Hi --
I am working on a layout set in the Twin Cities in Minnesota ca 1962. It is loosely based on the Minnesota Transfer Railway, which had it's main yard in the Midway area just north of I-94 on the north side of the Mississippi, about midway between downtown Saint Paul and downtown Minneapolis.
Here is a link to a virtual tour of the prototype railroad, courtesy of David "Zoo" Zuhn:
http://www.mnnr.org/prototype/tour/
I am looking for two photos/images that could be digitized and blended into a background image for part of my layout:
1) A photo showing the Minnesota Transfer/Minnesota Commercial yards seen from the south
2) A photo showing the Minneapolis skyline, seen from the east.
Preferably something that wouldn't look _too_ obviously anachronistic for a layout set in the 1960s, but I am not going to be too picky - we are talking background here - if need be I can always blur the images a little to make details a little less obvious.
I'd am of course willing to pay the copyright holder a reasonable fee for the right to use the photo on my layout. But first I have to _find_ reasonable images that could be scanned or otherwise digitized.
I've been googling, but haven't been able to locate anything promising yet. Anyone have any suggestions about where I might locate such landscape/skyline pictures from the Twin Cities ?
Smile, Stein
2Traxx wrote:I searched images on Google and found quite a few images of downtown Minneapolis. Some were old enough for the sixties
Sorry - my fault for being unclear.
1) Yes, I also found pictures of downtown Minneapolis by googling. Even some that were taken from roughly the right angle (from the east, up along the river, where the skyline could be isolated ).
What I wondered about is what the Minneapolis skyline might have looked like from a distance in the early 1960s. Quite a few of the signature skyscrapers probably was after this, I would assume.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a _specific_ place I should/could find skyline pictures of Minneapolis in the 1960s ? Book recommendations, links to specific web pages, specific search strings on google etc.
2) I haven't found any good skyline/background type pictures of the Minnesota Transfer yard area or the Midway area, seen from the south (ie away from I-94, towards University Avenue). Anyone have any specific advice about how and where to locate pictures of this area ?
3) More general - anyone have _general_ advice to offer about how and where to find images that would make good background pictures on a model railroad set in an urban setting ?
Obviously one can google for images and try to guess sensible search terms, hoping that whoever put up the picture described it with at least some of the same words you use as search terms.
But I assume there are specific databases or reference books or indices of photographs that other modellers have found to be good sources for 1950s/1960s images that would work as background images on a model railroad - ie buildings facades photographed at right angles with sufficient resolution that the image could be blown up for trackside buildings, skylines of various cities etc.
The Mpls skyline would not have the IDS tower at that time. The Foshey Tower was the big skyscraper at the time. Search in the Minnesota Historical collection. They have lots of vintage pictures:
http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Yes up until the IDS Center went up around 1970, the Foshay Tower (a 1929 skyscraper) was by far the tallest building in Minneapolis...in fact, I beleive at the time it went up, it was the tallest building between Chicago and the west coast. As long as you have a pic with the Foshay Tower as the tallest building you should be OK, all the other glass skyscrapers and other "modern" buildings (like the Metrodome) came after the IDS. 1962 was a kind of odd time though, as Minneapolis did many major "urban renewal" projects, and many blocks of downtown were torn down and replaced. Many old landmarks like the Metropolitan building were torn down.
If you really want to get into detail, you could probably pick up a copy of Larry Millett's "Lost Twin Cities" book on ebay.
jrbernier wrote: The Mpls skyline would not have the IDS tower at that time. The Foshey Tower was the big skyscraper at the time. Search in the Minnesota Historical collection. They have lots of vintage pictures:http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/Jim Bernier
Hi Jim --
Thanks a _lot_! I will be in the cities from mid-June to mid-July (my wife's parents live in Roseville and we go visit them for a month every summer), and I will definitely need to spend a day or two at the history center this summer.
They also seem to have a collection of papers relating to the MTRY - engineering drawings, reports etc. Excellent!
Thank you for that link !
wjstix wrote: Yes up until the IDS Center went up around 1970, the Foshay Tower (a 1929 skyscraper) was by far the tallest building in Minneapolis...in fact, I beleive at the time it went up, it was the tallest building between Chicago and the west coast. As long as you have a pic with the Foshay Tower as the tallest building you should be OK, all the other glass skyscrapers and other "modern" buildings (like the Metrodome) came after the IDS. 1962 was a kind of odd time though, as Minneapolis did many major "urban renewal" projects, and many blocks of downtown were torn down and replaced. Many old landmarks like the Metropolitan building were torn down. If you really want to get into detail, you could probably pick up a copy of Larry Millett's "Lost Twin Cities" book on ebay.
I do want to get into detail. One copy of the book ordered from amazon - I should have it here in Norway in about a week.
Thank you for the tip!
You should find the book very interesting, it was also done by our local public TV station as a TV special (don't know if it's available on tape or DVD??). MN Transfer / MN Commercial mainly is located in the Midway area - midway between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul - so the downtown Minneapolis buildings would be several miles away in the distance.
The main thing would be the Foshay Tower looming over the skyline...unlike later times:
http://www.tholt.com/foshay/html
wjstix wrote: You should find the book very interesting, it was also done by our local public TV station as a TV special (don't know if it's available on tape or DVD??). MN Transfer / MN Commercial mainly is located in the Midway area - midway between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul - so the downtown Minneapolis buildings would be several miles away in the distance. The main thing would be the Foshay Tower looming over the skyline...unlike later times:http://www.tholt.com/foshay/html
Slight typing error in the URL, it seem - but easy to fix. http://www.tholt.com/foshay.html - what an interesting story about the Sousa march !
Am looking forward to receiving the book in the mail.
And am also trying to decide which images to order from Minnesota History Center - price isn't too bad (relative to how hard it would be for me to find these things other places) - $30 per copy, no usage/copyright fee for private use.
There is a 1956 photo looking down university avenue towards the west (for a near background type of image in the upper left corner of my layout - showing period cars etc): http://tinyurl.com/yqup3v
There is a picture of the MTRY yard that parhaps could be used in the corner behind the yard (upper right corner): http://tinyurl.com/yvttag - 1940s scene, but retouch the smoke from steam engines in the background, and it could have been 1960s.
There is a 1956 photo of the downtown Minneapolis area, photographed from Loring park (ie from the south/south-west towards the north/north-east) - not quite the view I wanted (from the west), but shows the skyline well: http://tinyurl.com/2xo28g
Here is another one (from 1965) of the skyline from the SW towards the NE: http://tinyurl.com/yvm4z8
Here is one from about 1945 showing parts of the skyline from the west: http://tinyurl.com/yvm4z8
Looking for "railroad yards" also shows quite a few neat photos from other locations that wouldn't fit what I am looking for right now, e.g these:
http://tinyurl.com/yswmr6 1935 - downtown saint paul (seen from the ESE towards the WNW) - with railroad yards and the downtown skyline.
Another one - from further away: http://tinyurl.com/yof525
1952 photo of yards (Great Northern) in downtown Minneapolis: http://tinyurl.com/295d7g
I also found a 1957 aerial view (without an online preview) of the Minnesota Transfer yard area that I just might have to order to have a look at: http://tinyurl.com/2x6w2a
And there is tons of building pictures that would fit right into a layout background. Very neat!
Anyways - the suggestions I have gotten here about sources for photos that could be used as background images for a early 1960s Minnesota Transfer Railway layout have been extremely helpful !
Thank you all!