Toward A New Home For Harlem Station

While this blog isn't very active, Harlem Station is still going strong behind the scenes. The layout itself is now in storage waiting to be housed in a new hobby room I'm planning to build in my basement. Also, I've have continued acquiring rolling stock over the year to build up the fleet. It is my hope the layout will find its new home by Christmas Holidays if everything goes according to my plan... and we know life never follow plans!

Parameters

Trying to fit an island layout into a new room isn’t an easy task. No wonder this kind of design has lost favor of most modellers over the years. They quickly eat up space when you take into account decent aisles where an around the wall design would be much more compact. But reality is reality and Harlem Station is indeed an island design in real life. It couldn’t have been done otherwise.

Knowing that, I’ve started to look at my options and to better grasp the reality of the project, it was wise to set a few parameters that can’t be fiddled with. From the start, I decided to have aisles that would be about 42 inches wide. I know it is quite generous, but I’ve always felt the standard practice of 30” was a minimum rather than a recommendation. Operation is one thing, another is having enough space to work or build the layout… and to have enough space to contemplate our work. I see no point giving our best on a layout only to display it poorly.

Once I had to determine the layout and aisles footprint, I was ready to design the room. I know for sure I want an entire wall dedicated to my workbench, including a spray booth and a computer. I have an old desk about 60” long by 30” wide that serves me well for this purpose, so let’s consider we need a good 30” wide area for these things and add some more inches for the chair. Shelving and storage will be provided and several power outlets are required. Since the basement walls are stone masonry and can’t be hidden with new finishes, this modelling station should be located on a new interior wall to make my life easier with electrical wiring.

Another key aspect is the future Temiscouata Railway layout I’m planning to build in the future. This layout requires about 17 feet long to accurately replicate Connors, NB without any compression. This is a condition I’m not eager to sacrifice since I know longer believe compressing railway scenes when not required.

I have also some diomara ideas, but theses won’t require a lot of space and could be hanged on brackets over Temiscouata layout staging area.

A final key design element is that I have accumulated an extensive collection of rolling stock over the years and it is getting harder and harder to find a particular item among 300 or 400 boxes. If possible, I’d like to use the space under the Temiscouata layout as a storage area. It could be made of cupboard or shelving units where cars could be picked up easily. For Harlem Station, I’m thinking about using a small service table on caster to stage cars and store them under the layout.

Putting Things Together

 

Proposed hobby room layout

Architectural design, like any other design process, required a balance between technical requirements and aesthetics. Too often, we take a room and put a layout into it, not thinking how it will look. If Hedley Junction taught us a lesson, it’s that large aisle can truly make a layout stand out and that locating a nice scene on the peninsula, which grabs visitor’s attention when they cross the door step, is a mission statement in itself.

For my hobby room, I want the same thing. The layouts should command the area and be the main focal points. Modelling is an art and should be displayed as such. I particularly like the idea of Harlem Station standing in the middle of the room, basking in light and set up on a well-crafted support. Imagine a billiard table and you’ve got a got idea of what I have in mind. Some cozy, that focus your attention on the layout as if it was a game and where it is enjoyable to spend some quality time operating with friends.

As a backdrop to this, Temiscouata Railway can be seen on the exterior walls, creating a backdrop that wraps around Harlem Station. It would also be carefully lighted and supported by nicely finished storage units.

Now, think about the lighting. Depending on which task you are performing, you can turn on Harlem Station independently from Temiscouata, helping you to focus on what matters.

As a final touch, instead of creating a bland room, large windows will be installed in the new wall so the layout room isn’t simply a box, but rather an environment basking in light and that can breathe. Finishes will probably be painted wainscoting with trims and old colors similar to what was common in railway architecture. Not too fancy, just some character to give personality and warmth to room.

In my modelling life, I’ve seen many modellers that can be considered the best of their trade. Their work is exceptional and breath-taking, however, how many times were I completely flabbergasted to see my favorite work to be literally buried in the most unimaginable mess ever. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll also find great layouts but display in an aseptic environment basked in monotone fluorescent lighting. A part of a layout success as a lot to do with how we display it, be it in terms of enjoyment, operation and construction.

