Learning from old photos and the internet
M
odeling possibilities often arise in serendipitous ways. One of my model railroad buddies, Hal Bossingham, showed me an old photograph of his great-grandfather’s business, the In- diana Tank and Boiler Works. The photo had been stored under poor conditions and was in
very bad condition. It consisted of what appears to be two separate 8″×10″ prints that had been per- manently mounted on a mat board. I agreed to attempt some restoration of the photo so that usable copies could be made for his relatives. He in turn agreed to share the photo for this PERSPECTIVE. My first reaction when I saw the photo was this would be quite a challenging restoration, but it
was really a fascinating photo of a piece of our industrial past and well worth the effort. My goal in the restoration was to remove the worst of the print damage from a scan of the original print so that detail in the foreground could be studied without undue distraction from damage to the image. Fad- ing of lighter-toned distant objects was so severe that little detail could be recovered or discerned. Fortunately, it is the foreground that is of most interest, so in that sense the restoration was quite successful. It wasn’t until some time after I finished the restoration, during a conversation with editor Bill
Schaumburg, that I was struck by the modeling potential revealed in this magnificent old image. It should have been immediately obvious to me because of that gondola being loaded in the lower cor- ner of the photo, but I was too wrapped up in the challenge of the restoration at the time to notice. Not much is known about the boiler works, but I was able to locate some information that was un-
known to Hal’s family. We now know the firm was established by Hal’s great-grandfather, John E. Bossingham, in 1916. The firm was located on East Maryland Street in Indianapolis. The source for this information was a 1919 publication of the American Historical Society, Indiana and Indianans. The firm was located along the Big Four (New York Central), and yet another historical document found in my internet searches revealed that the company was a shipper on the NYC. Indeed, the firm’s address places it along the north side of East Maryland Street, and the NYC line is parallel and north of the street. Now here is a little lesson for those of us attempting to research prototype historical information.
In the days before internet search engines, I would never have found this document. In fact, just a few years earlier, I would not likely have found it even with an internet search. That is because it has been scanned by Google®
is in the public domain. The lesson, I think, is that past efforts at historical prototype research that proved less successful than hoped might be worth a second look given the ever increasing resources appearing online. Getting back to our boiler works story, Hal tells me the firm was prosperous through World War
I, but failed soon after because of the loss of government contracts and heavy debt incurred to carry out the government work. But, that’s just so much historical background. The real interest for model railroaders is the modeling possibilities suggested by the photograph. An industry of this type is perfect for someone modeling any time in the first half of the twentieth century. That so much of the work was carried out in the open air makes for fascinating scenic pos- sibilities. The possibilities for open loads are quite diverse, from sheet iron delivered to the works to diverse products for shipping outbound. The derrick with all its guy wires adds fascinating detail. I see the rail spur is depressed, which I assume is to aid in loading and unloading. Just behind the derrick one can discern what appears to be a gantry crane. Lots of possibilities can be gleaned by studying the photo. Modeling tanks, boilers, and component
parts with all their rivets should keep the pounce wheels busy. A special challenge would be to keep all the open tank components to reasonably scale thickness. Brass and styrene sheet are likely well- suited materials for the job. The scene is naturally quite gritty, but there are little bits of vegetation scattered about. The longer one looks, the more there is to see. I am grateful to Hal for sharing this precious image with us. As a result, I am now ever on the quest for more interesting and informative old images.
AL ASKERBERG photography/COLLECTION OF HAL BOSSINGHAM 40 MARCH 2012 , fairly recently I believe, as part of their effort to scan everything that
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