what is appropriate for 1906

[Anonymous]

I would like to build a layout set in 1906, the year my father was born. How do I know what engines, passenger cars, freight cars, etc. are appropriate fro 1906? Where do I look for this info? I'm a history teacher so I' afflicted with the curse of accuracy!

Rob

[jwmurrayjr]

By coincidence there is an MR article about 1906.[:0]

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/713wpcxu.asp

The a Google search for "railroading in 1906" will give you many hits (including the MR article.)

It's a start.[:)]

[chutton01]

Step one is to get an Offical Equipment Register for sometime in 1906 (I see different months listed for the 1906 OER) - I'm not sure if this era has been released on CD yet (I know some editions are). This will give you an idea of what freight equipment (Owner, Number, Car Type, and general sizes) was on the rails during that year.

[Sperandeo]

Hi Rob,

I think you'd be interested in my friend Gerald McGee's article, "Why I model 1906," in the
January 2002 "Model Railroader," page 80. It includes a sidebar on getting started in modeling that time, with suggestions for locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and vehicles. If you don't have the back issue, click on "Shopping" at the top of this page.

So long,

Andy

[nfmisso]

Rob;

You need to get much more specific, which railroad(s) and location, for us to be of much assistance. You should also join the historical society of the railroad(s) that you are interested in.

In 1906, 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 steam locomotives were the most common, but there were other wheel arrangements, and even electric locomotives around.

What scale are you interested in?

[nfmisso]

QUOTE: Originally posted by chutton01

Step one is to get an Offical Equipment Register for sometime in 1906 (I see different months listed for the 1906 OER) - I'm not sure if this era has been released on CD yet (I know some editions are). This will give you an idea of what freight equipment (Owner, Number, Car Type, and general sizes) was on the rails during that year.

Westerfield has some Equipment Registers on CD, the closest is June 1905.
http://users.multipro.com/westerfield/

[orsonroy]

There's a lot available for 1906, if you dig around a bit.

In steam, Rivarossi, Bowser, Bachmann, MDC/Roundhouse and IHC have engines you need. Rivarossi is out of business, but their 4-4-0s and 2-4-0s can still be found at hobby shops and swap meets. Bachmann makes a 4-4-0, and in their Spectrum line a 2-8-0 (one of the best HO steamers on the market) and a 4-6-0. Both will have to be backdated, since they represent early 1900s engines modernized in the 1920s-1930s. IHC makes both a 1870s and 1900-ish 4-4-0, and two 2-6-0s. Roundhouse might be your best bet, considering most of their steam engine kits are of 1900-1910 prototypes. Also look to the old Mantua line of engines for old engines, especially camelbacks, 0-4-0s, 4-4-0s, 4-4-2s, and 4-6-0s.

Passenger cars are getting easier to find for pre-WWI modeling. Roundhouse has the best selection, with four body styles and five roof styles available. IHC, Bachmann and Rivarossi all make 1870s era passenger cars as well. Funaro & Carmelengo makes a few wood heavyweights in resin, and LaBelle has a few heavyweights as wood kits.

Your best selection comes in freight cars. Roundhouse, IHC, Bachmann and Rivarossi all make pre-1900 freight cars in plastic. In resin, F&C and Westerfield make a dizzying array of resin freight cars (Westerfield has a website, F&C does not), and The Old & Weary Car Shops makes a very nice 32' wood gondola in resin. Atlas makes a 36' wood reefer that can be backdated to a 1906 prototype (some of the paint schemes offered MIGHT be correct for 1906). Champ, Westerfield and Art Griffith all make decals appropriate for your era (especially Art Griffith, who makes 400+ decal sets for freight cars and horse drawn delivery wagons, all taken directly from period photos)

Check the Walthers catalog for details. Jordan makes American-prototype wagons and carts, and Preiser's line of horse drawn vehicles can be kitbashed to represent American wagons (there's a BIG difference!). Preiser and a few other companies make figures in period clothing.

As for research direction, definitely check into the ORERs for filler material, but your best bet for basic information are two websites:

http://railroad.union.rpi.edu This is the NEB&W's website. It's a pay site to get into the meat of the site, but at $5 a month, is well worth it. This is the single best basic freight car website online, and is full of hundreds of photos and resource notes. It's bibliography will give you lots of directions to look in as well. It doesn't cover everything (yet) but will give you the basics you'll need. And don't forget to check out their scenery and structures sections!

www.rr-fallenflags.org While mostly a post WWII-site, this is one of the largest photo resources online. They're in the process of loading hundreds of 1900-1930 ACF and P-S builders photos, so definitely take the time to dig through the site, looking for period freight car, engine, and passenger car photos.

In addition, if you know what your target railroads are, check out their historical societys online. Also, look for like-minded people in various YahooGroups for more detailed information on specific questions. Finally, printed material is a fabulous source for information, from official employee timetables to hardback histories. But be careful, RR research can get addicitve! (as my wallet how I know!)

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Check out the July 2004 issue of Railmodel Journal. The featured layout is in that timeframe.

[IRONROOSTER]

A number of years ago NewtonGregg reprinted Locomotive and Car Builders Dictionaries. The ones for 1906 are sometimes available at train shows. Some manufacturers' web sites have information on when the prototypes for their models were made.
Enjoy
Paul

[dehusman]

The key to buildings is in the windows. Brick buildings will have either a brick arch above them or a stone or iron lintel and a stone window sill. A brick window sill puts it after WW1. The windows will have smaller panes of glass in them, where modern double hung would be 1 large on the top and bottom, a 1900 window would have 4x4 or 6x6 or 9x9.

