Modeling the farwest era

[Voyager]

As others here have said, the U. S. "Wild West" is a made-up realm concocted by over a century of literary and media fiction.  It was based in part on the Kansas Territory, where guerilla fighting during the Civil War, efforts to quell the indigenous native American tribes, and the disruptive behavior of the great cattle drives up from Texas made for a violent era in the 1860s-1870s. Since there were few railroads into this territory at that time, however, it hasn't been the subject of much accurate modeling. Yet I've always thought that the Kansas Pacific (built as a federally subsidized  branch of the trans-continental railroad in the late 1860s) into the end of cattle trail Kansas towns like Abilene would make for great modeling. For a sense of what that real "West" was like, take a look at the photos in this collection:

 

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/search/collection/wes/searchterm/Vault%20Ag1982.0086/field/all/mode/exact/conn/and/cosuppress/

 

Most modelers, however, have instead focused on the mountain states, either Colorado or further west along the Pacific coast in California or Washington, during the 1890s, where mining and lumbering were the chief attraction, and the communities were far more sedate. Here are some examples to inspire your friend's creativity:

 

John Ott's  Salem & Cripple Creek
http://www.ottgallery.com/SCC.html

 

Håkan Nilsson's California Railway & Navigation Co.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35088&whichpage=1

 

Don Ball's Stockton & Copperpolis  Railroad
http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/

 

Paul Scole's Pelican Bay Railway & NavigationCompany
http://www.paulscoles.com/Photo_Album.php

 

As a Canadien, you can no doubt find similar modeling subjects on the plains of Alberta or the mountains of British Columbia.

 

Bonne chance, mon ami.

 

Beauporteur

[cacole]

I don't know if this company is still in business, but several years ago I found a booklet called "HO Scale Wild West Structures You Can Build," distributed by Mark J. Bigelow, DBA James Publications, 1006 Landings Blvd, West Palm Beach, Florida 33413.  Printed on loose-leaf, spiral bound, 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper, with scale drawings and parts lists for 20 structures that can be scratch built.

I built the majority of them for my HO scale home layout's "Tombstone, Arizona" theme tourist trap area.  The El Paso & Southwestern Railroad's former depot in Tombstone is now the city library.

[fwright]

hellwarrior

Hi everybody.  I have a friend who wants to create a HO layout of the farwest era, around 1880 with cowboys, indians, ranch, saloon and trains of course.

Do you have some websites, links, books or videos that give tips or inspiration for modeling this era?

It's a very interesting theme - I certainly enjoy many aspects of it.  Historically, 1880s were both a boom and bust time for railroads, especially in the West.  The existing railroads were just beginning to understand that they were the starting point for a national transportation system.  The beginnings of interchange were starting as companies and railroads formed freight forwarding agreements.  Developments such as larger locomotives, larger car capacities, longer trains, ballasted track with heavier rail, knuckle couplers, and air brakes were all being explored and standardized upon as they proved themselves.  Every town that had a future wanted a rail connection, and would often build their own connecting railroad to a major line if they got bypassed.  Narrow gauge was being widely sold as a cheap way to enter the railroad business if you couldn't get state or federal construction subsidies (typically land grants).

Of course, you friend may be more interested in the Hollywood version of the Wild West than in modeling historical reality - and that's OK, too.  In some areas, the two visions are not that far apart.  In other areas, reality wasn't even close to Hollywood and writer's imaginations.

There are three Yahoo groups I know of that are about modeling the 19th Century:

Civil War Railroads (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Civil_War_RRs/)

Early Rail (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EarlyRail/)

Turn of Century Narrow Gauge (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TOCng/)

Shorpy (http://www.shorpy.com/) is a web site of old photos that give a good idea of the TOC (and sometimes later).  Higher resolution copies of Shorpy photos are generally available at the Library of Congress web site.  Studying Shorpy photos (and sites with old post cards) has helped me learn a lot about everyday life in the era, and taken away some of my Hollywood and novel-generated fantasies.

Pacific Coast Narrow Gauge (http://www.pacificng.com/) is another very useful site if you are modeling West Coast.  My advice would be that a lot of material about narrow gauge is pretty applicable to standard gauge short lines of the era.

Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette is a magazine that applies to modeling more typical of what I imagine your friend is looking for.  The bimonthly magazine caters to more of a craftsman-type modeler than Model Railroader typically does (I subscribe to both).

