Vintage railroad trivia

I am building a model of a vintage turpentine mill, so here are a few vintage railroad photos while I complete the model.  Below is a photo of a boxcar that evidently over-ran the stop on a roof top siding in Rochester, PAg. The caption boasts that the wrought iron brake rod kept the railroad car truck from dropping to the ground, though it is not evident that would have been a problem.

It is kind of an interesting scene.

Another photo below shows a boxcar sitting on a Fairbanks standard railroad track scale.  This is from a 1909 ad and shows a cut-away of the scale mechanism.

The model will be posted in a few days.

World circus wagon model

I have had the kit for this sitting around for years.  Do not recall where I got it but it had no instructions and no identifying box so I do not know the manufacturer.  The primary value to this kit was some nice cast metal sides and ends.  I used some on-line photos to figure out how to build it, and paint it.

I added some flags on the top to approximate the flags on the prototype.  This wagon joins 5 others I built long ago when I was infatuated with circus models.  They are just decorations on a shelf on the wall.  At best I will use them as loads on flat cars on the layout.

Fishing boat model

For a change of pace I built a fishing boat for my harbor.  It will be docked next to my cannery.  I started with a wood block hull from a crude boat model of unknown origin.  The rest of it is scratch built.  The cabin is built from sections of scribed wood.  The mast is from a tapered dowel.  The lifeboat is a commercial casting.  The fishing net on the rear deck is some fine bundled up netting to which I added several small floats made from plastic dowel.

I added a figure leaning against the cabin.  I also added two small boxes of fish - I used boxes so you can actually see the fish.

This was an interesting project and probably the last boat I will build since the harbor is only 2' x 3', and it already has a railroad car float.

Grain car photos 1903

Here are some interesting photos from 1903 of grain car situations and solutions.  It seems one of the major issues of the time with grain boxcars was availability of the cars.

This car arrived in Chicago loaded with grain.  This type of situation was one of the reasons for shortages of grain cars.  This situation would make an interesting scene on a model railroad.

One solution used to alleviate the shortage of grain boxcars was to use refrigerator cars.  The car below was loaded with grain in both the regular storage area as well as the ice boxes.

Another unique solution to the boxcar shortage was to use hopper bottom boxcars - a solution that also enabled fast unloading by opening the lower hopper doors by means of a lever on the outside end of the car.

Above shows the hoppers opened and below is the car with the hoppers closed.

Plumbing supply company on the layout

I have installed the model on my layout and added the plumbing supply details around it in the spirit of the Brockton Mass photo that can be seen on the Shorpy web site here:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/61?size=_original#caption
I really like shorpy as it has great photos for modeling inspiration.

I did not try to copy the structure in that photo, just used it as inspiration.

Below are several photos of the structure on my layout.

As you can see I added a bunch of plumbing details, some figures, a dog and dog house, and other miscellaneous details.  This has been an enjoyable project.