by t-croz
I am doing research on a particular branch of the NYCRR and the industries served. It is fairly straight forward to find basic info on these businesses but really hard(it seems) to find out what was shipped in and out by the railroad. Especially where the company went out of business many years ago.
I see articles in the Model Railroad magazines about specific companies and how often they were switched and what the head-end power was and the train number and sometimes the town/state from which the shipment came. For companies long gone!!
Where do you find this information? Do the authors of these articles contact former employees? Find old railroad records?
I have tried the local library, historical society, internet searches, etc. For some industries, probable in/out materials can be inferred by the industry - and by the NMRA opsig listings. But the kind of info these MR authors find is more specific.
I have not yet tried the local Railroad Historical Societies...would they have old records with this info? It would seem a long shot that info like this would be kept for too many years except by sheer chance.
I have also not tried to locate and contact former employees. The only way I have seen to locate them is by obituaries("worked at XYZ corp")...and then it's too late!
Am I missing something obvious?
Thanks for any advice.
t-croz
I see articles in the Model Railroad magazines about specific companies and how often they were switched and what the head-end power was and the train number and sometimes the town/state from which the shipment came. For companies long gone!!
Where do you find this information? Do the authors of these articles contact former employees? Find old railroad records?
I have tried the local library, historical society, internet searches, etc. For some industries, probable in/out materials can be inferred by the industry - and by the NMRA opsig listings. But the kind of info these MR authors find is more specific.
I have not yet tried the local Railroad Historical Societies...would they have old records with this info? It would seem a long shot that info like this would be kept for too many years except by sheer chance.
I have also not tried to locate and contact former employees. The only way I have seen to locate them is by obituaries("worked at XYZ corp")...and then it's too late!
Am I missing something obvious?
Thanks for any advice.
t-croz