Another layout - thinking process

[DKS]

It is a little goofy to use...

That's an understatement...

[wcfn100]

I registered a while ago and they have never contacted me at all.

Same.

For big areas with multiple aerials, sometime using the GPS coordinates is better than city names, especially after you figure out the image is upside down. 


Jason

[GimpLizard]

I registered a while ago and they have never contacted me at all.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. What's the worst that can happen? A visit from the Feds... maybe? 

[Chris333]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. What's the worst that can happen? A visit from the Feds... maybe? 

Well I don't type in "secret nuclear weapons" into the search bar either 

[Chris333]

It is strange how the photos from the 50's are better than the 60's 70's & 80's most of the time. I know for PA there is a Penn Pilot site that goes back to 1939. I have read there might be a whole US aerial survey in 1939, but haven't seen any of it in my area posted online. You may be able to check the engineering dept in the area you're interested in for more. I haven't tired that yet.

[GimpLizard]

Well, as a follow up... I got some results. But they pretty much turned out to be a bust. At least for my purposes.

I'm searching for track layouts of the Nicolet Badger Northern, a pulp hauling short-line on the former CNW line, between Wabeno & Tipler Wisconsin from 1983 to 1994. I'm looking for the track layouts in Wabeno & Laona. And any log-loading spurs along the line. I found a few images at Earth Explorer. But the resolution was so bad as to be worthless. Or maybe I'm just not doing it right.

Here are the best images I could find.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Thanks anyway, guys. It's still a 'tool' I may find handy at some point.

[GimpLizard]

Well I don't type in "secret nuclear weapons" into the search bar either 

But that's my job. 

[DKS]

Here's another source of historic aerials. You have to pay for large images with no watermarks, but it's a reasonable fee. And the watermarks don't obfuscate most visual information you  may want, so it can be free depending on your needs. I found it very useful for research on the Black River & Western.

https://www.historicaerials.com/

[Chris333]

Under "data sets" I click "aerial imagery" and then check the 3rd box down "aerial photos single frames".

I guess it just depends where you're looking. In my area most of them are pretty good. You can make out freight cars and trains with smoke coming from the locomotive. This is part of a local steel mill that I just happen to have uploaded:

[Chris333]

Here is one mill in Laona 1938:

[DKS]

I get depressed seeing images like that. I was born in the wrong era...

Not only is the mill gone, but several blocks of homes/industries were razed just for highway ramps...

[Chris333]

Pretty much all of Youngstown looks like that.

[DKS]

Pretty much all of Youngstown looks like that.

Sad. It's the gutting of our country.

Oh well, back to our regularly scheduled thread.

[GimpLizard]

Thanks guys.

Dave, your link proved a bit better. I was able to make out the 2-stall engine house, and a turning wye, at the south end of Laona in 1998. I knew the engine house was there. But the wye was news to me. So that's cool. I think I also see a spur in Wabeno. But I wasn't sure. So I jumped ahead to 2005. Those images are a little better. But unfortunately it looks like the tracks were gone by then. Dangnabit.

Chris, I tried what you suggested about "aerial photos single frames" but got no results. That are is so sparsely populated - I don't the combined population, of Laona & Wabeno is 1,000 - that there was ever much covered up there. I tried a whole bunch of other "data sets" and got nothing with them, also.

I did learn something else that's interesting though. The NBN used to interchange with the Wisconsin Central a few miles north of Laona, at Laona Jct. What's interesting is that that WC line (now an unused CN line) is a former SOO Line line. The same SOO Line line that passes through the Tesch Jct that Thomas mentioned at the start of this thread. Is that a coincidence, or what?

[Chris333]

Is this the wye?


Are you able to find the photo I did at least? Maybe try using a push pin on the area you want and then hitting search.