Setting Up JMRI & New Discoveries

Work on Harlem Station recently resumed. I’m mainly motivated in finally implementing JMRI Operations on this layout to create automated switch lists. While the learning curve is quite steep, the software itself has a lot of potential, particularly for such a terminal.

Setting up a credible operating plan isn’t as easy as one could think even if this layout is rather small. It is quite a busy place and space is at premium. It quickly becomes a real issue when you run a few passes with JMRI and see how the car moves on the property.

As a matter of fact, most of you know I set the layout date to 1952. It is mainly based on information found in an article about Harlem Station that ran in Erie Railroad Magazine that specific year. It provides a list of customers and commodities handled by the terminal, which is premium information to start building a decent switch list.

But nothing is ever simple or straight forward with Harlem Station and I’m still struggling with the track plan even if I’m studying this terminal since 2010 (it’s been 7 years!). Erie Railroad Magazine mention there is 10 sidings for a total of 55 cars that can be handled. But on my layout, I’ve got about 13 sidings that can hold more than that. What’s the problem? Where did I mess up?

The answer is simple, but finding it required to study a lot of old pictures, most of them bad reproductions of printed material. To booth, some parts of the yard are seldom photographed, probably due to accessibility and the fact most photographers prefer to shoot locomotives. Add to that the fact I’ve never been in New York of my life, the prototype no longer exist and I’m stuck with limited access to primary and secondary sources… no wonder it’s so hard to piece up the puzzle.

Let’s identify every siding on the layout with a number in order of succession from the car float pontoon to the yard lead:

01 - Short coal siding near the pier and parallel to East 149^th Street

02 - Short siding to the pier on Harlem River

03 - Long siding parallel to the car float

04 - Long siding to the concrete loading ramp

05 - Long siding superposed to the freight shed/thawing shed up to the concrete loading ramp

06 - Siding #1 to gantry crane

07 - Siding #2 to gantry crane

08 - Siding #3 to gantry crane

09 - Very short siding parallel to Exterior Street

10 - Long siding parallel to Exterior Street

11 - Siding #1 to freight house

12 - Siding #2 to freight house

13 - Long siding between Freight House and gantry crane

Then let’s clarify some things about the different structures at Harlem Station. From now on I’ll call “Freight House” the large brick and concrete structure standing near Exterior Street. This is the office and it acts as the defacto “station”. The gantry crane was standing on the property, on the same spot, from day one until the terminal closed down under Erie Lackawanna tenure. The concrete loading ramp also seems to have been there since the beginning too.

Now, let’s tackle the freight shed/thawing shed issue. This is the long wood structure built by the concrete ramp and a lot of speculation exists about it. Without much fanfare, here are my findings. Reminder: please bear in mind most historic Harlem Station pictures aren’t in the public domain and by respect to their owner, I won’t publish anything. This freight shed is not an original building. On pictures shot in 1929 and 1932, even if not clear, the shed doesn’t show up. In the 1932 one, it is particularly clear two sidings run parallel up to the concrete ramp (sidings #04 and #05. My layout is based on that design and while not very accurate, the 1928 Sanborn Map do show the big freight house, the pontoon and what seem to be a structure over siding #09 (I wouldn’t be surprised this short siding used to be an engine house similar to the one standing at the adjacent CNJ Bronx Terminal.) However, no trace of the long freight shed which would have caught attention of people surveying the area.

The next piece of evidence is the 1942 Bromley Map which clearly depict the long freight shed built over what used to be siding #05. In fact, that siding is still – partially? – in place and run up to the shed wall. The next photo evidences are from circa 1951. At that point, we have relatively good shots of the shed.  While we can clearly see the turnout leading to siding #05 is still in place, there is not enough space to spot a car in front of the shed. Interestingly, a large pair of door exists on the end wall has if cars could have been shoved into the building. This is probably what lead peoples to propose – as an unverified hypothesis – it could have been a thawing shed for coal hoppers. While this idea would be great and logical, this is not my conclusion after carefully analyzing the architectural feature of that structure.

