It's Too Hot to Blog!!

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Wed, 2010-07-07 11:30 — rfbranch

Layout design

Well...maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's another unbelievably hot day in the Northeast US as we've passed 100 degrees here in Connecticut for the 2nd day. Since the heat has me captive I figured it was time to post some content.

As I posted recently, my layout is taking its first cautious steps into the world of scenery. As part of this process I’m giving a "reason to be" for my soon to be built structures. Up until recently I only thought broadly about what industries my little railroad would be serving but as my track work is more or less ready for scenery I’ve been forced to nail down the rail-served customers that will inhabit the layout.

Since my layout is a proto-freelance design one of the tasks that I’ve found harder than anticipated is deciding on industries appear realistic and plausible for my setting. I’m sure those with more experience researching prototypes can share far more useful information than I on how to dig up information on rail served industries but I thought my experience finding resources developing one of my “anchor” industries might be helpful to other’s with similar problems.

Everything below (with the exception of the Kalmbach books mentioned below) was found with internet searches and was free! Apologies in advance that this post is lacking photos (there is one video however!) but I thought the information was still informative enough that it warranted sharing:

Industry and Manufacturers' Associations

After a little research (notably the Kalmbach Industries Along the Tracks series) I decided that one of my anchor industries would be the can factory that I’ve mocked up above. Wanting things to be “right” on my layout I wanted to ensure I had the right flow of traffic in and out of my factory.

I’ve had difficulty up until now trying to find information on exactly what cargos and what car types would be used to service a particular industry but a valuable source of information is industry and manufacturers' associations. Getting an idea of what materials would be shipped in/out by rail was mostly guesswork until a simple Google search yielded the Can Manufacturers’ Institute which had great resources to help figure out what should be going in and out of my factory.

Besides step by step information on how cans are taken from coils to the finished product, there is a short video on their site that gave me 99% of the information I needed in a little over 10 minutes (I’ve embedded it below with permission of the CMI). Some of the information is extraneous but if nothing else it’s funny to listen to “the can” tell the story sounding like it's doing a bad Jack Nicholson impersonation! I’m still waiting for him to burst through the kid’s computer screen screaming “HERE’S JOHNNY!!”

All kidding aside, in a few minutes I was able to quickly figure out raw materials that would be coming into my factory (aluminum and steel coil) as well as what is being shipped out (pallets of cans as well as scrap metal). I'm sure for most major industries similar resources are available to the public and can be used to make sure the traffic going in and out of your industries is realistic.

Landmark Conservancies

The 2^nd challenge was to make sure my buildings fit my setting (1970’s Brooklyn) with appropriate architectural forms, street and rooftop details etc. I’m very conscious of having my layout have the appropriate look and feel so that visitors can make no mistake about where and when they are operating.

I’ve seen and heard plenty said about using the information available through historical societies and the like however a similar if distinct group that I haven’t heard much mention of is landmark conservancies. These (I’m assuming) non-profit groups are dedicated to preserving buildings of all kinds that showcase the historic character of neighborhoods across the country.

For me, a REALLY fantastic resource was the interactive map on www.saveindustrialbrooklyn.org that can be viewed here. The website is packed with great pictures of structures that still exist today. It was a great source of information when trying to decide on what kind of structure would look right on my layout.

While the site in particular is really only useful to someone modeling my specific locale I’m sure similar sources exist for other industrial districts around the world that are slowly fading into history. Ironically the destruction of the locations that we are looking to model forces people to document and defend them before they are completely destroyed!

Flickr

This photo sharing gem is an amazing resource I haven’t heard mentioned anywhere before. What made Flickr a great resource for me was the way photos are grouped on the site by subject matter. Some groups are more artistic and abstract, but then there are others that are very practical to a modeler focused on the photographic study and documentation of older buildings.

For instance, there is a group with 100+ photos of the Domino Sugar factory (a landmark in New York and an industry I considered having on my layout for a period of time) which cover just about every corner of the facility. It’s an amazing resource for modeler looking for prototype photographs.

In addition, there are a lot of older photos that people have uploaded to the site that I haven’t seen in other places. My ultimate goal is to one day build a layout featuring the Delaware and Hudson (the coolest, most underappreciated railroad in my humble opinion but a topic for another day) between Oneonta and Mechanicville, NY in the mid 70’s and there are several photo streams on Flickr with pictures of that era that I have not seen elsewhere. If you are looking for information on a particular prototype or geographical area it’s a site worth spending some time exploring.

That's all for today! If you read this far without pictures, thanks for reading and stay cool!

~Rich

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Comments

Industrial Brooklyn

Wed, 2010-07-07 12:50 — feldman718

You've touched on a subject that is close to some areas I will have on my layout. Aside from the fact that I spent the years 1958-1974 in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn and I do remember watching them build the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway which saw the wholesale destruction of many residential and industrial buildings as kid. I also remember when freight trains ran through parts of Brooklyn. Unfortunately progress isn't always positive for either economic or social aspects of life in a city like New York. However, governments and their need for untold amounts of money in the form of taxes don't always do the smart thing and you can see how many companies that were once located in the NYC area simply pulled up roots and either got absorbed and/or moved to places where it was cheaper to operate and unions weren't as prevalent. A business exists to make money and anything which interferes with that isn't going to keep them where they first started.