Locked AGS Depot on Greensboro Ave. Tuscaloosa Al. Info
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MHolley
After seeing emails about drawings etc. it has rekindled my desire to model the Southern RR station in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I used to go back to work with my dad after his supper break at the drug store across the street and would watch in awe as the trains switched the interchange and the TOFC yard.
I am a new guy here so if this message needs moving, don't hesitate to do it. It won't hurt my feelings, heck, I've been married over 40 years now, no way to hurt these feelings. I have a real cool watercolor painting of the Tuscaloosa depot (from the Bama Feed side) and I would sure love to find some plans or line drawings on this structure. Does anyone have any ideas where I could locate them? Internet searches have not uncovered much at all. Worse case scenario, I may take a tape measure and notepad and hope for the best at the station. Any help would be appreciated, Mark  |
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George Eichelberger
We have only two of the nine pages of the 1910 AGS drawings of the Tuscaloosa depot. These two came from one of the microfilm rolls I got from the NS Real Estate Dept. maybe 20 years ago. All were nitrate based film that was probably made in the 1950s. After hearing about drawings in the Spring St. building’s “attic", I finally found an “old hand” that told me they had been cleaned out and destroyed years before. (The “attic” was actually a storage area on the first floor of the building?)
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Apparently, the Southern attempted to microfilm them before getting rid of the paper/blueprint/linen (?) copies. As many of the rolls of microfilm were beyond use, I would take an x-acto knife, cut through a couple of layers and try to peel them off the reel. In some cases, I did that down to the metal reel and could not salvage anything from the roll to scan. On a few rolls, the outer layers had turned to goop but the inside layers, less exposed to air (?) still had images on them. I had almost given up on this particular roll when I discovered the inside few layers could be cut apart and scanned. The two Tuscaloosa depot drawings were on those layers. The black areas on the scan are where the image layer came off the substrate. We have not developed the policies or ability to let people order copies of drawings and photos on line. Except in very rare cases we do not have the manpower to print, pack and mail hard copy drawings but we are working on the system to do that on-line now. If anyone is willing to make a donation, they can specify it be used for that purpose. The “Photos and Drawings by Location” digital files contains approximately 15,459 scans (301.13 GB). They can be viewed at the archives work sessions. If anyone has Southern or CofG drawings or photos (any subject), please consider donating them to the SRHA archives! The Google Drive link to page 5/9 of the (reduced size and resolution) Tuscaloosa station drawing is: Ike PS I will have to delete this, and other large drawings and photos from Google Drive and the .io group storage soon to save space. On Jan 10, 2022, at 5:14 PM, MHolley via groups.io <mholley07@...> wrote: After seeing emails about drawings etc. it has rekindled my desire to model the Southern RR station in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I used to go back to work with my dad after his supper break at the drug store across the street and would watch in awe as the trains switched the interchange and the TOFC yard. I am a new guy here so if this message needs moving, don't hesitate to do it. It won't hurt my feelings, heck, I've been married over 40 years now, no way to hurt these feelings. I have a real cool watercolor painting of the Tuscaloosa depot (from the Bama Feed side) and I would sure love to find some plans or line drawings on this structure. Does anyone have any ideas where I could locate them? Internet searches have not uncovered much at all. Worse case scenario, I may take a tape measure and notepad and hope for the best at the station. Any help would be appreciated, Mark <DSC04823.JPG> |
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John M. Ware, P.E.
Mark;
As long as the existing building is still standing, going and measuring it is usually a very rewarding experience. I wanted to have a model of the Southern station an at Norcross, Ga. And did exactly that. It usually takes two trips. The initial trip and a follow up trip to verify the initial measuring and make observations that were overlooked not thought necessary. Having someone to help hold the tape end and ladder is also helpful. Don’t forget the Camera. The field visit also revealed changes that had been made.
John Ware, Architect, Ret.
From: main@SouthernRailway.groups.io [mailto:main@SouthernRailway.groups.io] On Behalf Of MHolley via groups.io
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 5:15 PM To: main@SouthernRailway.groups.io Subject: [SouthernRailway] AGS Depot on Greensboro Ave. Tuscaloosa Al. Info
After seeing emails about drawings etc. it has rekindled my desire to model the Southern RR station in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I used to go back to work with my dad after his supper break at the drug store across the street and would watch in awe as the trains switched the interchange and the TOFC yard. |
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MHolley
John,
I can feel a field trip coming on! As soon as I can get off and when the weather cooperates, I plan on going and photographing and measuring everything I can around that depot. Hopefully, I can spread some good old southern charm and get them to let me inside (also a box of Krispy-Kream donuts just-in-case) and get a decent floor plan sketch because just my memories from 50 - 55 years ago just won't do. You kind people have restarted my desire to get back into modeling and I believe this time I'll end up with something to show for it. Mark |
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