Serendipity

I've been focusing lately on the Old Saybrook scene and actually have a kit of the interlocking tower that used to be here. I thought I'd seen just about every known photo of Old Saybrook during my era, but decided to work the google on the internet machine anyway (it's an all-too-often-forgotten railroad research resource, forgotten at least by me). I'm sure glad I did since I got a pleasant surprise.

This is a snip of a photo (including highlighted search term) from "The Classic Railway Signal Tower" - a photo I'd never seen before. While it doesn't show the Saybrook tower itself, it's a very rare southwesterly view of the Saybrook station area from under the Rt. 1 bridge. Unfortunately(!), most of the area is obscured by that stupid train :^) Fortunately, it shows not only some of the girder detail of the bridge (which will aid my modelbuilding effort), but it also shows - albeit just a little bit - a view of the coal dealer that used to be on the house track.

As if seeing a super rare photo of my area during my era for the first time (via google, no less) wasn't enough serendipity - turns out I actually own the book. Yup, got the book a couple years ago and am embarrassed to admit I never remembered seeing that photo.

So, a couple of tips:

1. When you go through your books & other research resources, use post-its to mark pages that have relevant photos/data (I've done this in a bunch of my books - just not "The Classic Railway Signal Tower," until now that is);
2. Despite the amount of research you've collected, but sure you check the google as well - you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find.