G’Day from Western Australia.
When did chainlink fencing appear on the US scene?
I’m modelling a CNW railroad in N scale in the early 1950’s and I’m thinking of including a scrapyard off a small siding. Would a wooden fence be more appropriate in this era? And what about gates across the line? Did private sidings even have gates?
Any ideas, friends?
Celestialsphere
Every junk yard I have ever seen is either buried deep in a wooded area, or has a solid fence at least 8-10 feet high to block the view. The fence is usually wood boards or corregated metal sheeting.
Here’s a link to a neat junk yard in progrss (in HO scale)
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=8902
I don’t know about the fence across the rails, but it is probably most likely in more urban areas than rural, even in the '50s.
Andrew
From what I’ve read, the technology to create chain link fencing has been around since 1866, with the invention of barbed wire fence. Metal linked fencing appeared after the 1890s, and traditional chain link fence as we know it was common by the Depression (1929).
Most scrap yards, even today, have high fencing that you can’t see through. Wood was most common in the old days, but I see more solid fencing today.
Thanks guys!
Here in Corpus Christi, Texas, we have a junkyard—oops, I mean metal recycling facility-- with a funny story. Back in the 1960s, developers were putting up a shopping center in a suburb and there was a bit of controversy about unsightly sterile expanses of asphalt parking lot. The developers planted palm trees around the perimeter of the parking lot with the idea they were adding to the beauty of the suburbs rather than detracting.
Anyway, in a reaction to the public discussion of beautification, one of the metal scrap yards along the Texas Mexican Railroad tracks “beautified” their location by putting up metal palm trees… steel posts about 3 stories tall, topped with a plate steel cutout on the street side in the shape of the fronds of a palm tree. Not quite as bizarre as Texas’ infamous Cadillac Ranch with the 10 Cadillacs buried nose down, but still a local point of bizarre cityscape.
A model railroader (from out of town, of course) built a scene of the junkyard with the junk-art trees. Everytime somebody sees his display at a train show and says those are the least realistic trees they have ever seen, he pulls out his prototype photo and shows how exactly his scene conforms to real life.
Oh, as to your question, I grew up in late 1940s and early 50s in Texas. Plenty of chain link fences then, and I have seen a number of railroad gates in fences. I have a railroad gate on my Navy blimp base railroad, feel it is part of the signature appearance of a military installation. Sorry that the mesh of the chain link fence is so fine, the fence is not prominent in the pictures I have taken.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aab.jpg[/img]
There is a fence along the curve just behind the “shack” building, and a gate just behind the helium tank car, just doesn’t show in picture.
Whether or not a junk yard is fenced depends on local ordinances than anything else. Here is Arizona, there are junk yards that are not even fenced because the law didn’t require any kind of fencing when they started in business, and now they are “grandfathered” from changes in the law.
Chain link fencing has been around for many years. I’m 67 and remember seeing chain link fences when I was growing up. Chain link does not meet current standards in some areas for screening junk yards, however, because you can still see through it even if the metal slats are added. Electrical substations here usually have a concrete block wall around them instead of just a chain link fence.