House for crews in yards?

[NSlover92]

Hey, I am modeling the 50's 60's in the PRR and NYC, and my freelance, but I have a house I am painting up but i have no where to put it I was thinking abot in my yard. Was there/Is there, like houses for crews to stay in when they are out of town on like a coal drag or some through freight. Mike

[dehusman]

There normally was a YMCA or a hotel near the yard.

Dave H.

[dknelson]

Perhaps put it close to the yard and put a red light in the window?  Something on a 1960s era PRR/NYC pike has to make some revenue ....

Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Sidings with depots had section houses. Sometimes the whole section crew would be housed in one. Other scenarios had a house just for the section foreman and his family while the rest of the crew had to either share another house, or one small one for each section member. In many cases they were older wooden boxcars converted to ''houses'' if you will. If you could add a large freight size door it would make a good storehouse or similar. Look at pics of yards of the NYC/PRR and you might see what kind of building were on the property.

[NSlover92]

Perhaps put it close to the yard and put a red light in the window?  Something on a 1960s era PRR/NYC pike has to make some revenue ....

Dave Nelson

Hahaha, Mike 

[carknocker1]

In  Normal , IL . the NS owned a house directly next to the yard that was used as an office for the Mechanical Dept and Maintence of way Dept . to work out of . It was an old farm house with a barn .

The crews even kept a garden beside the house .

[dehusman]

Remember that in many cases the yard (50% or more) was the home terminal for the crews.  There was no hotel because the crews lived there with their families in their own houses.  The other end of the run (which may or may not be at a yard) would have the hotel or YMCA.

Dave H.

[C&O Fan]

The C&O had a bunk house at Thurmond with a commissary accross the tracks

Thurmond had a hotel but all the crews did was play poker there

24/7 for 18 straight years till the hotel burned down

or so the story goes

 

[wjstix]

Remember too that in that time period crews had assigned cabooses, the conductor and brakeman usually 'lived' in the caboose while the engineer and fireman stayed at a Y or local hotel etc.

Some railroads did have their own places for crews to stay, kind of a RR-owned hotel. After WW2 some of them were pretty nice, with reading rooms and a dining area.

[csmith9474]

Here is a shot of the Espee bunk house in Marathon, TX....

http://sptco.tnorr.com/Depots-Texas/buildings/Sanderson_TX01_Section-house.jpg

I know it may be irrelevant, but I thought it is interesting.

[NSlover92]

Interesting, I think i am going to put my house there and pass it as that sort of thing, Mike