Manhattan Modelers | January 2024 Newsletter
Feb 10, 2024 12:36 am
Newsletter | February 2024
Hello Manhattan Modeler,
Thank goodness February is the shortest month because I am just not able to deal with the cold anymore.
This has been a huge month for Manhattan Modelers. We were finally able to elect a Board of Directors! Some of the heavy lifting can be dispersed and be more organized in being carried out. I can already see some big changes and vast improvements that the members will see immediately. Thank you to all of the new board.
Going forward we will alternate between in person meetings and meetings in our Discord Channel over the general voice channel with in that. This months meeting will be in the Discord because it is cold and dark out there.
This month’s newsletter has a wonderful article by Dan Shepard based on a lawsuit between the New York Central and William Randolph Hearst. It really gives an idea of how the Westside freight yard at 60th and north was perceived by its neighbors.
There is a Springfield/Amherst Train Show report. Some members have appeared in the media and have some pending appearances that may be interesting to the membership. There is also a local Events Calendar as always. Somehow I misplaced my Small Space Solutions article so that will be back next month.
I had hoped I would get to describe being invited by the NMRA to introduce well known model railroader Rod Stewart’s appearance on the “Kelly Clarkson” show on NBC this week along with Heath Hurwitz but that was cancelled. Haha at least it makes for a funny “What if” idea. If only this was the April Fool’s Day issue.
We have opened a Manhattan Modelers Facebook page to get some more attention and we hope to have more people posting there. As always the Discord Channel discussion is a great place to share some modeling and run ideas past other members.
That’s all from me this month. Remember to come to the Manhattan Modelers February meeting on the discord Voice chat at 8 on Feb 15th.
Thank You,
Andy Estep
New Board of Directors is Installed
The biggest news of the month is that finally on our third attempt, we were able to assemble a quorum, and we passed the voting on the board of electors. Finally, the bulk of the work and blame, no longer falls strictly on me, but we can now say that we have a new board and they consist of
- Chairman and Founder, Andy Estep
- President, Dan Free
- Vice President and CTO, Heath Hurwitz
- Secretary, Dan Shepherd
- Treasurer, Andreas Werder.
With a full BOD installed, we can move forward on several fronts, including our Special Interest Group (SIG)status with the NMRA, which will let us apply to be recognized with them, and it will help us with our attempts to expand and allow insurance coverage of our events. Going forward we will be considered a full NMRA club and expect our members to be or become NMRA members. We can also organize our onboarding and be more responsive to our membership. The Manhattan modelers group can also be more organized in our upcoming events.
Anyone wishing to discuss this can reach out to me or the rest of the board. My Email is estepandyprojects @gmail.com
Report from Springfield
My arm bands made me feel like I was going to some music festival.
I realize that it doesn’t strictly fall into month of February but instead the very end of January, but the weekend of January 27 and 28th was the biggest event of the “train season”. The Amherst Model Railroad Show in Springfield Massachusetts. As always, despite it being a two day long show, I did not get to see everything. There were some amazing layouts on display, and it was nice to see so many manufacturers with their new products as well as dealers tempting me with their wares.
To attend this year, I drove up in a rental car with two our members, Dan Free and Andreas Werder. It was great to have a few hours to talk railroad history and modeling philosophy on the way up. We found a great deli for lunch in Norwalk CT. Nardelli’s Grinder Shoppe was founded in 1922. Good food and worth a stop if you are in the area.
Some Ne’er-do-wells in a fast car.
While there I saw plenty of our members in attendance including Heath Hurwitz, John Chester, Dan Shepard, Mike Weinman and Brad Smith. It was nice to see so many familiar faces make the trip as always. There were many people that I only see at big events like this, and some people that I’ve only met on the Internet or through other correspondence.
This picture is of Mike Weinman admiring the wonderful Narragansett Navigation On30 Free-mo layout.
I was invited by one of the other NMRA special interest groups Women in Model Railroading to attend their run session at the Dry Hill Model Railroad Club. For some of their members this was their first chance to operate a model railroad following a dispatch schedule using car cards and waybills. It was interesting to see how another SIG organized their event.
This model of the Brooklyn Bridge was built by a modeler living in Manhattan and it was donated at the show to the Kingston Trolley Museum by The New York Society of Model Engineers.
While mine don’t compare to the epic hours long live-streams capturing the entire show along with interviews that Heath Hurwitz was making for his Human(c)ity Junction YouTube channel. This time I remembered to take some video of some highlights of the show and I posted it on my YouTube channel. Este Pandy Projects.
Members Sightings in the Wild
I listen to a lot of podcasts because I work in a metal shop with earmuffs on to save what is left of my hearing. I can listen to the podcast and work away without interruption. One of the podcasts I listen to is “Model Rail Radio” hosted by Tom Barbalet. The most recent episode featured one of our members, Dave Barraza who discussed his progress on his New York and Atlantic / Long Island Railroad layout.
Dan Shepard will be hosting a round table discussion on Layout Operations at the Sunrise Trail Division NMRA winter meet at the Kings Park Library on Long Island at Noon this Saturday.
Heath Hurwitz will be hosting a roundtable discussion about small space model railroads with a few modelers including Andreas Werder for the NERX on March 18th-21st 6:30-10:30 PM EST. It will be viewable live and after the event on the NMRA You Tube Channel. Any questions can be posed in advance to info@NERX.com
A Guide to Operations on the NYC West Side Freight Line in 1913, via Cross Examination.
by Dan Shepard
Railroad research is a veritable rabbit hole. While preparing for a clinic on the High for the October Cannonball Express Convention, I came across a lot of material that I found fascinating, although not entirely (or not at all relevant to the clinic). My clinic was based on the idea that the High Line would make a great terminal railroad, combined with the idea that it was so cool to have trains running through buildings on the second story.
