First Three Parts: Train Research and Information Storage on the Internet

Successful Photo Searches on the Internet (Part One)

Researching railroads and their environs during the first half of the 20th century has become much easier since the advent of the internet, particularly with respect to photographic records. The problem now is sorting out all the possible sites and figuring out a way to use them efficiently.

First, where to find photographs. There are some excellent local collections online, including:

● The Providence Public Library, which has a substantial number of old photographs grouped by topic. They are located at: http://www.provlib.org/image-collections

● The city of Providence also has an archive located at: http://www.providenceri.com/photogallery

● The Rhode Island Photographic Survey has a collection on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/egould/collections/72157600305663724

● The New York Library Digital Collection has a vast number of photographs online. Searching “railroad” yielded almost 12,000 results. Their home is: http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

● The Boston Public Library has over 82,000 photographs on line in Flickr, located at http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_ public_library

The most comprehensive photograph archive is the Library of Congress. The portal to its photograph collection is http://www.loc.gov/pictures.The archive has over 1.2 million digitalized images in its collection.

Basic search engines are also helpful, provided you work to define your query to find what you are looking for. A general search on Bing for “Boston and Maine Railroad” images yields over 35,000 results. The result on Google looks equally as large, although the result does not provide a total number of hits.

Some areas to search may not be immediately obvious. There are sites, such as vintagepostcards.com that sell postcards, but also post images of the cards themselves. Postcards are also sold on ebay. One location that should be given attention is ancestry.com, the most popular genealogy site. If you are a member you can search millions of photographs posted by members in connection with their family trees. Railroad, industry, shipping and manufacturing photos are all available.

With all these resources, finding a photo of an engine, a piece of rolling stock, a station or an industry may seem like searching for a needle in a haystack. So it is important to think carefully about how you frame your search, since railroad terms often echo terms used outside of the railroad context in a very different way. Think about the railroad and non-railroad meanings of terms such as “engine”, “yard” and “tie”. Google does not know the difference. Take a few minutes, if you are not familiar with building searches, to read a few articles about how to make a Google or Bing search more effective. A basic introduction to search concepts can be found at http://www.websearch.about.com/od/searchingtheweb/a/sevenhabits.htm. A short pdf that discusses the logic behind searches is located at http://www.library.pitt.edu/guides/search.pdf

Successful Photo Searches on the Internet: Part Two

Last month we looked at some web sites that have searchable data bases for photographs. This month we will be looking at several specialized web sites, as well as ideas for storing and accessing photographs you have located.Shorpy.com (http://www.shorpy.com/) is one web site you might want to visit regularly, particularly if you model transition era or earlier. Each day the site posts high quality photographs from a variety of locations, including the Library of Congress database. Many of these photos show industrial or commercial activities, as well as details of daily life that can be used to super detail your scenes. Regular contributors comment on the photos, identify the present locations of the photos, and provide further background information. Visiting the site once a week will keep you caught up with the photos, all of which are top quality.Once you have identified a photo or sign on Shorpy, in the Library of Congress data base, or simply through a Google search, what do you do with it? Good question. One with a number of answers, depending on what you want to do with the photo. Is it a sign that you are going to want to change or resize? Is it a reference photo of a specific prototype? Is it an “idea” photo that includes details, elements, or structures that you want to use or modify? Let’s take a look at options.

1. Word Processing Program.

Your favorite word processor, whether Word or something else, will allow you to paste images from the internet into a word document. You use the “copy” function accessed through the right button menu in your web browser and then switch over to the word processor, open the document, and hit the “paste” command (again, through right menu button on the mouse, or Ctrl-V). It is usually imported into a box, which can be resized to suit your purposes. I use this method for signs that I want to keep “as is” (no retouching) but will want to resize to HO scale. You can fit quite a few signs onto a single page of paper, which can then be printed out (remember to insert the file name and path into a header on the document so you know where you put it). These instructions are for Windows based programs, the same process works on Macs, except the commands use the special mac key instead of Ctrl.

The word processor can also be used to store and print full sized research photos. I find these work best in landscape mode, with the photo taking the full paper dimension.

2. Photo Software

. Don’t panic at the thought. You don’t even need to buy a program. Most people assume the need to go out and buy Photoshop or Lightroom, but that is not necessary. Google has a free program, Picasa, that handles most routine photo modifications and works on PCs and Macs. Although it is not as full featured, you cannot beat the cost. It also will serve as a place where you can store all your photos on your hard drive and access them easily. Mac users can use iPhoto, or for more advanced work, Aperture.

