Early 1950s.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
The Sacramento Southern Pacific shops and railyard as it was in the turn of the century
The same facilities in 1959
What it appears now from the north, a road has been built in antipation for the redevelopment of the area.
"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -Lin Yutang
-
American Locomotive Company, Schenectady, New York Then:
Alco_remains by Edmund, on Flickr
All that's left*:
Alco_site5 by Edmund, on Flickr
A typical Alco product:
NYC_Hudson-5275 by Edmund, on Flickr
*The rest of the site is a casino.
Regards, Ed
John-NYBWAlso, I was amazed at how much closer together everything was that seemed so far apart when I was growing up. Even the block we lived on seemed so much smaller.
That's because you're larger now and take bigger steps.
I don't have any pictures but this reminds me of returning to Omaha a few years ago where I grew up in the fifties and sixties. I got a bit of a meloncholy feeling seeing the city I had been so familiar with had changed so much in five decades. There were of course things that were still the same but the differences were stark. Also, I was amazed at how much closer together everything was that seemed so far apart when I was growing up. Even the block we lived on seemed so much smaller.
Before they ruined it with development.
You can see the red roof of the old RH on the left.
Okay, known as the city of green space, I could be persuaded there is a slight improvement from the toxic grime.
Check out all the palm trees.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I like this kind of industrial archeology - not that I like seeing that rail lines and facilities have been torn up or abandoned. I have no pics to share but just saying that a buddy and I have a fondness for searching out remaining signs of long gone rail activity. Google satellite view can be your friend. We tried to follow the route of the Milwaukee Road as it went south from Mendota IL. The Milwaukee's depot still stands, now a bank or small office building, and thus using satellite views it is possible (with gaps in between) to trace out the right of way. We mapped it all out and then set out to see what could actually be seen on the ground and it was quite a bit different. What clearly looked like a paved over country crossing on satellite view was nothing more than a vague bump when driving over it - sometimes we'd back up and try again to see if our impressions were valid. Sometimes tree lines and utility lines are a telltale sign, or a very old grain elevator set at an angle that has nothing to do with the local road grid. If you found a bit of rail showing through worn asphalt on a road you felt like you hit paydirt. Towns that were built around the railroad which is now gone feature many clues provided the town is dormant enough that nothing much new gets built. Sometimes farm fields honor the old ROW making it plain, sometimes they do not. The reward for us was finding an obscure Milwaukee Road depot hidden by trees in a rural backyard in Cedar Point IL.
Of course where there has been a rails-to-trails conversion finding old ROW is easy but that seems almost like cheating compared to the challenge of looking for the nearly invisible but again Google or other satellite view photos can be a useful resource.
Dave Nelson
Petoskey, Michigan:
GR and I_Petoskey_1908 by Edmund, on Flickr
— and recently (from the opposite direction)
Petoskey_view-north by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Great topic, and photos!
All from different angles, but doing the best I can with what I have to work with:
Then
Now
I took above picture of my computer screen on google maps street view
And, on my layout, then is now. Or now is then, I guess.
Ive featured this in other threads, but I think it fits in this context. The large lumber shed, known as The Crane Shed was a local historical icon, here in Bend, Oregon. It was torn down in '04. replaced with the "Crane Shed Commons" up scale-ish apartments. Now called Marriot Springhill Suites. The sawmill that originally used it has been gone for many decades. Dan
Oh! Marionberry, with ice cream please.
The John St roundhouse in Toronto.
Then:
Now:
77 or 78. the diesels One can opener. And 3 or 4 splap over. The rest are still worms.
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Another shot of the Wilmington Electric shop roundhouse:
PRR_turntable_Wilmington by Edmund, on Flickr
and a tighter view of the turntable:
PRR_turntable_RH_crop1 by Edmund, on Flickr
I miss those G's
Overmod How about this: Seems like only yesterday...
How about this:
Seems like only yesterday...
I know that spot real well.
Sheldon
Mel gets pie! Very cool.
Early Southern Pacific, Alamogordo Sacramento Mountain Railway Trestle Cloudcroft New Mexico, 1899 – 1947 restored in 2010.Then, before restoration:Now, after restoration:
Mel’s HO scale Trestle inspired by the Mexican Canyon Trestle:I climbed all over the trestle in the 1960s when I was young, it was on the top of my “must have list” for my current layout, 1989. Actually I built the trestle as a module first then built my layout around the trestle. Mel Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Potomac Yard, Arlington-Alexandria, VA
Then (uncertain year):
Now (uncertain year):
Even then "now" is incredibly out of date. These pictures only really show the north end of the yard. The south end is all high-rise apartments, office buildings, and townhouses. The movie theater on the right (the building alone behind the Target) was demolished a few weeks ago for a Virginia Tech campus, next to the Metro station that's going up.
Upon closer inspection, that "now" is from at least 2010. There's roads missing, let alone buildings.
Then (1953):
This is the intersection of Ferguson and Rebecca, in downtown Hamilton Ontario. In the "then" photo, a freight train was headed southbound on Ferguson when the lead engine's tender split the switch; the leading Mogul continued southbound while its tender and the following Consolidation went into the industry spur. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
"Now", the only evidence that tracks were ever here is that someone has tastefully put down concrete in a pattern resembling train tracks where the industry spur used to be.
That was then:
B&M_20_3635 by Edmund, on Flickr
Photo taken by my dad's bro-in-law who worked for the B&M. No. 20 was the Alouette, a Boston-Montreal train. Here is the same location today:
Plymoth_NH-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
That's the Pemigewasset River in the background.
Overmod, I have "hunted" many former roundhouse remains, they are quite prominant in aerial photos. Do you know the locations of these? The bottom photo could be Enola?
Here's the Ashtabula, Ohio New York Central roundhouse:
Roundhouse_NYCS_Ashtabula by Edmund, on Flickr
— and in better days:
LS & MS Roundhouse by Ashtabula Archive, on Flickr
A look at the TransCanada Highway through the Rockies, not far from Field B.C.
Note the old bridge spanning the river off to the left in the highway photo.
Now let's step into the time machine and have another look at the bridge.
Show us your then and now favourites and if you post a then and now PLUS! a modelled version of the then or now, you will be entitled to free pie in the diner.
The modelled version does not have to be of your own work, but you will get lots of oohs and ahhs if it is.