The Northern Division Bridge and Building (B&B) inventory provides a very nice record of the structures, which were located on the division. The inventory provides the basic dimensions and a rudimentary “bill of material”, but for the most part, it leaves us guessing with regard to the precise placement of almost everything related to the structure. The Frisco’s Rosedale combination yard office - scale house provides an interesting challenge. Structures, which were built during an era ignorant of electric lighting, required large windows, which were placed high on the walls. Tall windows required high ceilings. The high ceilings give the structure a top-heavy look. Three of the windows fit nicely in the bay window of the scale house side of the building. The rest of the windows are placed as to optimize lighting. Transoms, which were placed above doors, were a necessity. I confess that the two sashes, which I assume to be transoms, do appear to be a bit large. They could easily be combined to serve as another window, but that combination just didn’t fit on any of the elevations. One can make a case that the doors would on any of the four walls. The office used drop siding, but the inventory doesn’t specify the size of the lumber siding; I opted for 6” +/- drop siding. The Rosedale yard office - scale house would make a nice model project. Its dual function makes it an excellent candidate for a small model yard, and it could easily be compressed further to fit the smallest of spaces. The B&B record doesn’t provide a retirement date, but I suspect that it survived until the yard betterments, which were implemented during 1954. Until July 1925, trains originated and terminated at the Frisco's Liberty Street Yard, aka 19th Street Yard. At 8 PM, July 5, 1925 the Frisco switched operations. Rosedale became the outbound yard and the 19th Street Yard became the inbound yard. Crews boarded their power and caboose at 19th Street yard, and took them to Rosedale Yard, where they tacked-on the caboose and coupled the power onto the awaiting train.
It all makes sense, now. I've always thought that old depots looked rather out of whack, not to mention the one-room school house replica on the grounds of my place of employment. I'm ashamed that I never really gave a lot of critical thought to why it had a ceiling so very high, other than it would have taken the old wood stove working overtime to heat all of that space. Even though I'm not modeling Rosedale per se in my currently available land grant, I might have to find a way to include this. Thanks very much, Karl. Best Regards,
