and set them up permanently. I had fun creating my own little "world" that I could control and change as I wanted. Slowly the layout expanded and took over progressively larger chunks of the basement.

Now that I was interested in the model trains that I ran in my basement, I also began to notice the real train that came to my hometown of Reedsburg, WI. Once the route of the CNW 400 trains to the Twin Cities, by the time I started watching in the early 2000s the line had been cut back so that it now only ran from Madison to Reedsburg. The route was served by a three-time-a-week local out of Madison operated by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. Every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night I would anxiously wait for the sound of the whistle that announced the train's arrival in Reedsburg, and my Dad would take me down to the tracks to watch the train. As long as I was down there anyway, I began to want to take pictures of the things I saw. My first attempts and photography never really turned out very well, but I gradually learned more and more about what I was doing.

In 2003 my family got our first digital camera, a free one that came with our computer. While it was really poor quality it gave me my introduction to the realm of digital photography. Now that pictures didn't cost me any money to get printed, I began taking pictures of everything I could related to the railroads. It was around now that I also discovered the train lines that existed outside of Reedsburg, though I only rarely got a chance to go take picture of trains along them.

In 2004 my family got a better digital camera, a Fuji F700 with 3.1MP and 3x zoom. While still not the best camera in the world, it was decent, and I started taking even more pictures. My Dad also became more and more willing to take me places chasing trains, which meant more chances to refine my skills.

In early 2005, my Dad and I decided to join a local model railroad club that was forming in Madison, WI. The club would become known as the Southern Wisconsin Sandhouse Crew. It was there I also met a fellow modeler and railfan named Bob Welke. Bob and I became pretty good friends, and we began regularly going on railfanning together. Thanks to Bob's willingness to put up with me and let me tag along with him on day long railfan trips, I've been able to take pictures all over Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. Bob has also been willing to share a lot of his knowledge of Wisconsin Railroading with me that he gained from many years of working for several different railroads around the state.

Now that I was doing a lot more railfanning and taking a lot more pictures, I felt a camera upgrade was in order. After some looking, and in part thanks to a small loan from my mom, I eventually bought a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (or 400D) in November of 2006. This was my first entrance into the world of DSLR cameras, and so there was much learning to be had. I picked up the basics of shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and the like fairly quickly, though it seems like every time I go out to take pictures I learn something new. The new camera has also made me look at subjects other than railroads through a lens as well, and occasionally I'll take photos of things like sunsets, nature items, and other interesting non-railroad subjects. Eventually I hope to post some of those photos on this site as well, but that's just one of the other long projects on the list.

As I've only been at this a few years, I'm still learning a lot about railroad photography and railroads in general. But so far things have been working out pretty well, and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

I hope you enjoy your visit to Badger Rails, and be sure and stop back soon!