Hope this helps, it's always good to see somebody take up 19th Century modeling.

Fred W

 

[softail86mark]

An almost perfect example of what you're looking for.

http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?articleId=6195&view=ViewBook&bookId=243

Building an HO Model Railroad with Personality   Kalmbach,  February 1989

[P&Slocal]

stokesda

 

 

  I normally speak french :)

 

 

"Why do you think I've got this outrageous accent, you silly king?! Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!"

(Sorry, no offense intended... I just couldn't resist the perfect set-up for the Monty Python reference! )

 

The Frenchman says "you silly kaniggit" which is actually knight with his accent.

[chutton01]

This may or may not be relevant, I found it when searching for the year that the US Western Frontier was declared closed (which was 1890, BTW)

In 1890 the superintendent of the U.S. Census announced that rapid western settlement meant that "there can hardly be said to be a frontier line." In just a quarter century, the far western frontier had been settled. Three million families started farms on the Great Plains during these years.

Contrary to the popular image of the West as a rural region, by 1890 most of the West's population lived in cities. Not only was the Trans-Mississippi West the country's most culturally diverse region, it was also by 1890, the most urbanized.

Digital History

So the best bet for the OP is indeed to pick an era, pick a general location, and then see if there what photos, maps, realistic landscape paintings etc are available...

[wjstix]

Tracklayer

  especially the town of Hempstead where I grew up back in the late 1800s 

Wow, you must be one of those "Highlander" folks...

Carstens recently came out with a book on the subject....

http://carstensbookstore.com/mowiwe.html

A couple of things to consider:

19th century equipment is pretty small, so getting smooth running equipment in the smaller scales might be difficult. An 1870's O scale (or On30, or On3) 4-4-0 is going to run better than an HO or N one generally speaking.

Modelling an accurate 1880's layout set in the US West runs the danger of building a "Hollywood Western Movie Set", with cartoonish stereotype Indians, saloon girls, rowdy cowboys etc.

[dehusman]

By the time railroads were well established west of the great plains, the "wild west" wasn't so wild.  Most of the "wild west' is a concoction of the movie companies.  For example in "3:10 to Yuma" that line was built in the late 1880's and 1890's.  If the hero of the story served in the Civil War and was 20 in 1865, he would be in late 40's or 50's by the time of the movie.  In "True Grit" the railroads end at Ft Smith on the Arkansas,  Oklahoma border (which is historically accurate).

Not saying don't model what you want, just don't be suprised if the prototype doesn't quite match up with your vision.  You may have to meld the railroads of the 1880-1900 with the "west" of the 1870's.

[hellwarrior]

Thanks everybody for all the infos and links and sorry for the delay.  If you have more info on that subject, feel free to add them to this thread.

[chutton01]

I see Hellwarrior has gotten a lot of info, but I'm surprised nobody mentioned the ever helpful Shorpy: for example, this somewhat "aerial" image of Deadwood, South Dakota in 1888, which I think would fit the image that comes to mine of the "Wild West"  (there's a whole series of such Deadwood shots)

How about Silverton, Colorado in 1901 (admittedly toward the tail end of what is thought of as the Wild West period)

Victor, Colorado - 1900

Eureka, Colorado - 1900 - Almost movie set like

Anyway, try different search terms on Shorpy, you or your friend may find a lot of useful images...

[ACY Tom]

And Tracklayer, if you grew up in Texas in the late 1800's, we all need to sit down with you behind the chuck wagon and listen closely to every tall tale you can spin while we eat beans & enjoy the warmth of a nice Bullalo chip fire.  And pass a jug of Rotgut around.

[ACY Tom]

Where's "the West"?  If you had asked the question in 1776, it would have been anything west of the Alleghenies, including everything west of the Ohio River.  Nowadays we mostly mean anything west of the Mississippi, including large parts of Canada and Mexico.   But Sergio Leone filmed his "Westerns" in Spain, for crying out loud!  The James Brothers' most famous escapades were in Missouri and Northfield, Minnesota.  Nowadays a lot of "US" westerns are filmed in Canada.  The classic film versions of the West were often filmed in California.  Oklahoma! was filmed in Arizona where they had a devil of a time getting the corn to grow as high as an elephant's eye.  How many times have we seen Saguaro cacti (native to Arizona and parts of Mexico) in films that were supposedly set in states & territories where they didn't grow?  In the popular mind, "The West" has become more of an idea than a fact.  As a result, the modeling possibilities are wide open.     