It must be noted the end doors, while sufficiently tall to clear a freight car, aren’t large enough. Also, some 1950s pictures clearly show a wooden platform serving that door with delivery trucks. This is further confirmed by the presence of a floor inside the structure. If I could describe it better, I’d say the freight shed was built over a wood platform erected on concrete bases. The presence of that platform or floor can be attested on every picture showing the freight shed. Thus, it would have been impossible to shove cars inside the structure. Finally, on some picture, it is clear siding #05 is buried in dirt and used by trucks to access the freight shed loading dock. All these evidences – combined with the fact the shed bear very little architectural resemblance to real thawing shed – proves it was a freight shed probably built to supplement lack of storage space at Harlem Station. It seems sacrificing a siding was less important than getting additional warehousing capacity. Thus, it is not a mystery this structure disappeared circa 1957 when the freight house was substantially enlarged. Since many sidings were removed at that time and the wooden freight shed was redundant, siding #05 was put back in service again.

Now, some people will ask what happened with siding #05 when the freight shed was built. My educated guess is the siding was left there and the structure built over it. There was little incentive to remove the track and maps and photos all agree the turnout and rails were still in place when the freight shed was still standing. This is interesting because it could indicate the freight shed was a temporary measure and Erie didn’t thought it was required to remove the track since they could be used later. It should also be noted the freight shed was quite a hastily-built structure clearly not made to last a long time.

But how all that new information impact the layout is interesting because it helps to understand the discrepancies between Erie Railroad Magazine description and my track plan. So let’s see things through new lenses.

Clearly, the sidings referenced by the 1952 article could be #01, #02, #03, #04, #06, #07, #08, #10, #11, #12 and #13. But that brings the count up to 11. Certainly #05 didn’t count since it was buried under the freight shed and unserviceable at that time. #09 was very short and all photographic evidences (including aerial photos) show this track was not accessible by road vehicle (no concrete pad, no dirt road and no grade crossing). It seems it was only used as an extra off spot car storage (some pictures show a car spotted there), maybe still used as an engine track from time to time. Unfortunately, is it hard to tell what was the last siding omitted. All of the remaining ones were actives and used to load and unload cars. My first idea was that one of the very short sidings at the pier (#01 and #02) was omitted. But both had a road access and were in use. Even the shortest one did hold two hopper cars for Miranda Coal. Could siding #01 have been only a storage track for Miranda since it would have been hard to unload a car there into a truck? I can’t tell, but on aerial photographs, there is a hint of a small concrete pad build against 149^th Street retaining wall. Anyway, there is no trace of coal handling at siding #02, confirming that commodity was unloaded on siding #01.

Then could it be that siding #02 was used only to hold extra cars even if it was perfectly accessible by truck? It could be. After all, a 1957 photo shows a loaded PRR coal hopper left there but in a spot that couldn’t be used for unloading purpose. Also, cars are seldom seen spotted on siding #02. A set of picture shot there in 1951 show a boxcar on the pier while the locomotive is picking up and setting out cars on the car float while a color picture from 1955 show a flatcar hastily left on the siding in similar conditions. This brings me to think this track could have been used as extra space when sorting out cars. It is perfectly located for the task and can be used to store extra cars the rest of the time. It would have been really handy and if required, it could have been used as an extra spot on demand.

Thus, I can now affirm with a decent level of certainty the ten sidings used by customers (this precision is critical) back in 1952 were #01, #03, #04, #06, #07, #08, #10, #11, #12 and #13. Erie Railroad Magazine mentioned the terminal could handle 55 cars at once which, incidentally, is exactly the capacity JMRI computed for my layout. This, I feel, is a great achievement.

Thus, I reach the conclusion of my research. Certainly I could go further, but the hours invested wouldn’t probably pay off in term of enjoyment. The layout is as accurate as can be with the data I can reasonable gather. At this point, continuing the search would divert resources, time and money that would better be invested directly on the layout. Such efforts would be to scratchbuild the freight shed and modify (or replace) the Walthers car float so it has only 2 tracks and a center platform as it used to be the rule on Harlem River. This would bring the maximum of cars brought to the terminal at 12.

