I would like to build a layout set in 1906, the year my father was born. How do I know what engines, passenger cars, freight cars, etc. are appropriate fro 1906? Where do I look for this info? I’m a history teacher so I’ afflicted with the curse of accuracy!
Rob
By coincidence there is an MR article about 1906.[:0]
http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/001/713wpcxu.asp
The a Google search for “railroading in 1906” will give you many hits (including the MR article.)
It’s a start.[:)]
Step one is to get an Offical Equipment Register for sometime in 1906 (I see different months listed for the 1906 OER) - I’m not sure if this era has been released on CD yet (I know some editions are). This will give you an idea of what freight equipment (Owner, Number, Car Type, and general sizes) was on the rails during that year.
Hi Rob,
I think you’d be interested in my friend Gerald McGee’s article, “Why I model 1906,” in the
January 2002 “Model Railroader,” page 80. It includes a sidebar on getting started in modeling that time, with suggestions for locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and vehicles. If you don’t have the back issue, click on “Shopping” at the top of this page.
So long,
Andy
Rob;
You need to get much more specific, which railroad(s) and location, for us to be of much assistance. You should also join the historical society of the railroad(s) that you are interested in.
In 1906, 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 steam locomotives were the most common, but there were other wheel arrangements, and even electric locomotives around.
What scale are you interested in?
Westerfield has some Equipment Registers on CD, the closest is June 1905.
http://users.multipro.com/westerfield/
There’s a lot available for 1906, if you dig around a bit.
In steam, Rivarossi, Bowser, Bachmann, MDC/Roundhouse and IHC have engines you need. Rivarossi is out of business, but their 4-4-0s and 2-4-0s can still be found at hobby shops and swap meets. Bachmann makes a 4-4-0, and in their Spectrum line a 2-8-0 (one of the best HO steamers on the market) and a 4-6-0. Both will have to be backdated, since they represent early 1900s engines modernized in the 1920s-1930s. IHC makes both a 1870s and 1900-ish 4-4-0, and two 2-6-0s. Roundhouse might be your best bet, considering most of their steam engine kits are of 1900-1910 prototypes. Also look to the old Mantua line of engines for old engines, especially camelbacks, 0-4-0s, 4-4-0s, 4-4-2s, and 4-6-0s.
Passenger cars are getting easier to find for pre-WWI modeling. Roundhouse has the best selection, with four body styles and five roof styles available. IHC, Bachmann and Rivarossi all make 1870s era passenger cars as well. Funaro & Carmelengo makes a few wood heavyweights in resin, and LaBelle has a few heavyweights as wood kits.
Your best selection comes in freight cars. Roundhouse, IHC, Bachmann and Rivarossi all make pre-1900 freight cars in plastic. In resin, F&C and Westerfield make a dizzying array of resin freight cars (Westerfield has a website, F&C does not), and The Old & Weary Car Shops makes a very nice 32’ wood gondola in resin. Atlas makes a 36’ wood reefer that can be backdated to a 1906 prototype (some of the paint schemes offered MIGHT be correct for 1906). Champ, Westerfield and Art Griffith all make decals appropriate for your era (especially Art Griffith, who makes 400+ decal sets for freight cars and horse drawn delivery wagons, all taken directly from period photos)
Check the Walthers catalog for details. Jordan makes American-prototype wagons and carts, and Preiser’s line of horse drawn vehicles can be kitbashed to represent American wagons (there’s a BIG difference!). Preiser and a few other
Check out the July 2004 issue of Railmodel Journal. The featured layout is in that timeframe.
A number of years ago NewtonGregg reprinted Locomotive and Car Builders Dictionaries. The ones for 1906 are sometimes available at train shows. Some manufacturers’ web sites have information on when the prototypes for their models were made.
Enjoy
Paul
The key to buildings is in the windows. Brick buildings will have either a brick arch above them or a stone or iron lintel and a stone window sill. A brick window sill puts it after WW1. The windows will have smaller panes of glass in them, where modern double hung would be 1 large on the top and bottom, a 1900 window would have 4x4 or 6x6 or 9x9.
Corrogated iron was used. Metal structures would be mostly cast and wrought iron or steel, riveted construction. Nothing welded.
Another source of 1890-1910 people, buildings and details is www.musketminiatures.com.
Dave H.
Frame buildings wouldn’t be over 3 stories high.
Another excellent reference is John H White Jr.'s “The American Freight Car”. Check e-Bay or book stores $40-60 range. Huge book, lots of pictures and plans plus decriptions of RR operations rules, etc.
Dave H.
Hidalgo’s a movie, and as such, is completely worthless as a source of ANY real historical knowledge. Hollywood likes to THINK they know anything about historical time periods, but they don’t. Hollywood is entertainment, not education. They get their information (and then butcher it) from books, period photographs, and period paperwork. Look to the same research material they use.
False-front buildings would bee seen in many parts of the country, but they in no means should dominate most scenes, nor do they accurately represent the architecture of most regions in the USA. The frontier was officially closed in 1890, and by that time most surviving boom towns in the West were looking a lot like any town in the Midwest or East. Here in Illinois, I can walk down my block to see cast-iron storefronts built in the 1870s, and they look a LOT like DPM buildings, NOT buildings from “the wild west” (whatever that is…)
This locomotive was built in 1906:
There was a article in the january 2002 issue called “Why I model 1906”. Which has 5 pages of 1906 info. Cool uh???
Old Locomotive and Car Builder’s Cyclopedias for the era are useful but are very pricey if they can be found at all – the Newton Gregg reprints are a better bet.
The Locomotives that Baldwin Built by Fred Westing will give you a notion of what was new in 1906, as far as steam locos go – and remember that railroad equipment is never all new. Cars were mostly wood then but even so might have had a useful life of 20 years. Locomotives maybe 30 or more.
A really well equipped public library might have bound volumes of railroad industry publications from the era.
Dave Nelson
The July 2004 issue of Rail Model Journal has a large article about a modeler who’s layout is based in 1910. His insights and modeling efforts might be a help.
I have a Yahoo Photos site with albums of early 1900’s buildings in the Omaha, NE area.
http://photos.yahoo.com/wandndave
Dave H.
I was just looking for some pictures to “borrow” from the Library of Congress and found a major collection of photos from the “19-oughties”.
It is at www.loc.gov
Then go to American Memory, choose collection- Prints and Photos,
Detroit Publishing Co.
You’’ be glad you did.
Now lookyhere! If you’re a history teacher teachin OUR young people, YOU oughtta be able to find all that info yerself!!! LOL
It’s like drinking out of a fire hose, isn’t it? [(-D]
I think you would do well, if you run into roadblocks, with anything between a 0-6-0 and a heavy Consolidation 2-8-0, inclusive.