Color in a black and white era.

Well, color has always been there of course, but color photography was not as common in publications in the era I model.  Figuring out what color things are using black and white photographs is a fine art that escapes me, so I tend to rely on other's who have better resources or have salvaged things and just now bringing them to lite.  Case in point..there's no shortage of color reference for Sunkist on the web, but to find a shot of a period piece, preserved is a rare treat.  A company local to the original packing house saved the marque portion of the front of the structure and incorporated it into their office space.  When I worked with Disney some of the projects required doing faux details like this and getting them to look weather worn was always a difficult task.  Here, mother nature did the hard work for them.  Anyway, photo's  like this are great resources and inspiration to dig a bit deeper into your project.

I have to admit, if I owned my own house, I would do my model room just like this.  cool.  Here is a shot of the original building being dismantled.

And a iconic shot of the building with a Santa Fe CF-7 diesel drifting through the scene.  This shot is one of the images that got me interested in doing a citrus based layout.  While I live in Oregon now, I still have great memories of living in Ventura when I was younger and remember the Eucalyptus trees and endless days of fog and cool breezes.  How you get that into HO scale, I don't know, but recreating scenes that inspire memories is what most of us strive for.