I'm new to OGR but one of the things that got me back into model railroading was local railroading history. One great source I found is the Library of Congress and their collections. The website interface leaves a lot to be desired but if you motor around there is a ton of cool stuff to be found. Maps, photos, timetables, posters, etc. Most of this material is indexed and documented and there are generally high resolution scans you can print out for yourself or have printed in a large format. Not everything is free or available as a high-res download but there's enough here that is to keep you busy for a long, long time. For example:
Railroad maps collection:
http://www.loc.gov/collection/...out-this-collection/
Search Library of Congress for “railroad ephemera” yields this result:
http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=...=true&st=gallery
“railroad photos” yieds:
http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=...=true&st=gallery
“railroad photos st. louis” yields:
http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=...=true&st=gallery
“railroad Santa fe” yields:
http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=...=true&st=gallery
Fabulous maps, here is my hometown in 1875 as a series of 108 separate street-by-street drawings ( found where my street would later be in plate 95 ) - taken from sketch artists in balloons no less:
http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4...gpm00001/?st=gallery
“WPA era travel posters”
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/se...avel%20posters%20wpa
You could easily spend whole days clicking and searching around here.
Hope you enjoy - have fun!
