Maps Monday

While trolling through my HBS folder this weekend, I found a couple of maps I hadn't looked at in awhile. The first one is from 1874 showing the Hoboken waterfront before the arrival of the Hoboken Railroad Warehouse and Steamship Company (later the Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad Company, and then finally the Hoboken Shore Railroad). Elyssian Fields is quite prominent overlooking the river after the first organized baseball game was played there. The New York Knickerbocker Club was using this as their home field when they hosted the New York Nine in 1846. Several clubs used the facilities in the area before the last professional game was played in 1873. Sybyl's Cave is the only thing on the future property of the Stevens Castle and later the Stevens Institute of Technology that was founded in 1870.

The next one is from 1891 showing more development along the Hoboken shore. More railroad tracks can be seen now in Jersey City and a little bit of Weehawken Yard and docks can be seen in the upper right corner. It is striking how much like islands these strips of land look like surrounded by marshland. Those marshes are only fit for the railroads.

Fast forward to 1956 in this hand drafted map in the collection of the Hoboken Historical Society. The Stevens Institute dominates the center of the HBS line with the yard and Erie interchange to the right and the Port Authority piers to the left.

And finally a map from the Historic American Engineering Record part of the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection of the Library of Congress. I've found many great images of the HBS and Erie among others gems in this collection - it is well worth a visit. This is a nicely accurate map from 1933 and will be useful when figuring out which buildings I can accommodate on the layout and how.

I easily get lost for hours looking at maps, so viewer beware!

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Monday evening track work

Not a whole lot happens on the Virginia Midland on the weekdays, but I've been trying to get better during the week to get a few things done if possible.  Thirty minutes to an hour is what I try to squeeze in if possible, per day.  Tonight, I continued to get the new trackage down to at least get trains running again.  Trying to get the best possible plan is always fun.  I have not changed much, but the tedious work continued.

Nothing new here just upgrading roadbed and adding a longer Tortoise wire.

Had to move the desk out to get to what I was working on.  It's nice to be sitting down to work!

This is my main work area right now.  Many tools are a necessity for track laying.  

The boxcars are on the continuous run track and a leg of the wye.  The straight track towards the wall will lead to the helix.  That track leading to the helix will also have a passing siding.  

Overall view of the area I'm working on.  The turnout on thr bottom of the pic goes to an industry spur.  I had to move the bridge too.  The background on the right will be replaced also.  

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Map Monday 3 Hoboken

"3 Hoboken" G.M.Hopkins Co. 1933 (collection of author)

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Monday Musings

I am finally starting to get back into modeling since my usual hiatus that I have in the spring.  I got into the layout room some on Saturday and really got moving in there today.  Got a little heat wave coming so I will be hunkering down inside with the AC!  I will be up at Timonium, MD this weekend selling most my On30 items and some HO stuff with Norm Wolf on Saturday.  If you never have been to one of the shows at Timonium, what are you waiting for?

Now some updates:
Did some reporting mark updating.  The Virginia Midland's reporting marks are VMID.  I've updated a few here:

Custom 2 bay hopper chopped from an Atlas cylindrical hopper.

A custom run from Intermountain I found at on Ebay.  I just had to have it.

My desk has seen better days.  Still adjusting to the smaller surface area.

VC #106 is getting closer to being finished.  Only needs the horn, antenna and weathering.

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Map Monday 5 Hoboken

"5 Hoboken" G.M. Hopkins, Co. 1933 (collection of author)

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Maps Monday

A couple of pages from May 22, 1908 issue of The Railway Age magazine showing improvements to Jersey City yard of the Erie Railroad. What a fun and complex intersection of many railroads.

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