According to 1951 Erie statistics, about 1800-1900 cars were handled that year. With a 6-day per week schedule, it would be an average of 6 cars per day, which is consistent with period photographs which show about 6 to 7 cars on the float. Doing so would reduce the exhausting workload generated by JMRI (16 cars per carfloat) and help alleviate the layout saturation with cars. This little detail as caused many car routing issues due to the impossibility to find open spot. And we must keep in mind that with an average of 32 moves per sessions, at about 3 minutes per move, operating the layout can take over 90 minutes which seems to be a little bit over the top if it happens to often. On the other hand, an average of 6 cars brings the session length to a comfortable 35 to 45 minutes, which I consider optimal to ensure the crew isn’t exhausted and isn’t bothered taking time to operate as prototypically as possible.

Finally, another aspect that JMRI brought forward was how often cars come back on the layout even with more than 60 cars on the roster. It became almost a joke after building several virtual trains. At some point, many cars were in and out at every session to the point suspension of disbelief was no longer working. It means three things: bringing the number of car per train lower will reduce the need to feed cars onto the layout, fine tuning the schedules will be required so cars won’t magically appear the next session when they should be traveling thousands of miles  and the roster will need to be buffed up. This last item isn’t truly an issue since I have many cars in my stash that could make great modelling projects. The diversity of rolling stock handled by terminal such as Harlem Station is also a great opportunity to learn better about railroading all over North America.

By the way, I’d like to point out I’ve been using OPSIG customers lists [ML1] to bring life to my layout by using real life customers for the layout. It certainly isn’t required, but felt it brought a sense of purpose to the layout. Isn’t it great to know that specific reefer is loaded with Carnation Milk from that plant or this Bronx based waste paper broker sell is stuff to a large paper mill in upstate NY? No need to go in great details, but knowing a few real customers of Harlem Station, the commodities handled and the roadname of cars seen on photographs really helped to shape a credible and immersing world.

First Time Here?

Welcome aboard!


Why a Small Layout?

Back in November 2010, I was starting to reshape completely my approach to this hobby and layout design thanks to Lance Mindheim and Trevor Marshall’s work. Their philosophy about achievable layouts rang a bell with my decade-long frustration. The lack of "space" seemed to spell the end of all my efforts. But still, some day I simply googled “mini train layout” and discovered Carl Arendt’s seminal Micro Layouts website.

While Carl’s website was full of cute layouts at first glance, his core message that small layout should have a purpose kept me reading. Among the more prototypical examples was a certain Jack Trollope’s attempt at reproducing a simplified version of Erie’s Harlem Station. In a matter of a few days, I was mocking up a full scale rendition of the station and Carl Arendt kindly published my project on his scrapbook page 103a on November 15th, 2010, which featured the now famous ChicagO Fork O scale layout by well-respected Australian modeller Prof Klyzlr. The rest was history… unfortunately, Carl left us before he could see the completed project.



Why Erie Railroad's 149th Street Harlem Station?

“Because it's small, easy to build and a great little prototype that begs to be modelled.“ I once used this sentence to describe Temiscouata Railway’s Connors Station.  I must admit it fits Harlem Station perfectly.

It should be noted the most interesting feature about Harlem Station is that it can be fully modelled in HO scale without any compression on a compact island layout (less than 5 feet x 7 feet) which is ideal for a house devoid of wall space for a shelf layout. While small, it can hold up to 55 cars and includes its own staging yard in the form of a carfloat. This idea has already been exploited by Tim Warris with his CNJ Bronx Terminal, however, Harlem Station is more achieveable for the casual modeller since it doesn’t require intricate trackwork. No wonder this particular prototype is now replicated by many other enthusiasts.


Why model 1952?

Harlem Station is the epitome of steam-diesel transition era; American railroading in a nutshell. Without freelancing, you have AGEIR boxcab locomotives, gantry crane, LCL traffic, carfloats, attractive 1950s vehicles and a vast selection of classic railcars from every parts of North America, from ATSF to B&O.

Back in 1952, rail traffic was still strong and Harlem Station was about to get expanded. Fortunately, the Erie Railroad Magazine ran an article about the terminal, giving us a precise picture of its
operations, employees and property at a given time in history, making the modeller’s life much easier. Needless to say Erie's officials were still extremely optimistic about the great railroad long term fate after celebrating its centennial. Little did they know their days were counted...


