Newsletter | March 2024

Hello Manhattan Modeler,

March Manhattan Modeler

From my time writing in late February I can imagine spring I am writing this month’s newsletter from a TGV Lyria bound towards Lausanne from Paris. I am assigned a second-class seat 18 in car 18 of an 18 car double deck train with bullet nosed engines on each end. We are racing through the countryside at 111 mph.

TGVLyria at Paris Gare de Lyon station

Some of the earliest trees are in bloom now that it is late February. I see them as we fly past farms and wooded areas. I am on this train going to visit the French national train museum in Mulhouse because I can’t imagine a better way to visit a train museum than by train. I get to admire the contemporary state of train travel of a place and then inspect a museum to tell me how they got to this point.

Locally I can think of two railroad museums in Long Island and the Danbury, CT railroad museum that can be visited easily by train with some planning. Oh, also here in the city the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn is only a few blocks from the subway so that definitely should count in the tally. There are several other railroad museums in our area that are not accessible by train and I don’t know what that says about us. I suppose it is a reflection of our society. We like trains and model trains but in most cases people don’t ride trains often or at all in some cases. The modern US is very focused around automobiles and highways. The fact that many people in the city ride public transit and in many cases do not have private cars is very unusual in America.

As a New Yorker I think nothing of riding the subway to work and home and out on errands. I normally take 2 to 4 trips a day on the train and think nothing of it, in fact I rely on it running. When the 1 train goes down on the weekend for work or maintenance it can be very disruptive to my life. Not only do I have to change plans but I have to make sure my children are aware that it will take more time to get where they want to go. I can tell them several times but inevitably when they are not really listening, it becomes a big ordeal with lots of irate texting about how this is all my fault. The degree of freedom that my children have by the great transit bus and subway system we have in New York is counter weighted by the requirement that they understand how the system works and how they can use alternate routes to achieve the same final goal for those times that there are issues.

I am in France on a work trip and had a day off so I decided to visit the SNCF museum the “Citi’ du Train”. I do try to visit any train museum I can while traveling. So far I have visited museums in National train museums in Seoul South Korea are not really listening, Shanghai China, Madrid Spain and York England. Although I have only a fragmentary knowledge es down of rail history and service in those places I do like trains and history so I can always find something interesting to see and I am learning new things. I usually find that my interest goes to the early end of whatever museum I am in and any 19th century items tend to grab my interest most. Maybe this is based on familiarity with the more simplified forms before each country and region specialized and get to focused on what the local population wanted in their rail service. That story of how each place focused and specialized is what gets us too today. Why we can look at a modern train and think that is a specific look that we can associate with a certain place.

1908 Alco rotary snow plow

A very chilly builder’s plate

1945 Baldwin built Mikado.

In France there is electrified passenger service nearly everywhere and even a lot of electric powered freight but there is still some diesel. A common diesel road switcher has low hoods on both ends and a cab that is offset to one end. It has two sets of four wheeled trucks and it really does remind me of a very squared off Alco RS1. There are also many smaller end-cab switchers in the same service. So, despite the many differences between rail service in the US and France there are some areas of familiarity.

1844 restored Buddicom designed steam engine. A 2-2-2, a once very common early type of French steam engine.

The Paris subway the “Metropolitan” was designed in 1896 and first opened in 1900.

The stations are very well maintained and have some of the features we are now seeing on the MTA stations like the countdown clocks to the next train. The stations are very clean and I saw assigned security on the platform at 6:30 in the morning. Another feature that I appreciated was full glass platform doors that keep people from falling (or being pushed) onto the track. I also saw these in China but the sad attempt that the MTA installed in them 191st station on the 1 train is very inadequate and not acceptable for a city like New York.

A typical Art Nouveau Metro Station entrance at Chatelet as designed by Hector Guimard

Paris Subway platform with platform barriers on a subway system older than NY City’s.

One neat thing I witnessed at the Train Museum was the presence of a model railroad club. The Rail Miniature Club Alsace Sud Mulhouse had a space in the museum where they were demonstrating model railroading practices. A few members were working on projects and would pause and answer viewers questions and give modeling tips. They had space for four non club people (seemingly focused on teenagers) to have a slot for working on a small module that would be added to their modular layout when it was finished. It was a nice program, and it was a good promotion for the hobby as well as their club.