Corrogated iron was used. Metal structures would be mostly cast and wrought iron or steel, riveted construction. Nothing welded.

Another source of 1890-1910 people, buildings and details is www.musketminiatures.com.

Dave H.


Frame buildings wouldn't be over 3 stories high.

[dehusman]

Another excellent reference is John H White Jr.'s "The American Freight Car". Check e-Bay or book stores $40-60 range. Huge book, lots of pictures and plans plus decriptions of RR operations rules, etc.

Dave H.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nedarb

I would say 4-4-0's and early verisons of cattle cars and passenger cars and the buildings should look the building in old westerns. And you want proof and stuff watch Hidalgo it has trains ships cars buildings every thing and it was made in the 1900's.

Hidalgo's a movie, and as such, is completely worthless as a source of ANY real historical knowledge. Hollywood likes to THINK they know anything about historical time periods, but they don't. Hollywood is entertainment, not education. They get their information (and then butcher it) from books, period photographs, and period paperwork. Look to the same research material they use.

False-front buildings would bee seen in many parts of the country, but they in no means should dominate most scenes, nor do they accurately represent the architecture of most regions in the USA. The frontier was officially closed in 1890, and by that time most surviving boom towns in the West were looking a lot like any town in the Midwest or East. Here in Illinois, I can walk down my block to see cast-iron storefronts built in the 1870s, and they look a LOT like DPM buildings, NOT buildings from "the wild west" (whatever that is...)

[nfmisso]

This locomotive was built in 1906:

[Anonymous]

There was a article in the january 2002 issue called "Why I model 1906". Which has 5 pages of 1906 info. Cool uh???

[dknelson]

Old Locomotive and Car Builder's Cyclopedias for the era are useful but are very pricey if they can be found at all -- the Newton Gregg reprints are a better bet.
The Locomotives that Baldwin Built by Fred Westing will give you a notion of what was new in 1906, as far as steam locos go -- and remember that railroad equipment is never all new. Cars were mostly wood then but even so might have had a useful life of 20 years. Locomotives maybe 30 or more.

A really well equipped public library might have bound volumes of railroad industry publications from the era.

Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

The July 2004 issue of Rail Model Journal has a large article about a modeler who's layout is based in 1910. His insights and modeling efforts might be a help.

[dehusman]

I have a Yahoo Photos site with albums of early 1900's buildings in the Omaha, NE area.

http://photos.yahoo.com/wandndave

Dave H.

[leighant]

I was just looking for some pictures to "borrow" from the Library of Congress and found a major collection of photos from the "19-oughties".
It is at www.loc.gov

Then go to American Memory, choose collection- Prints and Photos,
Detroit Publishing Co.
You'' be glad you did.

[Anonymous]

Now lookyhere! If you're a history teacher teachin OUR young people, YOU oughtta be able to find all that info yerself!!! LOL

[selector]

It's like drinking out of a fire hose, isn't it? [(-D]

I think you would do well, if you run into roadblocks, with anything between a 0-6-0 and a heavy Consolidation 2-8-0, inclusive.

[ereimer]

if you think first about the area you want to model or better yet a specific railroad , then it becomes easy to find books , web sites , historical societies etc. that will have way too much info for you to digest [:)] . then you go through the process of narrowing down your choices until you have exactly what you want to model .

[JohnT14808]

....and after sifting through all that information.....

AFTER you decide if you want to model something that has some history, or you decide to "free lance" your layout, then you get to start thinking about what type of layout you want, the location, the industries served, etc. etc. (taking into account, of course, how much space you have, how much time you have, how much you wi***o spend, and if married (w/children) how much your spouse can tolerate....) 'cause, we can all tell you.....It's addictive!!
Are we having fun yet?? The research you are starting now will be a big benefit as you get to these future steps. Keep us posted on your progress!!

Note: Does the 'abq' in your sig stand for Albuquerque?? My hometown!!

[Anonymous]

randerson,

by 1906 the industrial revolution has been in development for almost 100 years and the u.s. patent office was seriously considering closing because everything worth inventing has already been invented.

although steel was invented about 80 years earlier, it has gone through a development curve and has finally begun to resemble the product we think it is today. this allowed much greater boiler pressures than ever before. this would be reflected in the "ten wheeler" celebrated in the casey jones story. at this point, the modern steam era is beginning and the developmental era that preceeded it began fading about 10 years earlier. the big railroads bought into the new technology, and the smaller ones continued to use up the older equipment.

the "great war to end all wars, part one", was the dividing line. after that, american railroading was never the same. after that, the rules written 35 years earlier were observed and enforced. in 1906, the government attempted to enforce air brakes, automatic couplers, etc., but it was almost voluntary.

the robber barons are gone, and their wayward kids or the corporate presence is beginning to take over. 1906 is your transition era. it marks the beginning of the 20th century, or the end of the 19th century.

as an historian, you should be able to pickup from here. the advice in the above posts is worthwhile. good luck.

-rrick

[MidlandPacific]

I'll put in my plug for a useful little book: Russell Tratman's "Railway Track and Track Work." It has everything lineside: outbuildings, coalchutes, water points, ballast guidelines, bridges - you name it, and all the state-of-the-art for the date of printing (it was reprinted frequently through the 1930s; I use the 1909 edition). Alibris prices them very high, but I found mine going for about $30 in a used-book store.

Any particular prototype you're looking for? One generic suggestion: the books on the Colorado Midland by Mel McFarland and Dan Abbott are full of great pictures from the 1880-1918 era: No danger that you'll have to sort out the anachronistic details!