Buildings and Structures of American Railroads

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eTraxx

Member
You may know that Google has scanned in books which you can download in PDF (or read online). I found a very interesting resource for Railroad structures. It is titled "Buildings and Structures of American Railroads - a Reference Book for Railroad Managers, Superintendents, Master Mechanics, Engineers, Architects, and Students". It was published in 1893 and was written by a Walter G. Berg - 'Principal Assistant Engineer, Lehigh Valley Railroad'.

It has (I'm getting this from the Table of Contents) - Watchman's Shanties, Section Tool-Houses, Section Houses, Dwelling-Houses for Employes, Sleeping Quarters, Reading-Rooms, and Club-Houses for Employes, Snow-Sheds and Protection-Sheds for Mountain-Slides, Signal-Towers, Car-Sheds and Car-Cleaning Yards, Ashpits, Ice-Houses, Sand Houses, Oil-Storage Houses, Oil-Mixing Houses, Water Stations, Coaling Stations for Locomotives, Engine Houses, Freight Houses, Platforms, Platform-Sheds, and Shelters, Combination Depots, Flag Depots, Local Passenger Depots, Terminal Passenger Depots.

Take Chapter XX - Flag-Depots. General Remarks starts the chapter then follows various frame, stone, brick examples (about 20) from a wide assortment of railroads .. Lehigh Valley, Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania, Boston & Albany etc.

The General Remarks covers what a Flag-Depot is, operation, various types from the simpliest platform to those with offices, waiting rooms, baggage-storage rooms and a ton of other information.

Then we have the diagrams. Front and End elevations, Cross sections, Ground plans.

While everything in this book would be dated for any modern railroad I suspect that the basic plans could be adapted to many time periods by changing the designs. At a NO COST to you .. other then pulling up in your browser .. or downloading as a PDF .. is well worth a look.

Here is an example I grabbed from page 266 showing a Frame Flag-Depot on the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad.

flag-depot.jpg
 
Nice find. I really hate Google books. I go looking for one thing, find a bunch of other interesting things, and I've blown three hours before I know it. :)
 
eTraxx, that's just the thing I'm looking to build for the garden layout, nice find!
I've had the interior parts for a while now, just needed this pic, thanx!
*** Ron are you reading this?*** :D
 




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