Model Railroad Club Pamphlet

The recent trend towards shelf layouts and smaller layouts is heartening. We specially challenged modelers will not be completely left behind. There is a chance for us without much space. We don’t have to have huge barns filled with spaghetti bowls worth of track. If nothing else, we can accomplish our goal of an operable layout in an achievable manner. If you, like myself are an easily distracted person who can’t decide to stick to one area of interest. Yes, the switching operations associated with railroad car manufacturers in the 1970’s and 80’s are fascinating, but so is 1850’s anthracite heavy coal hauling. On the third hand I have been collecting enough cars to make a believable Japanese steam railroad set in the 1950’s. There is a need to focus at a point.

Besides being a necessity dictated by the smaller homes and apartments we have in the city, a smaller layout gives us the opportunity and permission to make smaller more experimental layouts and dioramas to see if we want to pursue one of these subjects.

I have been collecting some books and websites that use the subject of smaller layouts as a jumping off point. Lance Mindheim and the late Iian Rice have both written several books about small layout designs along with operation philosophy going along with them that I find inspiring.

Lance Mindheim has proposed one of the simplest switching layouts possible by advocating for what he calls a tuning fork layout. A layout which has a straight section and a switch with two leads coming off the switch. It really could not be simpler. In real life this sort of track arrangement is quite common. Positioning the dropped cars in a specific order and picking up empties can still be challenging.

I have always been a fan of the Inglenook switching puzzle which adds one more switch to the scenario as well as car lengths that limit how many will fit on each track of the layout. I enjoy playing with them.

The late Carl Arendt created a website that collected small layout designs and images. Devotees of Arendt have continued the website in fits and starts but at least it survives. Some of the designs in Arendt’s website follow prototypes and others are pure fantasy. A real focus is on making the smallest possible layout. To that end he coined the idea of a “pizza box layout”. A pizza layout is a layout that can fit into a pizza box. They usually are just the tightest loop of track possible in a scale with scenery. I’m sure some would scoff at such a whimsical and irreverent idea, but the goal is to get something running and try some scenery.

More recently in the YouTube space a modeler who goes by the name of Boomer Diorama has been making a very nice HO scale shelf layout of a rail marine terminal and switching operation in British Columbia Canada. His methodical and meticulous scenery modeling moving from one end of the layout to the other is fascinating to watch progress on his channel. Because he doesn’t have a lot of space, he is super detailing the layout as he goes along. Without a huge layout he can spend the time to really concentrate on the detailing.

 Paris has a street in the Montmartre neighborhood that has one block with four model train focused hobby shops. There are three on one side of the street and a big one on the other, as well as a couple more a few blocks away. There is also a bookstore focused only on railroad subjects by the publisher of the French equivalent of Kalmbach.

Hobby Shop with big window display

Another. It is nice to have some choices. I remember when Manhattan had more than one hobby shop.

After work one evening I walked over to see what I could find. I model in O scale and have some N scale. Confession time, I was too tempted and gave in to buy an HO scale piece. My first in over 30 years. It was just too neat and small to turn down. It is an HO scale “Breuer Lokomotor” made by Rivarossi under Hornby. It is tiny, only an inch and a half long but motorized and with DCC. The prototypes were made between 1913 and 1962 for industrial areas and private sidings. These motors can move a car or two and I think it might make a fun basis for a little industrial diorama style layout.

Tiny Car Traktor

I would have gotten an O scale model given the chance, but this tiny package was just too cool to turn down. I don’t even have any cars to run with it.

Victor Rosemon

There was a very nice memorial tribute to Victor Rosemon on page 91 of the March issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Victor passed away January 3rd while recovering from injuries sustained in an apartment fire. Several of our members were close friends with him.

Victor lived in Brooklyn his whole life and he wrote many modeling articles in the model railroad press where I first saw his work. I was surprised to learn that despite his wonderful modeling and photography he did not have a personal home layout. Like so many of us here in the city, he was content with smaller models and dioramas over a big layout.

I strongly encourage people to seek out some of his articles. The modeling is very good, the photographs are striking and the writing is quite clear. Many of his chosen subjects were about local railroading subjects. His last published article in RMC was about modeling NYC tugboats. It was published in the January 2023 issue.

Manhattan Modelers Postcards

 Heath Hurwitz has printed Manhattan Modelers Postcards and we want to get them out to local modelers toy see if we can raise interest in our group. We plan to get them into local hobby shops and clubs.

 If you know modelers in the city and surrounds who would be interested in joining our group please ask for some to distribute.

Special Interest Group Status

 We have filed all the required paperwork with the NMRA to achieve our SIG status. It has been received and it is being processed. We will keep everyone informed on how that progresses.

