Structures and Stories: Reproducing Industries of the Santa Clara Valley

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you've already heard how I've crossed over from building models of canneries along the tracks into some full-blown local history research. Last month, I shared that journey at the NMRA Pacific Coast Region's annual convention in Rohnert Park.

My talk - "Structures and Stories: Reproducing Industries of the Santa Clara Valley" - focused on four of the industries along the branch. For each, I gave a history of the building, talked about the business there, and showed the model I built. Then, just as on this blog, I veered off in crazy directions, talking about the deadly elevator at the Guggenhime packing house, or how Higgins-Hyde pissed off the Santa Clara valley, or about the Ainsley cannery's exports to England. The talk seemed to be well-received, though I got more compliments from wives of model railroaders who enjoyed actually hearing about the people, men and women, who helped run the fruit-related businesses in the Santa Clara valley. One listener, after hearing I was using appeals court rulings and accounting records to understand the business, asked if I'd been an investigator in a previous career, because my research seemed very similar to her past work as an IRS investigator!

If you weren't able to attend but you're curious about the presentation, slides are here. I also put together a quick handout on research tips for doing similar historic research.

And fingers crossed I encouraged some of you to similarly do some historic research on the buildings along your favorite stretch of track!