I have several layout duplications of real life locations in mind. Are there maps of either past or existing railways available?
NickPPJR I have several layout duplications of real life locations in mind. Are there maps of either past or existing railways available?
At one time they where easy to get your hands on but,in the current security conscious times they may be hard to get or find but each railroad company will have maps that show where they go and the locations they serve these are maps in the accepted meaning of the word.
They will also have as individual engineering drawings for each location.
These will be of any structures, track diagrams, diagrams of signalling cable and pipe runs in fact everything in the area will have either a standard equipment drawing or specific to the location drawing.
Some may even be historic drawings of national interest.
Your best bet is to go and talk to the Railroad company at head office level and see if can get your hands on the drawings they may charge a fee for the copies of the drawings.
Or they might tell you can't have them for security or commercial reasons.
Anything of national historical interest or significance you should be able to get through national or state archives again there will be a fee.
Good luck you will need it in this day and age..
regards John
Railroad historical societies sometimes have vast collections of maps. Try contacting them. Also, for current locations try Google Earth and get satellite views. You can zoom in really tight with that. I use Google Earth many times to trace abandoned railroad right-of-ways.
MyTopo has free on line topo maps: http://www.mytopo.com/maps/
The topo maps show all land, water, and cultural features including RR tracks, and show all tracks, sidings, yard trackage, etc. You can also flip back-and-forth between topo view and satellite view.
Also search for a particular railroad on the web, and you sometimes find sites and blogs that include track diagrams.
WOW!
Perfect!
This is the motherload. Now to scale it out and blend it into my layout.
Emporium 1915Sheet01
Many thanks
That is cool! You can click on the individual sheets that make up the map, on the right column, and see how the tracks are laid out. Perfect for your project, Nick.
I've always known about Sanborn Maps, now I have to check it all out.
Mike.
My You Tube
Take the insurance maps with a grain of salt however.
Building/structure details will be spot-on, as that's what these maps, made for fire insurance surveys are concerned with, but often details of railroad tracks are not 100% accurate.
At my club we have an insurance map book of Sudbury that someone got their hands on and it's a gold mine for the downtown area around the tracks and yard that we're modelling, but for the yard area itself is just a couple of lines and the notation "full of tracks". There are other areas around the junction that we **know** based on photographic evidence from multiple dates that are grossly inaccurate or just impressions.
So, good for structures, but not necessarily track arrangements.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Chris is correct, the Sanborn maps are not 100% correct for track diagrams as I've see some weird things, for example, like a 3-way switch where one never existed. So something more RR specific to supplement them is a great combination. A railroad specific source is the ICC Valuation Map Series, though most maps available are from around the WWI era. They were revised and resubmitted in later years but are harder to find.
Contrary what some folks think, the Interstate Commerce Valuation had nothing to do with WWI but rather was one tool the ICC used to value the assets of a railroad from the ink wells in the depot to locomotives, track, signals and buildings. (These numbers were supposed to be used to come up with equitable rates to charge customers.)
These ICC maps pop up from time to time in various archives but if you model the New York Central Lines, the Allen County Museum in Lima, Ohio has probably the biggest collection for the New York Central, including photographs.
Also, the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland has the largest collection overall for most railroads. The Allen County Museum will make hard or digital copies and send them to you for a fee, but the National Archives will not. With the National Archives, you'll have to make a visit or hire a researcher (very expensive). If you are serious, it's best to visit either location to make sure you don't miss anything, as more researchers and staff are not railroad experts.)
I use much of this material for the historical research in my books, though I redraw the maps to make them more legible. The original map size is about 2x6' but while you or your researcher is at the National Archives, digital copies can be made. They will also allow you to use a copy machine, scanner or camera for other valuation materials like structure drawings, photos and field engineering notes.
But be aware that you don't really know what they have until you look. Sometimes it’s a treasure trove, other times it's a disappointment. Much of the information came from the RR engineering departments, though the ICC had engineers to visit the locations and collect, data, take measurements, count items, etc. But some railroads didn't have much of an engineering department or budget for adequate records. (The Wabash RR is one of those disappointments, probably because of its several bankruptcies. There were virtually no Wabash ICC photos on the sections I studied.)
Victor A. Baird
www.erstwhilepublications.com
Historic and current USGS Topo Maps http://www.usgs.gov/ Free downloads pdf
Historic maps show tracks quite accurately. The 7.5 minute series are the largest scale and generally more recent than the smaller scale maps. Unfortunately the USGS has changed the way they do the maps. Tracks are not shown on the newest maps (7.5 min series dated 2012) that I looked at .
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
topos and aerial photos in various years
http://www.historicaerials.com
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
This is what I have been using. They are USGS maps and when you pick an area you generally get a wide time range of maps to pick from. i have found it very useful, plus they did a lot of maps for the year I am modeling, which is way cool for me. http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/
Steve