Call for Articles

As always, we are always looking for articles for the Manhattan Modelers Newsletter. Do you think you have something that would interest other Manhattan Modelers please contact me. Likewise if you have any questions or suggestions.

Please feel free to contact me at estepandyprojects@gmail.com.

ONE OF THE MOST PRECIOUS THINGS TO PROTECT

By Mike Weinman

These days, we think of the environment and tomorrow’s world as one of (if not the most) precious things to protect, and those of us in the railroad and public transportation business realize that our work has a significant positive impact on that. But we only have so many tools in our toolkit, and taking a big one away is like working with your hands tied behind your back.

I am referring to that most basic ingredient in operations – a right of way. Some rights of way, of course, were purely speculative or way ahead of their time – the Canajoharie & Catskill Railroad was built in 1840 and abandoned about ten years later, and though a part of the right of way was later used by the Catskill Mountain Railroad, the endeavor was basically to connect two waterways which were made obsolete by the later New York Central.

But fast forward to 2024. The British high-speed railway under construction from London to Birmingham was to be extended to Manchester and other parts of the north. Right of way was acquired, painstakingly and expensively. Then, early this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that not only would the extensions beyond Birmingham be cancelled, but the acquired rights of way would be sold immediately to ensure that no one could ever built such a route – and that most of the money saved would be put into highways. If that sounds a bit obtuse, just keep your eyes on the next general election in the UK – possibly this year, or 2025.

Closer to home, the same inanity prevails. In the 1960 era, key pieces of the New Jersey suburban rail network were abandoned or put into highway use. As a consequence, today’s Port Authority Bus Terminal is overloaded. And one preserved right of way – the former Erie Northern Branch – which is slated for a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail extension, is still either abandoned or in very light freight use status, decades after this conversion was first proposed.

On the other side of the Hudson, what was perhaps the most advanced suburban railway, with no grade crossings, four tracks for local and express service, off-train fare collection, all high level platforms, AC overhead power, and interlockings designed around 75 second headways, lies abandoned, in use as a walking trail in parts, open cuts filled in, and a short segment in use as a two track subway line. This was the New York, Westchester & Boston, which offered service every twenty minutes to White Plains and New Rochelle and Port Chester, from 1912 to 1937. A victim of the mentality which said that railroads had to make a profit, but highways were a public investment.

In Queens, there is ongoing debate about the right of way of the former LIRR Rockaway branch – walking trail or rapid transit line? Meanwhile, it sits abandoned as it has since 1961. Another Long Island route which could have been useful was the old Central Railroad route from Garden City to Bethpage. Mostly a power line right of way, this could have been adaptively re-used to create four main tracks between Queens (Floral Park) and Bethpage, with relatively little taking of private property. Instead, the LIRR added a single additional main track from Floral Park to Hicksville, with great construction cost and NIMBY opposition. And so the Central Branch right of way remains a vision on an aerial photograph.

In any direction, one will find rights of way which could be (or could have been) used to alleviate congestion problems on extant railroads, or helped the traffic problems of adjacent highways, and in general, could have helped save the environment. To let any further rights of way go out of transportation use is a potential disaster – but as Britain evidenced, opposition thinking is still prevalent. When will we learn?

Addendums and Errata

Last months Newsletter had a few mistakes which were my own.

The Brooklyn Bridge diorama was donated by NYSME to the Shoreline Trolley Museum in East Haven CT NOT the Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston NY.

Dan Shepard’s wonderful article on the NYCentral on the West side of Manhattan lost the end of the article so I will republish the entire text here.

A Guide to Operations on the NYC West Side Freight Line in 1913, via Cross Examination

Dan Shepard

Railroad research is a veritable rabbit hole. While preparing for a clinic on the High Line 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) ibn 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 carfloats at 60th Street and lighterage service.

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.

Cars at that time, according to Mr. Loftus, were 38 feet long, some 36 feet, with some cars of 40 feet and some of 50. Years ago, he said, a very large car was a 30-foot car. Express cars were 65 feet.

Of the 60 trains in and out of the 60th Street Yard every day, about 30 were freights, 14-16 milk trains, 6 passenger trains, and 8-10 express trains. Freights averaged about 45 cars but could be as long as 60 cars and most freight traffic came from West Albany and beyond down the Hudson line. Very few trains arrived during daytime hours—from 7a.m. to 6 p.m. there were only two or three trains. All unloading was done during the daytime, and nighttime was largely spent breaking down the arriving trains.

