Just installed their brand new Hump Yard turnout controllers and they’re good to go!
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7789?size=_original
Man, this is getting close to a hundred years ago.
Tom
Yep Tom, when I saw the Hum Yard throws I started to wonder if it was a newer picture. Then I saw the date.
Cuda Ken
SERIOUS operating attire. Those tweed pants look itchy…[2c]
To all of those who think that hand-laid track looks better than flex track…
Even then, an obvious effort to hide the center third rail wire.
The interlocking levers are the least primitive-looking part of the picture. Note the eight-notch controller, years before the appearance of mainline diesels!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Hello everybody,
wondering what these gentlemen would say if they could visit the layouts from the members on these forums, or even better the http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ .
I would love to hear what they would have to say.
Frank
Ah! Those were the days! Could get an electric shock anytime just by turning round… and look at the way that shelf is “supported”.
[:O]
How many of us wear ties around the house anymore. Check out the lower right corner. What careless deer hunter mistakenly shot a cow? [:O]
Matt
Cool they are modeling the CNJ! You can tell from the locomotives and the caboose he is holding plus the style of the depot.
Nice suits guys, and that layout looks like some of the ones at certain train shows, you know, the guy with a million bucks and his layout looks like this, I like the asbestos covered pipe above the layout.
I don’t even own a tie! [(-D]
-George
- Those guys seem to be into serious weathering of their rolling stock (it’s not just dust - many items on the layout are clean looking, but much of the rolling stock - wow. Take that, John Allen!) 2) Is that chain-link fencing on the lower left? Looks almost as good as the painted wire & tulle concept found on many layouts today (include some diaromas of mine) 3) I guess you guys know it’s a hump yard, but I swear that that channel next to the track with the girders crossing it looks something like part of the Dundee canal - is it support to be some sort of waterway, or just holds the control wires for the hump retarders…
And to think my great-grandfather put all his efforts into arms smuggling and booze running during the roaring twenties instead of a civilized-legal hobby. I’ve got some of those itchy tweed trousers, great attire when installing DCC decoders!
Dave
That’s how I dress when I’m soldering under the layout. [:-^] Hard to imagine dressing like that as a matter of course when a lot of people still couldn’t afford an electric washing machine.
Everything looks ancient, even when it was new! I don’t think that’s weathering – It looks like 8 layers of dust. The wire stand-in for the third rail is so kinked I’m amazed that the locos could apparently maintain contact.
My mother was born in 1928, and this reminds me of my grandmother’s basement (minus trains, of course). It had a tin ceiling and asbestos insulation on every pipe that needed it. My great-grandfather was famous for dubious jury-rigs like that shelf, so maybe he knew these guys. [;)]
Despite the primitiveness of the layout compared to what’s available today, check out the detail in the telephone poles. He even has ‘wire’ strung from pole to pole. A lot of people, even today, don’t go to that length to detail their layouts.
I love how he did his scenery, looks like he either used a drop cloth or the ol’ lady’s table cloth and smathered it with plaster. Heck, given the time frame, might have even been asbestos.[:O]
Same place, different views.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/7676?size=_original
Check some of the info provided in the comments to the first picture in the above post. Sounds like Mr Swartzell passed away farily young. If the ages are correct, in those 1929 pictures he was not yet 40, but he certainly looks much older. In one of the MR anniversary issues I recall a mention of the
B&O Junior" which is what this layout is. Also dig the power cords in theat first picture - wow.
–Randy
Nice pics. Thanks for sharing