Manhattan Modelers | July Newsletter | Upcoming Event
Jul 02, 2023 8:16 pm
Newsletter | July 2023
Summer is here. Traditionally this is the “off’ season for model railroads. I took a week off in the Adirondacks for my vacation at our family cabin. The rest of my family stays for the whole summer, the perks of being kids in school and a college professor.
Our family cabin is a former lumber company office that had a railroad which connected to the Adirondack District of the New York Central Railroad. While no longer possible, a hundred years ago a passenger would be able to take a train from the office to Grand Central with one transfer.
I have been doing a bit of painting and maintenance on my replica of the wood caboose this railroad ran.
I am lucky in that this logging line was long lived enough to become popular in the 1950’s and had many visitors with cameras and raised much interest by early modelers. Several companies offered models of this caboose in both HO and O scale. I scaled up one of these models and built it full size.
I think of it as a reversal of the model making process. It sits on the ties of the old track bed. As I come across appropriate parts I add them to my caboose.
My vacation is not all work though, I have gone out on the pond with the kayak for a paddle and seen (and heard) the loons and watched the beaver working away in a new spot. This morning while I was making coffee, I looked out to see a large flock of eight turkeys take over the field. The wind stirred up the Silver Birches which are related to the Quaking Aspens out west. They both do this funny shimmer with their leaves shaking individually. The leaves are nearly white on the underside and in a slight breeze they shimmer and shake. Green and white vibrating. How could I model that. Impossible.
-Andy Estep
Here are proposed By-Laws for the Manhattan Modelers, which we need in order to gain NMRA SIG recognition. Please review them to your satisfaction. We will open the floor to discussion and an acceptance vote on them at the upcoming July 9th meeting.
Click Here to read the By-Laws of the Manhattan Modelers
Sunday, July 9th the Manhattan Modelers group will take an evening walking tour of the former waterfront railroading sites around the Hudson River in the upper 20s and then we will have some food and conversation at the Frying Pan on Pier 66. We hope that you can join us. Please tell us if you are planning to come so we can plan to meet up and make sure we reserve enough space at the restaurant.
We plan to meet at around 6:30 and plan to be at the Frying Pan by 8:00 for food, refreshment and conversation.
As you probably know several railroads clustered their rail marine terminals together here in this part of Manhattan. The B&O yard was between 25th St and 26th. The Lehigh Valley Yard and later the Starett-Lehigh building was between 27th and 28th. The Terminal Warehouse between 28th and 29th it was served by both the Erie and the New York Central. The Erie yard was between 29th and 30th.
All of these locations are very different today. None of them does any railroad freight service. The former B&O warehouse exists as cold storage and the Artist Book gallery “Printed Matter”. The Starett-Lehigh building is office space, fashion companies and photography studios. The Terminal Warehouse dates to the Civil War era and is currently under heavy renovation and it seems it will be just a historic shell when this process is finished.
The former Erie yard is still a single plot of land but serves as parking and wire spool staging for a cable company.
The Frying Pan is a restaurant and bar located on Pier 66. It is reached by the wooden former B&O float apron.
The restaurant is mostly outdoors located on an Erie car float barge and includes an Erie Caboose (the only Caboose on display in the city). The Frying Pan takes its name from the Light Ship Frying Pan which is also on display tied alongside the barge. Light ships served as a floating light house to keep ships away from the shore.
Manhattan Modelers
July 9th @ 6:30pm
Meeting and walking tour of the former rail marine facilities along the Hudson River along 11th Ave in the upper 20’s
8:00 at the Frying Pan Restaurant for food and discussion.
Please RSVP so we know how many people to plan for.
Garden State Division of the NMRA Summer Meet
July 22nd @ 9am
Morris County Library, 30 East Hanover Avenue, Whippany, NJ
Doors open @ 9AM coffee and donuts. There will be two clinics: Jim Walsh will speak on Enhanced Layout Lighting. Mark Moritz will speak on Assembling the Sparrow Point Lackawanna Wooden Caboose kit; Lessons Learned. There will be five layout tours to follow.
North Eastern Regional NMRA Convention “The Cannonball“
October 5th -8th in Uniondale, NY on Long Island
https://ner-conventions.org/cannonball-express/htt
Several members of the Manhattan Modelers are presenting clinics or will have their layouts open for operating sessions for this convention.