And the track plan?

Simple as can be… a prime example of real railroads pragmatism over modeller’s licence. Having had the occasion to operate the layout a few time, I can tell it can quickly become quite a feat to manage. Harlem Station isn’t about the extraordinary, but about the mundane… which makes it an exceptional prototype to model.

Enjoy!

Beyond the Accepted Truths

My work as an architect specialized in historic buildings has made me aware that you can't never take what someone tells you at face value. My best comparison would be Columbo as impersonated by Peter Falk. Whatever he is told, if a tiny details doesn't fit in the larger scene, you may be sure he will do all he can to fit the truth. In my professional practice were time is money, very people care to go beyond assumptions because it would call for incertitudes. But don't be fooled, what they neglect in design always end up in costly modifications at a later stage with errors and mistakes.

That said, most of us that studied Harlem Station came to take a face value the big Erie's billboard at 148th Street/Exterior Street's corner: "Entrance on 150th Street".

Erie Railroad Magazine - February 1952 issue

That small sentence made us all believe the ONLY access to Harlem Station ground was on 150th Street. But today, after close examination of landscape around the station, I came to change my understanding. Unfortunately, as stated before, I can't publish those pictures and wish to respect the kind gentleman that was generous enough to give me access to invaluable data. However, a few pictures from Trainweb.org will help to set my discoveries.

Here are a few things I always thought didn't make sense. First, there is a concrete pad on the pier near the carfloat. This concrete pad isn't connected to any other road, circulation and concrete pad on the property, making this area unreachable to vehicle. In fact, I always wondered why such a concrete pad was there and thought both isolated sidings where only car storage.

Track Planning for Realistic Operation, Second edition, by John Armstrong,
Kalmback Publishing

But this started to change when I discovered the siding perpendicular to Harlem River along 149th Street was in fact used by a coal dealer. Looking at pictures, a truck coming from 150th Street entrance would have to cross a maze of turnouts to reach its destination. The funny thing is that you won't see any evidence of a road or a trail.

Looking at a few pictures, I found out the concrete pad by the river was raising slightly toward the south. In fact, the concrete pad is raising because the small street north to 149th Street Bridge embankment is higher than Harlem Station grounds (about 6 feet sloping gently toward the river).

The answer lies in the next picture:

J. Long photo, D. Biernacki Collection, J. Held Archives

I have access to high resolution version of this photograph. On the upper left, you can see a hopper spotted on the siding perpendicular to Harlem River. At the hopper's right, the coal dealer shed is clearly visible. But upon closer inspection, at the hopper's right you can see an overhead structure on the fence. That structure is a common type chainlink gate.

Thus, the riddle is solved. If Harlem Station main entrance was effectively located on 150th Street, there was a secondary entrance located east to 148th street near the river. This gate gave access to a coal dealer but it could have been more. The concrete pad is well-known to have reached as far as the carfloat apron, thus servicing the siding parallel to it. Does it means this short curved siding where we often see cars spotted was in fact another tenant? I'm seriously think it was.

May I say I'm quite happy to have include about 1 inch on the perimeter of the layout to model a glimpse of surrounding topography. Now, I have a very nice detail to model and that will add more operation interest.

As a certain famous fiction character would have said about the recent Pluto Flyby: Fascinating!

And just for fun, here are some progress pictures of the layout. Today's historical discoveries were directly fuelled by my need to make a correctly shaped fascia in that area.

Final Plan

Here's the final plan... a least!

It took me some time to affinite it, using many photographs and maps. In fact, I overlayed several maps and aerial photographs to get a track layout that fits exactly the real piece of land.

Turnouts are PECO Setrack 240 and Streamline Small Radius. They are the closer to the real trackage that could be found at Harlem Station.

I went overboard with details, wanting every turnouts, tracks and buildings to be exactly located were they stood. The error margin is quite insignificant on this plan and I feel this is probably the most accurate map of Harlem Station that can be found. It will be a pleasure to share my work with others who could need it.

