Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
1925. Well, assuming you are operating rural New York state with small cities, as I am. A lot of grade crossings would have nothing more than wooden crossbucks, (railXroad CrosXsing ) if that. Around Jamestown today, many grade crossing are still protected by only crossbucks that were recently placed. Crossings at switching yards in this area around 1925 had to be guarded by conductors or brakemen. My father (born in 1937) remembers some liftinging arm crossing gates, this would be during and after WWII. He had a cousin who was killed on the NYC main in Ripley (45 miles from here) while driving a snowplow. The crossing gate didn't do him much good. I'm betting the earliest forms came in only FDR took office in 1933. I'm slowly gathering the same information to model the Erie through Jamestown in the mid-1930s. By far, the best source of information will be the local historical society for the area which you are modeling. Old photographs of the area can usually be found there and sometimes good descriptions of an area around a depot, station or switching yard. Also be on the lookout for period newspaper accounts of train-truck, train-pedestrian accidents. The descriptive and flowery style of the times will probably include the whole gamut of may have gone wrong. A mention of safety devices used, unavailable or those in effect but unheeded are great fodder for the reading public and modelers. Hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail. I'd like to hear more of what you find out. It will certainly help me. SMS
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I stand corrected on air brakes and I've learned something.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
QUOTE: Originally posted by wjstix Assuming the NEB&W site has the stuff collected by John Nehrich, it should have a lot of information. However I have the first copy of the big notebook they put out on historical info, it was good but frankly a lot of little errors showed up in there, always wondered if it was fixed in later editions. (Like for example in the teens-twenties the first "stop and go" signs were hand operated by a cop at the intersection. He showed a picture of one of these but said he had no idea how it was operated.)