Resource finds

December is often a tough month to find hobby time. The holidays, family commitments, job stuff, and more pull away the free time we had in other months. The next few blog posts here will feature some handy resources for you to review. I hope they will inspire new ideas and models in the New Year.

Many of us own a pile of books and magazine we use for modeling reference and inspiration. Here are a few electronic books I stumbled across recently.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, America’s Industrial Heritage Project produced a number of fascinating industrial archaeological publications documenting industries and related structures of several southwestern and central Pennsylvania sites and communities. This was an outcome of a 1985 National Park Service study “identifying significant cultural resources as focal points for tourism initiatives”. Basically, this as intended to push industrial archaeology sites to promote regional tourism.

One of the program partners was the Historic American Building Survey and Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) project. A series of books were published that are loaded with details we often find useful in developing our layouts. Even if you do not model southwestern and central Pennsylvania region, the overall industrial details are fascinating and bear similarities to industrial locations in other regions.

I had bought a couple of these books many years ago during a visit to the East Broad Top Railroad when I as a foaming narrow gauger. I did not know there were 21 books. Here’s a look at one of the images in the Brickyard Towns book.

These books are available as PDF downloads to add to your digital library. Do not expect a Model Railroader style of presentation. The writing style is on the academic side and dry. The details and data make up for the dry presentation. Bookmark this link and get started. Be aware these are large files and can take time to download.

http://npshistory.com/publications/aih-sw-pa/

Next week we will present another cool resource for your review!


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