Measuring Structures for Scratchbuilding

[P5se Camelback]

A number of years ago … um … the calculator says 38 … I needed a way to measure structures from photographs. (I was working for an architect, surveying buildings in West Philadelphia that he was under contract to rehabilitate for new commercial usage.) I could measure all of the interior spaces and locate windows and doors and structural columns, etc. using my 100' tape measure, but measuring the elevations was a different matter. So I would do my best to take a few 35mm photos from across the street as well as a closer shot of just the first floor and include the “Measuring Stick” that I had made.

Back in the office at my drawing board, photographic prints and a pair of dividers in hand, generating that elevation drawing was a piece of cake, as I had a reference for feet as well as inches to set the dividers at and then just “walk up the face of the building.”

I present the Measuring Stick!



It’s a six-foot piece of 2”x2” lumber, sanded, primed, and taped off in foot increments and painted white, then re-taped and painted black. The same was then done on each end, taping it off in one inch increments. Even from across the street, the contrast between the black and the white makes it a very easy tool to refer to when measuring structures (or anything else, actually) from a photograph, as long as you remember to lean it up against the structure or freight car or trackside detail in question prior to exposing the film!

As an example, here is the entryway to my house …



… and one of the front corners of the house …



… you can figure out the dimensions for yourself.

Of course, once you have the dividers set to one foot, or six feet, or “five foot two,” you can measure both height and width.

It’s an easy tool to build and everyone will want to know … “What’s that?!!”