Greenbrier 1920/Hand Hewn Ties

Discussion in 'Structures' started by Jim James, Jan 16, 2008.

  1. Jim James

    Jim James Staff Member Staff Member

    This is the photo I used to scratchbuild the structures of Greenbrier. I love the tracks in the foreground and the stacks of hand hewn ties waiting to be picked up. Compare this old photo with a view of what I have done so far. Keep in mind that I'm still in the early stages of this 6'x18" module.Nothing is glued down at this point. I need to add the 1/2" plywood bottom and sides to the foam board(painted brown/3 layers of 1" blue insulation board) to prevent any flex before I lay the track permenantly. I'll update photos as the scenery progresses. Oops! This belongs in the "Layouts" section.
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 16, 2008
  2. Gorgeous, and a great modeling idea for anyone with a small-town team track on an early-days Frisco layout! I like the buildings, especially Mr. Cato's store. I wonder if the old Roman ever thought his name would adorn such a structure?

    Hewn crossties and cordwood were collected at small-town stations throughout the Ozarks, not just in major lumbering areas but, on a smaller scale, wherever farmers cleared land and/or needed to raise some off-season cash. Check out this video clip from the Missouri Department of Conservation's DVD "Stamp of Character":

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuUdLxgM-tU&feature=related

    Missouri State Univ. also has some online video about rural tie-hackers as part of their Shannon County Film Digitization Project. Unfortunately I can't get their video clips to play on my current computer and connection, but at least the sequential thumbnails will give some idea what's involved, and perhaps others will fare better.

    http://purl.missouristate.edu/library/archives/shannon/scfindingaid

    A while back I located some 1890's State RR commissioners' reports on the KCC&S, and they indicate that although crossties weren't a major commodity, they did get as high as 1% of total tonnage on occasion, in an area of Missouri not known for major lumber production. Cordwood amounted to as much as 4% some years. I've seen photos of the depots at Aldrich and Cliquot, Mo., with small piles of crossties and/or cordwood waiting to be loaded. (Due to distance and photo quality, it's hard to tell which.) And certain locations, obviously, had much heavier traffic in this commodity than the KCC&S did.

    Bradley A. Scott
     

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