I have an image in my mind that I think was saved from an old image I recall seeing long ago. It is (was) of a cobblestone street running along the waterfront of old town Baltimore. The tracks were embedded in the cobblestone, and they serviced several warehouses that jutted out into the water along the waterfront. One or so of those ‘warehouses’ resembled the Walthers Municipal Pier kit.
Those infamous B&O docksiders locos could be found working these wharf side tracks.
I searched the internet for about an hour the other day trying to find that image thats in my mind,…could not find it? Would anyone on the forum know of such an old time image?
Just perhaps it was another city. or just some other modelers creation, but it made an impression on me I can’t seem to forget. I wonder if I saw in on the walls of that Baltimore model layout that existed for years in downtown Balt (the one that had to recently move) ??
Check MR maybe as far back as the mid 70s for articles on the Saverna Park club that modeled that scene or try an internet search for the club itself. It got quite a bit of press
The building is at 1714 Thames St in an area known as Fells Point in Baltimore. In recent times in was known as the Recreational Pier (not sure why) and is now the Sagamore Penderson Baltimore, a hotel and shops, partly owned by the guy that founded Under Armor.
The street is cobblestone but docksiders were before my memory.
Pintrest has a surprising number of pictures from various sources
Someone else models the Baltimore harbor area in this forum, I don’t remember who, though.
There is a Baltimore Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society on facebook. I didn’t see a picture like you remember, but I’m sure they have a great many more pictures than they post.
No Railroad content to follow. Sagamore Farms was a thoroughbred horse farm in Baltimore County, once owned by the Vanderbilts. Kevin Plank bought it. He also owns a distillery that produces Sagamore Rye Whiskey, which is quite good, but pricey.
Someone was asking about modeling chains on a switcher. There are chains on that loco. According to Wiki, used to put freight cars out of even tighter places.
That is the News American Builiding on Baltimore Street probably deliverying rolls of newsprint.
For more old time photos of trains, city views and more, Aubrey Bodine was a prolific Sunpaper photographer and you can search his site:
That is very much the scene I tried to loosely capture for my carfloat terminal. I used real girder rail from Proto 87, and their matching cobblestone plastic sheets. For motive power I have a Bachmann 0-6-0 tank engine, which I renamed for the Westport Terminal Railway in honor of one of our departed forum members, Wolfgang Dudler.
The Severna Park Model Railroad Club has a section of Fells Point in Baltimore faithfully modeled. It was cover in the December 1975 issue of Model Railroader.
There was at one time a fair amount of in street industrial trackage in Baltimore, particularly all around the inner harbor.
Fascinating reference link. I had seen a few photos of these rubber tired switchers when I was searching earlier,…BUT nothing like that huge collection of photos. Thank you very much !!
I just looked at it. The problem for me is when I go to look something up in a past issue, I end up spending 1/2 hour looking through the issue. [(-D]
Not many pictures of track work, docks and such, mostly just excellent tight urban modeling, I think the little switcher and ice box on the cover is shown spotting a car, there’s a steam engine and train carefully moving through the tight area, and a gon spotted at an industry.
The article focuses on the tight urban area, and there is a picture of the more “modern” version of the tractors Ed linked to.
You might get a better look if you search for the clubs layout, and a track plan.