Tomorrow, I'll received the material to build the modules. I hope I'll have enough time to get it done over the week end.

Also, I'm still wondering if the cork overlay is really needed. I wouldn't mind getting rid of excess material to make the layout as light as possible.

My Chicago tugboat is also progressing at my satisfaction. I was able to find a excellent lateral view of the ship. However, it was prior the diesel-conversion and I must admit they changed many things on the superstructure while performing this work.

Updated track plan

Here's the improved track plan freed from infamous curved turnouts. Minimum radius is about 15 inches which should be more than enough for 40ft cars, boxcab and Alco S2 switchers.

I'm ready to build the layout and I ordered 1/4" lauan plywood to build the modules from my local home improvement store. I gonna follow the "waffle module" technic as described on S&SS website. My train room is located on the second storey of my old mid-19th century home and I don't want to struggle with large and heavy modules as I did in the past. Modules will be covered with 1" thick styrofoam to build the wharf.

I started to kitbash a Lindberg Coast Guard Tugboat into something similar to Erie's prototype. The kit box says the model is 1/72, but so far, everything scream 1/87 to me. The hull dimensions are a perfect fit for Erie's "Chicago" tugboat. I also ordered a Walthers tugboat which is far more closer to prototype than Lindberg kit. When I'll get the Walthers kit, I'll be able to better eyeball what proportion give to Lindberg's new kitbashed superstructure. If given choice, Lindberg kit could be a good stand in for "Rochester".

Walthers' carfloat is to long for the module. I'm actually thinking about heavily kitbashing it into a 2 track carfloat with the central covered catwalk as seen on old pictures. These were shorter and hold about 8 cars.

I also started to seriously investigated radio-controlled/battery power locomotives. I'll describe my idea later but I think a boxcab locomotive would be the best candidate for this serious kitbashing.

A Fresh Start

The last few days have been busy redrawing my original track plan from scratch. When I first started this project, I only worked with very little factual evidence. We all know Harlem Station available plans only gives a glimpse of the real thing.

A few years ago, a gentleman was kind enough to contact me and provide me with better source material. Revisiting this information last weekend was like finding a gold mine.

With the help of New York 1954 aerial photographs and many other pictures (which I can't unfortunately share), I was able to redraw a more realistic track plan.

Also, I decided to take some serious decisions about the physical plant:

-Layout will be modular and lightweight (waffle lauan)

-Only reliable turnouts will be used (no more PECO Setrack curved turnouts)

-Minimum radius is 15" (like the prototype)

-Track plan will be faithful to prototype as much as commercial turnouts permit. In fact, I can know announces it is almost a perfect fit.

-When time and money is available, locomotives will be radio-controlled/battery powered and sound equipped.

With going with battery power? Because Harlem Station is a maze of turnout and use very short locomotives (Alco S1 is the largest thing that will be used). From experience, I know this can lead to very frustrating operations at slow speed. Battery is the only viable option to operate this kind of layout without a glitch. Also,wiring this can of module can quickly become a living hell.

The layout will be built in two modules for easy transportation. All structures will be removable, including car float apron.

I didn't set the era in stone, but I feel circa 1957 (before the freight station was substantially enlarged) is a safe bet. I'm still wondering if I'll build the long shed.

Well, that's about the main choices about this project. I'll probably use this layout as an excuse to push my skills to their limit.

It's been a while, but we're back in style!

Hi everybody,

I know a lot of people were happily following this project back in the days. Harlem Station have always been a prototype I'd love to build and during the last years, Jérôme - a member of Hedley-Junction - always pestered me to rebuild it.

In fact, we have everything: tracks, structures, rolling stock, carfloat and even the tugboat.

In the recent months, I was thinking about building a small switching layout. But each time, I end up thinking Harlem Station is indeed the most impressive way to pack action in a small place prototypically.

This time, Jérôme will be helping me and we will keep thing simple. I mean by that, one loco, PECO code 100 track and some historical transgressions such as using Walthers carfloat without too much alteration.

The big challenge is building a lightweight yet sturdy benchwork. I'm planning to build the layout as two parts for easy transportation.