Dating a Photo

 

I don't think I'll be able to get an actual model of the Enosburg Falls condensery before the MARPM Open House (before the end of the year is more likely!) but that doesn't mean I don't want to think through what the building might look like. 

Here's a couple of views of the same side of the building (obviously the trackside of the building) from two different eras. 

Obviously the building has seem some changes - I'd like to be able to determine the era these photos were taken - it may help refine what my model for the ~1941 era model should look like. 

The shot with the GTW reefer is the later image of these two. I think the car barely visible to the extreme left is a showing the large "wiggle worm" CV logo of the post-1963 era. 

The two freight cars in the earlier picture should be able to help set a baseline to come up with a range of years for that photo. 

I believe these are a PRR drop bottom gon, maybe one like THIS Westerfield model. The ATSF boxcar is a little harder to pin down, but someone who knows Santa Fe boxcars may be able to use it to narrow down the era. 

I suspect the photo dates from sometime in the first 10-15 years of the 20th century but would like to narrow down the date. 

Pulpwood Delivery

The CN boxcar is just one of the many interesting details visible in this photo. Jack Delano photo, Library of Congress, Sheldon Springs, Vt., September 1941. 

In the steam era boxcars hauled virtually every commodity that didn't need to be temperature controlled. That included dimensional lumber and pulpwood. 

The reporting marks on the car end are CN 511534, marking this as one of a large class (~1,700 cars) of Canadian National single sheathed boxcars. 

Sylvan Scale Models and Steam Shack (F&C) both offered these cars as HO scale resin kits over the years. And Ted Culotta's Essential Freight Cars (Number 8, November 2003 RMC) gives additional details on these cars.