149th Street Harlem Station

[sailormatlac]

Matt, how about a covered barge like the red one on the right hand? I would like to have one on my layout but a H0 model is 14" x 4"..... There is a resin and a wood kit on US eBay.

To my knowledge, no such barge was frequent visitor at Harlem Station. The marine front on the layout is quite small when the carfloat and tugboat are in place.

BTW, mark this day as it is the first time in 2 decades I ever complete ballast and ground cover on any layout I ever built. Ballast is a mix of various dirt, sand, sandblasting sand and charcoal. It's only a starting point as I'll have to adjust coloration here and there with washes, pastel powders and various material. Harlem Station was a very dirty place to be. Some weeds will also be needed here and there.











Matt

[faraway]

..... this day as it is the first time in 2 decades I ever complete ballast and ground cover on any layout I ever built. ....

Congratulations Your ballast looks wonderful ugly

[sailormatlac]

..... this day as it is the first time in 2 decades I ever complete ballast and ground cover on any layout I ever built. ....

Congratulations Your ballast looks wonderful ugly

And it can only go worst from now on.

I finally found out why I had trouble with my dusty ballast. It was a batch of dirt mixed with tile grout... I thought I got rid of that mix but it seems it was still around and I used it like and idiot.

Matt

[shortliner]

Matt - you really are making a hell of a good job of East 149th Street

[MasonJar]

Looking at your overall photo in the post above, I have to ask: Where did this dock-side track connect to the rest of the world?


Andrew

[Brakie]

Looking at your overall photo in the post above, I have to ask: Where did this dock-side track connect to the rest of the world?


Andrew

My bet is the car float since this switching road served a dock area and had no outside connections. Nothing unusual about that since there was switching railroads in port areas that depended on car floats. Seattle and North Coast Railroad was one of them.

[sailormatlac]

Thanks Jack!

Looking at your overall photo in the post above, I have to ask: Where did this dock-side track connect to the rest of the world?


Andrew

The short answer is nowhere. All you can see is exactly what it was. This terminal didn't connect to the rest of the world or nearby warehouses. It was self contained and different car spots were attributed to tenants (coal dealer, machinery operators, etc.). Just to make sure, you are referring to the very long dock-side siding nearby the carfloat spot?

Matt

[MasonJar]

Thanks Jack!

Looking at your overall photo in the post above, I have to ask: Where did this dock-side track connect to the rest of the world?


Andrew

The short answer is nowhere. All you can see is exactly what it was. This terminal didn't connect to the rest of the world or nearby warehouses. It was self contained and different car spots were attributed to tenants (coal dealer, machinery operators, etc.). Just to make sure, you are referring to the very long dock-side siding nearby the carfloat spot?

Matt

So this area is "captive"? The only way in or out is by carfloat? That's cool. I thought maybe there would be a connection to the rest of the world in the top left corner of this picture:
   


Andrew

[MountainMan]

So did I...

[sailormatlac]

Yep! Totally captive. That short siding was generally used to store a single boxcar. What you call a dock is a concrete retaining wall supporting a service street running parallel to 148th street Bridge abutment: it would have been physically impossible to push the track farther than the concrete wall.

Matt

[shortliner]

Many of the yards on the Bronx side of the river were ONLY served by carfloat, and their traffic was totally captive with no connection to any other rail except by being towed across the river on the barge. If you are interested in the operations there is a huge amount of information available here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/IndustrialLocos.html">http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/IndustrialLocos.html</a><!-- m --> - you may be gone for some time!

There is another thread about NYC carfloats here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://teamtrack.soforums.com/t451-NEW-YORK-RAIL-MARINE-OPERATIONS.htm">http://teamtrack.soforums.com/t451-NEW- ... ATIONS.htm</a><!-- m --> - It is in French, but Google Translate will convert it to English (after a fashion! ) Oh - and there are 19 pages, so you may be gone even longer!

[Brakie]

Some railroads on peninsulas that had no outside connection other then by car float had to cease operations when the lake or bay(fresh water) froze over.Of course the CG would send a ice breaker to clear a shipping lane but,that could become 7 day job as the water keeps freezing. If this was salt water then high seas from storms could cause the railroad to temporary cease operation.

Modelers with this type of switching layout could emulate the water being froze when their hobby time slows during the summer months.

[Painkiller]

wow! Your progress is fast and well done!

[Rscott417]

Will you be including any variations of the freight houses that were on site?

[sailormatlac]

Will you be including any variations of the freight houses that were on site?

It is a possibility, but at this point, the layout will depict the mid-1950s when the wood thawing shed was torn down. I will certainly not model the post-1957 main warehouse because the track plan won't fit. To be honest, it's a matter of time and motivation. So far, I'll complete the bridge, the carfloat and the concrete ramp. Other structures will be added later on when I have time (Hedley Junction project is back on track after summer vacation).

Matt