Pre-WWI images and other reference materials

[deemery]

A thread for pictures of interest to those who model the 19th or early 20th century.  

I'll start off with a Shorpy photo, this is a nice overhead view of Detroit.  Lots of roof details to see here:  
https://www.shorpy.com/node/27647?size=_original#caption   The one thing that surprises me is how clean the rooftops are.  Usually I see more junk/weathering on rooftops.  

dave

[Philip]

Gotta love Shorpy.

[Jim Donovan]

Great photo, gave me an idea for project I am working on.

Jim

[ACL1504]

Thanks for sharing the photo Dave. We as modelers have a tendency to over detail model roof tops.

Tom 

[deemery]

Here's another interesting photo from Shorpy:  https://www.shorpy.com/node/27644?size=_original#caption  I'm particularly interested by the box company and its associated lumber yard in the center front.  Notice the track workers on what looks to be a new spur, but probably is just reworking an existing spur.  I've noticed in this and the previous photo the lumber yards were all fenced in, I guess pilferage (for firewood?) was an issue.

dave

[IWannaRetire]

Thanks for sharing the photo Dave. We as modelers have a tendency to over detail model roof tops.

Tom

I had a 35' by 45' flat roof on full size building here up until recently.  There is a saying among people who have flat roofs that "It's not a question of if a flat roof will leak, just a question of when.

Over the 4 decades I owned this building, I went from a traditional hot-mopped tar to a newer and better torch-down bitumen, but it, too, had a half-life.

My roof was always clean because when the half-life kicked in, I was up there frequently with 5 gallon buckets of various glop, attempting to mitigate the latest leak.

Since mine is a two-story building without an interior stair to the roof, getting anything up there by ladder requires effort. 

I am not a rivet-counting kind of modeler, and hesitate to criticize anyone's modeling interpretations.  Personally, I model in On30 which gives me great modelers' license. 

However, when I see some of the details that are added to some scale flat roofs, I have to shake my head.  I cannot see why anyone in real life would make the effort to bring a broken pallet or an empty oil drum up to a rooftop, even if there was an interior stair.  Old chairs and a table for clandestine activity, I get.  But on my roof without parapets, leaving anything up there would be a liability to my neighbors in a windstorm.

The new high tech synthetic rubber roofs cost a fortune and some of those materials need to have walkways over them to access roof-mounted mechanicals, as the membrane is vulnerable to foot traffic.

Five years ago, my flat roof did blow off in a micro-burst that damaged a lot of neighbors as well.  I hired 2 other carpenters and we changed it to a gabled roof, covered with the sort of corrugated steel you see on pole barns. Never been happier with a repair.
 

[deemery]

I went back and looked more closely at the St Paul "box factory" photo.  At first I thought they were reworking an existing spur, but now I think this is a new spur, as indicated by the fresh looking earth underneath the tracks.  Plus there's no obvious loading area, just the one (wagon) door near where the track gang is working.  So now I think this is a new spur added for the box factory.  

A 'new spur' with a track gang would be an interesting scene to model, I think.  

dave

[deemery]

I'm sure many, if not most of you have seen those 19th century aerial engraved maps of cities.  Here's a discussion about how they were made:  https://aoghs.org/petroleum-art/oil-town-aero-views/  Where I've done serious research into industrial areas, comparing the engravings to Sanborn maps (and in a few cases to current structures), the overhead maps are amazingly accurate, both in their location of buildings and in the representation of individual structures.

dave

[Bernd]

Dave,

You might find this interesting or anybody else that's interested the petroleum industry. There is a modeler the lives in Victor. NY that I personally know who built a model railroad depicting Oil City. I haven't been in contact with him for many years. Don't know yet if he's made a trip to the roundhouse as of this writing.

Here's a link to who he is and may help locate more info about his layout and other information.

https://ia902909.us.archive.org/6/items/mmr-0483/MMR_0483.pdf

EDITED TO ADD: I found more in the news latter Dick used to write for.

"In addition to the editor, present staff members
are Associate Editors Richard Senges (business
and distribution), and Otto M. Vondrak (graphics)"

RMC's editor was part of that group putting out the newsletter. Below is a link to those archived newsletters.

http://www.trainweb.org/rmr/newsletter.html

Bernd

[deemery]

Cyril Durrenberger modeled early Texas oil (Houston region.)  He had articles published in multiple model RR magazines, particularly "Mainline Modeler," "Prototype Modeler" and "NMRA Bulletin."  I got to meet him once during a business trip to Austin, we ha a great discussion on modeling, early oil, etc.  http://www.olimpia.com:8084/ListAuthor?ID=4258

dave