This Old Spot: A Modeler's Visual Library

[tstage]

Since getting into MRRing a little over 5 years ago, like so many others - I started looking at the world completely different - i.e. with a modeler's eye.  Buildings, structures, trees, signs - you name it; if I wasn't taking a digital picture of it, I was at least taking a mental one so that I could come up with new modeling ideas for my layout.  Even pouring through old books, magazines, and visual media (DVDs and VHS tapes) became a learning experience.

The reason I bring this up is because Bob (Seamonster) posted a picture of an old time gas station in Boissevain, Manitoba that he had ran across recently in his travels.  In Bob's words, "It looks just like the gas stations from the 1930s that so many like to model. This one is still going, selling gas and repairing vehicles."

While I thoroughly enjoyed studying the image of the gas station that Bob had posted, it also got me to thinking:

What if we had a repository of photos (in no particular order or organization) of current and defunct prototype buildings, structures, and businesses (railroad and non-railroad related) here on the forum that would give members a library of examples to draw upon for modeling purposes - albeit detailing, weathering, or scratch-building?

I shared this idea early on in the thread.  After a few members expressed a common interest in the idea, I decided to launch this new thread.

With that being the case, a few ground rules and suggestions for posting are in order and serve merely as guide lines:

• As mentioned above, photos should be current (i.e. working) or defunct prototype buildings, structures, and businesses.  They can be either railroad and non-railroad related.
  
• Try and limit postings to 2 - 3 pics max, with ~100K limit on image size - This will to help keep the loading and viewing palatable for those who still have dial-up.
  
• Give a brief description and location of the structure(s) - If possible, town, city, state, and/or province would be quite helpful.  If exact location is not known, the area, region, route number, and/or closest town will suffice.  Also, any other pertinent information (e.g. history, current use) is always welcome.  Remember: Be thorough...but try and also be succinct.
• Lastly, although the name of this thread is entitled, "This Old Spot", photo examples are NOT limited to ANY particular era or time period - Modern buildings and structures are equally appropriate to post.

My hope is that this thread will be both a benefit and inspiration to all of us who enjoy modeling.  I also hope that it will just be a fun thread to peruse through.

Well....The library is now open.  Thank you to all of you in advance who have or will contribute to this thread, as well as those of you who are here just to look around.

Enjoy!

Tom

[howmus]

OK, I'll bite....  This is what is left of an old Grain Elevator located in Canandaigua, NY.  When I was a kid, my father used to buy his cattle feed here.  I can still remember the smell of the grains and the molasses mixed together.

Benham's Elevator:

Back side:

I have an HO scale blueprint of the building drawn by a friend.  I intend to scratchbuild it this winter.

[CSX_road_slug]

 OK, here's one I happen to have in my image library: The Woodstock Inn, a biker's bar right beside the grade crossing of the B&O [now CSX] Old Main Line across Woodstock Road in my hometown of Woodstock, MD.  I hope to model it myself some day - every once in awhile they have Hot Rod shows in their parking lot, that would give me an excuse to park some 1950-70's vintage muscle cars on my layout.

Here's the structure as we approach the crossing:

 

...a full-frontal view:

...and the other end.  I couldn't get directly behind to shoot a full view of the rear of the building...

 

Hope this offers some inspiration!

[SteamFreak]

 Great idea for a thread. I dug through my photos, and had forgotten I took some shots of this abandoned concrete plant in New Hope, PA. It was originally served by rail, as the NH&I spur that is now their dead line behind their shop extended several hundred feet further onto the property.The rail facilities are long gone.

 

I had to climb through a thicket of tree branches to get into the decrepit office (the 1 story structure in the right of the first photo, which I should have gotten in frame) and shot some pictures of the rotting office equipment, including these Toledo truck scales. The floor didn't feel too sturdy!

[secondhandmodeler]

For those of you that have seen pictures of my trestle in progress, you may recognize this first one. It's the Red Jacket Trestle on the former Milwaukee Road just south of Mankato MN.   The second picture is of the former Union station in Mankato.  It was owned by the CNW/Omaha Road and still stands today.  It is now the home of a few attorneys and my financial advisor.  His location had no bearing on why I chose him!

[CSX_road_slug]

8500HPGASTURBINE

CSX, Talk about building something on the side of a mountain. Nice pics.

Thanks Mike!  I sure wish the area I'm modeling (northern Ohio) was as hilly as around here in central Maryland, mine will need to be on a somewhat flatter surface.

 

Corey - that station looks like it came right out of the Walthers catalog, what a find!

[tstage]

8500HPGASTURBINE

Why was the other thread locked???

Mike,

Thanks for asking the question.  My original intention was so that this thread could have a fresh start and that pictures wouldn't be posted to both threads. (Hence, why I linked to the other thread in the OP.)