The advantage of these programs is that they allow you to modify elements of the photograph, including colors (useful for signs). They also provide a “storage system” that allows you to see, review and print your photos. But unless you are planning to do a lot of photo manipulation (i.e., photo interiors of buildings, photo landscape backdrops, etc.) you may spend more time doing photography than model railroading if you use these programs for more than simple storage and retrieval.

3. Pinterest.

Pinterest is a website: Pinterest.com. You sign up for a free account, and it allows you to set up your own “boards” and view other peoples’ boards. A board is a collection of photos, web pages, and screen captures. Basically, Pinterest allows you to maintain an online photo collection. What is unique about it is that it does not store the actual photo – it stores a “snapshot” of it, together with an automatic link back to the original source. Pinterest also allows you to install a small widget in your browser that makes “pinning” a photo to your collection quick and easy. I have set up boards to cover topics such as New England mills, street scenes, rolling stock, and other useful categories. You can also browse the boards of others, “follow” what appear to be relevant boards, and “repin” from other boards, giving you a ready source of photo research. My Pinterest boards can be viewed at http://pinterest.com/spe/boards/

Free Internet Tools to Keep You and Your Research Organized

Let’s face it. A lot of model railroaders do not use the internet to its full capacity when it comes to their hobby. Most people have email, some word processing, and use a few sites for news or information. But the reality is that there are many tools out there for model railroaders that make our lives much easier. I have covered some of the research tools in the past two installments of this article, and in the future I will cover areas such as iOS applications, Yahoo groups, Facebook, message boards, and other sources of information. For this month I will discuss some ways to organize – for free – the information (photos, files, research, websites) that I have previously mentioned.
1. Evernote
Get this program. It is free. It runs on Windows, Macs, iPhones, iPads, android devices, and almost everything else. It allows you to take notes anywhere, on any computing device you own, and see it on any other device. And it is FREE. When you set it up on multiple devices it automatically keeps all your notes up to date on each one. It is available at http://www.evernote.com.
You can set up notebooks inside the program – for example, one on “Model Railroad Research”, another on “Clinic Notes”. You can take notes the old fashioned pen and paper way, scan the notes using your scanner and put them in an Evernote file, so you always stay organized. I have scanned critical information, such as a copy of my NMRA card, into Evernote so I never have to look for it.
Notebooks can be private, so that only you can see them, or you can make them public, which is a way of sharing documents between people working on a project. Documents can be searched by notebook, by a “tag” or keyword that you apply to them, or by content. Did I mention it is FREE?

2. Dropbox

Dropbox is also free. You can get it at http://www.dropbox.com. This program is somewhat different in function from Evernote. What Dropbox does is provide “cloud storage” for files. It is not a spur of the moment note taker like Evernote, but it allows you to put files you want to access from multiple devices in one location. That location – your dropbox – integrates into your computer so that it looks like another folder, just like “My Documents”. The difference is that although “My Documents” is only available on one device, your dropbox folder can be used anywhere.
You probably do not want to put sensitive documents in the “cloud” if you are at all concerned about security, but for hobby purposes it is perfectly fine. So if you have photos, documents, plans, or information files created on one computer that you want to see or use on another, get Dropbox.
If you have existing files, such as photos or word documents that you would like to access in different locations, Dropbox is probably better suited than Evernote for the task.
3. Google Documents
Keeping with this month’s theme, this is another free program, although in fact it is more than a program – it is a complete set of programs only available on line (although there is an advanced way to have the material stored on your computer.
Google documents is a free replacement for Microsoft Office. It has a word processor, spread sheet program, presentation program, form creator, and drawing program. All are integrated into one user interface, allowing you to create the type of document you want from a single entry screen. You can get access to Google Docs at http://www.docs.google.com .

4. iCloud

If you have an iOS device, such as an iPad or an iPhone, you have automatic access to iCloud, which is where your calendar, contacts, reminders, and apple email (if you have an email account ending in .me) is located.
It can also be used for some document storage, but only if you are totally committed to the Apple environment.
5. Email

Mail yourself a letter. I do it all the time. See something you want to remember? Are you at a website you want to look at more fully later? Pop yourself an email. In the future I will spend some time discussing storage and retrieval of email information so that you can make use of it for hobby purposes, but for now hold that thought.