Hi All,I thought it would be helpful to create a thread for modellers to post and research real-life reference photos or links to photos of the transition era. Not just 1940s and 50s prototype locomotives and cars, but yards, engine houses, factories, main streets, vehicles, roads, country side, farms, homes, signs, people, real-life weathering examples, etc etc ...Anything from the era that would be of interest to, and help other modelers create more authentic 40s and 50s layouts; in one handy place.
I'll start ... here is a great article and photo from the early 50s right here on MRR that I found very helpful: http://mrr.trains.com/-/media/Images/How%20To/Articles/Prototype%20Information/2014/05/Smalltownrailroadingintheearly1950s.jpg?mw=600
Shorpy often has a RR-themed pic up and in hi-rez to boot:
http://www.shorpy.com/
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
mlehman Shorpy often has a RR-themed pic up and in hi-rez to boot: http://www.shorpy.com/
Appleton WI in 1962
Chicago & North Western Depot in west Bend, WI 1952:
Glad you liked that, Shorpy is a great resource. Many of its images are pulled from the public record. Hey, we've paid for it, might as well use it. Here's an example of what can be found through the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where I searched for images of "railroad yards" and got 3,449 results:
https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=railroad%20yards&tabType=image
The nmra has a huge archive mostly from private railfans collections. And dont forgetsanborn fire maps
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
I know a few websites.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/
http://canadasouthern.com/caso/NYC-MODELS-FREIGHT.htm
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
As a historian, I have to also recommend sources that are kept alive by those keeping RR history alive, the many historical societies and other groups who preserve RR history.
One great resource discussed here before is the Barriger RR photo collection:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/
Barriger was a RR executive who took his camera everywhere and who like to ride the platform of RR private cars whenever he could. The combination produced thousands of images.
One RR that Barriger ran was the Monon, which has an excellent historical society. It's website has a generous helping of photos: http://www.monon.org/pictures.php
This one is particualr favoritie: http://www.monon.org/cookie3.html
Cookie was a longtime Monon employee who took his camera along often.
The there are the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec, who help to keep this tough mountain RR running, and who also operate the Richard L. Dorman Archive, which draws on the late author's enormous pic collection which he drew upon in his books: https://www.cumbrestoltec.org/interests/dorman-collection.html?id=162:dorman-catalog&catid=1
Look up the societies for RRs in an area you are interested inand you'll likely find other enormously helpful resources like these. And don't forget to support these groups. Money's been tight lately , so I've been pained to find I haven't been able to do that recently, but I intend to resume memberships I've had to let lapse. Many societies nonetheless offer outstanding access to basic and badly needed infor without charge. Such work deserves our support because no one else is doing it, they do it well, and they help ensure ongoing near instantaneous access to a world of info we never really imagined when many of us were young..
Some great links being posted!
The Denver Public Library has some awesome collections. Among my favorites are the many sections in the Western History Collection. Much is older than the specific transition era that prompted this thread, but if you look through things you'll find material of worth for every era. A good place for local views are the various Denver neighborhood collections you can find by browsing through here:
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/atoz/
Here's a search result from "Silverton, " one of my favorite topics. Mainly, I'm interested in the 1880 to 1950 period, but everything is in there, like this view from 1979.
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/12195/rec/2
DPL pics magnify to great resolutions, so be sure to try out that feature, as it makes modeling details easy.
Ed's post from a few weeks ago:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/258487.aspx
Tried to make it clickable "url="http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/258487.aspx "/url" didnt work
With brackets replacing the ". Here's the post on clickable links: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/258293.aspx
BMMECNYCEd's post from a few weeks ago:
Maybe I'll have better luck with the brackets? (It took two tries but I got it!)
Here is another archive worth digging into. Mesta Machine, P&LE Railroad, Carnegie Steel, Pennsylvania Railroad Pittsburgh area. MANY railroad related photos!
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/images/pittsburgh/collections.html
For instance, take a look at just this one collection, in color, too!
http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?q1=hpicphlf&rgn1=ic_all&type=boolean&med=1&view=thumbnail&cc=hpicphlf
Within the Barriger Library is the Lewis Collection which is a treasure trove of photographs in it's own right. Thankfully, Robert G. Lewis' daughters made these valuable photographs available for all to benefit.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/72157645167601967
Regards, Ed