A lickle request - not gimmie pigging tho lol

[bassist118]

Hi all

Does any-one know of any good period map sites for Seattle circa 1950 / 60. I have searched and searched but to no avail.... I can't work out for the life of me how tracks lead to Seattle Union Station also was Kings Street there at the same time it just seems a little close to Union Station like just across the road... I wouldn't mind to include an older version of my Downtown Seattle route as another route layer (eventually).

Thanks all

:Y::Y:

Andy

 

[cascaderailroad]

There is a Seattle, WA, Fishlipsatwork DEM :hehe: Across the Great Pond and Beyond !

 

[bassist118]

Thanks Cascaderailroad but I'm working off the dem map and using google earth and streetview but am looking for a period map site around 1950 - we have loads of old map sites over here - still can't find one for Seattle :'(

Cheers tho

:Y::Y:

Andy

 

[JCitron]

Hi Andy,

This site doesn't have any old maps for Seattle, WA. But it does have topographic maps (ordinance maps) for the whole US, and I think Canada as well.

http://mapserver.mytopo.com

Topographic maps tend to show a lot of older things such as long abandoned rail lines, or even ROW that haven't been altered yet.

John

 

[RacerTodd]

Hi all

Does any-one know of any good period map sites for Seattle circa 1950 / 60. I have searched and searched but to no avail.... I can't work out for the life of me how tracks lead to Seattle Union Station also was Kings Street there at the same time it just seems a little close to Union Station like just across the road... I wouldn't mind to include an older version of my Downtown Seattle route as another route layer (eventually).

Try this site: http://www.historicaerials.com . They have aerial photos of Seattle (and many other US cities) from today back to the 1930's or so. You can zoom in & out and overlay street names on the map as well.

King Street Station (correct name) hosted the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads. Union Station hosted the Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific.

While King Street Station is still being used as a passenger station, Union Station is not. King Street Station sits right on what is now the BNSF main.

The right of way where tracks led to Union Station is now a road. The tracks went straight south of the station, hooking up with the mainline at Argo Yard. On that site the road is listed as "busway" as it is a bus-only road.

Todd

 

[JCitron]

Try this site: http://www.historicaerials.com ....


Todd

Hi Todd,

I totally forgot about this site. I lost my bookmark in a hard drive failure about 3 months ago.

Thanks for the link!

John

 

[bassist118]

@JCiTorn - Thanks for the find that will come in handy...

@RacerTodd - Again thanks for the find, that is a great site, and thanks for the details.... Hows things going long time no speaky - lost your emails after my hotmail account went byebye , recently tho managed to get it back up and running lol. Still have all your extremely useful Nucor Steel pics tho... I hope all is well with you... I'm getting there with my route but am starting to regret starting it the amount of yards around Seattle is overwhelming lol.

Thanks all

:Y::Y:

Andy

 

[RacerTodd]

@RacerTodd - Again thanks for the find, that is a great site, and thanks for the details.... Hows things going long time no speaky - lost your emails after my hotmail account went byebye , recently tho managed to get it back up and running lol. Still have all your extremely useful Nucor Steel pics tho... I hope all is well with you... I'm getting there with my route but am starting to regret starting it the amount of yards around Seattle is overwhelming lol.

I'm doing fine. I caught more GE 44-tonner action at Nucor, it'll be up later this week on my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/SeattleRailFan).
We do have our share of yards, not as many as a really big city like Chicago, though...

Todd

 

[bl4882]

I've found Sanborn maps extremely useful. They were produced for use by the insurance industry over about a 100 year period until the 1960s for most cities and towns in the US and give highly detailed information on track and structure locations. The maps for Seattle are available on line from the Seattle public library here

http://www.spl.org/library-collection/articles-and-research/history-biography-and-maps

Scroll down to Sanborn maps. You have to be a member of the library, but if you email them they might let you have a card in the interest of international goodwill. If they will not you might be able to find them elsewhere by Googling Sanborn insurance maps.

Bernie