[Tracklayer]

tatans

Geographically the FAR WEST would be the coast of California or Oregon or even Seattle area,, probably you mean the near west, western mid-west, western desert west, or the cowboy movie rendition of the 'WEST"  most of those movies were filmed just outside Hollywood, it really never existed except in movie theaters. I guess there was a bit of "west" in Texas, which is predominently South.

 

As John Wayne once said, There's no place like Texas... And yes, once upon a time Texas was a very rough and tough place to live - especially the town of Hempstead where I grew up back in the late 1800s where there were gun fights almost every day. The nice thing about it is that it could be modeled because it had a train track running through the middle of town. As for an old west town, all you really need is a livery stable/blacksmith shop, a hotel, a saloon, a bank, an undertaker, a barber shop, a sheriff's office/jail, a general store and a train depot. I built a model town for a local display about twenty years ago like this that had a G scale train running around it. Good luck to you.

Tracklayer

[Jimmy_Braum]

stokesda

 

 

  I normally speak french :)

 

 

"Why do you think I've got this outrageous accent, you silly king?! Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!"

(Sorry, no offense intended... I just couldn't resist the perfect set-up for the Monty Python reference! )

 

Thank you for making my day

[tatans]

Geographically the FAR WEST would be the coast of California or Oregon or even Seattle area,, probably you mean the near west, western mid-west, western desert west, or the cowboy movie rendition of the 'WEST"  most of those movies were filmed just outside Hollywood, it really never existed except in movie theaters. I guess there was a bit of "west" in Texas, which is predominently South.

[mlehman]

These folks should have something of interest:

http://www.wildwestmodels.com/Welcome.html

[stokesda]

  I normally speak french :)

"Why do you think I've got this outrageous accent, you silly king?! Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!"

(Sorry, no offense intended... I just couldn't resist the perfect set-up for the Monty Python reference! )

[hellwarrior]

Thank you guys for your help.  Any more links, photos or videos about modeling the farwest or wild west era (around 1880)?

hon30critter

chutton01

The OP is French Canadien eh! (and yes - the spelling of 'Canadien' is correct in french). Give him a break!

Dave

Yes Dave is right.  I normally speak french :)

[hon30critter]

chutton01

The OP is French Canadien eh! (and yes - the spelling of 'Canadien' is correct in french). Give him a break!

Dave

[richg1998]

chutton01

I must admit, I haven't heard the term "Far West" used when referring to the United States Western States & Terrorities during the 1850s thru 1890s - Wild West, Old West, the Fronter era, etc, but Far West?
Oh well...

 

Some in forums use their own terminology. Not a big deal.

 

Rich

 

[chutton01]

I must admit, I haven't heard the term "Far West" used when referring to the United States Western States & Terrorities during the 1850s thru 1890s - Wild West, Old West, the Fronter era, etc, but Far West?
Oh well...

[richg1998]

Lots of useful info.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Books/Jupiter-119_Appleman_NPS.html

Rich

[richg1998]

Far west.

http://www.sandcrr.com/

Rich

[richg1998]

Somewhat related. A few users in both groups. Many Files and Photos in both groups if you join. I use to belong to both.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Civil_War_RRs/info

Rich

[hellwarrior]

Ok I found it :)

[hellwarrior]

richg1998

Here is a start.

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/

Thanks Rich!

 

cowman

Go to User Videos and find "Cowboys and the A&SM RR."  It is set in the late 1800's, don't know how much is scratchbuilt or kitbashed.  You can write a question in the comments section.  I have done this and gotten answers to my questions several times.

Thanks Richard but I don't know how to do a search for your video in the User Videos section.

[cowman]

Go to User Videos and find "Cowboys and the A&SM RR."  It is set in the late 1800's, don't know how much is scratchbuilt or kitbashed.  You can write a question in the comments section.  I have done this and gotten answers to my questions several times.

Good luck,

Richard

[richg1998]

Here is a start.

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EarlyRail/info

Rich

[hellwarrior]

Hi everybody.  I have a friend who wants to create a HO layout of the farwest era, around 1880 with cowboys, indians, ranch, saloon and trains of course.

Do you have some websites, links, books or videos that give tips or inspiration for modeling this era?

Thanks for your help!