Jon the scenes are great. One quick thing, I don't know if it was a practice in Europe, but in the use the railroad that owned the bridge usually had the name spelled out or thier marker clearly displayed on the bridge. Either across the middle if it was spelled out or near the middle if it was the logo.
One other aspect. There aren't any manhole covers in the street. I don't know you want us to get that picky, but they are a very common feature of American streets.
Not enough arms on the telephone and power poles and not enough horse drawn delivery wagons.
Great Western Rwy fan wrote:Don't forget gangsters,John Dillinger.Ma Barker.and Bonnie and Clyde to name some big ones.You could have the cops shooting it out with the bad guys at the local bank,remember tho the bad guys had tommy guns.I'm not sure what the cops used.
He's from England. Perhaps we should tell him what a "tommy gun" was:
A Thompston .45 calliber hand held machine gun. It kicked like a mule and was great for shooting at people who were running uphill to the right .....
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Jon,
There are two indispensable photo collections online that will give you a MUCH better feel for Chicago in the 1930s than will any Hollywood boondoggle.
First is the Library of Congress' "American Memory" digital collection:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Specifically, do a search for "Jack Delano". Those South Water Street images will come up, as will hundresds of other COLOR images from across America during the late 1930s and early part of WWII, all taken as part of a Government-sponsored program through the Farm Security Administration. Searching for other FSA photographers will yield thousands of the best B&W photographs of the USRA during the Depression ever taken (search for Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein and John Vachon).
Second is the Charles Cushman photo collection over at the Indiana University website:
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp
Charles was a pioneer in the use of Kodachrome color slide photography, and he took several thousand shots of the Chicago and LA areas from the 1930s through the 1960s. They are THE best photos of Chicago neighborhoods of the pre-highway age that I've ever seen (he specifically took a lot of shots of the older neighborhoods that were to be demolished to make way FOR the highways)
Anyone who wants to seriously model a large city in the 1930-1960 time period needs to study these two sets of photos. I'm not specifically modeling Chicago (I'm modeling a smaller city three hours to the south) but I lean heavily on them as inspiration. Going through these images is well worth your time.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
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Thanks for all the suggestions so far, I have a bucketful of information to get stuck into. Here are a couple of recent progress photos with 1930s vehicles on the layout and a short video with 1930s freight cars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-BmCAl5vp0
Jon
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Jon: My family lived on the South side of Chicago since the 1880's and I grew up there. Naturally I heard alot about how things were in "the good old days" Be aware that the North and South sides of the city are very different, and great rivals. Certain things are associated with one side of the city or the other. For instance the Capone organization was mainly a South side operation. The south side also had a lot more heavy industry and a lot more railroad related stuff. Here are a few ideas:
The great Pullman works and company town. Don't know that this has ever been modeled, but this was the factory where a sizable portion of the US passenger car fleet was built and repaired. Even if you don't model the factory, you can justify a large amount of traffic to and from the plant, either new cars going out or old cars being shipped there for refurbishing (a lot of this was done during the cash short 30's rather than build new equipment)
There were also a lot of firms in the area that specialized in building or rebuilding freight cars. Some of these were quite unusual. Even in the 50's I can remember seeing strings of bright yellow Heinz wooden cucumber tank cars being brought into a plant near my school for rebuilding.
There was also large International Harvester plant in the area which manufactured all manner of agricultural implents including tractors, trucks, plows, etc. Almost all of these items were shipped by rail, usually on flat cars.
There were a lot of steel mills and rolling mills in the area. Not only did they use many car loads of ore, coal, etc, but they also got a lot of scrap shipments, as well as shipping out finished products.
There also were coal dealers and coal yards everywhere. Most of them were small operations with a trestle for unloading hoppers, a fleet of trucks or wagons for delivery, and conveyers for loading the trucks.
Finally do some research on the 1933 Chicago Railway Fair, which was part of the Century of Progress exhibition. Many, many of America's most famous steam engines and historic rolling stock were there and were operated as part of the fair. Also a number of railroads and locomotive builders exhibited their lastest up to the minute products. (One of my great uncles ran many of the engines exhibited there. I've got some great photos of him running 999.) Of course all these engines were shipped in by rail, some in trains, others on flat cars, and many under their own power. Certainly would make for some interesting consists
JBB
Take a look at This Page from Robert Gallagher WWII Web Site - Mr Gallagher has written a very interesting multi-page website about his training & deployment to Europe as part of an Anti-Aircraft battery - extremely detailed and quite comprehensive (I found it fascinating). The page I linked to describes his life (teen years) in pre-WWII South Side Chicago, with various stories, descriptions, and images.
Note that there was some significant business cycles during the 1930s - of course, there was the Depression till 1934, then an improving business economy (thanks probably to FDR) till about 1936, then a sharp recession in 1937, and finally steadily improving conditions till the start of WWII for the US (this last period I perceive as the general time-frame for the hilarious childhood/teenage 'Holman, Indiana' stories of Jean Shepherd, he of 'A Christmas Story' fame).
Minor details but:
Street name signs should be black lettering on yellow background.
Trolley cars were still in use. You might want to research the history of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the "L", and surface lines.
My grandfather once talked about how he watched a WPA(?) crew smashing cobblestone streets in preperation for black-top paving. However, I remember seeing an intact cobblestone street in a Chicago neighborhood in the early 1970s, and seeing cobblestones through a hole in the blacktop.
Dan
I will be doing chicago but around the early fifties, about the peak of steam and early diesel.
Chicago is like the Mecca of railroads, everywhere!! You would have streetcars (Chicago Surface Lines) the elevated, the North Shore, the South Shore, IC electric, CA&E, C&NW, UP, NKP, Wabash, the underground freight tunnels, C&EI, IHB, Belt Railway of Chicago, NYC, I prolly cant remember more lines offhand.
