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: 07/24/08

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.

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

What's new on the BVrr site (as of 07/24/08)

Stay tuned for a very big announcement, sometime in the near future!

I just found out that 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 below, or larger here. (07/24/07)

An article of mine (left) 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)

So how come this website hasn't been updated in 4 months? I've been busy! You can see the results of that work on my Reverse Loops page. Where once there was a void, there's now a whole town! (04/24/08)

The May 2008 issue of the NMRA's magazine, Scale Rails, contains an article I wrote entitled, "Defining Your Railroad's Corporate Identity." You can see the photos and article on my Articles page. (04/24/08)

Considerable work has been done on Colfax Yard on the layout. You can see those shots on my Colfax page. (01/14/08)

For the second time in my modeling career, I made the cover of Railroad Model Craftsman! This time it's for an article that describes building the barn in the background, as well as some fields of crops. You can see a larger version of the cover, and the opening page of the article, on my Articles page. (01/06/08)

My Bona Vista Railroad was featured in the 2008 issue of Great Model Railroads. You can see the opening spread, plus some photos which weren't selected for the article by clicking here. (10/06/07)

For the fourth consecutive year, a photo of mine has been chosen to be in the NMRA Calendar. You can see what June, 2008 looked like on my Articles page. (11/16/07)

My article, "Five (ok, six) More Tools You Can't Live Without" was published in the November issue of the NMRA magazine, Scale Rails. It's a follow-up to one I wrote almost two years ago. You can see that article on my Articles page. (11/10/07)

I've finally updated the trackplan schematic, some two years later. It now represents the layout as it is today. You can see that on the Trackplan page. (09/16/07)

"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, September, 2006.
On the right wall are 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
Westcott is against the far wall on the right. You can "kind of"
see the brown roundhouse back by the far wall on the left.

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)

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