NYSME/METCA joint Swap Meet
November 4th
St. Joseph’s Church
120 Hoboken Road, East Rutherford, NJ
We are always open to sharing model events in the area. If you are aware of an event that you think others here would be interested, please share it with us and we will include it in future newsletters.
Here is a great story Michael Weinman shared with us about some of his experiences with the great New York Central. He has some more stories to share with us in future newsletters.
It was February 1967 and I was in Northwestern University's Graduate School of Management. I had passed the first interview when the New York Central came to our campus to recruit. They sent me a trip pass good on the Twentieth Century Limited to come to New York headquarters (then at 466 Lexington Avenue, a building which was rebuilt in recent years with a Park Avenue address and much higher rent) for an interview. This was to be with Robert D. Timpany, Assistant Vice President - Operating Administration, which included stewardship of the Operating Management Training Program, and 18 month indoctrination to Transportation, Equipment, and Maintenance of Way.
The afternoon I made my way from Northwestern's Chicago campus to LaSalle Street Station was, coincidentally, the afternoon when a 24 inch snowstorn hit Chicago. The bus couldnt make it all the way, and I had to hoof it the last mile. But the Century left on time. I had ridden it previously, but in a Sleepercoach room - this time was a first class roomette, and the dining car food was simply superb.
Still, the train lost a bit of time, and by Harmon, was an hour late. So, during the engine change, I hopped out and called Timpany's office to apologize that I might be a few minutes late, because of the train's delay. He answered, listened to my apology, and said "WHY???". This was a word I could expect to hear a lot of in the next 18 months, and the response "If you had read the morning delay report, you would know why!" just wouldn't cut it. The moral of the story was to land the job first and THEN be smart with the boss. Of course, that might not cut it on the Pennsylvania, but R. D. Timpany would end up being challenged by me, biting his tongue, and admonishing me, but keeping me on the payroll, to fight another battle. That was an ongoing back-and-forth until our very last meeting, when he had retired to Florida, and he challenged me on why Amtrak was doing some such or other. But you couldn't ask for a finer leader to teach and inspire young men (there were no women in the training program at the time), and indeed, many former NYC trainees went on to lead entire railroads and companies.
Today, I am proud to number Bob Timpany's daughter, an attorney in Pennsylvania, as a friend. We met when she was six years old, on the maiden voyage of an Empire Service train. The Empire Service was the brainchild of Bob Timpany, and its existence today is the result of his hard work and risk-taking (and the backing of New York Central President Alfred Perlman) with the New York State Public Service Commission - but that's another story for another article.
Michael Weinman
Managing Director
PTSI Transportation
What is going on with MM?
Great things are in the works for the Manhattan Modelers.
We are a growing group. Our numbers are going up as word spreads about how we are trying to establish a modelers group in the city for space starved model railroaders and create a community to share our modeling among other modelers who live in the city. If you know any local modelers who are not already here please send them our way.
I am actively working on writing an article or two about the history of the New York Society of Model Engineers. NYSME still exists today in New Jersey, but they started in 1926 in Manhattan. They are the oldest model railroad group in the US and possibly the world. They established many of the standards of model railroading that were later adopted by the NMRA. Their machine shop, meeting space and layout moved many times around different spaces in the city until 1947 when they moved to the Lackawanna RR ferry hall at the Lackawanna Station in Hoboken after the ferry was discontinued. Ever since then, the group has been in NJ.
Space is always a concern in NYC and we are still actively looking for places to hold meetings. We have a possible solution, but things are far too tentative to announce them yet. If any member has a solution for a place to have a meeting once a month or so, please reach out to Heath Hurwitz or Andy Estep.
Member Dan Free is hard at work drawing up our group set of By Laws. These will help guide us and define us. We plan to establish ourselves under the Special Interest Group (SIG) designation by the NMRA which will help us gain more attention and a possible membership boost.
If you have not already, I urge you to join the Manhattan Modelers Discord Channel. I have been witnessing some great cross-over starting to happen between model makers. There are some cool projects getting underway. Go ahead, share your projects, get some feedback. If you have reached a stumbling block there may be a solution in the community.
As always, we are always looking for newsletter articles from our members. Please consider contributing.
Join us on Discord
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
