Hi Bob: I think the book you are referring to is Wheat Kings: Vanishing Landmarks of the Canadian Prairies by Greg McDonnel. Published by Boston Mill Press, ISBN 1-55046-249-0.
I gave the book a favourable review in Canadian Railway Modeller some years back. Greg is well known for his high quality colour photography of Canadian railroad subjects. Boston Mill is/was also known for keeping titles in their catalogues for quite a long time. If you can't get it from them, I'm sure Amazon or some other online retailer could help list members out. This book is a treat to look at even if you don't plan on building a grain elevator, and the architecture will be very familiar to residents of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Idaho. As for that faux-brick covering, just Google "Insulbrick" and all will be revealed. This stuff was apparently called "ghetto wrap" in some parts. Properly applied, it could spruce up tired buildings in its day, but looked pretty shabby once it started to deteriorate. Canadian railroads used a lot of it on line side shacks and even stations. It was also quite popular in rural areas and the poorer parts of town. There's still quite a bit of it around, at least in these parts if one keeps a watchful eye. RMC had an article some years back and I have duplicated the look by printing brick paper on my computer and then drawing the panel lines with a fine drafting pen. Jim Martin ________________________________ From: Bob Werre <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 4:37:09 PM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List}old structures/new structures There is a wonderful book out that contains mostly smaller Canadian grain elevators. Before I wrap this up, I'll mention another thing that was common, and probably just down the road from the Zeiska residence. If one were to view a model of a Soo Line station the judges might give it a bad review because of sloppy application of brickwork. Actually it wasn't brick at all. Many older homes and railroad stations that were hard to heat were covered with an asphalt wrapper embossed with a brick pattern. So if one were to take some brick paper and wrap your station without taking into consideration how it lined up or if the wrapper actually went around the corner you would be following what really was done. I have photos of a couple of Soo Line combination stations with living quarters above with such treatment. Unfortunately, I'm not certain how this stuff was applied and what sizes the stuff was sold in. Bob Werre PhotoTraxx
