Erie glass plate negative collection at Syracuse U.

Perhaps this is old news--but here's a link that might be interesting.

http://library.syr.edu/information/spco ... al/erierr/

It points to a collection of several hundred Erie Railroad images, mostly of stations in New York and other states The images were made from plate glass negatives, so the pictures were most likely taken in the late 19th or early 20th century.

RMU

Speaking of Pictures:

I am trying to build a V Scale model (basically a route for a railroad simulator) of the lines of the former Erie and
Lackawanna. One of the items that I will need is color pictures of Buildings and Rolling Stock and the surrounding area by the tracks.

The process of building a 3d model on the computer is fairly strait forward for example to make a model of a station like what was at Orange New Jersey on the Erie I would make a Box of the basic dimensions of the structure and than paint a picture of the building over this box and it turns into the station. Same thing for modeling a box car make a box that is 40 ft long by 9 ft wide and paste a color picture over it. The pictures have to be edited to remove perspective but I am looking for suggestions on sources. The sharper the image the better.

Was not old news to me! Bookmarked for future reference... thanks so much for sharing.

HSS,

I am considering doing a part of the old Erie in MSTS. Is that the sim you're working with?

The part I'm looking at is the Erie Kent Division, at least the Akron-Mansfield portion.

Anyone who ever played in a band might be interested in this series also. Each Division had a Shop Band and they are all pictured in this series.

erie2521 wrote:Anyone who ever played in a band might be interested in this series also. Each Division had a Shop Band and they are all pictured in this series.

I'm sure there are better-informed people than my on this subject, but I believe the shop bands came to an end when they supported strikes by other railroad unions around 1915-1920. As their sposnors, the railroad had supplied uniforms and instruments for the bands, but when they used them in support of a strike, the railroad withdrew its support of the bands.

Blaming unions' activities seems an easy statement in this day and age for the demise of anything. As for shop bands, as with any other social changes, it probably has less to do with union activities than total social changes; radio, then talking pictures, the easily obtainable phonograph and its attending recordings, then TV, right through to MP3s and IPODS; they all had more of an effect than a mere strike or other union activity. All that notwithstanding, many industrial communities have groups...bands, choruses, etc... yet today; they just don't get the recognition.

Idiot Railfan wrote:I'm sure there are better-informed people than my on this subject, but I believe the shop bands came to an end when they supported strikes by other railroad unions around 1915-1920. As their sposnors, the railroad had supplied uniforms and instruments for the bands, but when they used them in support of a strike, the railroad withdrew its support of the bands.

A. I was not aware of wildcat strikes on the Erie at any time in its history.

B. According to Erie Lackawanna: Death Of An American Railroad 1938-1992 by H. Roger Grant:

And the road backed other spirit-boosting activities, including brass bands (the one at Huntington, Indiana, even outlasted the Erie Lackawanna Railway) and athletic teams.
(page 68)

It is more likely, as others have suggested, that the advent of recorded music and the big band era in jazz spelled the death knell of many Erie bands.

I had heard that the Huntington Band was not involved and hence was allowed to continue. Whatever the story was, the Huntington Band did last a lot longer than the others. As late as the 1950's at least, the Erie Veterans (retirees) used to have an annual get together and the Huntington Band played for them.

Maybe the demise of most of the Erie shop bands was related to the Shopmen's Strike of 1922. This was a national strike, though I don't know how it played out on the Erie. It was precipitated by a wage cut to shopmen, but the shopmen didn't get the support of the operating men, and they lost the strike; it officially dragged on till 1928. I would figure that a long, angry strike of its shop forces would make the railroad less likely to support a shop band, but I don't know for sure how this worked on the Erie.

henry6 wrote:Blaming unions' activities seems an easy statement in this day and age for the demise of anything. As for shop bands, as with any other social changes, it probably has less to do with union activities than total social changes; radio, then talking pictures, the easily obtainable phonograph and its attending recordings, then TV, right through to MP3s and IPODS; they all had more of an effect than a mere strike or other union activity. All that notwithstanding, many industrial communities have groups...bands, choruses, etc... yet today; they just don't get the recognition.

Are you suggesting the iPod is responsible for the demise of the Huntingdon Erie Shop Band?

Sideshow Bob wrote:

henry6 wrote:Blaming unions' activities seems an easy statement in this day and age for the demise of anything. As for shop bands, as with any other social changes, it probably has less to do with union activities than total social changes; radio, then talking pictures, the easily obtainable phonograph and its attending recordings, then TV, right through to MP3s and IPODS; they all had more of an effect than a mere strike or other union activity. All that notwithstanding, many industrial communities have groups...bands, choruses, etc... yet today; they just don't get the recognition.

Are you suggesting the iPod is responsible for the demise of the Huntingdon Erie Shop Band?

That's like the horsebuggy manufacturers complaining about automobiles.