Harold,
First and most importantly, thank you for offering to share you depot
plans and so graciously sending along the depot plan. I received the
copy of the plan for the Oregon,IL depot in the mail today, January
8, 2009. What a great gesture on your part to share these plans with
fellow CB&Q modelers.
In addition to the standard dimensional information (length X width)
there was other extremely valuable information on the print, such as
ceiling height. The plan also gives a list of the types of building
materials used for the different sections of floors within the depot
and confirms that there was a basement where a hot water boiler was
located. One bit of information in regards to the floors I'll need
to confirm is the material used for the General Waiting Room floor.
In a description on another site I read the floor was exposed
aggregate, in other words a terrazzo floor. While this copy of the
plan reveals that it was originally scheduled to be a tile floor.
Both seem possible and plausible to me so I'll need to do some
further checking on that detail. Since I live in Tucson, Arizona now
it is not very easy to get back to Illinois to verify critical
information and my attempts to contact the Oregon Depot Historical
Society have been unsuccessful to date. My suspicion is that the
boiler was originally a coal fired boiler but in recent photographs
of the building there is no evidence of a coal scuttle to the
basement. Now I think I can assume there must have been one since it
is not likely that the Q would have used an oil fired boiler on a
section of the line where coal fired steam power dominated.
Something else I have learned from using company prints is that they
don't always match the building actually constructed. There must
have been some latitude on the part of division superintendents and
builders as long as they stayed within budget on the project. That
is the case with this plan as the actual structure and the plan are
different in a few very noticeable ways. The first and most obvious
is the fact that on the plan there are no windows in the ticket
office or men's smoking room across from/facing eachother on the
plan. In reality these windows exist on the trackside of the
structure but not on the street side. Secondly, in the plan there is
a small conductor's room off the ticket office. I'm not certain that
this room is in the present structure, but then it is easy to
manipulate interior dividing walls by adding or removing them after a
structure is completed. Something else that this plan makes pretty
obvious to me is that the Baggage Room door must have been hinged and
not sliding, but I'll need to confirm that detail as it appears that
there is enough room to have a sliding door that slid towards the
trackside of the depot. A while back I got a nice link to a photo of
the depot from Charlie Vlk that showed the baggage door pretty
clearly but since it was in a closed position it is still difficult
to tell whether it was a slider or a hinged door. In the general
scheme of things it may not be important except that I'd like to
model the depot as it was in use with a baggage/mail cart being
hauled out of the baggage room.
One marvelous thing about the Oregon depot is that it has been
faithfully restored on its original location by a group of very civic
minded individuals, local craftsmen and contractors who have all
donated their money, time and expertise to preserve this bit of
history. The last time I was there for a BRHS Spring Meet in 2004 I
had no idea that I would want to build a scale model of this depot so
I didn't take measurements or make detailed observation notes. But
then the bug bit me to build the depot so now I'm on a mission.
Thanks again for playing an important role in my eventual completion
of a scale replica of the Oregon, IL depot. Please don't hesitate to
ask for help on your project. If there is any way I can reciprocate
in your efforts to complete your project I would be delighted. I
have just completed sharing some little known information about the
electrification of railroads coming into Chicago with author Imre
Quastler who is completing a book about the Grand Trunk Railroad.
Again I would be delighted to help you if possible by sharing what
little I have available to me.
Later, Dave Sarther
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