Robert's Website Awards
The coveted Web Gem Award is bestowed on railroad-oriented websites that meet or exceed the minimum criteria and have been recommended by the site's webmaster (or designer) or the users and staff of TrainNet.org. All railroad-related websites, personal or corporate, are eligible to receive the Web Gem Award.
This is the ultimate of all railroad awards. The award is difficult to win and award seekers should be prepared to have their site thoroughly examined. A complete list of gold, silver, and bronze winners of this award is available on the award site.
The Green Light Award Program, offered by Tandem Associates, recognizes webmasters who have built great websites about trains or model trains. It used to be a single level award program, but has expanded to four levels. The main award criteria include content, construction, design and navigation. At least 70 out of a possible 106 points are needed to get an award.
The Italian site Ciosbahn sponsors the CSB Award that has three levels of achievement. At least 70 points are required to win an award. The points are broken down into categories: 40 for content; 37 for design; and 23 for navigation. Of these points, 81 are needed to win the silver, and 91 are required to win the gold award.
This award is from a German railway site that is written in German. Gold, silver and bronze awards are offered. Before applying for an award, you must join one of the webmaster's recommended web rings and sign the site's guestbook.
The Great Site Award is offered to railway-related sites by the Australian Model Railway Association. Site construction makes up 20% of the score, followed by design at 40% and content making up the rest. A site receiving 78 points or more is awarded and listed on their winners page.
This previously was a five-tiered award program offered by the United Kingdom's Waldovia State Railways. Each of the awards pictured a different locomotive and were graded by stars, with five being the highest. There were 55 items in their grading criteria. Website design was graded the heaviest, followed by content, navigation, scripting and creativity. The award is now a single-tier program.
The MainLines East webmaster likes Eastern American railroads. His site lists the top websites that he has awarded. There are no award criteria listed on his site but, per the award page, only the top sites get the award. The picture on the award was taken in Maine at The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Readville Facility. Pictured are two EMD/AMF Techno-Transport GP40MC locomotives.
The Railroad Artists Award honors individuals who through hard work, and perseverance, have produced a website that not only is railroad-oriented, but has high artistic and creative content. Other criteria include substantial content, good layout and design, family friendly, and grammatical and legible. Both commercial and non-commercial sites may apply for the award.
The "Nutsplitter" was a railroad mechanic who could split a nut without damaging the threads of a bolt. The webmaster of the Oh Canada website was just such a person and his site sponsors this award. This award features Southern Pacific GS-4 Daylight No. 4449 in Los Angeles. The award is bestowed on any site that is family friendly.
Steve's Railway Pages offers resource awards for sites that contain useful information on a specific topic. There are awards for three different subjects: Model Railways, United Kingdom Railways and Australian Railways. There is no criteria for these awards other than convincing the webmaster that a site is a useful resource and fits one of the three categories. A list of resource winners with descriptions is kept on the site.
Dave runs his "Tracks of Excellence Award" program and, if he feels that your site is deserving and is family friendly, he will send you his award and list your site among his winners. Just send him your site's URL to be considered.
This award is offered by a German steam railways site. Hermann is the webmaster's name. The website is written in German, but has also been translated to English. The criteria to qualify for the award are no adult or illegal material, railroad-related, no links-only sites and the site must be interesting enough for return visits. The locomotive on the award was photographed at the main station in Regensburg, Germany.
The American Railroads Folklore Award is for any website pertaining to factual or fictional stories centering around the subject of American Railroads. Other awards offered by the site are for outstanding and excellent web pages. Only family-friendly websites may apply.
The All Aboard Web Award is sponsored by the All Aboard N Scale Trains website. Any train-related site is eligible to apply for this award. Application for the award is made by sending an email to the site's webmaster. The award site also hosts an N scale trains discussion group.
For The City Station Award, which is now discontinued, an applicant's site was graded using a point system. A total of 105 points could be earned - 10 points for meeting the minimum criteria, 20 points each for construction and navigation, 25 points each for design and content and five additional bonus points for impressing the webmaster. The City Station Award featured a Concord Railroad (predecessor of the Boston & Maine) locomotive sitting in front of the Nashua roundhouse.
The Highball Award, also discontinued, had three levels: gold, silver and bronze. It was unique in that the winning site received a customized locomotive gif of the webmaster's favorite railroad.
This discontinued award was a great looking railroad award. It's home was Dragonfly Landing, a site operated by the late Jackie Atkinson. Jackie offered nine awards in as many categories. The locomotive on the award is Abitibi #30. It was photographed several years ago at Pine Falls, Manitoba. This was believed to be the last steam engine to run on a regular basis in Western Canada. When the photo was taken, the locomotive had been mounted on a concrete pad for display.
This now discontinued award, in the former red and gray Monon Railroad (also known as The Hoosier Line) passenger colors, was for websites that were entertaining, interesting and fun. Although this award was from a railroad-related website, it was not required that those who apply also have a railroad-related website.
The Golden Web Award is a service of The International Association of Web Masters and Designers and is presented to those sites whose web design, originality and content have achieved levels of excellence deserving of recognition.