Todd Longwell Horse-drawn carriages were back on the streets of Troy, N.Y., in August, alongside equipment trucks, honey wagons and camera cranes. HBO’s “The Gilded Age” had returned to shoot scenes for the second season of the series, which explores the lives of monied families and the people who serve them in 1880s New York. The previous year, the production had covered the streets of Troy’s Monument Square with truckloads of dirt to turn it into a period-correct downtown Manhattan shopping district, and also utilized other well-preserved 19th century structures in the town (population: 51,400), 152 miles north of Manhattan, including the Rensselaer County Court House, the Savings Bank Music Hall and the Troy Public Library, along with its Washington Park neighborhood and the Oakwood Cemetery.