East Terminal & Newburgh

[Schraddel]

Hello Folks!

It is time to tell the story of my H0 modular switching layout.
In the beginning there were 5 modules of an abandoned modular layout of German prototype:











It should become a rural station in Germany elsewere. Roco Line track with track bed was laid and nailed down. And as you see it was still plywood country.
Only on module 1 i made first attempts of landscaping.
But in 2006 i became US Modelrailroader and the most of the German stuff became obsolete.
Instead i went into a search for an US prototype.
At first i thought of small rural station of NYC prototpe settled in the Catskill or Adirondack Mountain area.
But my attention was soon drawed to the Cleveland/OH area with it's busy industrial districts.
Untypical for the US with the usually common wide spaced landscape, here are factories, warehouses, streets, piers, and of course railyards squeezed in the Cuyahoga Valley in a tight package.
This links to historic photos on Shorpy may give you an impression:
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<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.shorpy.com/node/13986?size=_original#caption">http://www.shorpy.com/node/13986?size=_original#caption</a><!-- m -->
Do you have seen the small railyard in the last photo? And how crooked it is squeezed between the buildings?
Bad for real 1:1 business, but good for 1:87 modelrailroaders.
Each further i studied Cleveland/OH, each more i got impressed with the prototype situation and at least this was the prototype for my little model railroad.
Of course there is the danger to make a big, big huge layout covering thousand of square meters if you do not pay attention.
But on the other side you have the ability to put a grid over the area and pick out a small part only. Like picking out the raisins out of the cake.
So i did. I did not choose space consuming furnaces, steel mills, harbour fronts and so on.
Only "normal" small industries and small business served by rail wich could be found on the edges of every city.
On "normal" situation these industrial districts are wide spread over the landscape and still space consuming for model RR.
But here in this special geograpical evironment they are all sqeezed together. Good for model railroaders with few space available.

The next year no spike was nailed. Instead i "visited" the historic Cleveland/OH:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/index.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/index.html</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/railroads.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/railroads.html</a><!-- m -->

I got fascinated here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/nss/index.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/nss/index.html</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/SpecColl/nssbk/">http://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/SpecColl/nssbk/</a><!-- m -->
A Class 1 carrier with only 7 miles of main line.

At least my mytical East Terminal & Newburgh Rail Road is a konglomeratical mix of the:
- Newburgh & South Shore RR (N&SS)
- Cuyahoga Valley RR (CV)
- Baltimore & Ohio RR (B&O), here paricular only the line through the Cuyahoga Valley

As time frame i choose the 1940's and ealy 1950's.

So, that were the theoretical thoughts, let's start and see what i can do in practice with this 5 given modules.

At first i removed all the German rail stuff. They were a little bit toy train like and made for deeeep flanges still common in Europe and are not a US prototype.
Then i bought real US tracks from Atlas Code 83 and Peco Streamline Code 83, both are representing US protype.


Here i made my first attempts have laid track and switches loose onto the plywood district.
One of my thoughts was to reuse some of the buildings of German origin.
No good idea.

Lutz

[postman]

Looking good. Do you have a final track plan?

[MrBill]

That South Shore image collection is really nice. A great group of pics to choose some scenes from. I like all the interchange crossings and bridges. Including one of those areas would make a nice scenic break amongst your modules. You're on the right path changing over to longer turnouts. Looking forward to your progress (and the track plan).

[long island jack]

Look forward to following your build.

[faraway]

... At first i removed all the German rail stuff. They were a little bit toy train like and made for deeeep flanges still common in Europe and are not a US prototype ...

Lutz, the old ROCO switches work fine with RP25 wheels after the little brass adapters sold some years ago by (the old) ROCO are installed. My hidden staging yard is build with that old stuff switches with integrated switch machine and integrated DCC decoder. Very handy for remote controlled staging yard use.
The little adapter in the frog helping the US wheels over the canyons of the European frog. The rails are Code 83 and fit perfect.

