Links (Updated 7/8/17)
Several people have done some nice work and shared it with the world. If you know of a site that should be included here (including your own) please let me know.
7/8/17: Stan Patterson shows off some nice looking trains and some excellent scenery pieces on his Facebook page: here https://www.facebook.com/stan.patterson.10/media_set?set=a.10205479897971148.1073741838.1061929553&type=3.
2/13/16: John Cliff has several interesting blog plots on various topics including making sloped wood track, an interesting axel solution, and different uses of 3D printing to supplement wood track layouts. http://woodentrainyard.blogspot.com/
2/13/16: A guy who calls himself the Tinkering Techie has a website with some train-related posts. He has a Brio-style track with a different kind of connector he makes with a CNC milling machine. He also has an intriguing example of a genderless (pole neutral) tain coupler using spherical magnets. http://www.tinkeringtechie.com/projects/woodworking/toys/wooden-train
1/31/15: Jared Geddes created a fantastic station that needs to be seen to be believed. Check it out here: https://plus.google.com/photos/104594740923263891441/albums/5979384243998248945. He's finished some wonderful trains utilizing a "weathered" look to excellent effect. Look here: https://plus.google.com/photos/104594740923263891441/albums/6010551472871805633. And most recently he's completed an awesome mountain which puts mine to shame: https://plus.google.com/photos/104594740923263891441/albums/6081748016886905953.
5/8/14: I've seen some great work recently by other train builders. Nathaniel Jones has created a series of trains, bridges, and a station which are among the finest I've seen. You can see his photos here: http://www.coupledwithchrist.com/trains.html
4/28/13: Here's a link to a site with a brief tutorial on building wooden trains. I think it's noteworthy because it mentions using "split rivets" for axels. This is a new technique to me. I had not heard of split rivets before. A quick Google search made it clear to me what they are. It seems like they could be a viable alternative to the simple screw axel system. I'd like to try them out someday.
http://www.aokcorral.com/projects/how2jun2005.htm
3/2/13: Chris Petersen recently brought to my attention a body of train-related work involving 3D printing. While 3D printers are still uncommon, there are ways to get access to them in many big cities. 3D printing opens up lots of possibilities for manufacturing specialized train parts including ever-problematic wheels. Thingiverse.com is a website that includes numerous open-source, downloadable files for 3D printing projects. Chris has designed several train components and doing a search on the site for "trains" yields many other train-related files. This will be something to keep your eye on in the future as I expect 3D printing will become more common and more accessible over time.
1/15/13: There are a couple train-related projects on lumberjocks.com. Check out this wonderful collapsing bridge and a beautiful, innovative roundhouse.
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/76804
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/76987
11/11/12: Someone named Crozier has created three "instructables" showing some remarkably well-done trains, a fantastic station, and a nifty tunnel. His (or her) paint work and attention to detail are genuinely stunning.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-Style-Train-Cars/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Tunnel-for-Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-Playsets/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Handmade-Station-for-Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-Wooden/
10/20/12: Andrew Freed has a very good and lengthy blog post here where he describes his process of building wood trains.
http://freedblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/homemade-wooden-train-cars.html
10/15/12: Benjamen Johnson has a wonderful website where he shares many different types of word working projects including wood train track, cars, and structures. I've listed two different links here. He has a new site with some new material and other posts on his old site.
http://workshop.electronsmith.com/content/category/projects/wooden-train-cars/
http://oldshop.electronsmith.com/content/creating-wooden-train-track-0
10/15/12: This page provides information about a set of router bits specifically designed for making your own track. There's also a nice discussion among hobbyists discussing various challenges inherent in building both track and trains.
http://toolmonger.com/2008/08/27/make-your-own-wooden-train-track/
9/30/12: Anyone interested in building their own wooden train must spend some time at Todd Hoogerland's webpage. Todd's site inspired me and his work is far superior to my own. Unfortunately Todd's site has not been updated for many years but it is still a fantastic reference.
http://pw1.netcom.com/~thoog/hnr/hnr.html
9/30/12: Doug Atkinson's excellent site is a compilation of many wooden train references. It includes historical information about wooden toy trains, thoughts about buying trains, and lots of information about train manufacturers.
http://magicref.tripod.com/trains/trainmain.htm
9/30/12: This impressive website by Tom Stephenson dives deep into the realm of wood train track and table design. He's created a modular track and table standard which is very cool.
9/30/12: Brian Donnelly used to have a great site geared for hobbyists interested in building their own wooden track components from scratch. He also has some information about building your own trains and play table. His site is defunct but most of it can still be viewed using the Way Back Machine (a neat service that allows you to look at website as they used to appear).
http://web.archive.org/web/20080326220807/http://www.bscandm.com/trains/