I have a Foundry constructed of stone, Delaney Iron Works, I want to add to my layout. I just don’t think a foundry is appropriate (don’t know.)
I actually have 2 of these and was going bash something bigger.
I’m modeling a freelance railroad based on the logging in the Santa Cruz area in 1905. (Probably wouldn’t be standing in 1906). So any light manufacturing that might support lumber. Or anything else.
One of the casualties of my hiatus from the hobby is I forgot where I wrote down my password to California Sandborn maps or I’d be combing track.
A foundry/ machine shop to convert raw (or scrap) iron to specialized logging tools and machine parts would certainly be appropriate - but I don’t know about the heavy stone walls. Most California structures are built to take advantage of the relatively mild temperatures - and Santa Cruz is in coastal California, not the Sierras.
I have seen heavy masonry structures along Highway 58 in the Sierra foothills, in places where snow was a distinct possibility. Maybe your foundry owner was a displaced New Englander (or Pennsylvanian) who built before the difference in climate sunk in…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a sheet tin foundry at my larger colliery)
On the other hand I am modeling the Delaware-Pennsylvania area and stone and brick buildings are very common.
Not so much in California.
Give the portion with the 4 big doors to somebody who is modeling the1950’s. Its architecturally out of place for the 1900-1905 era. Wide roll up doors with a straight lintel scream post-depression, if not post WW2.
You really should be looking at the Campbell series of buildings, they were designed after California buildings for the most part. And pretty much any other wooden building.
These buildings can be any type of manufacturing (foundry, textiles, flour, saw blades, clothes pins, spindles, wagon wheels, etc, etc). I would separate them into 3 buildings. One stone with the clerestory, kitbash one stone without the clerestory and then combine the two brick buildings into one larger brick one
I think that a quick Google search will confirm that this would not be realistic in an early California setting. It might even call in to question " there is a prototype for everything" theory. I hope I am wrong but even so, it still would look out of place. Too bad, this is a neat model. I think that a timber sawmill of any size might be a better choice. Those Sanborn maps are sure helpful. I have a few of them that I got at work that show the Weed Lumber Company at the base of Mt Shasta CA Peter Smith, Memphis
Thanks. I have a Brewery already. Wine country is further north.
Dave, Chuck,
I was afraid you guys were going to say that. Plan B) is to try to find someone to trade Muir or Campbell structures for my 3 stone structures. I also have Durham Tool & Die.
I already have a bunch of Campbell and Muir Structures. My mine and station are kit-bashed Muir models. I’m building the Scarlet Slipper right now. I don’t have any industries in the craftsman kits though. Push come to shove, I have more scratch building to do.
Something incorporating those magnificent Redwoods would be great. Did they make barrels out of Giant Sequoias? Or how about furniture or horse wagons or Railway ties or roofing shakes or ???[:)]
Brent
PS; I have four Sequoias in my back yard I planted as pups in 2001. They are now 30’ high.[:O]
Foundry. Stone building. Used to cast metal parts for mining and logging machinery. There’s an historic one in Nevada City, CA, that was in use for almost 100 years (it’s now a museum and performing arts center) and it looks as if it were transplanted from the East Coast.
What you’ve got is just perfect. Plant it somewhere in 1905 Northern California and enjoy it. I know—my family settled here in California in the 1850’s. A great many pioneers came to California from the East Coast and brought their building skills with them. If you ever happen to hit Nevada City–or any of the Northern California mining and logging communities during the Fall, you’d swear that you were in New England, from the trees and the buildings.
We ain’t all Spanish Missions. In fact, the farther north you get in this state, the less Spanish/Mexican influence you’re going to find. I know you’re thinking of North Coast, which is north of San Francisco. Historically, the ‘settling’ up around here was far different.
So plop that stone building down anywhere you want and enjoy it, by golly!
I don’t remember where I read it right now, but I saw an article somewhere on lime kilns in the Santa Cruz area in that era and before. Apparently the lime from the area was a cut above most areas. The weight of the product, size of the kilns and charges, and the need for fuel for the kilns really made rail service essential for the kilns to be profitable.
One of the casualties of my hiatus from the hobby is I forgot where I wrote down my password to California Sandborn maps or I’d be combing track.
If it was one given to you online, it’s probably no longer valid.
As for industries in the Santa Cruz area, how about a cement plant? The one at Davenport dates to 1906.
I assume you know about the Ocean Shore Railroad which was attempting to build a line to connect SF and Santa Cruz via the coast (IIRC, some of CA 1 between Pacifica and Santa Cruz uses Ocean Shore Railroad ROW).
There’s a sand and gravel quarry in Olympia (a few miles east of Felton) which, IIRC, was in use in the early 1900’s. A good reference book you might want to get is Rick Hamman’s “California Central Coast Railways”. It’s been done in both hard and paper back. http://www.amazon.com/California-Central-Coast-Railways-Hamman/dp/0871085534
MacGregor’s book is good as far as it goes, but Hamman’s book examines all the rail activity in the Santa Cruz area… I recommend you get a copy. You can get a copy direct from Rick Hamman for $24.95 new (paperback version). http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/ydbooks.htm (page down).
The lime kilns were an important industry in the area. Some of the largest and longest-lasting never had direct rail service, rather the lme was shipped in barrels by wagon to transload onto railcars nearby or to Cowell’s Wharf in Santa Cruz. These kilns were located adjacent to the quarries, which happened to be in the redwoods (providing a ready source of fuel and barrel staves) and near creeks (providing a source of power for the barrel works).
This location was just too difficult to reach by rail from the nearby SPC tracks.
So if proto-freelancing, one could place the quarries and kilns adjacent to the tracks or imagine them some distance away.
I think the article you re thinking of on the lime kilns was in a recent NG&SL Gazette. Paul Scoles is the author.
While the building you have could pass for CA, I think most of the eastern looking stuff in CA was in the cities…Your structure screams East Coast to me (native Californian). I do agree with Twhite that anything is possible and since I wasn’t here in 1900, I am basing my sense of CA architecture on more recent structures. Check out the Sonora depot on the Sierra for an unusual station that has a unique architecture.
Boone Morrison, regular columnist In the Gazette, is doing a Narrow gauge CA based layout set in the same time frame as you are discussing. He has done numerous drawings and models of structures from that era that he has documented in his articles.
There are books on the Sierra, YV and Hetch Hetchy from just a little later than your era that might be of use to you.
According to my own quick research, agriculture was the going thing in Santa Cruz at that time, There were wineries, but apples were more common (an applesauce plant/cannery?) Also, Dairy was big in Santa Cruz at that time (say cheese).
That was also the time frame when the railroad first got to Santa Cruz, and tourism became a rapidly growing component of commerce.
You are right agriculture was very big, but a little South and inland from SC. There were literally dozens of produce big distributors (with multiple track service) in the Gilmore area, and this will be the focus of phase II of my layout.The wharf in Santa Cruz had two tracks (SP) and from there they shipped produce all over and lumber to the Orient.
Tourism was was big indeed, both from Gilmore in the late 90’s and early 00’s, but the SP down from San Jose eventually took most of the trade that route when it bought up the narrow garage stuff.
An apple sauce cannery sounds good.
I also found a laundry that was serviced by two tracks in the Northern Part of SC along the narrow gauge. I keep trying to imagine a laundry operation that big, but can’t wrap my mind around it.
I’ve not seen that publication, but I have seen stuff by Paul Scoles. I can easily imagine a building like that in 1905, but as I mentioned before, I doubt it would have been around in 1907. (People learned about the folly of brick/rock construction in CA in 1906.)
Still… I’ll either find something that works or go to plan B.
