As some of you know, I have been researching and building a section of my layout to resemble the mine in White City, Illinois. This was the mine in which my Wife’s Grandfather worked and died. A typical American story of an immigrant miner from Croatia that worked long and hard to get his own place to live. In the early 1900’s he built this house. It is still standing and this is what it looked like at Christmas last year.
I wanted to get a close model of this house for the miners village but could not find anything close enough to satisfy my need.
So far I have made 2 attempts at scratch building it. The first attemp on the left below was made from thin styrene sheet cut to make the clapboard. I actually like this structure and only intended it to be practice, so missed out some of the window details. The house on the right I completed this weekend and it is made from basswood clapboard sheet and detail parts from different makers. This is my first wood scratch built structure and I really enjoyed the process.
The windows are not exact but OK I think. The canopies on the windows were not on the house in the 50’s (my era) and the house was white then, so I am told. They raised 8 kids in this house! Next up will be the smokehouse and summer kitchen and outhouse for the yard.
Is anyone else re-creating family history on their layout?
Those are nice houses. Good example of how small changes change the mood of the house. The wide siding looks really nice but is not the prototype. The 12 light window is tough. There seem to be several of us who are getting into or back into wood scratch building. I hope we can continue to share experiences. Thanks for the pics.
VERY nice! Really good modeling. I have created a bit of history on my Yuba River Sub, but I was able to find a kit that was a prototype. The Kentucky Mine in Sierra City, CA, where my great-grandfather was employed. It’s now a museum, but Grandt Line has produced a kit that is–with little modification–almost an exact duplicate. And since I model the WWII era, it was possible to model the mine as it was in operation.
Keeping a bit of family history alive on your model railroad is not difficult, and the result usually means a great deal more than just plopping a building down because it looks good. I think it personalizes the layout–in a way, it speaks that this is YOUR layout.
Again, that’s some really fine modeling. [tup]
Here’s the Kentucky Mine on the Yuba River Sub:
I don’t have any pictures of it on hand, but our layout has a model that looks very similar to the house we lived in while we lived in Wheaton, IL. I’m not sure if my dad found a kit, had it custom made, or scratchbuilt it but it always brings back warm memories of “home.”
Art, I have been looking at this all weekend and had not realized that the window did not have enough panes! I am not sure what I could have done about it had I noticed. The other windows that gave me fits were the small double hung ones on the side of the house at the rear. I could not find anything like them, so these are Grant line full height double hung windows cut down to size (I cut the top off, then removed a section and glued them back together and re-positioned the center rail). This weekend will be the test to see if my Father-in-law recognises it, he was born in the place.
Is that the shape it was when your wife’s grandfather built it?? It looks like it’s been added on to in the back… I’ve seen it done but I can’t imagine 8 kids (and 2 parents) living in such cramped quarters. May explain the addition across the back… Breathing room for grandpa…
I’ve been doing similar research on my grandfather’s railroad days and have come across arial photos from 1949… In conjunction from info I’ve been able to jog from my mother, I’ve gained a pretty good picture of what things looked like back then… Though I’m reasonably happy with my current layout I’ve always wanted something that more resembled the Wabash RR as it stood then… Grandpa worked for the RR as a fireman at the time and was either on passenger or frieght (depending on where they needed him) working either Delray, Oakwood, or out of Fort Street Union Depot in Detroit. I’ll be setting up a website to show all the research I’ve done as it relates to planning a historical based layout (this is where the people doing modern day have the advantage) but for now, here are a couple pics…
This one shows grandmas house where mom grew up and I lived until I was about 9… (I’ve left these as links to be friendly to the dialup folks)
The arrow points to the house (which I have photos of as it stood then)… At the time, as shown nothing but field between the house and the railroad tracks (Oakwood yard). Next to the house was a coal yard that you can just make out if you squint and use your imagination. The coal yard was closed and gone sometime in the mid-1950s. This wasn’t a rail coal yard but one that people use to buy heating fuel from. Mom says grandma used to get mader than he!! at the coal yard operators on laundry day. Hang the wa***o dry and it would get covered with coal dust if the wind was blowing right. She fought with them for years mom says. Anyway, I can remember as a kid playing around at the end of the s
My layout is set in the 1930s/40s, but in one spot near my main terminal will be a model of a mobile home that was built in the 1970s, along with it’s small fenced yard and garden shed. It was (still is) just across the street from the Burlington mainline into Casper WY from the east. That’s where my mother spent the last few years of her life after she retired (despite repeated attempts from me and my sister to get her to move in with one or the other of us). Sort of a little remembrance, I guess.
rolleiman, I think you are almost certainly correct. The rear section was very likely added, but I think it was added early on, as the oldest picture I have seen of the place was from the late 30’s and it was there then.
Thanks for sharing your story also. It does add an extra dimension to a layout if it is preserving family history.
you did a great job on the house…I also like to scratch build authentic buildings…people come over to see the layout and they can relate to a certain scene on the layout because it’s a real scene of a place in time…chuck
