Broken web links

[FJ and G]

Oftentimes I go to prototype train sites (and model sites too) on the Internet to search for information that can be helpful---and there's a ton of it.

I'm often frustrated by broken links that go nowheres. My favorite site for the Santa Fe: http://www.atsfrr.com/links/santafe.htm

has websites that it is linked to that have had broken links for at least 3 years (the site I cited in not link broken, but some sites it is linked to are).

I wi***hat periodically the folks who maintain these sites would check out their links and either fix or delete them.

That's my rant for today.

[Dave Farquhar]

Punch broken links into the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org. Often the pages are archived there and can be retrieved, although often without the photos. Still, it's better than nothing.

Personally, on my site, I have more than 1,500 entries in my blog, so that amounts to 1,500 separate pages. I know there are dead links in there. Could I find them all and keep them up to date? Maybe. Worth the effort? I doubt it. I do have a life, after all. Besides, my dead link could be the only indication left that the information ever existed on the Web. Could that in and of itself potentially be useful to a researcher? I think it could.