Friday 17 June 2016

Grade Crossing Festa?

 I once thought until last year only one road access on East 150th Street existed. Photographic evidence quickly demonstrated another one existed on the service road parallel to 149th Street bridge near the pier.

Then Chris revealed last week a third one in front of the station on East 150th Steeet. That made a lot of sense. However, as fellow modeller Jérôme tolf me when he visited, the trucks would have a hard time to turn around the team track concrete ramp. The problem is I didn't fudge the dimensions to fit my need. I followed the prototype and I'm pretty sure I'm not far from reality there.

But Armand Isip, another fellow modeller from New York City, was kind enough to contact me this week and provide links to archives documents available online at NYC Department of Records website.

Among the photos, a very precise city map emerged... and guess what? The grade crossing are drawn... not only three of them, but four!!!

As you may have guessed, the fourth crossing/access road was located right in front of the concrete ramp, eliminating the need for complex truck movements.

Harlem Station Map


Among the nice find are also a set of color pictures from 1983-1988 showing the freight station elevation on East 150th Street intersection. Now, there's absolutely no reason not to start working on this project. And once again, a big thanks to Armand for pointing out these interesting informations and it's a pleasure to share it among other Harlem Station modelers as he requested.

Harlem Station Freight House

Harlem Station Gantry Crane

8 comments:

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    1. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow. I updated the layout with the new recent information. I'm also in the process of building the gantry crane.

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    1. Just found in the garage!
      https://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/HarlemStation#6297354001877651698

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    2. Excellent Chris! Very neat! Is there a reason why you only have one track to the concrete ramp?

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    3. The other track might have been there early, but was taken out when the green freight shed was up. Or more likely the shed was built on top of it as it was up on concrete pilasters. The turnout might have stayed in place, but there are no rails right up to the shed unless they were buried. I always wanted the green shed so I just left out the turnout as at that time it would only be scenery. The curb was still in place as it was when the track was there though.

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    4. If you look right above the front of the locomotive:
      http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/errhs19.jpg
      The truck is sitting right where that track would be. Then you see the curb and the trailer is on pavement. It is possible the are was filled in with cinders and buried the rails. But I didn't model it. (one less turnout to build) I also left out the train track at the corner where the sign was. Couldn't think of a use for it.

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    5. It's fun to see who two different people find out different info from the exact same source material!

      I'd forgotten about that picture. I once read somewhere the green shed was a coal thawing shed and thought the track were still under it. On the picture, there's very little evidence for buried track thought it can't be ruled out. If you look at this picture from 1940, you can clearly see the turnout still in place but no rail going further and a truck in front of the shed.

      I must admit I was a little lazy and decided to not model the shed to save me some work. Anyway, it fits better the time frame I'm looking for. But I thing that a nice thing you model it!

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