My winter project - Oakley Street Chicago

[bparrish]

Curt...

Thanx

Here is a photo of the parts in the scene.

see ya
Bob

[Zephyrus52246]

Great job on the parts.  I really like the mortar and pestle, since I was a pharmacist at one time.  The street tracks in the photo look odd.  Under the trolley it looks like two tracks, one centered on the car and one on it's right side.  The left side rail must be the whitish line.  Cool photo. 


Jeff

[bparrish]

Jeff...

Good observation.  This was something that I discovered some distance into the project.  The white lines are sidewalks.  I cannot tell if they are concrete or some sand mix.  The street was completely torn up during the construction of the scaffolding,.

Lake Street was a lesser street as Randolph and Madison were the next two streets to the south and had evolved into the major thoroughfares. Also during this time they extended an 8 inch water line down the north edge of the street as a fire hydrant is visible on the northwest corner.

I will be carving into the foam the street grade reduction and then cover it all with plaster and shape stuff.

thanx for looking in.
Bob

[bparrish]

Jeff ...

Another piece of the mix about the construction is that I don't think Lake Street was paved before the scaffolding.  One of the big expenses of the elevated lines was land acquisition and the greasing of palms of property owners. Chicago had some rule that a certain percentage of adjacent properties had to approve of the construction.

It got real expensive once word got around that they could be paid for their approval.

Lake Street was probably the cheapest street to build the elevated.  I know that after the scaffolding the street was bricked.  The promise of bricking the street after the scaffolding was probably an additional incentive for property holders to sign off. 

That may be why the curbing in the photo is such a mish / mash of stuff in preparation for the brick.

They actually put a trolley line under the elevated and extended service from State Street in the loop to Austin Blvd. in 1912.  They closed trolley service in 1954.

Below is a photo of where the line crossed the raised grade C&NW at Pine Street in the Austin District of Chicago.  There is still brick and rail under the bridge.  They never did much with it as building a sand / gravel base under new pavement would make the bridge height too low.  They had some years ago put a asphalt covering over the brick but even that is failing.

see ya
Bob

[bparrish]

So  one of my RR cronies said I was getting too carried away.......  He might be right.

Below are two roughed in beer signs from the source photo on the side of Kline's Saloon.

Curiously the one partially hidden and farther away is more legible..

I am however, having too much fun with this whole thing.

see ya
Bob

[PRR Modeler]

Very cool Bob.

[MAP]

Beautiful work Bob.  Really enjoying your thread.

[S&S RR]

Bob


Now, that's fine scale modeling. Very cool - and you can't get to carried away with modeling. It's the details my friend.

[jerryrbeach]

Bob,

I'm just catching up with your progress.  Wonderful modeling, and I really enjoy the way you weave the history into the thread. 

[bparrish]

Got the signs done this morning and on to cutting in the streets and sidewalks.

More soon.

see ya
Bob

[PRR Modeler]

Really,  really nicely done.

[S&S RR]

Bob


Those signs are fantastic!

[Bruce Oberleitner]

So  one of my RR cronies said I was getting too carried away.......  He might be right.

Below are two roughed in beer signs from the source photo on the side of Kline's Saloon.

Curiously the one partially hidden and farther away is more legible..

I am however, having too much fun with this whole thing.

see ya
Bob

Bob,
Even if you are getting too carried away, Don't Stop!  We love what your doing.  That sign made out of brass is pretty dang cool.....

[bparrish]

Ran out of stuff to do on buildings for a while so here is what is going on with the streets.

I took a piece of 2" rigid foam and plotted out what I think will be a good spacing for the correct perspective.  Scaling out the streets according to the Sanborn maps creates some distortion.  It is close however.

I over dug the streets so there would be space for plaster and get a little arch in the center of the streets.
Shaped it all with a wood rasp and then 100 sand paper.

Then I made up the side walks  out of picture framing mat board and cut small lines with a #11 blade.

Next is to dirt the streets and plant the buildings.

see ya
Bob

[jbvb]

I'm following along, and I like your beer signs.  Are there references that will identify the brand or brewery?  I can't read the words on either, but the logo/trademark might be guessable.