Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
I’ve been reviewing many amazing images on the Historic Pittsburgh digital archive as research and planning continue for the next layout project. I stumbled into some studies that were done in the 1920s to improve road and rail traffic. A few photo and map gems were found while paging through “Railroads of the Pittsburgh district: a part of the Pittsburgh plan”.
I recently came across this 1926 image featuring a couple of boxcars on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad in New Jersey. Let’s take a good look at the weathering on these cars. They have obviously seen some mileage as the lettering is faded. Some streaks are visible from water and a little dust is apparent. But there’s much more here that we can model. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
The images on this blog post were originally taken by William B Barry, Jr., in his service as a DL&W company photographer. Thousands of historic DL&W photographs have been scanned my NPS Steamtown and can be found through the Erie Lackawanna E-Mail List Photo Archive.
I recently came across an email thread by Doug Forbes and this interesting Illinois Traction wood coal gondola model. This is a 3D printed model that Doug created using computer software. Doug’s original interests began with the Illinois Central but he has gravitated to the Illinois Traction System for a unique kind of model building. He enjoys putting together freight cars that are out of the norm. Continue reading “HO wood coal gondola”
Do you recognize this gondola? I know you recognize the railroad name, but do you recognize the car design? It looks similar to many gondolas used in the first four decades of the 20th Century. The B&O had more than 2500 of these O-17 class gondolas listed in an October 1926 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Are you surprised?
Let’s face it, we are all suckers for older cars and trucks. What reader has not walked through an antique car show? As a modeler with a 1926 focus, my eyes are always keen on finding vintage vehicles whether they are autos, earth movers, commercial vehicles, or farm equipment. We continue down the research path with this post as we never have enough data.