[teejay]

I like the " picking raisins from a cake " analogy ....perfect for model railroading . Model a specific small area and "imagineer" the rest . Looks like an interesting project .

T

[jwb]

It's actually posible to re-use many German prototype buildings for North America. The biggest exceptions might be "Fachwerk" style stations and the like, though even there you can find exceptions. I'd look at changing the roofline first. In the background here is an old Pola N scale German engine house that I rearranged into a US style factory:
   
I added a Walthers smokestack and covered the windows with "plywood" the way many abandoned factories are handled. This helped take away a sense of scale and covered the clunky and too-European style windows in the kit.

Dr Wayne has done an equivalent job with a German-style freight house by changing a few architectural details and the roof. Faraway/Reinhard has done an outstanding job with a Kibri (I think) factory that translates very well into a US style terra cotta building.

If you have some buildings on hand that you think could be candidates for conversion, or that you'd like to use (a German plastic building kit over here is in the $100 range, not the sort of thing to ignore if you've got it), why not post photos here, and we might be able to give you some ideas?

[Kev1340]

Looks to be an interesting project! You've certainly chosen some great prototype inspiration, I shall look forward to watching your progress.

Cheers,

Kev

[Tyson Rayles]

It looks like you are off to a good start Lutz !

[eje]

Herr Lutz - NSS is an excellent prototype for what you are showing. Through most of its existence, Newburgh & South Shore was owned by US Steel and provided inter-mill transfer movements; it also functioned as a short interchange/bridge route between several local railroads, particularly B&O, Erie, PRR and W&LE. The "Cleveland Memory" website is a huge resource of photographs, as you know. I grew up in Cleveland during the '60's and early '70's. Many of those old brick buildings in the photographs are still in existence, and many of the narrow streets are on steep hills climbing out of the Cuyahoga Valley. Conditions in that part of "The Flats" were very cramped. The last locomotives manufactured at Alco in Schenectady, NY were a pair of T-6's for the NSS. Excellent! Ric

[Schraddel]

Thank you for watching my thread!
I will give answer to the questions and suggestions, thank you for the suggestions.
What i describe here in this thread actually started in the summer of 2008 and is still in progress. This is my first attempt to built a US styled layout and i had very little time to work on it. So progress was and is only slowly and in this tread i try to write down the complete story from the beginning on.
So don't wonder if the progress you can see in the next aerticles will be very quick and after reaching a certain piont, the "now-time", will become dead slow.

@ postman and MrBill: Yes track plan will come lateron in form of somewhat "air photos"

@Reinhard:
European model switches and frogs are designed for wheels running on their flange tips over the bottom of the frogs. NMRA conform wheels will fall down here into the frog "canyon". A ugly proceeding in my eyes.
US model switches are designed in an manner, that the wheels move the entire way over the frog only on their threads, as the protoype. So the flage depth is of secondary meaning.
Also European and US switches have complete different tie layout and design.
This photo may show the differences:

From upper:
Atlas Code 83 #4
Roco Code 100 11,5°, complete new handmade frog
Atlas Code 83 #6
Roco Code 100 9,5°, original frog
Atlas Code 83 #8
Look to the ties, there is the difference.

Of course i have modified frogs:

Roco Code 100 11,5° with soldered gussets. These gussets enable wheels according to NMRA RP25/110 to move over the frog only on their threads without sinking into.


An other device, but the same purpose. Roco Line Code 83 10° with new tip.

So i was not willingly to repeat the old mistake and reuse old worn out and at least unsuitable tracks on a new layout.
And a big reason to buy new tracks was the price. € 11,50 for an Atlas #8 in comparison of somewhat € 30,- for an Roco Line 10°

@jwb
After carefully looking on historic photos of Cleveland/OH, i made the decision not to reuse my German buildings. Too different was the look.
I found it better to start here complete new from the beginning.

