An interesting historic photograph site

[Rene Schweitzer]

The gents at Classic Toy Trains just told me about the Shorpy Historic Photo Archive.

Thousands of historic American photos from Civil War through the 1940s or so. There's a search box on the right side of the page.

Thought this could be valuable to anyone searching for era or theme-specific photos.

[cacole]

The Library of Congress web site has photographs and railroad maps dating back to about that period, too --1828 through 1900.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html 

[Great Western]

The 'Shorpy' site is a truly interesting one indeed.  I notice 'Shorpys' surname to be a that of a northern English origin.  Many thanks Rene for enlightening the readership.

There are many sites on the web that show railroads of yesteryear and can be of great interest and use to railroad modelers. It often shows the consists of that period covered by the 'photo and does emphasize the lack of unity in size amongst the cars.

These old shots often show us the uses, regular of occasional, that some cars were put to.  The ROW and lineside fixtures frequently have a wealth of detail.  Many models, including mine, have oil storage tanks often being a tank car less its trucks grounded or on a timber structure.  One old 'photo (on the erstwhile MILW) shows a vertical tank car (less trucks) used for storage, 

Like most garden railroads things are always in flux.  Over four years my RR has had track extensions made to it, more (too much it might be said) rolling stock added and now I am starting to add some lineside features additional to the basic depot that has been in situ since I started out.

  The historical sites are a great help in searching for ideas; at least they show what is possible in a given space and could save mistakes.