In the 30's practically all steam, the progress to steam superpower was just starting, so your going to see 2-8-2's, some 4-8-4's, 4-4-2's, 4-6-2's.
Nearly downtown was the South Water Street market and very close was a freight terminal that IC pretty much owned but other roads gained trackage rights in, I will be modeling a kinda freelanced style of this, there's no way I can fit it all on a small shelf modules, so I will be capturing the flavor of it.
Do web photo search South Water street chicago, it may turn up a few things.
There was very little construction in Chicago between 1931 and 1945. The only significant construction was WPA construction (post offices, etc.) and modernized facades.
Approximately 2/3 of the city proper was built up, with most houses built of dark brick. Cream colored brick is a post WWII feature.
Most buildings outside of downtown were 2 - 3 story buildings; there were a handful of taller buildings. Nothing over 12 stories. The tallest buildings in most neighborhoods were the churches. Catholic churches had a large facility, consisting of the church, school, rectory, and convent. Other churches had smaller facilities.
There were many projects that were interrupted by the depression. You might see a half built church or a courtyard house with only on side of the courtyard built.
Bars were common after Repeal; you could have one bar per block. Or more, depending on the neighborhood.
The biggest change between 1931 and 1945 were the cars and trains. In 1931 cars were blocklike (think Ford Model T). By 1945, most of the cars were streamlined. The trains of 1931 were "standard era" and all steam. By 1945 there were a significant number of streamliners and diesel locomotives.
Organized crime was never as visible in Chicago as it was depicted in the movies. Violence turned a normally tolerant public against organized crime. In fact, the murder of a newspaper stringer turned the public against Al Capone, leading to his conviction on tax evasion charges.
For me it wouldn't be Chicago without Al Capone and his boys unloading a truck
full of boze at the back door of a trackside warehouse
TerryinTexas
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The film worth watching is "The Naked City" While filmed in 1948 and in New York City instead of Chicago, a big city is a big city, and the film is shot as if it was a documentary, not Hollywood's idea of what they think we ought to understand about the past. The industrial district scenes show a lot more bustle then I thought there would be, and I was astonished to see how many horse-drawn delivery wagons there were at that date.
RWM
Two recommendations before I get into the real meat of things.
First get two movies. The Untouchables with Sean Connery in it, and The Sting. The second thing would be to try and get a hold of a season or so of the Untouchables TV series starring Robert Stack. The reason for the first two movies is that the Untouchables takes place in 1930's Chicago, and is pretty good at scenery depictions of the city, and The Sting because it too takes place in the 30's post Prohibition. So they are a good sample of things that might be found. The TV show is better at it and shows more.
Stock yards and slaughter houses. The city reeked for all of the stock yards, and slaughter houses. From the photo's that you have posted it looks to be an upper lower class to lower middle class area. Clothes lines are going to be more prevelent, as are power lines/telephone lines. Poles will have anywhere from 6 to 7 or more cross arms. More fire plugs on the streets. One on every corner would not be overkill. Depending on the season depicted one of the plugs may be open and kids playing and adults watching. Litter, there needs to be more of it. Around the layout it needs to taste like cinders, because they were everywhere. Between the trains and the ships the city was stained grey and black. Base colors of bricks, about every sixth or seventh building should be Cream colored brick. Milwaukee at one point had a thriving brick trade and they easily found thier way south. The unstained color would be very close to beige that the Milwaukee Road used in thier 1930's Hiawatha scheme. The Depression may or may not be in full swing, by 1937 there were signs of the economy coming around, but bread lines and soup kitchens would be common. Marine recruitment posters would start becoming more evident as things in China were turning ugly and for the US that meant the Marines. WPA (Works Progress Administration) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) recruitment posters would be up as well. People on doorsteps, Beat cops, horse mounted officers. 1930's Chicago over all is going to be closer to 80% personal cars of the early 30's vintage, but seeing horse drawn delivery wagons wouldn't be out of the ordinary. Remember that in many American cities horse drawn delivery wagons were grandfathered in and could still be seen until the early 1960's, so hitching posts (cast iron ones) wouldn't be too out of the ordinary. The majority of the infrastructure is going to look worn.
Lots and lots of black Ford old Model-T and new Model-A trucks & automobiles. A few remaining horse drawn ice, milk, trash, and probably mail wagons.
The Prohibition Era was from 1920 to 1933 (source: Wikipedia.) So, depending on when you set your layout, you can have either a bustling brewery, or a busted one.
It was also the era of the Great Depression. The US Government sponsored a lot of projects just to give people jobs. (Many communities still have public buildings, like libraries, as a result of these efforts.) There were also soup kitchens with long lines to feed the large numbers of unemployed individuals. An orderly line of shabby men, stretching out the door of an old building and around the corner, would be an interesting scene to model.
Edward J. Kelly reigned as Mayor of Chicago from 1933 until 1947. The Democratic political machine has been in City Hall ever since. Campaign posters, either downloaded or free-lanced, would help to set the era.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
If it is prohibition era then a scene of cops busting a brewery would really set the time..
Chris
Whilst I have been backdating the layout to the 1930s, I have been thinking about what I would expect to see on a layout depicting Chicago in the 1930s.
Things such as steam locos and freight cars, automobiles and billboards are some obvious examples but I am modelling from a very English perspective, using books, movies and RR videos to try and get the feel of the place and set the era.
I'd like to ask for an American (and others) opinion of what you would expect, or like, to see on a Chicago-based layout depicting the 1930s.
I'll try to include as many as possible.
Thanks