However, now after mulling it over; the original spark for this may have come from Bob's thread...but there was absolutely NO viable nor good reason for me to lock his thread in the first place...and it was wrong of me to do that.   I was too focused on getting this one started that lost sight of what I was doing.

Mike, thanks for the 2 by 4 upside the head...really!  I've now reopened Bob's thread.  Bob, forgive me for infringing on your original thread.

Tom

[secondhandmodeler]

Ken, I'm using two Walthers City Stations to try and recreate the second floor and roof line.  You're right though, I could almost use the kit by itself.  I drive past this Depot twice a day so it's something that's fun for me to model.

[nik .n]

 Boy oh boy do I have stuff for you!

 The Huber Breaker, overlooking S Main Street in Ashley, PA. Here is a link to a satellite view, just zoom in some.

 

The Logo painted on the side:

Panoramic view:

View of water tower:

View of stack:

 

 This place is massive.

 There is more towared the bottom. http://s580.photobucket.com/albums/ss241/Erie_Lackawanna_Fan/?start=80

 

PLEASE DON'T LOCK THIS THREAD!

[secondhandmodeler]

I have to apologize for using a picture that's not mine.  It is courtesy of the Blue Earth County Historic Society.  This is a picture of a mill that I am currently trying to reproduce on a little smaller scale.  It is still in operation, though the silos have been replaced in my lifetime.

 

This is a picture that I took of the reverse side, current day.

 

[Geared Steam]

Hotel Meade in Bannack Montana

 

 

[steinjr]

 Two humble structures that still may make interesting little vignettes on a model railroad layout:

1) Old wooden two story hotel outhouse in a museum, near Virginia City, Montana, summer of 2008. In the olden days, guests staying at the hotel used the elevated walkway to reach the upstairs bathroom, bar patrons used the downstairs bathroom.

 

 Fortunately for the bar guests, the throne in the upstairs bathroom is set a little further to the rear than the throne in the downstairs one

 2) RR crossing protected by manual swing gate. Belt Line crossing, Minnesota Commercial Railroad, Roseville, MN, summer of 2007.

 

 Here is a small business scene - tow boat pushing a single interesting looking barge on the Mississippi River, near St. Paul, MN, summer of 2006:

 

 

Smile,
Stein

 

[blownout cylinder]

Ah yes, an excellent idea has come up with a bumper crop by the looks of things. I've got a few here

These two were found in Ripley ON. A former feed supply store 

This one is right next door to the feed supply store. Behind these buildings rested 3 tractors--an old McCormick-Deering, A Massey Ferguson and another one that I could not quite identify.

BTW---if touring the backroads for a day trip--pack a lunch or summat--some places that may appear on the map may not be as big as one would think.We did find out that around here that places around 1500 and up may actually support some diners so have fun but bring along lunches---just in case

 We also fell over about 8 ghost town sites that we are currently researching. If you find any places like that--leave the stuff there--some of these places are now on private property--- 

[tstage]

Stein,

Thanks for posting this!   I've become really intrigued by early signals.  I've already scratch-built a couple of ball signals.  I saw one like this on a NYC DVD recently and thought it would be a fun one to model.  The details of the manual swing gate (Franklin, IN?) weren't as clear as I wanted in the DVD so this will help greatly.  Thanks again!

Tom

[spidge]

I'll bite.

This is the Southern Pacific Colton CA. Depot and Express building. They are still standing in the pictured condition. It would make a great railroad park as the BNSF diamond is about 100 yards west. To bad the tower and mill were removed long ago.

 

These structures are located at the 9th street exit off the 10 freewy.

[0-6-0]

Hello great start so far. Here are a few from me.First one is a old brick barn on route 91 in Twinsburg Ohio

 

This was a pizza shop when I was kid not sure what it was before that. It's in Twinsburg.

This is a cement plant on on rout 91 in Twinsburg

I will have some more later.Have a nice day Frank

 

[chpthrls]

I lurk here but don't often post, however, this thread seems pretty worthwhile. I don't have any pics to show, but, as I'm sure Norfolk-Western fans already know, there is a museum in Roanoke, Va. that houses the photo work of O. Winston Link. The photo contents on the museum are available to the general public just by accessing its web site. I'm not a big steamer fan, but the photo archives in this collection are awesome. Most were taken just prior to, and during the transition era and Link loved steam! The archives are a transition modelers dream and all you have to do is Google his name, and voila!

                                                                     Gerry S.

[tinman1]

Took this while doing a job in southern Ohio. It appears to have seen better days, but it still stands

 

[blownout cylinder]

spidge

This is the Southern Pacific Colton CA. Depot and Express building. They are still standing in the pictured condition. It would make a great railroad park as the BNSF diamond is about 100 yards west.