But the story of the High Line and the West Side Improvement Project was long in the making and the line had quite a history before the High Line and before the tracks were covered by Riverside Park. It was a very busy railroad that was bursting at the seams, so much so that the neighbors were not happy. It wasn’t just that the railroad was considered a nuisance going south from the 30th Street Yard; there was also considerable opposition to the railroad going north, with people uptown complaining about the steam locomotive pollution, noise, stench, and how the railroad cut off access to the river.
A lawsuit against the railroad in 1913 not only demonstrated attempts to curtail railroad activity north of 72nd Street, but it also provided a treasure trove of information about operations on the railroad right down to the switching details of the cars on the 60 or so trains that used the line every day.
The testimony provides insight into the workings of a thriving railroad that has completely disappeared by covering almost every facet of operations from track layout to switching procedures, to the types of cargo carried, and the procedures for handling the 2500 or so cars that were on the line at any time.
The lawsuit, the case of “William Randolph Hearst v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company” was a classic NIMBY case. Apparently, the plaintiff owned and lived (occupying the top three floors as a renter, then buying the building) in a large apartment building on the easterly side of Riverside Drive at the corner of 86th Street, known as the Clarendon Apartment house). The building was separated from the railroad’s right-of-way by Riverside Park.
A very nice neighborhood back then as it still is today, the plaintiff contended the railroad laid two additional tracks north from the 72nd Street yard to 96th Street “that seriously disturbed in their comfort, rest and repose, which is broken by noise from steam locomotives, their straining and puffing, bells and whistles, the switching and bumping of cars, by unnecessary and preventable smoke from the engines, and by offensive odors from cars of livestock, which not only traverse the tracks but are permitted to lie thereon for hours at a time pending their distribution to the main yard below.”
At the heart of the lawsuit was the fact that the 60th Street Yard was badly designed and hopelessly congested, and that the railroad needed to take action to stop the numerous nuisances that it caused.
The court transcript offers a detailed account of how the line was operated, with much information coming in the form of cross examination of the Superintendent of the New York Central’s yard in New York of the line, a Mr. John J. Loftus, who had 10 years of experience in that position and 42 years of experience on the West Side line.
When Mr. Loftus first came to the 60th Street Yard in 1871, there were but two tracks in the area. In 1913 the main yard, from 59th Street to 72nd Street, had about 150 tracks. The yard received freight from the Hudson, Harlem, and Putnam divisions, as well as the 30th Street Yard and St. John’s Terminal. In addition, freight was interchanged with the Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie, B&O, and Long Island from the car floats at 60th Street and lighterage service.
North end of 60th yard from a New York Central promotional brochure
The West Side line was overflowing and the layout of the 72nd Street Yard had been unchanged for 35 years. Traffic was growing and trains coming into the 72nd Street yard were backed up as far as Manhattanville. Working around the clock, the yard handled 2500 cars a day with eight switchers.
Further down the line was the 33rd Street Yard which had between 75-80 tracks and could hold between 1500-1600 cars and handled produce, hay, and lumber as well as miscellaneous freight that could be carted away by teams. Four engines, and 85 men, worked the yard in two shifts, day and night. Teams loaded about 100 cars a day and received about 150.
Below that, St. John’s Park, which was bounded by Laight Street to the north, Varick to the east, Beach to the south and Laight to the north (an area well south of the newer St. John’s Park, which was once a church and a park bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt for $1 million—since reshaped by an exit ramp for the Holland Tunnel). The Park had eight tracks inside the terminal building and two tracks outside which catered to dairy line products such as cheese, butter and eggs, dry fish, and “high class” and perishable merchandise.
Sunrise Trail Division NMRA Winter Meet
Feb 10th 12-4PM
The event is held at the Kings Park Public Library which is very close walking distance from the LIRR Kings Park Station. There will be a 3d Printing clinic and a Railroad Ops Roundtable Discussion. There is the opportunity to attend to see if you are interested in joining the NMRA if you are not yet.
February Manhattan Modelers Meeting
Feb 15th 8pm
Manhattan Modeler’s Discord General Chat
We will have an open meeting and talk about trains and modeling. Bring some projects to share and discuss. It will be a great time, I’m sure.
NERX online clinic series
March 18th-21st 6:30-10:30 PM EST.
It will be viewable live as well after the event on the NMRA You Tube Channel.
NYSME / METCA Swap Meet
April 6th Time TBD
Tables are $25 each
Swap Meet at St Joseph’s Church
The New York Society of Model Engineers HO and O scale layouts will be open and operating for this event. The show is near the Jane St stop on the 163 NJT bus from the Port Authority
We have setup a Manhattan Modelers Discord as a place to share projects & ideas, post events, ask and answer questions and make connections.
We have chosen Discord because it is organized around specific interests instead of providing a unified newsfeed. Discord is focused on real-time interactions between people, whereas other social media options function as internet message boards.
Discord also has a Zoom like video conferencing feature, but without the limits of the free Zoom.
Click on this link which will ask you to either create an account or login to your existing account.
Once you join, you will see the logo for the Manhattan Modelers "server" on the left and the various "channel" topics on listed to their right.
Please take a moment to introduce yourself in the #introduce-yourself channel
