Thanks! Since it will be only a few inches away from the Terminal Tower background flat I decided to use the older “A” spelling of Cleaveland. Actually I debated between several fictitious locations for the depot. “Big Creek” because I live on top of the hillside over the creek. “Elayne Ave.” Because it’s the name of the apartment complex I live in (sans avenue). “Parma” and “Rockport” were depot locations but one was on the B&O and the other was on the LE&W but it’s called “Rocky River” today.
I’m going to fix up my coaling tower before I start anything new.
Ummm … anybody know what a “mule hide roof” for a standard NKP 50,000 gallon water tower would look like? This is a screenshot of the blueprint found in the October 2019 issue of Modeler’s Notebook from the Nickel Plate Road Historical and Technical Society’s website nkphts.org.
The few color photos I’ve seen of these towers show the tanks were painted in the NKP’s rendition of railroad Tuscan red but the roof is a mystery. I’m guessing it should look like leather but not light brown. Gray maybe?
Yes, I agree. I usually click through to a couple of the source reference web sites and try to get a better idea of the context.
In this case, I haven’t had time to do any further research. Does anyone know if roofing was ever made from the real hides of mules, or if perhaps this note on the water tower print might be a reference to this brand of sheet roofing?
Well the thing that jumps out at me is these blueprints are from 1929. The description of the brand mentioned “100% silicon”. Did they have such a thing as silicon rolled roofing in that era?
Don’t think so. Not sure what products the Mule Hide company was offering at that time. I just noticed lines on the roof drawing almost like standing seam metal.
I think the company is old, and the product line has continuously changed over the years. I don’t think they meant they used 100% silicon in the 1920s.
I have a fair quantity of leftover comic book backing boards so that’s going to be my primary building material for the water tower. The boards of the tank are roughly 16" wide at 1:48 and while that may or may not be accurate to scale it looks reasonable on the model. There’s also a little sample section of I-beam I made up sitting on the black paper. It’s 3/8" tall which makes for a roughly 16" tall beam which also looks about right.
probably. No idea, that’s why I figured this would be the place to ask 