Cars were classified at West Albany (later where Selkirk Yard was built) with cars for 33rd Street and St. John’s Park placed right behind the engine, followed by cars for 60th Street and Barclay Street. The cars for 60th Street were blocked for 16 different classifications to facilitate forwarding to different stations around the waterfront.

According to Mr. Loftus, southbound trains coming into the yard stopped at 79th Street where the road engine was cut off and went to the “house.” A pilot engine would then pull the cars for 33rd Street to the receiving yard and another engine would bring those down to 33rd Street, where the cars for St. John’s Park, usually carrying dairy, fish, or merchandise, would be put into another receiving yard until the “Park” agent ordered them. The trains from 33rd Street to Park, (pulled by the “dummy”) usually left at about 11:30 in the morning and returned immediately with loaded westbound cars.

The testimony covered many other aspects, such as why a switcher and not a road engine? Mr. Loftus said the preferred yard engine was a B-10, a heavy switching engine. Whereas a road engine was built for pulling long trains, the road engines were “too cumbersome and long” and would not be safe for yard work. Yard switchers, on the other hand, with their low drivers, were much more nimble for the constant back-and-forth maneuvers in the yard.

“We can do more work with a regular yard engine in an hour than you could probably do in five hours with the other. It would be impractical to do the work with a road engine. They are not intended for that kind of work.”

As for the cars remaining in the 72nd Street Yard (the label 72nd Street and 60th Street appear to be used interchangeably), there were a more complicated switching moves, with the primary objective being to get the cars to the piers for unloading and transfer to lighters. The Central had its own lighterage stations along the River. Paper was delivered to Pier 30 and 80, merchandise to Piers 83, 34, Wallabout, Franklin Street, and merchandise and produce to Barclay Street. The Central also delivered to the Long Island, Brooklyn Eastern District, New York Dock, and Jay Street Terminal.

The CNJ and Lehigh Valley brought in mostly coal and cement and the Pennsylvania brought mainly merchandise. Some of the freight was destined for points on the Harlem, Putnam and Hudson Divisions.

There were about 55 floats in and out of the 60th Street Yard piers. Most of the car floats arrived in the morning through noon or early afternoon. A Pennsy float would hold about 12 cars—sometimes they would bring a 17-car float and a CNJ or Lehigh Valley float would hold between 12-22. Other floats would average about 10-12 cars. Floats from interchange partners brought in about 65-70 cars a day; all floats accounted for 500 cars daily.

Regulations required that floats with 15 cars or more were worked by two engines. Heavy tonnage cars with coal and cement were worked with two engines.

Milk trains

There were seven daily milk trains averaging eight or nine cars each, originating on the Mohawk Division, the Delaware & Hudson, the Central New England (the Poughkeepsie Bridge line—still independent at that time), and the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg. One train a day came down the Harlem Division. The first stop for the milk trains was 130th Street, which took about half the cars, with the rest going down to 33rd Street. The milk cans were unloaded in about two hours and at about 11 or 11:30 a.m. started back to 130th with the same engine, crew, and empties.

Similarly, the passenger and express trains ran on a set schedules that gave them priority over other trains, including over symbol freight. There were four express trains a day with 12 cars, an operation that was moved to the westside because of the construction at Grand Central Terminal.

Mr. Loftus was asked whether any of the freight trains run on a schedule, to which he replied: “Yes; they are scheduled to leave and arrive at a certain time and due in New York at a certain time, but you know how freight trains run. You never heard of them being on time.”

The Lawsuit

Almost as a postscript, a word on how the lawsuit turned out. The trial judge ruled against the railroad, issuing a judgment barring the railroad from using the tracks in front of the plaintiff’s premises “as a switch, classification and storage yard or terminal, and from burning soft coal on its locomotives in front of or in the vicinity of the plaintiff’s premises.

The railroad appealed and the Appellate Court reversed the trial court’s decision in a 3- 2 ruling and dismissed the case.

The appeal can be found at this link

The Appellate Division decision can be found at this link

There are no scheduled March meetings for the Manhattan Modelers.

NYSME Spring Open House Train Show

March 2,3,9,10,16 and 17th  1-5 PM

341 Hoboken Road, Carlstadt NJ 07072

Reachable by 163/4 NJ Transit Bus from Port Authority

One block from the Jane St stop

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.

Heath Hurwitz, a Manhattan Modeler, is heading a roundtable discussion about “Layouts in Small Spaces” on March 18th at 7:30pm as part of the event.

NYSME / METCA Swap Meet

April 6^th 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

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

Please consider sharing this newletter with your favorite modelers.