@ Mister Ric
The Flats is exactly the area in will attempt to model. It will be not an exact downsizing of a real area, it will be more like catching the atmosphere of an industrial district of an mytical Cleveland in the 1940's. And i tell you, i will not be able to made an 100% exact miniature replica of the real Flats.
Should i model the NKP trestle across the flats? Be grateful with me.


One of the first thougts was: "Get rid of the plywood district!"
So i bought water soluble guache in earth colour and painted the modules with it.
The nearest on the photo is module #2.


Here i am im still experimenting with loose laid track. How long the spurs have to be to accept how much 40' cars?
As this layout will be a stand alone device it was essential how many cars and a switcher would the stub end would take. No plans were drawn, all planning was done with the loose track methode and i have an immediately glance how it looks alike. Corrections are made rather easy in this stadium.


Lutz

[faraway]

... Of course i have modified frogs ...

That was my point but it looks like you have no hidden staging yard to make use of reworked but reliable switches with integrated switch machines and DCC decoders to protect considerable investment.

[Sumpter250]

No plans were drawn, all planning was done with the loose track method and i have an immediately glance how it looks alike. Corrections are made rather easy in this stadium. Lutz

Personally, I rather like that method of planning. This just got even more interesting ! 8-)

[eje]

Should i model the NKP trestle across the flats?

That's a pretty large structure for a shelf module. It would look nice showing a portion in small scale on the backdrop between buildings. Also, the same treatment would be good for the Lorain-Carneigie Bridge, which is a highly recognizable landmark from the Flats. The Flats was literally jammed with tracks in the '40's and 50's, and there is a lot from which to choose. Going north from the steel mills along the river there were very many small industries packed closely together. Also, very many street intersections were at odd angles because of the sharply curving river. In your searches, look for Columbus Road and Scranton Peninsula. Also, in the Cleveland Union Terminal Construction collection are many big photographs taken from tall structures that bear close examination.

I like your in-situ track planning method! Ric

[Schraddel]

A first oversight over the railroads in historic Cleveland/OH will give these maps:
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<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railsandtrails.com/Maps/Cleveland/CleveTables-100a.jpg">http://www.railsandtrails.com/Maps/Clev ... s-100a.jpg</a><!-- m -->
They show only the railroads. Not shown are the most of the industrial spurs, the streetcar lines and the interurban lines.

At least 11 railroads were active in Cleveland:
New York Central RR
Pennsylvania RR
Baltimore & Ohio RR
Erie RR
Nickel Plate
Big Four (CCC & StL RR)
Wheeling & Lake Erie RR
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR
Cleveland Short Lines (NYC subsidiary)
Newburg & South Shore RR
River Terminal RR
Cuyahoga Valley RR


Here are some detail maps:
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Only a few maps of many which i found in the www.

And further with my small, small piece of Cleveland Flats.


One of my first purchases was this Walthers backgound building kit.
Some friends tolld me to avoid paralelling tracks to the front edge of the layout. Then the layout became easy a somewhat boring look.
So i decided to lay the tracks in an angle to the front edge.
But angled laid tracks will lead to angled strutures or angled cut away portions of them. So i made this out of the Walthers kit. The trains should appear and disappear behing this structure.
Two 40' boxcars and an 50' boxcar and an rather modern truck show the clearances an appearance.


A second look from an other angle. Still missing a backside structure on the oter side of the main (3rd track from left)


Meanwhile i saw in French forum photos of the Los Angeles industrial district. One picture shows the backside of an storage building in front of it a single spur and then another building. A real brick canyon, a huge brick wall without any structural aspects, only bricks to seen.
Here i made a background building out of cardboard an brick srutural walls. In addition there will be a capacity of three 40' cars which could disappear into it.
Meanwihle the modern truck was exchanged by an more period truck also.
The impression of an urban canyon became closer too.


The gate of this storage building with internal loading dock has to be moveable. Here the is the bashed drive, the wires are still missing.
Everythig here is a recyled item. The micro switches will stop the movemet of the gate in open or closed position.

Lutz