Train stations:

For more information than you ever needed, go to the model railroad
hobby press. There are two main publishers, who have been publishing
plans of train stations in such magazines as Model Railroader,
Railroad Model Craftsman, Trains, etc. Some decades ago, there was a
published union index to articles in these publications, but I'm sure
there are more recent ones.

Scale drawings, photographs and building histories are the rule in
these articles, which feature not only rolling stock and motive
power, but every structure related to railroads.  This is reliable
information, because these guys are real fanatics. Your local
railroad museum might be a help.

Another source, from the 1890s, is Kirkman's series of volumes called
"Science of the Railways," which was published under several
different group titles.

A good rule of thumb in any research is to seek out the enthusiast press.

Plant materials:

Trees are a very useful indicator of former homesites out in the
woods. Cherries, for example, will regenerate (coppice) from stumps.
Here in Delaware, the father of Caesar Rodney (Signer of the
Declaration of Independence) planted a cherry walk between two family
homes. The descendants of those cherry trees are still there, in an
abandoned woodland, regenerating generation after generation from
stumps.

Osage Orange was planted as a hedge tree during the middle years of
the nineteenth century, and can still be seen in hedgerows. It's a
pretty reliable marker for scientific farmers, since you had to buy
the trees.
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