I am deeply in the planning phase of my new layout, and having grown up in Frankfort I have a desire to pay homage to the yards in this layout. I have a number of photos I have taken over the years of the roundhouse, turntable, shops, and coal tower as they have gone from being used in the 80's to falling apart now. When I look on Google maps I can get a understanding of how the current yard is set up, but the old servicing track age is pretty much gone. Anyone have a source for an aerial view or trackage map from say 1950 or so which would allow me to reasonably build a model? I don't need 100% accuracy or a particular date, just sometime in the late steam era. Thanks!
Good Luck, Morpar
I'd suggest that you visit the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society's website at www.nkphts.org The Society consists of a pretty good bunch of NKP interested folks who could easily provide you with tons of information.
By joining the Society, you would also have access to several NKP-related groups where you would be able to ask questions and find even more NKP/Frankfort information.
Lastly, check out the NKPHTS Company Store. There are likely past issues of the NKPHTS Magazine with articles about Frankfort.
dlm
Here is a topo map from 1961 that gives the general track arrangement.
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ht-bin/tv_browse.pl?id=01a07ee9350480c94fd67d4ebaf761b4
Wow! That is a great map! It shows a lot more trackage than I saw of the Pennsy lines running through town, plus the information I wanted. Very interesting indeed!
Take a look at this website, particularly the aerial photo in the 8th photo. If you go back and forth between this photo and the one that Midland Mike linked, you get a pretty good idea of the layout in the 1950s. That 31 photo montage shows some interesting structures in and about the railyard. Click on the 8th photo to expand the view.
http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2015/11/frankfort-in-roundhouse-revisited.html
Rich
Alton Junction
These are quality replies. Well done Gentlemen!!
This is what the Forum should be all about.
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
saronaterry These are quality replies. Well done Gentlemen!! This is what the Forum should be all about. Terry
I couldn't agree more! The information has been very helpful already. Now to get busy and scale things down to a reasonable size. If my math is close, the whole Frankfort yards would be around 30 feet long in HO scale!
Check out Historical Aerials at:
https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer#
Search for Frankfort, Indiana and they'll have aerial photos going back to 1956.
Also, I recall that one of the Model Railroad Planning issues from several years ago had a track plan based on Frankfort. I'll check later when I'm on Zinio to see if I can find the specific issue.
Ray
Colorado Ray Check out Historical Aerials at: https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer# Search for Frankfort, Indiana and they'll have aerial photos going back to 1956. Also, I recall that one of the Model Railroad Planning issues from several years ago had a track plan based on Frankfort. I'll check later when I'm on Zinio to see if I can find the specific issue. Ray
Morpar Wow! That is a great map! It shows a lot more trackage than I saw of the Pennsy lines running through town, plus the information I wanted. Very interesting indeed!
Thanks. Here is the index to all editions of all US topo maps:
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/40.01/-100.06
I was mistaken in my recollection of the MRP Nickel Plate yard article. The 2018 MRP has a plan based on the NKP Bellevue Ohio yard, not Frankfort.
If you have heard of the name Tony Koester (somewhat of a pillar in our hobby), he has modeled that exact yard, and the nearby soybean processing facility, on his NKP Frankfort Subdivision layout. MR did a series of articles on it sometime around the year 2000.
He grew up in Cayuga, IN amd attended Purdue in W Lafayette. If you can locate his articles, it might provide key research materials or at least inspiration for your project.
As noted above. It was also in MR Planning. I would say the articles were in issues sometime about 10 to 20 years ago.
- Douglas