The Bona Vista Railroad


*Construction shots:*	Benchwork \| Scenery \| Finished Scenes
*Layout:*	Trackplan & Specs
*Misc:*	The Road to MMR \| Articles I've written Durango & Silverton RR Shots \|About Me

Updated: 05/17/09

BV number 24 rounds the high bridge over the peaceful lake near
Glen Oaks on my layout. This photo won 1st Place/Color Model
Photography at the NMRA 2006 Convention, and was selected for
both the "Scenery" section header in the 2007 Walthers catalog,
and for the 2007 NMRA calendar for the month of July.. You can
see a larger version of it here. I re-staged and re-shot this photo
for the 2008 issue of Great Model Railroads.

Master Model Railroader #346

The Bona Vista Railroad is an HO-scale model railroad owned, operated, and built by me (Gerry Leone MMR). The railroad itself is a freelanced design that's operated prototypically, and set in the Upper Midwest of 1953.

Because I really enjoy seeing construction shots and behind-the-scenes shots of other model railroads, I've included a ton of those shots here. (Ok, a "ton" isn't quite accurate. There are more than that.)

If you want to contact me by email, you can do so at: gerryleone at earthlink dot net .Please put "BV" in the subject somewhere.

I now have a "Bona Vista Railroad" Facebook page... however, I'll tell you right now this website will probably be more up to date that that will.

Thanks to all who continue to return to this site! I really do appreciate it.

What's new on the BVrr site (as of 05/17/09)

Tons of work has been done on my Colfax* area... from a new industry to a new neighborhood. (5/17/09)*
	Part 2 of my story on how I built the town of Eureka on my layout appeared in the February 2009 issue of Model Railroader. You can see a larger version of the opening spread of this part of the article here. You can see some of the construction shots and outtakes from the article on my Reverse Loops* page.*
	The January 2009 issue of Model Railroader has Part 1 of my two-part story of how I built the town of Eureka on my layout. This article won First Place in MR's "Build A Scene" contest. Part 2 ran in February. You can see a larger version of the opening spread of the article here. You can see some of the construction shots and outtakes from the article on my Reverse Loops* page.*
	For the 5th year in a row, one of my photographs was chosen to be published in the NMRA calendar. You'll find it gracing the month of August. You can see a larger version of that shot here, along with the camera setup, and one outtake. This shot also appears as the lead photo in the "Power Sound Smoke" section in the 2009 Walthers catalog. (1/1/09)

The December issue of Scale Rails reprinted an article that ran in that same magazine in 2005, as part of the concluding issue of that magazine's "Year of the Master Model Railroader." The article is entitled "What I learned by Becoming an MMR." You can see a larger version of the article's spread here. Or you can read the text of the article here.

I got so intrigued with scratchbuilding simple switchstands with rotating targets, that I came up with an easy way that works, and wrote an article about it, which ran in the December issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. You can see a larger version of the opening page of that article here. (12/01/08)

The November issue of Railroad Model Craftsman ran my how-to scratchbuilding article, "The LaPointe depot." It's a step-by-step article that's great if you've never scratchbuilt a structure before. You can see a larger version of the opening pages, as well as several photographs that didn't make it into the article here. (11/26/08)

One of my photos, "In Farm Country" won 2nd Place/Color Model Prints at the National Model Railroad Association's annual convention in Anaheim. This is the same shot that graced the cover of the February Railroad Model Craftsman. You can see that shot here. (07/24/07)

An article of mine won the the August 2008 Railroad Model Craftsman's "Kitbash of the Month Award." You can see the opening page from that article, "A downsized kitbash," plus several shots that didn't make it into print on my Articles page. (07/10/08)

"The Road to MMR" -- I've added a series of web pages that explain in depth each of the seven certificates I earned to become an MMR, and what I did to earn them. If you're curious about the NMRA's Achievement Program, take a look! (03/11/05)

This site was named "Webmaster's Choice" for the month of December 2001 by the NMRA. Almost 4500 visitors stopped by in 30 days.

A general overview of the train room, October, 2008..
On the right wall are a few of my framed model railroad articles. Froton is on
the right side of the peninsula, LaPointe is on the left. The Lake area is
in the center of the layout (above and left of the center of this shot) and
you can see the brown roundhouse down at the far wall on the left. The
award-winning town of Eureka is barely visible on the right side of the return loop
on the left side of this photo. Hanging on the peninsula front and center is a copy of the
BV trackplan, as seen in Great Model Railroads 2008.

Back to the main Leone page.

This link foils the Web crawlers. Don't pay any attention to it:
http://members.hostedscripts.com/antispam.html

people have stopped by. Thanks!

100,000th visitor on 3/11/08!

January, 2001: 4055 (4055 visitors)
January, 2002: 14,601 ( 10,546 visitors)
January, 2003: 28,736 (14,135 visitors)
January, 2004: 41811 (13,075 visitors)
January, 2005: 55913 (14,102 visitors)
January, 2006: 68,986 (13,009 visitors)
January, 2007: 83050 (14,086 visitors)
January, 2008: 96972 (13,922 visitors)
January, 2009: 113,828 (16,856 visitors)

(it's my backup counter, from another source)