NW 58th St., Miami

[fast car]

Obviously, my post just up the page from here was made after viewing only a page or two of this thread. The "tagging graffite" was realistic enough that somebody should have called the cops!

But I refrained from making any more comments until I had made it all the way through the 23 or 24 pages that currently make up this thread. I had to take it all in before opening my mouth (or dancing my very slow fingers across the keyboard) to say any more. I've sat here and thought about it, trying to digest all the amazing visuals of some rather exraordinary model work. Here are my thoughts ...

Many (or most) of the railroad modelers who frequent this forum are from locations far, far away from the Miami area. Maybe your concept of Miami is colored by the television images projected by "Miami Vice" or "CSI: Miami" or the glamourous club scene that is portrayed in the Art Deco district in South Beach ... BUT ...

Only blocks away from all the glitter and beauty is a place that if you don't speak Spanish, or are at least semi-fearsome looking or drive a white Ford Crown Vicky with a light bar on the roof and are fond of wearing kevlar articles of clothing and are appropriatly armed, you don't want to get lost or have a flat tire and have to get out of the car. hock: A good sized portion of the areas of Miami away from the beaches is rough, dirty and imposingly stark. It is a tribute to Kurt's modeling skills and his attention to detail (like the wiring to exterior lamps or power boxes) that make his switching layout look even more realistic than those who have never seen Miami can even image!

Splendid job, Kurt! The really amazing thing about your layout is that you have been able to generate the visual feel of the area entirely from photographs ... now THAT'S what's amazing! Truely huge kudos are due you!

Camelback is right about Miami. Exploring the seedier areas such as the East Rail warehouse section should be conducted during daylight hours only unless you're packin a Glock 22.

I have included a couple of photos of Lance Mindheim that shows the East Rail section. The large green structure on the left is the Colmar Storage warehouse and the railroad spur that continues on to Archive Americas/Seaboard Warehouse unit. PALS Storage have now moved into the Colmar buillding







This next shows the spur as it reachs the termination point at the Seaboard complex. Notice the perfectly straight rail LOL.




This photo shows the Seaboard/Archive Americas warehouse from 54th Street and the 4 tracks that service this complex. This is looking towards the Colmar warehouse that would be down on the right side of the photo




Notice the highly maintained track in this photo.







For Kurt a few photos of Sentry.

























The "Miami Vice" art deco pastel colors are not confined to the South Beach areas and have made it out to less traveled warehouse districts. Notice the coiled razor wire on the roof.

This picture shows the local making its way down the East Rail spur. The last photo is interesting only because the QGRY freight car is from Quebec Railway. A long way from home.






















I included this sign in case anyone wanted to copy it and reduce it down. I copied mine out on matte photo paper and then cut it out using a razor knife. It was then glued to a thin sheet of .010 or .020 sheet plastic. It makes a nice addition to the Land Shark Beer billboard that was shown by Kurt.







I want to thank Lance Mindheim for graciously allowing me the permission to show these photos.