Great shots of a wonderful set of stations there--

Walkerton ON was at one time a division point for CN back during the 30's through the 50's/60's before it became 'disinvested' in by CN after many years of declines in traffic--there is now a park here that includes what must have been a wonderful place for people to take pix from back then.

Something of a view from the bridge

I'm going through some more of these things but there you go--

 

[tstage]

Barry,

Just trying to understand what I'm seeing.  Was the bridge originally used to cross over the tracks of the yard, which are now no longer there?

Tom

[Seamonster]

Tom, you're forgiven. No harm done. To tell the truth, things are a bit hectic around here and I haven't been able to get on the forum much recently so I didn't notice.

 

I am very pleased to see that you've started this thread. I have a feeling it's going to become a very long one. I am somewhat amazed and awed that my little photograph that I almost hesitated to post was the start of all this. That gives me a warm fuzzy. Thanks, Tom, for starting this.

 

As soon as I can find the time I'll post some of my photographs up on Photobucket and put them in this thread. I've got some grain elevators and some old decrepit buildings and similar stuff.

 

For those of you who like grain elevators, I recommend this link:

http://manitobaphotos.com/manitoba_grain_elevators.htm

The author of the site has given me permission to post a link to his site. I would recommend that you go to his home page and look at all the photographs he has. He is a prolific photographer and I'm sure most of you would enjoy looking at his photographs and maybe even find something to model in his other pages.

 

Stein: I've seen that two-story biffy. Back in 1967 my wife and I were returning from a trip to the west coast and passed through that tourist town. Somewhere I've got a photograph of that biffy and other buildings in the town but they haven't been scanned into the computer yet. We sure got a kick out of that thing.

[blownout cylinder]

tstage

Barry,

Just trying to understand what I'm seeing.  Was the bridge originally used to cross over the tracks of the yard, which are now no longer there?

Tom

Yes that is what it did. I think there were about 10 tracks that it crossed at that time. Ian Wilson wrote a book a few years back called Steam Over Palmerston that has numerous photos made during that era. I'm trying to find that dang book in this maze of a collection I have here!! lol!! The fact that it was so well kept over the years pretty much allowed this to stay there----when I was there there was no rust anywhere on that bridge----

 

[rs2mike]

0-6-0

Hello great start so far. Here are a few from me.First one is a old brick barn on route 91 in Twinsburg Ohio

 

This was a pizza shop when I was kid not sure what it was before that. It's in Twinsburg.

This is a cement plant on on rout 91 in Twinsburg

I will have some more later.Have a nice day Frank

 

Frank.  My friends wedding was in that barn.  Real nice people.  Came to the hardware store(richner ) all the time.  The top floor of the barn(equipement storage) has been converted to a ball room of sorts.  The lady who lives there lost her son to luchema(? spelling) and now has fund raisers there.  The pizza shop in the second pic spent a lot of years as a shoe repair place when I was growing up.  I think it even may have seen some time as a scuba shop.  Hey you should snap a pic of the missle silo(water tower) for those wanting a more modern water tower.

[blownout cylinder]

0-6-0: The barn is amazing--it'd be interesting to find out its history----

Another old ROW----this one near the Carmeuse limestone quarry---

And for something a bit different----a recently built factory-----now up for sale---

Fall over things a lot here---

[cudaken]

 Great idea Tom! Here are a few pictures of Alton IL. The cliffs where the inspiration for my current section of bench.

 

 Alton IL is not far from St Louis Mo. It was founded around 1802 or so. It is on the banks of the Mississippi not far from Missouri river.Shell Oil Company was started in Alton.

 Few pictures of down town Alton.

 

          Cuda Ken

[Seamonster]

Here's some photos of a through truss bridge over the Red River in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The bridge was built in 1912 and carried two-way vehicle traffic until 1965 when a new bridge was built connecting two streets about a kilometer downstream. The bridge deck is only 15 feet wide. Can you imagine two-way traffic with the cars of the 60s? i have heard that two 1959 Chevs (I think it was) with the horizontal tail fins could not pass each other on the bridge. It is now a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

[Seamonster]

This is the CPR bridge over the Red River at Emerson, Manitoba. It was built as a swing bridge but the mechanism was disconnected long ago. You can still see the big gear on the center pillar. It has a sidewalk on the north side which the residents who live on the west side of the river use to get to the town on the east side. The RR crossing sign is for the pedestrian path over the tracks at the west end of the bridge.

[blownout cylinder]

Seamonster: I love those bridge pix

One closed limestone mill

Paris ON---old houses

Two different views of downtown Paris ON

[0-6-0]

Hello the name of the farm is Stone ledge farms. You can find more on the barn at this link.

It used to have rolled roofing on it. A few years ago they put the metal one on. Hope this helps frank

[BATMAN]

 Old water tower at Brookmere B.C.